Let's play 'pretend'....

Oh, pretend - I love this game! It is practically an everyday game for me. First up, let's pretend that today is Sunday. Not that I usually choose to repeat Sundays and, I assure you, I have no preference for one day over the other. I am fair and balanced in this respect. But, if it were Sunday, I could dress up as the Sunday Spinster (no, I haven't forgotten her but she spins every day, now, so we no longer assume she's special around here on the funny farm) and show you this yarn I plied up yesterday, washed this morning, and rescued from a drunken cat who was about to celebrate the wind when a skein fell from the hanging rack and landed in her water bowl (said deflowered skein is not pictured here). Of course, it doesn't take a special day to show you these, either, a couple of new colorways I've been playing with. This gold, brown, burgundy, turquoise noodle pile is called 'Seaweed'. MMMM, I would love to spin it up RIGHT THIS DARN MINUTE but I am working for production these days and that means some level of organization must remain. Urgh, spit, cat hiss....I soldier on, somehow, spinning purples and rainbows from last year's roving. This other color, chestnut and fire tones, was created for Thing 1. I dyed some yarn like this for her and she's knitting a shawl to offer for sale at our next show. We call the color 'red dirt girl'. Don't ask us why because we'll probably make up a lie anyway.

Hubster's away today helping a paying farmer bring in hay and the things are outside playing so, that means I got my head on straight (for once) and headed out to work in the garden. I guess it's for the best as the only way I can 'pay' is to use my 'womanly wiles' to tempt him and that rarely gets much in the way of work done around here. I'm trying to spend at least one hour a day, optimal goal is two hours. I've only missed one whole day and that was because I was lying in my deathbed cursing all grasses to eternal sterility (not realizing that hay is a grass and that my sheepies need both to survive - give a girl a break - you expect me to be rational when I'm drowning in snot?) and praying to the holy gods of allergies that I be beamed to another planet. I am reluctant to give you my garden report (because I have to say I was, uh, eh, wrong!) though the garden IS growing beautifully. Here's the thing: I am a purist. As with any dogma, mine is against plastic. I literally despise the stuff. If I find it in the yard, I writhe and screech like it is a poisonous viper or something. Years ago, when black plastic was the 'new' garden thing, I said absolutely NO plastic in my Earth Luvin'Mama Nature Garden! Hubster queried, begged me to open my mind, and defied me once or twice. I revelled in the plastic's failure. This year, we had a roll of plastic left over from a project and I succumbed to the man's charms and let him 'try' it in the garden. See the potatoes with (on the left) and those without(right)? They've been given the same care and planted on exactly the same day. Also, the ones with the plastic beneath have very few potato bugs and all you have to do is shake the plant a little and they all fall onto the plastic - which makes them incredibly easier to catch. I know, I know, some of you are probably disappointed with my harlotry in turning to the 'P' stuff but please know this: we tried straw mulch. It has its drawbacks. First, it doesn't allow enough rainwater to get through to the plant. This is easily overlooked if you have the ease of turning a sprinkler on and letting the garden water itself. But, for us solar power people, the water pump can only run for 10-15 minutes straight before we have to shut it off for about the same amount of time to 'let it rest'. That makes a sprinkler both dangerous and a pain in the arse. WE handwater. Also, straw houses many snakes. Oh, come on, I'm not a wuss or anything (though I did give away all my belongings and take my kids across country to farm in the Northlands where the only snakes that are around are NOT the kind that bite you and less than 1/2 and hour later someone is reading your last will and testament) but LOTS of snakes are a sure deterrent to making a garden friendly to all peoples. Since we get SO much sun, here, and we have a rock ledge beneath us - snakes dig us! Anyway, we tried LOTS of things before we tried this and, I am most insanely sad to report, this plastic crap works. URgh! Here, this will help it all feel better, some lovely pac choy that will be part of tonight's stir-fry for dinner. Don't you feel more pure now?

Good, you'll want to hang onto that feeling because when I put in my hour in the garden and was headed back up to the house, still fuming over the whole innocent cat and 'jumping off the hanger in my lap' yarn she was taking - I came upon this - the beginnings of addiction and moral corruption.....Rowena sits praying to her catnip.