Almost

Hello Gentle Readers. Tuesday morning a north wind blew in a few days respite from extreme heat. Mercy but the days have been hot and the nights stay warm. As my Granddad used to say, "this is tomato growing weather." A squirrel got the first full size tomato but unless there is a natural disaster there will be plenty. We are almost to fresh tomato sandwiches. Last night I made a pasta salad with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, chopped parsley and basil from the garden. I added some chopped bell pepper, a can of chickpeas, and feta. Then I dressed it with a honey mustard vinaigrette and we ate it with watermelon.  

Today I link with Kat and the Unravelers. I'm now knitting on the shawl border. Six rows of pattern and six rows of garter stitch remain before I can bind it off and give it a bath. The rows are long. Thank goodness I can bundle it off my lap and onto the love seat while knitting. I am also almost finished with the second bobbin of my current spinning project.

I missed slow stitching and remembered Kat's stitching project with a grid of squares. Katherine of K3nCloth Tales did a similar project incorporating small scraps of cloth. This will not be a daily stitching practice but perhaps become a pouch for hand sewing notions. I marked separate grids on a piece of muslin. Then I basted flannel to the back of muslin, and couched fingering weight yarn to mark one of three grids. In my previous quilting life, I threw out tiny scraps. Last year I saved small bits while working on the Stitch Journal. The challenge in this project is to choose small pieces at random and then stitch around them. The blue piece reminded me of the Dresden Plate quilt block so I stitched it into the corner and added the embroidery on either side. I pinned the other two pieces on to audition them. So much for completely random. I am what I am. This is a "for fun" project so any rules are just guidelines.

Earlier this morning I did something I rarely do. I sat down with a cup of tea and savored the last few pages of Whistler by Ann Patchett. Publicity and information about this novel is everywhere, as it should be. It's a tender sweet story about human connection, impermanence, and kindness in the face of imperfection. The writing is lovely. Every word is well chosen and well placed. I enjoyed all of it; setting, character development, plot, themes, subtle connection to the writing and publishing world, and Patchett's ability to wander around in time with clarity. It's a welcome respite from our troubled world and a novel worth rereading. 

My July garden beds are wild and leggy.  Earlier in the summer, I found what I thought was a weed growing in my pollinator garden. I left it after a plant app identified it as wild bergamot, also known as bee balm. Now it blooms and feeds the bees and butterflies. It is also part of the mint family so will need to be kept in check. I'm off to make a grocery list and hope the prices haven't gone up - again.  I wish you at least one pleasant surprise this week.