When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything!

Everytime I hear the opening song to the Sound of Music, my eyes well up with tears. Every time. It doesn't matter how many times I watch it. Always the same. But now? When I watch the movie? It happens a bit before that. Before that scene, the camera brings us on a visual tour of the Austrian Alps. The beauty is stunning. But now I look at those scenes with new eyes.
Bethany stood on that ground. Her eyes saw those sights. She did NOT sing, although I may have been moved to but the point is moot since it was HER and not me taking a side trip to Salzburg, Austria from her whirlwind 9 day Germany trip.
This exact view is seen in the opening of the movie:

And here it is, made even better for me:

Bethany on the right, her friend on the left!
(click on any picture to go to my flickr site to see a bit more Germany photos)
That movie holds a lot of history for me.
It was the first adult movie that I saw on the big screen. My favorite Aunt and Uncle brought me to the drive in to see the movie and I loved it from the first scene. Over the years, it still brings me a warm feeling. More so, now!
We're still unpacking and hearing story after story, trying to soak it all in!
~~~
That hair poll was fun! (luckily my hair looks alive again because the humidity is gone for now! It will be back though, it's like a bad penny!) Who knew that I should have added a FRIZZ and DROOP option? I have learned some hair facts, I tell ya!
Frizz was the BIG winner with 130 votes.
Droop was a flop with 95 votes.
and
21 people are lucky and deserve some scorn because they have perfect hair that behaves itself no matter the weather! Imagine??
:)

WWHD: A poll

Because I'm wondering what you have to put up with in your hair life.

whooooo loves ya baby?

Whoo's in that tree?

Errol, the knitted owl from Charmed Knits, that's whooo. This is supposed to be for my Hogwarts Secret Sock Partner.
I'm not sure I love him. He's got quirks, that's for sure. The main one being that he doesn't like to sit up all by himself. Perhaps I can move his stuffing around. And that face? A face that only a mother could love.
What does Fig think about him?

Meh. Who's got some tuna? Can you knit that?

Time for cliches

Whoooo can guess what I'm knitting? Anyone? Do you give a hoot?
:D
At the risk of turning into a whining blogger, I can't keep up lately. Not just with blogging (although the 676 new feeds on my bloglines says otherwise) but also with life. It seems the faster I run, the more I fall behind. I'm running to catch my tail and the tail is winning. I'm a hamster on a wheel. (there must be more cliche's we can stick in here, do you have any to add??)
Nothing has changed, that's the weird thing. Everything is wonderfully the same but it's all leaving me behind. Drat it.
And today? I just came from the funeral of a work friend's husband. She is my lunch buddy. Her husband died this week from a massive stroke. He had previously been in good shape, or so we thought and was only 56 years old. The funeral was one of the hardest things I have been through in a long time. This whole thing has kind of hit me hard and left me contemplating the fragility of life. Honestly? That could have been any one of us in that church today.
So, Today, I hug my husband and overlook any of the silly annoying things. And I invite you to do the same. In fact, we are going to the movies to see Knocked Up tonight. I know. Honestly, I'd rather go to see Ratatouille but he has heard Knocked up was very funny. And I could use funny.

Impatiens after the rain

Join?

You are invited to join in on the new flickr group, Saturday Sky! I am in love with flickr what better way to dress up the place than to put all of our favorite sky photos there!
Join me?
http://www.flickr.com/groups/412959@N23/
If you don't already flickr, do consider signing up for it! I happen to use the Pro version that I pay for but the free version is great too!
My sky just got done with a huge thunderstorm. And it's quite chilly though I'm not complaining because the weatherman just mentioned 3 days in the 90's next week. Ugh.
Bethany is in Germany for 9 days with friends. If you're in Munich, wave hello to her!
I do so have tons more to say but the words are lacking today/this week.
See you on flickr!

Curious incident of raccoons in the nightime

The Estonian Pocket Bag is growing! What fun it is! The Vikkel braids seem to take a while to knit but they are worth the time, don't you think?
To answer blogless Lisa L in Dallas' question of whether Liidia's braid cast on rolls up, it does indeed roll. However, the point is moot on this piece because the bottom will be seamed together to make the bottom of the bag.
We serve all kinds of animals here, no discrimination:
That should be the sign on our door! Last night, erm, this morning 3 am, Derek woke me from a happy slumber, "come here, Mom, you have to see this!" I stumbled, bleary eyed down the stairs kind of dreading what I would see. You know, he's 20 years old and one never knows. He leads me to the front window and points out at the porch, where there is a stack of old nuts in the shells that I put out there for the squirrels (miracle that they sat overnight) and a little bowl of cat food for a cat we've been seeing around here. In fact, Derek got to read the tag on it's collar and his name is Houdini and lives in Salem, the next town, leading me to believe that he is lost. Next time we see him, I will get the phone number off of little Houdini's tag and call his owners but in the meantime, I will leave him a bit to eat. He's probably hungry as he goes about his little happy adventure while his owners worry sick about him.
Anyway. Where was I?
I look out the window and see a mama raccoon and 3 babies. I wish I could have taken a picture for you because honestly, they were the cutest things! (I know the peril of having a raccoon family around, but they really ARE cute!) Derek and I sat there, looking out the window mesmerized by these little things for about a 1/2 hour.
Good times, I tell ya! You don't how close I came to telling Derek to bug off too. It was only the fear of what could have been wrong that dragged me, pajama clad out of my warm bed! It really is the spontaneous moments, isn't it?
Time for a rhyme
Rose

My June climbers are blooming!
and
Rows

Future Veggies! YUM!
~As always, click on any picture to be magically transported to Flickr land!
And what is Saturday without a beautiful sky?

Inspiration is a fickle animal, is it not?

Ahhhh, that's better!

Liidia's Braid Cast on from Nancy Bush's Estonian Inspired Pocket Bag pattern in Interweave Knits, Fall 1999 issue. Yarn is Classic elite Inca Alpaca that I had in the stash.
Margene inspired this knit long ago. So long ago, that it was forgotten. But not really, you know how those things are?
If you need me, I'll be knitting! (now accepting WOOTS)

Party Accomplished

Well, it happened. I went to that party and I kicked ass. No. I didn't kick ass, but I did have a good time. Isn't that always the way? The bigger the pre-dread the better the time? For me anyway for some mystery reason. I did not end up buying a new outfit. Good for the wallet. I wore a casual/dressy pair of black slacks and a brown v neck lightweight sweater (because it was freezing out), my new sapphire necklace and some black mule type shoes, comfy and fashionable. My hair? Came out good. I wore makeup and perfume. I saw people that I had not seen in years, no one stood back agast saying "You are so FAT" and so therefore it was a great night. We even danced a couple of dances, one being the chicken dance because there is no better sight than a bunch of middle agers acting like chickens, is there?
And in some kind of delicious irony, my hip today is killing me. The hip could not take all of that fun. I most likely got myself in a weird sitting position for wee too long and am paying the price today. Lesson learned? Hurts the hip to be a square? Or something.
~~
It is clear to me that I need to Cara-tize my knitting. You know how Cara finds something new and she loves it so much she can't stop thinking about it or doing it? Yeah, I need that. Badly. My knitting is feeling blech. Just stagnant. I even tried some crochet squares like all the cool kids are going on about? It took about 10 stitches to remind me that I really don't like crochet. Back to the drawing board. I'll find it. I will.
And so, I leave you with a wee picture of an iris. No pictures of me doing the chicken dance, thank you very much. No pictures of me gimping around the house, chicken injured. Just an iris. I-wish.

You love purple chickens too, don't you?

"Slowly, I knit!
Stitch by stitch!
Inch by inch!"
But there's no knitting to show off. I'm hoping your disapointment isn't too crushing.
With all the extra time, not knitting and all, one might think that I'd have answered every email and wonderful comment with alarming quickness and commented on every blog from here to Timbuktu. One would be wrong, of course. Nary an email has left my gmail account. So, to you, my dears, I apologize for that. You are being left on a string.
I hope you didn't mind hanging there. I tried to make it comfortable for you!
:D
By Needle, By Needle
The Hmong pa Ndau is actually a backpack type of bag. I'm not fond of it as a back style bag so I plan to snip open the stitches and change the strap to be a regular bag. Well, a pretty spectacular regular bag.

Please click on any picture to be flickr-ed away to my flickr account
hand sewn zippers, amazing!

But my favorite part?
This little guy.

I never knew a purple chicken could make me so happy.
And.
This would be a perfect time for....
AVOCADO CAM (would it not?)
I will only show you the best and the worst.
Best:

Purple chickens and now THIS?? Roots?? It's been an exciting week, what can I say? Even the roots are now getting roots.
And the worst?

Well, there was an Unfortunate Incident of an Avocado seed in the Nighttime about a week ago. Someone, not naming any names (but *I* don't drink the stuff) tossed a gatorade bottle into the sink, recycling and all, go Environment! and hit the poor thing, flipping it over, UNNOTICED and the root was exposed all night until I found it in the morning. It is now brown, which honestly is not a good color for something that is growing. But. It has gotten longer in length since the browning. Or maybe it's my wishful thinking.
This now concludes this edition of AVOCADO CAM!
And honestly? What day couldn't be made better by a peony?

Fingers crossed that I start to feel passionate about emailing and knitting.
And cleaning. That wouldn't hurt around here!

Hmong Pa Ndau means beauty in my book!

A quick morning pop in to let you know the end of the story. (See previous post about a party and some dread) Turns out that the party was not that Saturday, but June 9th. So, the anxiety has a bit of time to grow and fester. Goody. That's always fun, she says dripping in sarcasm.
I did, however, walk downtown to the Arts Fest, which is like an upscale crafts show. Beverly is quite the artist town, with a famous art school and many art galleries. It's quite the place, but this is not meant to be an ad for you to move to Beverly, however if you DID, move to Beverly, we could start a kick ass knitting group and possibly even a great book club.
Yeah. Art show. So, I walked around the arts Fest, very festive indeed. And I spotted this booth with some items that were hand embroidered. I paused to admire, took one picture of her work and moved on.

When I got home, I couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful that bag was. It kind of haunted me in fact.
So, I went back and bought it. I will take more pictures later so you can appreciate along with me, the delicacy of the stitching.
The woman was quite old and from Laos. In fact, she did not speak great English. When she stood up off of her stool, she was not much taller than while sitting and probably only reached up to my elbow. I asked her if she did all of the stitching by machine or hand. Her phrase was, "by needle, by needle." and she proceeded to show me all of the stitches that she put in "by needle". Not machine. She did give me her business card (I can give any of you the info if you are interested) and I had the opportunity to then read up on Hmong Pa Ndau of which this is typical in style. It's all about history. The history of the lifestyle in Laos and also (not on this piece but on others she had there) about the fear and life during the Vietnam war and then of being refugees.
I'm sure you will agree with me as I say, AMAZING!

Aphids for sale

First of all, thanks to Kathy B who's not afraid to Cher slap a person when they need it! Thanks for that. :)
There are some gorgeous things going on in the yard lately. (and some icky things too)

Living in harmony!

And for the "EWWWW" Portion of our blog today:

Flipping aphids! I wish I could get them to see something more tasty than my yummy roses!
And I even finished one Hogwarts sock! I will show you that picture tomorrow. Maybe not tomorrow because no one will stop by and comment on a Saturday, it's a proven fact! The next day then.
Tomorrow we have a big 25th wedding anniversary party to go to and I'm not looking forward to it. I could be a hermit, I could. And you know? As ridiculous as it seems? I do believe my "non thinness" is at the root of this dread for tomorrow night. What to wear in front of friends that knew me as thin and will most likely judge?
Now, if YOU were to say this same thing, and I ran across this on YOUR blog, I would tell you what I know....Don't be ridiculous, put on a great outfit, go and kick butt! Be yourself, beautiful and FUN. Yeah. Yeah. Blahblah. Now it's ME. And I have insecurities.
I wonder if there's any chance that I could lose 50 pounds overnight?
No?
Rats.
Hey! LOOK UP!

It's always beautiful up there!
Edited to add:
Sock pictures. Why not? Shouldn't I be showing knitting once in a while around here? HMM?

One sock done! Woot! Celebrate sock times, come on!
Stripes. They are the new black.

There you have it!
A complete blogging experience. knitting, nature, angst, and sky. What more could a blogreader want?
Money?
Move along....