I look at a new knitting project as the start of a journey, and when I'm getting ready to go on a real journey, I line up a new project so they coincide. I'm going to England in September, but decided not to wait until then to get my project ready. There is a good chance I'll get started and finish the one I'm thinking about today, and have to line up a new one, which is fine, as long as it lasts the whole trip.

I'll be visiting my very distant cousin Eileen who is a master knitter. She ran out of people to make sweaters for, so specializes in dolls and animals, of which she has sent me several.





She gave me a sweater that had elaborate designs and was beautifully-done, but the color was a garish hot pink so we gave it to the cat to sleep on. I'm sure she wouldn't mind, but I'm not going to ask her.


Yes, that's Buddy the Cat, gone but not forgotten.

It will be lovely to see her again and maybe get some lessons, or at least new ideas. Last time I was there, I borrowed a pattern book from her, so I'll return it. When I borrowed it, I tried to find a copy online, but it was out of print.

So far this month it has rained every day, sometimes we've gone days without seeing the sun, a rare event in Colorado. When we get a rainy day, we are used to curling up with a book until the sun comes out, but are having to learn to go on with our lives and wear rain gear.

Yesterday we planted some of our free trees from the Arbor Day foundation. I thought I'd killed them by soaking them in a bucket of water for more than a week. When I saw it was the wrong thing to do, I quick ran out and put them in a trench with dirt thrown over until we could decide where to put them.

This is one of the bushes that was available: cotoneaster. It is outside my kitchen window, and in the fall lights up the room with an orange glow.


I thought it was pronounced 'cotton-easter' but it's supposed to be 'co-TO-ny-aster.' Sounds snooty. I've run it by several people, and most of them thought it was the first pronunciation. We've gotten some good laughs out of it.