This summer's flowers

Please ignore any and all weeds!!

A treasure in the mail.

I went to the post office late yesterday afternoon...actually it was evening...and I was met with a very pleasant surprise. A package!

I thought of taking pictures as I went along opening it but I couldn't wait to see what was inside so I just ripped into it.  I put it all back together this morning and did the photo shoot...err...maybe not photo shoot so much as snap shots.

Please excuse the quality.

Prettiness!  I was excited already.

Even the tissue paper is cute.

 

 

 

But what was inside that cute tissue paper was gorgeous!  What a wonderful color!  I love it!!

 

My first thought was "What a wonderful shawl that will make!".  (I even said it out loud and it was only me and the cat at home.  I was pretty excited!) 

 

I've never knit with this before so it'll be fun to try it out.

 

And how did this wonderful yarn happen to get into my mailbox, you ask??  Well, Karen had a contest on her blog and I WON!!  Thank you SO MUCH, Karen!

 

Of course, you know, that as soon as I saw that yarn and knew it had to be a shawl, I got on Ravelry and spent a couple hours, I mean a few minutes, looking at patterns.  I might have narrowed it down to two.  Sweet Tantalate or Semele.  Time will tell if one of these wins or if I spend a couple more hours minutes on Ravelry!

 

A little update on the tulips...

 

 

They did all bloom!  And I had no clue what colors I had planted so it was a pleasant surprise when they opened up.  :)

Actually the daffodils bloomed too.  How did I miss getting them in the picture? 

Even the grape hyacinths are doing their thing!

Thanks again, for the awesome yarn, Karen!

It took 7 months for results.

Last fall, being anxious to have color in the spring, I planted tulips, grape hyacinths, and daffodils.

Yes.  I am that obsessive.  I used that tape measure to try to center the bulb plot in the bed and to dig to the correct depth.

There was good snow cover all winter so I wasn't afraid of winter kill.  The bed is right next to the house so it should keep gophers from invading and eating the bulbs.  And there wasn't any of that.  Phew!

I did start to worry about having planted them too deep though.  Would they come up in the spring?  If they come up, would they bloom?

I didn't need to worry.  They came up.

The daffodils are blooming.

And the tulips soon will be. 

WooHoo! 

Spring color!

Even if spring is very very late.

Decisions. Decisions.

There have been a few decisions made and quite a few more yet to be done.

This is Moldova Burgundy from Peace Fleece. I love Peace Fleece yarn for cardigans and that is just what this is going to be. I decided at the end of the winter that I needed another cardigan and got this ordered. Now to decide what pattern!

The yarn is firm and has good shape and body when knit and the touch of mohair gives it a little fuzzy halo when washed. It does itch just a bit though so a turtleneck is in order for me.

These adorable little balls are also from Peace Fleece and if I can bear to use them and not just keep them to look at, some might be used as a bit of decoration on the cardigan.

This will be the most fun decision of all! I won this yarn from our sweetheart, Karen. I was the 2,500th comment on her blog. Karen....that is a lot of comments! And Karen, you must know me pretty well because you got the colors exactly right. I will so enjoy deciding what to knit with this yarn. And yes, I think it did spark my mojo! :D

I really really want to design a lace shawl and so when I found out about this book I just had to have it. It has good basics and combined with other things I've found online I just might be able to do a design for myself. Only time will tell.

And so when I decided to buy the book above there was yarn for sale on the same website! How convenient is that? ;) I found this pretty plum laceweight and decided to order it also. It is one honking big ball....1500 yds worth!

This is Wollmeise yarn. I'm a fan of The Loopy Ewe online yarn shop. On occasion there is a bit of this yarn for sale. But only if you are aware of when it is available and then you have to be as quick as a bunny to get any of it. It sells like hotcakes. And so when I saw on Facebook that there was some for sale I decided then and there that I "needed" to see what all the fuss was about!

Since there are days and days of rain in the forecast...(Trust me it's a good thing! We need rain like crazy. The soybeans don't want to pop through because there is a crust on top of the soil from the last rain and it needs to get softened up asap!)...I decided to snap a few pictures of the peonies.

There's lots of buds...

on both bushes. But they'll be flat on the ground and turning brown if it rains as much as forecast so I'll have them in picture if not in real life!

Can you almost smell them?

Wordless Wednesday...It is Wednesday...right?

Pretties

My birthday gift from 2nd DS & DDIL. Are they lovely?! Tulips are the best.

If the tulips and daffodils that I planted a few years ago hadn't been eaten by gophers I would soon be growing my own with the way the winter is disappearing.

It actually was the "winter that wasn't" and is continuing to be unusually warm...upper 60s for the weekend. I think we are breaking temperature highs almost every day now. Nearly every speck of snow has already melted. As a farmer's wife it freaks me out a little wondering what the weather will bring for this summer.

President Clinton will have super weather to visit Grand Forks on Saturday. He will be here for the ND Democratic Convention. He was here in 1997 when Grand Forks flooded. It will be nice for him to see the recovery and see how much his efforts helped the town get back on it's feet.

It's been humid and foggy with heavy rain

And now...a weather update! It's been foggy at night, humid during the day and late in the day or during the night there's been heavy rain. We've had 5.5" in the last 4 days. We just don't get that kind of rain around here.

If you click on this you'll see dewdrops all across the grass, looking like a million diamonds.

And here with the closeup...they look more like teardrops.

Some of the flowers don't take the heavy rain so well.

But the daylilies that only last a day, didn't get in on the heavy rain because they weren't open last night!

And so they look fresh and new every day...no matter what the weather. If only I could look fresh and new with the weather we've been having! o.0

2nd day of summer - mostly wordless

I wish this was smell-a-blog. The lilacs are amazing this year. Please ignore the weeds.

Lazy Claus.

And even lazier Teddy.