Dang, I'm A Bad Blogger

Yes, it's been ages since I posted last, but it's been a busy time. First of all, I had a TKR (Total Knee Replacement) on my left knee in early June because of  bone on bone arthritis and now I'm getting ready for replacement of the right knee in early October. I went through 5 weeks of physical therapy, was able to shed the walker at the end of the first week for a cane & by the end of the second week I found myself forgetting to grab the cane when moving around the house. I still use the cane if I'm going out because sidewalks & cracked parking lots can be tricky.

I've kept myself entertained by reading - list on the sidebar and those of you who follow the blog & get a notice of an update, chances are I just added a title or two to the list. I had to miss over a month of my knitting groups out at the Sr. Center before I could drive again. This time around, I think I'll use the NOTA bus afterwards as while I could drive with the right foot for both gas & brake, I don't know how that will work when it's my left foot that's the "good one"..

I have to confess that while I took my knitting to the hospital, I barely cast on one dishcloth & only knit a few rows. Since then, tho', I've been busy.

First of all, more toddler sweaters that will go to the Red Bird Mission in KY with the group from the local United Methodist Church again this year.

These last two, I cut back the stitches by 25% to make smaller sweaters but I kept the neck opening the same 32 stitches on each side so they should be easy to put on a smaller child.

Some of the dishclothes I knit before & after my hospital stay.

And some curly crocheted scarves out of mohair yarns - I've made one more since these and just finished a scarf in Paton's Pebble, a thick & thin yarn. With one skein left, I'm going to try to make up a hat pattern to match.

The Seven Sisters Rose that we transplanted from the old house two years ago is thriving - mostly thanks to my  neighbor watering her garden on the other side of the fence. This was the only time I got out in the back yard since early June, but I had to get photos of the rose. It came up again over at the other house & we were able to transplant two new ones down at the other end of the fence. The two new ones even bloomed a few weeks after the established roses! Right now the trumpet vine on the west fence and the rose of sharon that's about 8' to the left of this photo are blooming and we often see humming birds at the flowers as well as at the feeder just off the deck. Last year, the rose of sharon seeded and and I have about eight "babies" that are about a foot high now. The original plant is about 7 or 8' tall now after nine years. Love it when flowers & shrubs reproduce!

Beautiful, isn't it? This is a rose that my Grandfather gave me when I was still in elementary school. I was so glad that we could rescue it from the farm when Mom & Dad moved over here and that it's so stubborn about putting up new shoots over at the old house so it's multiplying.

That's about it for now - and I really will try to post more often.

Has It Really Been Four Months?

Unfortunately, it has been almost four months since I updated this blog. I've been listing the books I've read over there in the left sidebar & taking pictures, but it's been far too long since I've set fingers to keys (remember when the phrase was "pen to paper"?) to mention what's been happening here in Plain Janeland. So, I'll start where I should have after the last post with the antique cabbage roses blooming in the back yard.




These roses are descendants of the ones that were on the farm when my grandparents, Dad & Mom purchased it back in 1940 which is why I call them antique. They're super hardy & spread like crazy given the chance. Unfortunately, given a record amount of mosquitoes this year, I didn't get out of the house to take photos of the Seven Sisters roses when they bloomed.


As we had a bumper crop of catnip this year, I brought out the pattern I designed for the knitted catnip mouse & made about a dozen of them to sell at the Sr. Center. Instead of the felted wool & silk yarns of the original, I combined acrylic & fun fur in various color combinations & stuffed them with catnip wrapped in sections of nylon stockings. As you can see below, Max seemed to approve of the new version and I had to package them in plastic ziplock snack bags in a hurry before the mice disappeared.


DH was once again on the prowl at garage sales to find yarn for our K4 group at the Senior Center and he came up with some great stashes. A good portion of this yarn has already been turned into lap-robes for the Ann Arbor Veterans' Hospital, toddler sweaters destined for the Redbird Mission in Kentucky and other charity projects.




These next four photos are of the nine toddler sweaters I turned in this last Thursday. As you can see, Boomer & Max thought that they were Snuggles made just for them. My favorite is the one Boomer is determined to hide - the body is white while the yoke & sleeves are worked in a baby pastel variegated.








These are three of the lap-robes that I worked on this summer. With the excessive heat we had in July, it was too warm even with AC to sit under a half-finished lap-robe so I didn't get as many done as I would have liked.






And saving the best for last, meet our new family member, Quinn. We adopted him last Thursday from the Michigan Animal Rescue League just down the road in Pontiac. I'd had a PetFinder search up since the start of the year for another male front-declawed orange tiger, but most of the cats that came up were too far away to drive to meet, make an application & then drive back again to pick up after we'd been approved. Since we had adopted Callie from MARL back in 1998, they just had to call our vet to determine if we'd taken good care of her and we were able to bring Quinn home the same day. Tuesday afternoon & evening were a little wrought with tension but by Wednesday evening Quinn & Max were playing tag and there was very little hissing. We're very happy with our new family member who is just shy of three years old & still more kitten than cat. Quinn is the smallest cat we've had since Callie & the youngest since first Moki & then Tiger who were kittens.