One week into summer ...

We seem to have gone from winter to summer, and now back to spring.  During the lovely warm spell, much yard clean-up happened, and the garden was planted with tomato and pepper seedlings, and beans and  cukes and turnips.  The kale and chard that I planted earlier, along with volunteer dill, calendula, and maple seedlings, are up. 

The maple seedlings are being pulled up.

Yesterday I spotted a hummingbird, and put out the feeder.  Today I saw an oriole.

Oriole

Same oriole?  Or another one?

At supper today, there were 5 male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks jockeying for position.

I finished the sample knit and got that mailed off, put together all the counterpane squares I had, knit #29, and have started in on another sample knit. In the SysAdmin world, I'm trying to learn more about how TransFirst works from the merchant end of things. There's always something to learn!

And, happily, always something to knit. 

May is coming in like a Cheetah

Whoosh! Just when I think that my days are going to lapse into quietness, and I will need to be disciplined so that I don't fall into sloth, something drops into my lap.  Usually followed by several other somethings.  Believe it or not, I said "No" to a new enterprise this week.

Really.  And no one twisted my arm, either.  There is hope for me.

Because things were slow, and because Certain People have been dangling lovely sweaters in front of my virtual eyes, I ordered some yarn so I could swatch for knitting up sweaters at fine gauges.  The yarn arrived (oh, and the needles arrived too.  14" stainless steel skewers at 2.0 and 2.15 mm. If anyone uses them for kebabs, they will need to replace them with shiny new needles.  At $1 and $3 a set, it won't hurt the pocket too much.)    And because I'm adventurous, I enlarged a photo on a website and attempted to knit a star motif from a photo.  The first half came out nicely, but different from what I was planning on, so I switched to a new pattern.  Hey, it's a swatch!

Swatch (HolstGarn Coast, 2.25 mm)

And it'll do beautifully for 'fine gauge.'  The swatch is 26 stitches across. The yarn comes in EIGHTY EIGHT colors!  I'm going to have so much fuuuuunnnnn.  After the Counterpane.  And Project C.  I finished the first iteration of it, but blocked gauge isn't cooperating so I'm reknitting the whole thing.  It should be done by Saturday. 

 

Meanwhile, summer is happening outside.  The plants are jumping out of the ground to catch up with the season.  I didn't have fresh mint for May 1st (although I could have gotten enough for a cup of tea had I snipped just about all the new growth I could find), but there will definitely be minty goodness for Mother's Day.  Here is what part of my patch looked like on May 2nd. 

Mint, May 2nd

Lupine, May 2nd

My computer work has picked up significantly, and in another sphere of life I've learned I'm developing a new program (it's important to read e-mails you're copied on all the way through until the end.  One never knows what one will learn about one's activities), and when a friend's life calms down a bit, the two of us are developing yet another new thing. 

And Filius' life has gotten busy too.  Jury duty AND interviews (2!)  Will there be lazy days of summer this year?  Stay tuned!