May 29, 2009

Lately I've been very anti-work away from home. I hate driving or riding (depending on the weather) in to work. I hate the city and would much rather be a home knitting, sewing, working in my garden or playing music (or trying to). But since my office moved to it's new location my commute is more rural then it used to be. Before I had to go through the worst parts of town to get to my office but now, instead of gang bangers and hopped up cars, I get to see all kinds of farm animals. This mornings commute consisted of sheep, lamas, goats, horses, cows, and a few chickens. It's so nice to see them eating grass and chasing bugs...doing what animals do. It's much more relaxing.

Sadly, things aren't getting any better here as far as the economy goes. The Governor is threatening to give us an additional 5% pay cut on top of the 10% we already got back in February. They also sent out about 3500 lay off notices to state employees too. Thankfully for me all the notices went to people with 15 months of service or less. At this point I've been here for 37 months so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't have to go any further then 15 months.

But on the bright side, Hubs and I have been doing a lot of fun things lately. Sunday mornings have been devoted to going to the farmers market and getting a lot of fresh produce. We're also learning new instruments. Hubby is learning the banjo and I'm learning the mandolin. We've also been to a couple of BBQ's and of course I'm still working on my garden. The tomatoes are just starting to put on fruit, the beans are starting to climb the poles and the pumpkin is out of control.

So with the weather here in Northern CA heating up, I hope every has a cool and comfortable weekend.

May 20, 2009

For whatever reason, my work decided to block Blogger and Flickr for a few days and I wasn't able to update like I wanted to. Blogging at home is kinda tricky because Hubbs likes to ask every few min's what I'm doing and I tend to lose my train of thought (which isn't all that steady to begin with). Not much is new on my front lately. I did have a very nasty case of food poisoning a couple of weeks ago that left me praying for death for over a week. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. But I'm mostly recovered now except for being overly tired everyday after work. Not taking a nap around 6pm has become a fight but I did manage to make it to 9pm before heading off to bead last night.

While I was down with the food poisoning I wasn't able to knit at all because I couldn't sit up without vomiting so I haven't finished the shawl for my stepmom's birthday yet. I really need to get going on it this weekend because her birthday is coming up in July and I want it on it's way to her before June 23rd. I still have a month to go but I'm hoping that I can finish it this weekend since it's a long weekend and I won't be interrupted on Friday while Hubbs is a work.

The gardening is really coming a long. Everything has come up and is growing like mad. I put up poles for the beans to grow up and the pumpkin is trying to take over everything. It's got a lot of blooms on it and should have a couple of nice pumpkins for Halloween. The watermelon is finally starting to grow. I think it was waiting for the hot weather to start kicking in before it committed to growing. I'm hoping that it will have some melon's on it before too long.

I have a bit of work to do in the front garden this weekend but not much. I pulled up the old snapdragons that have been under the rose bush for the last 3 years. They've really started to look sickly in the last couple of weeks and I was able to find some at the Home Depot last weekend to replace the old ones. I need to get them in the ground before they decide to up and die on me while I'm busy doing other things. And of course there are always a million other things I need to do.

May 16, 2009

Not much exciting going on around here so just a few pictures to enjoy.



May 1, 2009

Since it's pouring down rain here (again) I don't have any garden pictures to show. But I did grab a bunch of oregano, chives and Sage from the garden the other day and now there in a vase on my dining room table. They make a lovely center piece and since I got them all for free, they're cheap! Not to mention how pretty they are and my house smells really good now.
The bloom on the chives is just beautiful.
The garden is coming along wonderful now. All the sunflowers, zinnias and morning glories are up. The Pumpkin is putting on new leaves like crazy and the watermelon is waiting for warmer weather before it makes it's move. Two weeks ago I planted lettuce, basil, carrots and pole beans. The beans came up last Monday and are making great progress. The carrots just started poking their heads up yesterday. I'm still waiting on the basil and the lettuce. If they don't make an appearance soon, I'm going to have to head off to the nursery and get some basil if my grand plan of fresh pesto is going to become reality. I'm hoping that the lettuce don't disappoint. I need some home grown greens to supplement my lettuce habit.
And now for some knitting. I've been working on a shawl from my step-mom for her birthday in July. It's a really simple pattern and is coming along nicely.


Pattern: Weekender Lace Wrap by Lisa Dykstra
Yarn: Knit Picks gloss in Woodland Sage
Start date: 04/26/2009
Her birthday is in July and I'm hoping to have it finished a few weeks in advance so that I can ensure that it gets to her on time.