Oh my, summer's here!
G'day all!
We are getting a taste of summer here in the Bay area. Oh boy! If you read all of this post, you will see it has addled my brain. I hope it doesn't addle yours too!
We went for a walk to the library this afternoon, in the heat of the day. People have this weird idea that the hottest time of the day is when the sun is highest, just like there is some idea that the hottest weather should be around solstice, when the hottest (and the coldest) weather is usually around a month or so after solstice. Can I just say that where I've lived, the hottest parts of the day are the late afternoon, when the sun is slanting and everything's broiled for a good part of the day.
Admittedly it was only about 33C but sheesh, it felt amazingly hot with the sun blasting down from a cloudless sky, the heat radiating off the concrete path.... (last time I remember heat like that off a road or path was the first time I went to Bobbin's Nest and it was a 100F day...)
This weekend is the annual Boogie and the Bayou festival in Campbell. They have artsy/crafty booths along with some local business things and other stuff. But that is not the important part of the festival as far as I can tell. Nope, the important part seems to be a) drink as much as you possibly can, b) be seen, c) if you are female, show as much of your boobs off as possible whilst still remaining "decent."
It's pretty sad when you see forty-something women staggering home dead drunk at 3pm. You would think they would've learned by now. I guess at least they were walking and not driving. And their tops did not display their considerable boobage in ways non-commensurate with dignity. (Oh and I am a forty-something woman - these are my age peers I am talking about!)
Anyway, I've been knitting and spinning and plying and doing all sorts of stuff. I've finally managed to stick some posters onto the bike-jousting wood - I painted some of the wood black and then put holographic glitter paint over that (cos it is holographic glitter and just has to be everywhere!), and painted some of the wood just with holographic glitter, then cut the wood to size, tacked on little saw-tooth picture hangers (one of the hangers just did not want to go on one bit of wood and the air turned a delicate shade of blue as I fought with hammer, jeweller's pliers and teensy little nails), and stuck the posters on with glue dots. Now we have three posters in our bedroom, one of the Great Sand Dunes, one of Zion and one of Lake Tahoe. I keep looking and seeing something on the wall! My god, there's something on the wall! It's HUGE! Quick, quick, what is it? Oh it is the poster I hung this morning! (I'm also seeing a cat walk into the lounge room when the fan blows the edge of the material that covers the 18" speaker - for some reason the triangle of material looks like a cat's leg and ear. Given we don't have a cat living with us and haven't had for nearly two years ...)
On Thursday I rode to Nathan's work with him for Ride to Work Day. I thought it would knacker me because I've had this weird cold/hayfever thing (since when did a cold respond to anti-histamines? But mine did) and had a cough and a snotty nose (I still do to some extent). After riding in, I felt great! More please! So I rode another mile or two to the heritage rose garden, had a look see (not as good as it was two weeks ago and I have not shared the photos! My bad!), went across to Michael's (found the picture hangers of my dreams), bought some Tim Tams from World Market, rode another mile or two to the SJ Rose Garden in the Rose Garden area and then caught the bus home. I thought at this stage I would collapse but no, I was the Energiser Bunny! I mounted and hung one of the posters, I knitted, I cut out a tunic, I straightened some cashmere yarn that has to be plied up, I crocheted up some more of the tshirt rug, I made dinner and cleaned up immediately after... Then I collapsed!
The energy was like some wall had been breached. I suddenly just did things that I had been fussing about. It was very odd. I did wonder if I was manic but I didn't have urges to do stupid things or over the top things, just things that I had wanted to do for ages. I've calmed down a bit since then but I am still making progress on things that I had stalled on. I even persuaded the printer to print out a large picture from our holidays - until now I've only been able to get photo-sized shots by putting the card into the printer and printing direct (it has been printing documents, just not pictures by themselves).
(that is the pic I printed out. It is from Zion National Park. Zion is drop dead gorgeous and soon I will wade through the gadzillions of Grand Canyon pics and start on the Zion ones instead. We loved Zion more than the GC.)
It was only later on that I discovered that the tunic I had cut out was going to be a bit breezy. I found the tissue for the back of it lying on Nathan's side of the bed.... I had not cut out the back! LOL
Back to today. Today was quite sedate by comparison. I cut out the missing back of the tunic. I knitted up one sleeve of the shop model. I planted the strawberries in the earth box. I added extra twist to about 1500m of laceweight cashmere in prep for its grand plying (and cable plying - it will be about a sport weight then I reckon). That took about three hours of watching "tv" and reading a book. I plied up two lots of laceweight that have been sitting looking at me. Then I put the wheel aside. Tomorrow my calves and feet will tell me I spun away for Much Too Long. Saturday night tea here is pretty much always bangers and mash now. It is easy and quick and Nathan really likes it (so do I!). Last Saturday, we had the joy of mashed purple potatoes with some oh the yellow ones, every popular here, anyway, the mix of purple and yellow (my old school colours) was quite horrid! Yum!
(BTW for those wondering if the smoke alarms here ever went off - they mysteriously stopped at the same time as the fire truck went wailing up the road... the local fire station is only 200 yards away if that.)
Time to go and deal with the washing up. I am still wrangling with the idea of getting a smaller bin. Our current kitchen bin is too small and too big - some weeks it will take a whole week of garbage but by then the compostable bin liners start rotting = Very Bad! I figure if I have a smaller bin, I will empty it more often and it can use the bags we get bulk foods in (and a few things like beans and spinach leaves in at the market). These bags don't have any recycling label on them so they will likely end up in landfill anyway, and if I choose the ones without the breathing holes punched in them, they tend not to leak. I do have a worm farm but they can't eat the amount of vegie waste we produce each week. We eat an enormous amount of vegies - I figure they are cheap and filling and good for us, so I use heaps to bulk out meals with. I still get a shock when you get just one vegetable (and potato or rice) with a meal here. It is considered adventurous to offer cauli, broccoli and carrots together. Those three have been my basics for years!
Enough rambling - I must do the dishes.
anon!
We are getting a taste of summer here in the Bay area. Oh boy! If you read all of this post, you will see it has addled my brain. I hope it doesn't addle yours too!
We went for a walk to the library this afternoon, in the heat of the day. People have this weird idea that the hottest time of the day is when the sun is highest, just like there is some idea that the hottest weather should be around solstice, when the hottest (and the coldest) weather is usually around a month or so after solstice. Can I just say that where I've lived, the hottest parts of the day are the late afternoon, when the sun is slanting and everything's broiled for a good part of the day.
Admittedly it was only about 33C but sheesh, it felt amazingly hot with the sun blasting down from a cloudless sky, the heat radiating off the concrete path.... (last time I remember heat like that off a road or path was the first time I went to Bobbin's Nest and it was a 100F day...)
This weekend is the annual Boogie and the Bayou festival in Campbell. They have artsy/crafty booths along with some local business things and other stuff. But that is not the important part of the festival as far as I can tell. Nope, the important part seems to be a) drink as much as you possibly can, b) be seen, c) if you are female, show as much of your boobs off as possible whilst still remaining "decent."
It's pretty sad when you see forty-something women staggering home dead drunk at 3pm. You would think they would've learned by now. I guess at least they were walking and not driving. And their tops did not display their considerable boobage in ways non-commensurate with dignity. (Oh and I am a forty-something woman - these are my age peers I am talking about!)
Anyway, I've been knitting and spinning and plying and doing all sorts of stuff. I've finally managed to stick some posters onto the bike-jousting wood - I painted some of the wood black and then put holographic glitter paint over that (cos it is holographic glitter and just has to be everywhere!), and painted some of the wood just with holographic glitter, then cut the wood to size, tacked on little saw-tooth picture hangers (one of the hangers just did not want to go on one bit of wood and the air turned a delicate shade of blue as I fought with hammer, jeweller's pliers and teensy little nails), and stuck the posters on with glue dots. Now we have three posters in our bedroom, one of the Great Sand Dunes, one of Zion and one of Lake Tahoe. I keep looking and seeing something on the wall! My god, there's something on the wall! It's HUGE! Quick, quick, what is it? Oh it is the poster I hung this morning! (I'm also seeing a cat walk into the lounge room when the fan blows the edge of the material that covers the 18" speaker - for some reason the triangle of material looks like a cat's leg and ear. Given we don't have a cat living with us and haven't had for nearly two years ...)
On Thursday I rode to Nathan's work with him for Ride to Work Day. I thought it would knacker me because I've had this weird cold/hayfever thing (since when did a cold respond to anti-histamines? But mine did) and had a cough and a snotty nose (I still do to some extent). After riding in, I felt great! More please! So I rode another mile or two to the heritage rose garden, had a look see (not as good as it was two weeks ago and I have not shared the photos! My bad!), went across to Michael's (found the picture hangers of my dreams), bought some Tim Tams from World Market, rode another mile or two to the SJ Rose Garden in the Rose Garden area and then caught the bus home. I thought at this stage I would collapse but no, I was the Energiser Bunny! I mounted and hung one of the posters, I knitted, I cut out a tunic, I straightened some cashmere yarn that has to be plied up, I crocheted up some more of the tshirt rug, I made dinner and cleaned up immediately after... Then I collapsed!
The energy was like some wall had been breached. I suddenly just did things that I had been fussing about. It was very odd. I did wonder if I was manic but I didn't have urges to do stupid things or over the top things, just things that I had wanted to do for ages. I've calmed down a bit since then but I am still making progress on things that I had stalled on. I even persuaded the printer to print out a large picture from our holidays - until now I've only been able to get photo-sized shots by putting the card into the printer and printing direct (it has been printing documents, just not pictures by themselves).
(that is the pic I printed out. It is from Zion National Park. Zion is drop dead gorgeous and soon I will wade through the gadzillions of Grand Canyon pics and start on the Zion ones instead. We loved Zion more than the GC.)
It was only later on that I discovered that the tunic I had cut out was going to be a bit breezy. I found the tissue for the back of it lying on Nathan's side of the bed.... I had not cut out the back! LOL
Back to today. Today was quite sedate by comparison. I cut out the missing back of the tunic. I knitted up one sleeve of the shop model. I planted the strawberries in the earth box. I added extra twist to about 1500m of laceweight cashmere in prep for its grand plying (and cable plying - it will be about a sport weight then I reckon). That took about three hours of watching "tv" and reading a book. I plied up two lots of laceweight that have been sitting looking at me. Then I put the wheel aside. Tomorrow my calves and feet will tell me I spun away for Much Too Long. Saturday night tea here is pretty much always bangers and mash now. It is easy and quick and Nathan really likes it (so do I!). Last Saturday, we had the joy of mashed purple potatoes with some oh the yellow ones, every popular here, anyway, the mix of purple and yellow (my old school colours) was quite horrid! Yum!
(BTW for those wondering if the smoke alarms here ever went off - they mysteriously stopped at the same time as the fire truck went wailing up the road... the local fire station is only 200 yards away if that.)
Time to go and deal with the washing up. I am still wrangling with the idea of getting a smaller bin. Our current kitchen bin is too small and too big - some weeks it will take a whole week of garbage but by then the compostable bin liners start rotting = Very Bad! I figure if I have a smaller bin, I will empty it more often and it can use the bags we get bulk foods in (and a few things like beans and spinach leaves in at the market). These bags don't have any recycling label on them so they will likely end up in landfill anyway, and if I choose the ones without the breathing holes punched in them, they tend not to leak. I do have a worm farm but they can't eat the amount of vegie waste we produce each week. We eat an enormous amount of vegies - I figure they are cheap and filling and good for us, so I use heaps to bulk out meals with. I still get a shock when you get just one vegetable (and potato or rice) with a meal here. It is considered adventurous to offer cauli, broccoli and carrots together. Those three have been my basics for years!
Enough rambling - I must do the dishes.
anon!
I agree that is it always much hotter in the late afternoon. I have no wish to see Woman A, B or C!!! Glad you found the back of your tunic so you didn;t have to be Woman C
ReplyDeleteThe vehetables look delicious. I had Kennebec and Sweet potato mash tonight with some red onion im it. The Labradors are having boiled celery and carrot.
I love purple potatoes :) We used to be able to buy nice heritage ones here but I can't seem to find them at the moment. Those biodegradable bags can be a right pain (think cat litter!!). Sounds like a lovely ride to the rose gardens and I'll enjoy seeing your piccies.
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