Last weekend I went with my mom & sis to visit my grandmother in upper NY state, in a proper little Adirondack town, and we stayed in a proper little Adirondack motel, complete with folksy furniture:

I swear I wanted to take that dresser home. I’m pretty sure it’s the rooster.
Somehow roosters have found their way into my life via the very people on that trip: my grandparents’ dishes were this awesome Metlox Poppytrail Rooster set;

my mom gave me this stately wooden rooster a few years ago (with articulated legs, natch, he sits on my TV);

and my sister gave me this lovely little rooster painting (it guards the vanilla raw sugar in the kitchen) for Christmas last year:

And here we all are out on a little tour through the neighbourhood, sans roosters.

This heat wave is starting to get me down.

Yes we have a/c in our house, but it’s turned to a very environmentally friendly 24ºC (that’s about 75 in “real degrees” as my stepfather refers to Fahrenheit). And while I entirely agree with this, it is worth noting that the thermostat is on the first floor of the house (a separate apartment along with the basement). Meanwhile the second floor (our main living area) stays a degree or two warmer, and the third floor (our bedroom and workroom) gets, mmm, I’d guess about 3-5 degrees warmer still what with the full sun exposure and lack of good insulation.

So, fine for the light housework and lounging about reading over the weekend, not so cool for the sleeping and working.

But enough of my kvetching. There is after all an outdoor pool a 3-minute ride away that, though chock-full of rowdy youngsters, is nonetheless very refreshing and I had a lovely swim there yesterday evening and fully intend to do the same today (unless it starts raining before I get a chance). And I do have two perfectly good fans to keep the air moving, which makes all the difference. Besides, the heat wave is supposed to break tomorrow and then I’ll be whining about how none of my jeans fit…

The heat and sun have been marvelous for the tomatoes and sunflowers. Witness (the sunflowers anyway, the deck is too hot to spend time there taking pictures):

Also in the garden, a fantastic cucumber vine support, lovely and organic looking:

And I though this was just funny:

And here I thought you needed sheep to grow yarn…

Today was the day.

Today I discovered that I now only own one pair of shorts that actually fit comfortably. The ones with stretch, and a low waist. I guess it’s beginning.

And for everyone else, a picture of some blue street art. Just because.

Or for those who prefer insects (I know you’re there), some sort of ant gathering.

Today, a few random things.
This lovely shot of the calendula at the community garden plot, taken by the OH:

It reminds me of Leni Riefenstahl’s photos of German Olympic athletes…

A ladybug, so cute, how could I not include it? I mean, really, it’s a ladybug.

And this, I don’t even know how to express the retro-nerd hipsterness going on here.

I’m totally stoked. Nay, thrilled, even.

Just look at this:

See that blush? See the embarrassed glow on that one hiding in the corner? That, my dears, is a Black Krim tomato very close to being ripe.

It’s just beginning to have that luscious, plump & juicy feeling when squeezed so even though it’s still clinging to its stem like Pyewhackett to a kitty treat, it’s getting there. I’m guessing maybe tomorrow if we’re lucky enough to get some sun, but likely the day after if the forecast is correct. But after that I think they’ll come along in quick succession with the warm sunny weather we’re supposed to have for the rest of the week.
They’ve had some good water now, as evidenced by some cracking which just showed up today, so they should be happy for a few days of sunshine.

I’m so pleased I could giggle, and indeed probably will make some sort of funny noise when I finally get to take the first bite. Soon!!!

Finally my sunflowers are starting to bloom! I desperately want to cut some for home, but there are only a few really open so far and the bees are enjoying them so much that I just can’t take them away.

On the walk home I started noticing all sorts of white flowers…


There are also a lot of yellow and orange flowers out now (sunflowers and rudbeckia most notably). I suppose there must be some white-loving and yellow/orange-loving pollinators in full swing about now.

Then there’s this guy/gal, waiting on the porch (just above the railing to which I lock my bike) for food to deliver itself:

5 points if you can identify this little lovely’s taxonomy.

In crafty news, I stopped by MacFab yesterday and after dutifully gathering together a bunch of zippers for UTW, was ambushed by a bin full of samples from discontinued decorating fabrics (you know, that gorgeous Amy Butler type stuff). Now surely you know that it’s nearly impossible to pass up the potential of this sort of bin, so naturally I started rifling through it and, while I did manage to exercise some pretty impressive self restraint, I picked out a few great pieces.

The plan is to quarter each piece (they’re about 18″ sq. as is) and make a very simple quilt for the Expected One. I figure there’s a nice mix of high contrast stuff for early visual stimulation, plus some more subtle colours for continued interest well past the B&W stage. (Funny how companies are still making all pastel mobiles – and then plonk the little thing in a room with a white ceiling…) I’ll go to VV to see if I can’t find a decent condition sheet (or other plain fabric) for the edge and backing, and hopefully a thin wool blanket for the innards.

I also visited Romni (as how could I not, being already down on Queen W and a hopeless addict) and foraged in the basement for some sale skeins. I did find a few things, but unfortunately none of them match any of the projects on my developing holiday-knitting list. (And of course visiting the website now I realize that by resisting going there during July I missed their 20% off everything sale… curses!) So into the stash it goes. I really do need to take a list when I go there, or else start planning projects based on what I’ve got in the stash already instead of what makes me go “Oooh!” when I see it online.

But why start being wise now…