Let the Sun Shine In

So, the landscapers came yesterday and chopped the vines (can they still be vines if some of the trunks are over 1.5" thick?) and took out the rest of the lattice (what hadn't been brought down by the storm and already broken up and toted off by us).


With nothing to block it right now, there is sooo much light in our kitchen and family room. In the morning, this is nice; by afternoon when the sun is beating on the windows, it won't be so nice. New trellis (or perhaps some kind of outdoor roller shades) this weekend. It's so strange to have all that trellis and vegetation gone -- even that cats are staring out the windows wondering what happened.

We Have Felting
I said we needed cozies for the new aluminum tumblers, and M delivered. This is the first one to felt down to the correct size; the others are still in process.

And lookee here:

Getting oh so close (sorta like my George in today's TdF stage, bummer) to the finish. It just came out of the washer and got itself stretched over a popcorn tin (per the instructions) for drying. Let's see how long said drying takes. I will probably wind up lining this bag eventually as there is a small hole at the bottom where the stitches were drawn up and tied off. I do like it. I like how the colors muted somewhat in the felting. Still don't know what this bag's eventual fate is going to be. Stay tuned.

And Yet More Entrelac

This is the garterlac dishcloth from Criminy Jickets that I started mostly to get my head around the entrelac concept after the failure of the fugly socks. It's a lot of work for a dishcloth, but it served its purpose, and I highly recommend the pattern for anyone who just wants a non-threatening way to get a handle on entrelac technique.

Flowers

It occurs to me I never really shared the plant that my favorite desert flower grows on. This is the desert bird of paradise plant, showing off one of my favorite things about the monsoon -- we get spring round two. After the first monsoon rains come and wet down the desert, things start to bloom all over again. Take this lovely for instance:


All that blooming has happened since Sunday.

And Some Loot (all the way from Down Under)

This package arrived yesterday from Meg, the Queen of the TdF KAL. It's my prize for being a randomly chosen member of the winning team in our first team competition. If you haven't met Ribby Man, the Team Rabobank um, mascot, you've got to check him out.

Anyhoo, this is Cleckheaton's new book, She Knits, and yarn to make the knee socks on the cover. Yeah, Meg (the greatest of greats among race directors) pointed out that knee socks might not be the best in Tucson, but don't worry, Meg, none of this will go to waste. I do have friends in cooler climes.

And One Final Observation

I have to say one of the most amusing things about watching the live coverage of Le Tour on Versus (which I can do because we're way out here in the west where it's over by 8:30am most mornings) is listening to Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen do promos for World Extreme Cagefighting. It's priceless.