Blessed event

Our 3rd grandbaby arrived on Monday night at 9:25 pm. She's 7 lbs and 21.5" long. She was given the same middle name as I have....Joan. I'm honored to have this little one share my name.

I've been taking care of her older sister and brother. They are very excited to have a new sister but being only 4.5 and almost 3 years old they don't totally understand everything that is involved. They will shortly!! :) Our house is very quiet now since they went home this afternoon when the new little miss and her mom & dad got home too.

Each new grandbaby is a blessing and a joy to watch grow. DH & I hope that our blessing are multiplied many times over!

Pretties

There is a chance of frost one night this coming week so I took a few more flower pictures this morning. They might not look so pretty in a few days!








Pink poppy














August Moon hostas


















Minnesota mum













Bugbane













Clematis












Stella de Oro daylilly














Morden Blush Rose













Winnipeg Parks Rose





















And the False Sunflowers have already bit the dust. Further proof that fall is here.

I got mine. How 'bout you?

Seasonal flu shot.

Feels more like summer

It was a gorgeous day today. Mid 70's for temps, the lawnmowers are going next door, and it just seems more like summer than it did during the actual summer. The only thing that lets you know fall is here are the flies hanging around the doors and windows. Pesty things.

I'm still knitting on the Upstairs Shawl. I'm anxious to see it when it's blocked so I've been trying to push and do as much as possible each day. There are 2 hours of Grey's on tonight though so I'm afraid there won't be much knitting then! I can't watch that and count at the same time. I'll just knit during the commercials....

I need to mow again too. The grass here is the longest of all the neighbors. The apple tree is the main reason I haven't mowed lately. Wonderful apples for applesauce and pies and crisps but they fall on the ground. It has been raining apples. And I've been lazy and haven't done anything about it so they've laid there for days now. My new plan is to rake them all up and get rid of the ones on the ground. They are soft and full of ants and squirrel teeth marks anyway and then I'll get the ladder out and pick everything off the tree and be done with it. They'll keep for awhile if they aren't all bruised from falling on the ground. I canned a few pint jars of applesauce last year and should really do the same again. Someone told me to freeze the applesauce instead of canning it. I might try that. I freeze pies. Can't be much different.

Reading

I've done a bit of reading this summer. I've mostly been knitting but have read a book or two.



I won a book on Goodreads.com. It was "The Neurology of Angels" by Krista Tibbs. It was an okay book that deals with the politics of developing new drugs for little known diseases. It did give some interesting suggestions on how to go about changing the way that is handled. It is a story type book that follows 3 families.



I've now read "Julie & Julia" by Julie Powell. I'd heard so many good things about it and the movie that I had to find out. I'm not so impressed. It had a whiny tone to it until the very end but by then I'd decided that I didn't like the book. I finished it just to say I'd read it.



On my to-read list is "Made in the USA" by Billie Letts. I talked about this book before but I still haven't read it. It is "marinating" on the book rack.



I've also got "The Plague of Doves" by Louise Erdrich. She grew up in North Dakota and I've read a book or two of her's before. I read the 1st page of this one while I stood in the bookstore and was instantly hooked. It sounds like it could be rather dark read but I find her books to stretch your mind and make you think of things differently. We'll see if this one is the same.



It's a rainy, cool, grey day that would be perfect for reading but I've got things to do at work and will be going tomorrow with 1st DDIL to her (maybe) last dr appointment before the delivery. She's due the end of this week. Gramma again soon! :)

It's a learning process.....

So I've learned a few things while knitting on this shawl. The main one is that I really should have been alternating every couple rows between 2 skeins of yarn. It has some pooling issues and it's really a bit disappointing. But if I can pass it off as something that you want....more to myself than the recipient....maybe it'll work.

This picture is miserable colorwise, but shows the swirliness (if it isn't a word, it should be) of the colors.





This is a better picture as far as the colors go but is out of focus. The camera & I aren't friends today. The color is a bit darker and more bricky but this is pretty close.

The other thing I've got to learn about is how much things grow when blocked. This is supposed to have only 1 repeat left and the pattern says it'll be 55" when it's blocked and done. I don't think so. I can't imagine that it will grow that much. It's 31" right now and I've done 9 repeats. At the rate I'm going it'll be about 34.5" when I'm done. That means it'll have to stretch 20.5". In my book, that's a lot. But like I say it's a learning process.

Actually I don't think 55" is long enough to start with so I'll be doing more repeats anyway. Also I had planned on doing one of these for each DDIL. By the looks of this one I might be "giving" it to myself and starting another one for one of the DDILs and something else for the other one. I don't think I could handle doing 3 of these in a row. o.O

Tomorrow is a break from knitting. Not that I really want a break but am required to work at our church's fall fundraising dinner. Pork roast, mashed potatoes, really excellent gravy, corn, cole slaw and a huge assortment of desserts. I'm roasting 2 of the roasts. Lipton's onion soup mix and a roasting bag for a few hours.

I'm also on to make coffee. I don't drink coffee and the gal I'm on with to make the coffee doesn't either. So how do you think that will turn out?? Two non coffee drinkers making the coffee in a Scandinavian/German community that loves it's coffee. Uff. (Yes, I'm Norwegian. I just don't drink the stuff!) If I could get canned from a job it would be the coffee making at the church dinner. They never can anyone though!

Flooded street, flowers & Noro scarf

A few days ago it rained. Really hard. Really fast.

Today we have a busy bee on Autumn Joy.

Joe Pye Weed.

I loves zinnias!

And a few more zinnias.

Veronica, Joe Pye, zinnia, geranium.

The Noro scarf was happy to pose with the cotoneaster bush.

And then the begonias.

The yarn is Noro 246 & 239 alternated every 2 rows. Size 7 needles. k1p1 ribbing. It's been washed but is a bit scratchy so it's going into a nice soak in some hair conditioner. And then it's going to the Red Scarf Project. And the scarves don't have to be red....just gender neutral!

Click on any picture to embiggen.