June

I can't believe it is June already. Not a lot going on here. I have been doing a lot of reading lately and a little knitting. I will try to post some knitting here soon.

Look what I got in the mail today. It's a crocheted tiger key chain from Caroline B. She had a contest on her blog a little while ago, and I won. Caroline does amazing things both with fiber and paint. You should check out her blog at Uniqart.

Spring in Texas

It's spring in Texas, and what does that mean? Bluebonnets! Wally and I went out looking for wildflowers on Sunday afternoon. Texas has lots of wildflowers that grow on the sides of the highways. In March, the bluebonnets bloom, and I love them.

We found a huge field just outside of Brenham. This field was at least 4 or 5 acres, and it was absolutely covered in bluebonnets. It was also accessible to people, that is, not private property. Lots of other people had the same idea we did. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and moderate temperatures. Here is a little bit of what we saw. Here's another close up shot. This one also has what are called Evening Primrose here. I don't know if that's the proper name for these pink flowers or not. They are everywhere this time of year, too.

A nice family was kind enough to take a photo of Wally and I standing in the bluebonnets. You can see how big the field is in back of us. Multiply that space by 4 or 5 and that's how huge the area was. And...it was all bluebonnets. You can also see lots of other people enjoying the flowers.

Later, we stopped at a Dairy Queen, another Texas classic. Wally had a chocolate shake, I had a caramel shake and we shared some onion rings. It was a lovely afternoon.

Oscar

So...it has been almost a month since we "fostered" Wildfire. Needless to say, he did not go back, and we signed the adoptin papers two weeks ago. We have decided to call him Oscar. He is a great dog, very loving and wanting to be loved. If we let him, he wants to be a lap dog as you can see from the photo below. Sarah is the only one who lets him do this, and he knows it, so he milks it for all it's worth. What a face! When everyone else is at work, Oscar is my shadow. Wherever I am, Oscar is there, too. We have beds in strategic places about the house, but if Oscar can't find a bed, he just plops down anyway, even on the tile floor. When I'm working on the computer, this is what I usually see.

The photo is a little dark as I took it without using the flash. That's my constant companion at rest. Oscar will stay there as long as I'm there, too.

He does have one funny habit. He likes to steal things out of the trash. Not food, because he can't get to the food trash, but things like used tissues or dryer sheets or used swiffer sheets. We have to close the doors to the bathrooms so we don't find surprises in the middle of the living room floor. Oh yea, he also likes balls of yarn.

S3's

So, I have had a serious case of Second Sock Syndrome ever since this past summer. I have three pairs of socks on the needles, and none of them finished. Well, I have finally finished one pair. This yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy. I had never knit with this yarn before, but I really like it. It has a good tight twist and feels great after it is blocked. I knit these socks on US 1 (2.25mm) in my plain basic pattern. The colorway is called Petal Shower.

New Family Member

For those of you who know my family well, you know that we have had retired greyhounds since 1996. We had Dancer, Molly, Ticket, Nikiski and Argus in that time. Argus died last March while we were on vacation. He was at our trusted kennel, and one night he went to sleep and did not wake up. That was very hard on all of us. Also, at that time we were building the new house and Sarah's wedding was coming up. We decided it was not a good time to get another dog. I, in particular, was not keen about getting another dog at all. I am the one who takes care of them the most, and I get extremely attached emotionally. Well, Wally and Sarah finally wore me down. We went to the greyhound adoption agency last Saturday and are now "fostering" this great looking dog. I say "fostering", because we have fostered three times before, and the dogs never go back. This great guy is called Wildman, racing name C YA Wildfire. He is three years old and BIG. He is very tall, even for a greyhound. He weighs about 82 pounds. He is very friendly and loves attention as you can see from the photo. He has wonderful manners other than trying to hug everyone who walks in the door. We are thinking about changing his name, but have not come up with a name that everyone likes.

Current knitting

Here is what I am knitting now. It's one of those Noro Silk Garden scarves that everyone has been blogging about. It looked like fun to me even if it is rarely cold enough here it use a wool/silk scarf. I am enjoying knitting on it. It goes quickly, and I like how the colors are always changing. These yarns are Noro Silk Garden, numbers 226 and 292. Needles are US 7.

I have also been knitting a swatch of the new alpaca yarn I posted about last time, but those photos did not turn out well, and they were boring. I have a couple of pairs of socks on the needles, too, but have been enjoying the mindlessness of the scarf right now. I will get back to the socks later.