but something feels weird about seasonal change this year. i think i am feeling the inevitability of it, that despite all our efforts to the contrary time continues to slip through our fingers, the one thing about life on earth that humanity can not control. i used to feel like i had lots of it, and, like most kids, couldnt wait to be grown up. now i would gladly slow things down. a lot. not that i am grown up (growing up appears to be a never ending process of continually coming to terms with how much you cant control!), its just that it seems sometimes as though i am waiting for the next thing to happen, rather than just living. this feeling has become more pronounced with a full time job where weekends have become precious commodities and i say things like 'thank god its friday'. lots of times over the past 10 years i didnt even know what day of the week it was! now i have calendars and diaries and meetings planned months in advance and its very weird.
as a sign of the changing seasons, the tomato plants started to wither up and die. admittedly it wasnt just the weather, although extreme flucations in temperature probably didnt help. i watered these buggers religiously but i think the nutrients in the soil were still deficient, despite the frequent addition of worm wee:
so i pulled them all out over the weekend and am going to plant more sturdy herbs, rather than vegetables, in these pots. i think vegies need more room for root systems. i did harvest plenty of fruit tho, a lot of which will be ripening on the kitchen window sill:
and now the pots will look like this for a while till i get back from england and can tend to them properly again:
speaking of england, less than 2 weeks to go. our workshop for the conference is nearly all planned, and i found out last week that some people i have written about in another paper will be there, so i am making plans to interview them as well. meanwhile i will be doing some running around this week getting the bits and pieces i need to be able to drive a car through wales to that very important factory. i am excited about going, but i must confess that i really dont travel all that well. the plane thing is fine, i quite like flying, but i do get freaked out being in big cities i dont know. london looks kind of scary. at least this time i wont have to deal with the language thing. it was ok in italy because i can speak it a bit and the italians are mostly nice people who will try and work out how to communicate. the less said about communicating in amsterdam the better as i have nothing nice to say and will likely offend someone. mostly tho, i just like being at home. i miss my boy and my puppies, and i dont like being in new places alone when i would rather share the joy and excitement with someone. and i feel guilty for going overseas three times without him. but we are planning a big trip to the US later this year, so i will try and not have too much fun this time around. i cant lie about looking forward to the potential stash enhancement, however!
on the knitting front, i have been working mostly on lily and the victorian ruby, of which i have now finished the first border and have changed direction to knit the body. when i ripped it back and restarted at a certain row, something wrong happened that i didnt notice till it was too late, but i can block it out so im letting it slide (thats one thing that never changes, n'est pas?):
and lily grows slowly:
last night while watching 'lost in austen' (yes please), i put all the bits on their separate waste yarns ready to start sleeves etc and then remembered reading how someone, knitting something like this, figured out how to continue with the body and to come back and do sleeves later. advice please!
meanwhile, i have to redye my hair because weird grey bits are sticking out everywhere again (ok, i dont HAVE to, i CHOSE to) and i have upgraded my skin cream to the 'firming' kind. sigh. in other (french) words, plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose*.
k xx
* the more things change, the more they stay the same
5 comments:
I'm working on Lily now. I decided to do the body first, then the sleeves, to get the tedious back-and-forth done, then fly the sleeves in the round. That's the plan, anyway. ;) So, instead of cutting the yarn, I knit the next row of the body across. When you get to the first sleeve, put those stitches on waste yarn, cast on the required # of stitches for your size, knit across the back, repeat for the other sleeve, knit across the front, turn, purl, etc. When you go to do the sleeves (I'm almost there!!) you'll pick up stitches from the cast-on ones.
Capice? (Spelling probably all wrong, pronounced "Ka-peesh" & meaning "understand?" in Italian. I say it to my kids all the time, as my mother said to me.)
Oh, I wish I was going to the UK!! London is great lovey - it is big, but it's so easy to get around - the tube is fantastic!! I've got this great little fold-out map of London, I'll try and find it to give to you before you go - very handy to carry in your handbag or whatever. Wow that's come up quickly!
i think I will do the same with my tomatoes Kylie. Thanks for the suggestion. A few of my cherry tom plants are looking abysmal, but they have lots of fruit.
George made some sort of mod to top down involving the sleeves, but of course she is off line this week.
Must get my order to you for the big trip!!!
Go to Colinette! Go go gogo!
And you shouldn't need an international drivers licence - just a standard Aussie one will do!
And should I cruise there website and send you wads of cash? Hmm?
I was so sorry to hear aabout your car - truly some humans are crappy - but not OUR humans! Hope Possunms paw is well now!
Oh I would be ambivalent about going away too, but I think the anticipation is worse than the actual thing quite often. That darned lace, it has a mind of it's own. One of my favourite says, 'plus la etc', it is very apt!! kn b QA gILLY IS HELPING ME COMMENT Oh she pressed the caps lock too!!
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