Stepping Away from the Edge

Must Be the Clouds in my Eyes

Hit it, Elton.

 

I got a text message from my sister yesterday. 

Not unusual.  We text each other nearly every day. 

But this one. . . well this one brought me some news.  That one of my old high school buddies had died.  Pancreatic cancer.  (Damn disease.)

So, I've had a melancholy kind of day.  Clouds in my eyes, y'know?

In the 36 years since high school (can it really be that long?), I've only seen Jon once.  At a reunion 7 years ago.  But he will always have a special place in my heart.

(Click for a bigger image.  It's such a challenge to scan an oversized yearbook.  Especially a double-spread photograph.)

The photo above is a portion of my high school marching band . . . in my sophomore year of high school.  (I am in the front row, the first person not cut off on the far left in the photo above.  Kind of blurry, but really - the best I could manage given my equipment.)

I hated marching band.  Hated.  Hated the marching.  Hated the uniforms.  Hated the practice.  Hated giving up my Friday night socializing performing at football games.  Hated the spats (not pictured above).  But, mostly, I hated the hats (also missing from the group photo).  Fuzzy, blue things that brought to mind Fred and Barney's Royal Order of the Water Buffaloes lodge hats.  (Really.  Only thing missing was the horns.)

But marching band was made tolerable when my best pal, Kristi, and I made friends with Jon - a trumpet player - and his friends.  (He's in the photo above, too -- last row of guys, 4th from the center fold on the right.)  Initially, I had a little crush on him, but it wasn't mutual and it didn't last.  Our friendship was purely platonic.  We had a band-gang:  Jon, Scott, Ron, Gina, Kristi, and me.  They were all juniors; Kristi and I were sophomores.  Marching band became tolerable for me (the rest of them loved it for reasons I never understood!), but it was more than that.  We had fun together . . . just being silly, high school friends.

Today, all those memories have surfaced.

Clouds in my eyes.

Winning Combination

Last Friday night, my pal Sandie and I visited one of our local nurseries for a special event -- a Wine Tasting and New Plant Introductions event*. 

Yep.  Michigan wines.  New plants. 

It's hard to go wrong with that combination!  (Tom joked that if the event also included yarn, I might never come home. . . )

It was a fun adventure, even though the wines were . . . meh.

And there really weren't that many "new" plants.  (Most were "new" to this particular nursery, but not really "new" to obsessive plant-followers.  Like Sandie and I.)

But we had fun sipping and strolling. . .

through the nursery selections.

We also found the most hideous collection of garden gnomes ever.  They had biker-gnomes (an entire collection) and Marliyn Monroe gnomes and this guy. . .

I mean.  Really?  Can you imagine this Elvis gnome in among your dahlias?  Nightmare-fodder!  (And $45 to boot!)

Fun night!  Wine, plants, laughter.  And plenty of inspiration!

==========

* This is the same nursery that sponsors the cart sale I blog about every summer!

She Started It . . .

Carole found it first. . .

Then I was a CopyCat. . .

And then, together, we convinced Margene to join us!

Three different "Lefties" . . . to remind us of our time together in Utah!

 

On a Dime

Today's post is brought to you by . . .

 

Dr. Doctor!*

Way, way back. . . in Tom's grad school days at Colorado State University . . . we were friends with a Japanese couple living in Fort Collins (he was a post-doc, I believe).  One night, we were at their house for dinner. . . and Midori (the wife of the couple) asked us for help with one of her English assignments.  She needed to come up with examples of American idioms -- and explain how they were used in everyday conversation.

We had a grand time helping her!

    Calm before the storm...

    Burn your bridges...

    Foot the bill...

    Get in over your head...

    In one ear, out the other...

    On the right track...

    Play with fire...

    Scratch the surface...

    Under the table...

    Turn on a dime...

Yeah.  That one.

Turn on a dime.

According to American Culture Explained, this idiom is used to describe things that change direction very quickly; more or less instantaneously.  It's origin?  Think high-performance cars, planes, boats.  The ability to "turn on a dime" (or other small coin) indicates that you can turn very quickly in a very tight space.

Life turns on a dime.

One second you're. . . oh, say, going for your morning run in the woods.  And the next?  Covered in mud and headed to the ER with a broken arm.

Life turned that way . . . for Patty. . . on Sunday morning.  Broken right humerus **.  3 hours of surgery.  Many weeks of recovery.  No running.  No knitting.

And no Rhinebeck!***

Life turns on a dime, indeed.

(Send Patty your healing wishes here!)

==========

*  I totally blame Patty for getting this song stuck in my head.  (I'll let her explain why!)

**  Fortunately, Patty is left-handed!

***  We were planning on going to Rhinebeck together this year.  NEXT year, Patty!  Next year!

 

Hostess With The Mostess

My trip to Utah was fabulous.  Perfect in every, single way.  Stunning views.  Great food.  Wonderful company.  Ideal setting.  Just . . . perfect.

And the force behind it all?  Why, Margene!

Margene took me to visit the gardens at Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.

Simply stunning!

We also saw lots of fountains, statues, and tributes to seagulls (and that's all I have to say about that).

Margene (and Smith) gave me a tour of their lovely community garden.

Can you imagine tending your vegetables against this backdrop?  Breathtaking!

The next day, Margene took Carole and I for breakfast . . .

and then for a hike around Silver Lake.  No wonder this is one of Margene's favorite places!

She showed us the changing aspens, and explained about aspen colonies.

She drove us up and up and up . . . to what seemed like the edge of the earth . . .but what was really just mountains stretching on for . . . ever!

And then she drove us down and down. . . into charming little mountain towns (this one is Park City) with charming little microbreweries!

Margene took us yarn shopping, where I didn't take any photos.  (I was too busy checking out the Shibui . . . which I've never actually seen in real life before.)  And then, on to the Knitter's Retreat in Alta (more on that another day).

I think that what I liked best, though, was seeing Margene's mountain in person. . .

and seeing just  . . .  how she does it!

Thank you, Margene, for making last weekend possible!  You are TRULY . . . the Hostess with the Mostess!

Hostess With The Mostess

My trip to Utah was fabulous.  Perfect in every, single way.  Stunning views.  Great food.  Wonderful company.  Ideal setting.  Just . . . perfect.

And the force behind it all?  Why, Margene!

Margene took me to visit the gardens at Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.

Simply stunning!

We also saw lots of fountains, statues, and tributes to seagulls (and that's all I have to say about that).

Margene (and Smith) gave me a tour of their lovely community garden.

Can you imagine tending your vegetables against this backdrop?  Breathtaking!

The next day, Margene took Carole and I for breakfast . . .

and then for a hike around Silver Lake.  No wonder this is one of Margene's favorite places!

She showed us the changing aspens, and explained about aspen colonies.

She drove us up and up and up . . . to what seemed like the edge of the earth . . .but what was really just mountains stretching on for . . . ever!

And then she drove us down and down. . . into charming little mountain towns (this one is Park City) with charming little microbreweries!

Margene took us yarn shopping, where I didn't take any photos.  (I was too busy checking out the Shibui . . . which I've never actually seen in real life before.)  And then, on to the Knitter's Retreat in Alta (more on that another day).

I think that what I liked best, though, was seeing Margene's mountain in person. . .

and seeing just  . . .  how she does it!

Thank you, Margene, for making last weekend possible!  You are TRULY . . . the Hostess with the Mostess!

There and Back Again

I'm back!

I had a fabulous time in Utah . . .

visiting Margene and meeting Carole. . .

hanging with the Salt Lake City crowd (that's Margene with Cheryl and Suzy). . .

taking in beautiful vistas . . .

sampling some of the local beverages. . .

and, oh yeah . . . there was some knitting, too . . .

What a great trip!  (More to come.)

 

Getting Real

Way, way back. . . many years ago. . . in the Dark Ages (before Ravelry). . . I used to read the knit blogs.

I never commented. 

I did not communicate.

I just lurked.

I enjoyed the Online Knitting Community. . . from afar.

Some of my early favorite blogs?  Why. . . Zeneedle and Carole Knits, of course!

Once I started my own blog (3-1/2 years ago now) and started to actually communicate with my fellow knitters, I joined the Online Knitting Community in a more active way.

And today?

I'm off on a grand adventure . . . where I will actually meet my virtual pals in Real Life.

Oh, man.  I hope they like me!

 

One More Thing To Do!

Things are really hoppin' round here.  Visits.  Celebrations.  Work deadlines.  Getting ready for a long trip. 

I don't have time to knit.  I don't have time to keep up with my blog friends.  I don't even have time to muster the energy to think about the Ravelry/International Olympic Committee standoff over the Ravelympics (. . . knitters "denigrating the athletes" my patootie. . . ), let alone the many responses to the insult!

And now, the dishwasher is on the fritz.

What's a gal to do?

Why, grab her best gardening pal and head to . . .

Wenke's Famous Cart Sale!

Because . . . when the going gets tough

the tough get going!

Why not?  Fill a cart for $40 a pop.  All you can plant!

Oh, yeah. . .

now I need to plant it. . .

A Little Garden Project

My best gardening pal, Sandie, and I spent a glorious afternoon yesterday making papercrete hypertufa containers.

Huh?

We made containers like this one  (Sandie made this one in a workshop last April).

Only three ingredients:  paper pulp (shredded newspaper soaked in water for 48 hours), Portland cement, and perlite (or, in our case, vermiculite . . . because we couldn't find perlite).

Did you know that cement is really, incredibly cheap?  So cheap. . . that the smallest bag you can buy is 94 pounds!

That's a whole lotta cement. . . but what a deal!  Only $9.79 for a 94 pound bag!

Anyway.  We gathered our ingredients and some plastic forms and other oddments, and set up shop in Sandie's garage.

We measured . . .

and mixed. . .

(3 parts paper pulp : 2 parts Portland cement : 1 part perlite/vermiculite . . . with a splosh of water during the mixing up)

and ended up with a bucket of papercrete!

We coated our plastic molds with vegetable spray,

and then just started glopping it in (with a lot of intentional mooshing and smashing).

We ended up with quite a collection of hypertufa planters!

Now . . . we just have to wait . . . for the papercrete to dry, harden, and cure.  In a few weeks, we'll have new containers for yet more succulents!  (And we have enough cement to last a lifetime. . . )