5.27: Garden Class

May 27, 2025 Vicki7 Comments

Kate & I drove down to my CSA farm to pick up plants a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t put a single thing into the ground or a pot, as she’s done it all…

A person crouches in a garden, pulling weeds or planting among various green plants and a small flowering tree.

A young child wearing an orange gardening gloves and a colorful dress is planting seedlings in a garden, surrounded by soil and fallen leaves.

…with a little bit of help from her garden assistants. They were playing school — Queen Elizabeth’s Princess School (or something along those lines) — so declared their planting session with Kate as “Garden Class.” (Malina had a tiara on, too, when they began.) Katie shared a cute video of Ginny having “tea” during break, pinkie finger properly extended!

A child leaning into a green bucket on a patio with a tricycle nearby and greenery in the background.

A concrete surface with the name 'Virginia' written in chalk above several blue handprints.

Now that the rain and cool weather have moved on (it’s warming up… ever so slowly), we’ve been spending a lot more time outside, which is so nice!

Close-up of purple flowering plant with multiple clusters of small purple blooms and a budding flower at the top.

We had a great Memorial Weekend, except for Sunday — for some reason, that day flew by at lightning speed! At any rate, it was a good mix of feeling accomplished & feeling relaxed. I’m packing my suitcase tonight, as I’m starting my journey right after work tomorrow… already received notification from the driver who will pick me up at the airport in Lima (same one as last time).

5.21: Unraveled Wednesday

May 21, 2025 Vicki5 Comments

I’m joining Kat & the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday!

KNITTING:

I’m working on my second Hitchhiker!

Close-up of a partially knitted Hitchhiker shawl made from variegated yarn in greens, blues, and hints of purple, alongside a yarn ball on a patterned fabric background.

Normally, at this time of year, there’s enough early morning (before work) light in the garden room for decent photos. This is not showing the yarn very well at all. Today’s the last day of a miserable cold wet bunch of days, though.

Close-up of a partially completed knitted Hitchhiker shawl in various shades of green, blue, and hints of purple, sitting on a textured rug with dog hair visible.

Obviously, I was focused on capturing colors when I took this photo… I didn’t notice the crazy amount of dog hair until I downloaded it! Shedding (a lot) is Kai’s one-and-only flaw.

Anyway, the yarn is from Olivia & Oliver Fibers that I purchased last summer at Stephen & Penelope in Amsterdam. It’s Olivia BFL, 100% Bluefaced Leicester, in a colorway called “Waitomo Caves,” and it’s so pretty — mostly greens & blues, but I’ve been running across the littlest bit of deep purple now & then.

Waitomo Glowworm Caves is a natural attraction on New Zealand’s North Island… Google it & click on images to see how it inspired this yarn!

READING:

I’m back to reading The Farmer’s Wife: My Life in Days by Helen Rebanks, after taking a break for a couple of other books, and I’m enjoying it.

The other books were Lights on a Ground of Darkness by Ted Kooser, which I loved… and it’s close by because I know I’ll be reading it again! The other was Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create by Elissa Altman, which I’ve passed on to Rusty (and his collaborator, Kate).

TRAVEL KNITTING/READING:

I have to get serious about travel knitting! Next Thursday I’ll be lounging at EWR/Newark for a few hours awaiting a connecting flight. (Trust me, I’m nervous about connecting at that airport right now… fingers & toes crossed. Thankfully, the return connection is through IAH/Houston.)

I think the book coming with me to Peru will be Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell — YES (don’t faint)! I hope to join you all for book discussion next month! It’s also available with my Spotify subscription, so I might leave the actual book behind. The other contender is The Names by Florence Knapp, and same. Decisions, decisions…

And, yes, it’s very likely that I neither knit nor read while I’m in Peru!

Uncategorized

5.16: Friday Foolery & Things

May 16, 2025 Vicki6 Comments

The date is stuck in my head. It was on this date that I graduated high school — 49 years ago! And if that isn’t the BIGGEST fool of all today, I don’t know what is. But let’s give ‘er a go.

Apparently, Junah had a rough day on Wednesday… I won’t get into details, but there were raised voices & the eventual ban of all electronics for the evening. He came downstairs, mad & grumpy, and sat down at the “K’nex table” in the front room. He was just noodling around, but eventually a “man” emerged… but he was missing an obscure ball joint piece (of which we have very few), so Kate helped him sort & hunt.

They found one! The figure had long legs, a short neck, little head, big shoulders, and was very flexible — turns out, he was really good at twerking! We joked around & had a good laugh about that.

Later, after the kids went to bed, Ali sent us this message:

_ _ _ _ _

I came home to see this the other day:

*I use those weathered chairs to hold the baskets when I’m hanging laundry on the line.*

Those things are providing protection for emerging hostas! They were relocated here during the big street/sidewalk redo a couple of years ago… and they need to be moved again (maybe this weekend).

We had some crazy weather late yesterday — a tornado watch was in effect for us from around 3-10 pm. There was at least one that touched down south of us, causing significant damage.

Finally…

…crazy after-bath hair!

Have a great weekend!!

Ali's New Old House · Travel - Wisconsin · Uncategorized

5.14: Straight to the point

May 14, 2025 Vicki7 Comments

I returned on Sunday from a quick Mother’s Day (me)/Birthday (Kate’s) weekend getaway to Milwaukee & found this:

Be Happy With What You got!
Happy (Grand) Mother’s Day!!

Malina does not mince words! I haven’t had such a great laugh in a while.

I hadn’t been to Milwaukee in… a while! We did a lot of thrift shopping on Friday & Saturday, splurged on a fancy dinner at Sanford on Friday night, and hung out at our cute Airbnb. Seriously, it was one of the cutest & comfiest Airbnbs I’ve stayed at — and in over 10 years, I’ve stayed at about 40! The neighborhood was nice, too, and we walked to breakfast on Saturday morning at a place called Centraal Grand Café & Tappery — inspired by train travel & Centraal Station in Amsterdam. We ordered in (gyoza & ramen) on Saturday & watched some ‘flix. If you haven’t seen Nonnas, I highly recommend, especially if you’re looking for a feel-good almost RomCom but mostly a story about mothers/grandmothers/women & Italian cooking — and it’s based on a true story. I laughed & cried. We followed that with a couple episodes of Chef’s Table: Legends (José Andrés & Jamie Oliver). I guess we had a theme.

I’ve been busy, otherwise, but I can’t tell you what I did last couple of weeks. It’s all a blur! I can tell you what I’ve done the past couple of days.

I put together the girls’ bunkbed! I did it single-handedly — some parts were trickier than others & I have a few bruises to prove it! I had to ask Rusty to help me move it in place after it was assembled… I didn’t want to scratch the floor.

I started another Hitchhiker a while back, using some Olivia & Oliver Fibers yarn that I bought at Stephen & Penelope in Amsterdam last summer. It’s very pretty, but I haven’t taken a photo. I had to rip back a tooth or so due to a dropped stitch & insufficient bandwidth to figure out how to fix it, but I did that on Saturday night & I’m back on track. Maybe I’ll have a photo in time for Unraveled Wednesday next week.

In The Backyard

5.2: What’s happening around here

May 2, 2025May 2, 2025 Vicki10 Comments

It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year!! (click any pic to embiggen and/or to scroll)

NOTES:

This is all at my house, except for the LUPINE — that’s at Ali’s! She has some Virginia bluebells, too, and it’s exciting to see what’s happening over there — so many things to discover!

My forsythia is blooming (finally)!

Fiddleheads, hostas, bleeding hearts, snowdrops & ligularia are all emerging (and/or blooming, as the case may be). I bet there are trout lilies & mayapples in the ravine.

The barberry had been dormant & I didn’t even know we had one until I cut down a burning bush — because it was blocking my view down the sidewalk. My kids were little & a view down the sidewalk was important. Now the barberry is about as big as the burning bush was & it’s blocking my view of grandkids!! (I do prune it… a little… once in a while.)

It’s sidewalk chalk season! I’m not sure who’s responsible for my new blue chair. haha.

Hope y’all have a wonderful weekend.