July

July has been a difficult month.  Nothing bad happened; it is just hard to sell a house and think about moving somewhere else.  It is hard to have to constantly anticipate someone stopping in and judging what you love. It is hard when no comes by to see your house day after day.  It is hard to look at houses and find one that will be good enough to make you okay with leaving your old place.  It's hard to find a house like that and be rejected because your house is still for sale.  It is an odd limbo land and I will be glad when it's over.

One thing I do love though--my house is CLEAN.  I am naturally a tidy person, so I have LOVED having a decluttered, tidy house.

Tomorrow I go back to school. Yes! In JULY. Unbelievable. I will be glad to get away from this house business and focus on other things. --At least, I think I will.

Somehow this month, I managed to crochet a scarf.  It has been a long time since I made a simple crocheted scarf and this project was just the thing to ease my mind after that complicated forever-taking sweater.  I always love mohair too, so that was fun.  It is a silk mohair blend, very light.  I love all the fringe on this.

I am now wending my way through my first ever pair of knitted socks.  I am following the Winwick Mum pattern.  So far, so good.  But I know I'm just at the easy part.

The garden this year has been going like other years--some vegetables do better than others.  This year we lost all of our tomato plants to some kind of pest who gnawed through the stem at the base and killed the whole plant in one go over night. Awful! The beans, eggplants, and peppers have done well.

And the zinnas are really starting to bloom.  Flowers always lift my spirits. I can't imagine a garden without flowers!

It has been good to spend time with my boys and with my two dogs.  I've been on dog rotation all summer and worry a little how this will play out when I am working so much away from home.  When I was teaching summer school and taking out the dogs one at a time, it was nice to be up right before daybreak when the birds where chorusing in full.  I guess I'll be back to that.  Which it nice, though early.

I hope I will be back next weekend rather than at the end of next month! 

Living in the Woods

This weekend was one for the real colors of fall--yellows and gold and orange.  I had hoped to go into the hills again, but with my lame foot, it just isn't going to happen.  So, I've been soaking up the trees along the highway and those here in the neighborhood especially, as the sun touches everything a little more softly.  Fall is my favorite season here.  There are just so many trees!

When I first came here, I arrived at night--probably well after midnight. In fact, our car broke down on a six lane highway and we had to scramble over a concrete embankment to one of the only open buildings in the city--a hospital--to make a call for someone to come get us.  So, when I woke in the morning and looked out the window, I was amazed.
 
"You live in the woods!" I exclaimed to my boyfriend, who laughed.

And it still is the woods to me.  And the little oak floor house of ours feels like a cabin.  Really.

I finally got my leafy scarf blocked and maybe this is the first time I've actually had something finished for the season it was meant for. A definite record!

I just had to take have these shots with the leaves even though the scarf pattern doesn't show so well.

In the garden there are still a few struggling peppers and the marigolds.  My chrysanthemums have scraggled out, but these store bought ones have kept on and on and their welcome pink feels a bit refreshing after so much gold.

A Quiet Day At Home (with one foot up)

There's nothing quite like a rainy weekday at home.  Everything's so calm and slow, like it's morning all day.  An unexpected rainy day off seems especially this way.

Unfortunately, this unexpected day off came on behalf of an unexpected fall/stumble down the stairs at my school.  I was caught up in a rush of students going down stairs and lost my balance--in medium heels no less.  But I had to be on time for the next class, across and up more stairs in the next building.  I hoped I could just shake it off and keep going.  So I tried.  

All day, I traversed as usual, up and down stairs and around my classroom as I must, championing my rag tag teens into focusing on the tasks at hand.  But at two o'clock I knew this wasn't something I could "shake off."  Dang!

I ended up at the hospital for x-rays and got this pretty boot and some pills.  It is only a sprain, luckily, but I am supposed to stay off of it.

I have to admit my vanity.  In the hospital I was wishing I had a nice pedicure with polish.

I hate to be struck down like this and dependent.  I could really go in tomorrow, but I don't think I can drive the thirty minutes to the school.  I am having to face the truth that I just don't bounce like I used to, and that is a sort of pain in itself.
So, I am going to do some grading and crochet and enjoy looking out the window.
I am trying not to stress over the fact that my students are taking a holiday instead of doing their work, and maybe robbing the supply cabinet I did not think to lock.

This is the Olive Twist Shawl!

Making Things: Granola and Crochet

I am a big believer in eating breakfast.  My ideal breakfast is oatmeal.  However, getting up before dawn and cooking is out of the question, so I keep bananas on hand even though I am not a great fan of bananas.  But it gets me a serving of fruit and is an easy grab-and-go food.  This week I made granola bars.  This granola is so delicious!  My oldest son used to love it when he was little, especially the little clumps of wheat germ.  He would pick them out gobble them up. (It wasn't in bars. We mostly eat it loose.)

cherry almond variety

I always aim to be a healthy eater, though I have to admit I love cheese puffs and Coke.  That is about my all time favorite junk food combination.  I know if I am craving that, then I am hungry and probably tired too.
Luckily, I don't keep those things around the house, so if I am to eat them, I have to go buy them which is an extra step that makes me reconsider and keeps me from caving in.  Most of the time.

Slowly, slowly I have also been working on a crochet scarf.  I love the fall colors.  I have hardly had any time to work on it, and it isn't repetitive enough for me to do in a relaxed half attentive sort of way.  I have to have my brain on to do it, so these evenings of mush mind have not been conducive to this pattern.

Ruden's scarf from Interweave

I'm half done.  By the time fall is here I may have it finished.  No.  I will have it done by then.  I'm just feeling sorry that I can't just push all my school work aside and work on this instead--much more fun!  I just love the leaf like design in this and the yarn.  I bought it as a kit, which I hardly ever do, but I couldn't imagine doing it any differently.

I know this week will be another busy one, though I am beginning to get my feet under me.  And then, next weekend is a long one.  Whoohoo!  Working on this scarf will definitely be on the agenda.