Thursday, July 15, 2010

Sizzling In So. Cal!!!!

You know it is going to be a hot mother chicken when at 8:30 in the morning you hear the a/c click on!!  Summer has arrived late, but with a BANG!  Yesterday, the only place to be was in the pool.  We were invited to go swimming next door and Noah had a ball!  I had to wait until the sun began to go down to work in my garden.,  I cleaned out the beds, and planted some more radishes.  This is what I harvested last night.
I removed yet another squash  plant to make room to plant some more things.  I have all the makings for salsa in my garden this summer.  My strawberries are delicious, but they rarely make in indoors, as I eat them while I am out working in the garden, warm and sweet from the sun.  After I brought in my daily haul, I was ready for a dip in the pool.
Mr. G went to watch his softball team play.  He has missed almost the entire season due to his nerve problem.  Poor guy.  So I had the whole evening all to myself. I swam laps, and floated on my neonoodle.  Then  I sat on the steps and watched the sun go down.  It was such a gorgeous evening!
See that white spot on my knee.  The dreaded vitiligo is spreading all over now!  Grrrrrr.  I sat for a good 30 minutes, watching the sun set, and the sky put on a show.  It changed from steel blue, to a beautiful purple.
The crescent moon and north star lit up the sky.  It was just SO pretty!
Eventually, I had to get out.  : (

My favorite towel from our last trip to HAWAII, and my cover up waiting, I got out of the pool and went into the house to work on this.
After studying several tutorials, and reading and memorizing crochet shorthand, and doing a few sampler stitches, I made this.
My very first garden flower granny square!!!  Woo-Hoo.  I did it!  I READ A PATTERN!!!!   Don't look too closely, or you can spot my mistakes.  I realized later that I skipped some of the spokes on the yellow wheel.  Oh shoot!  But now I know how.  And soon I am going to tackle that blanket again.  I also realized that the reason mine didn't look like the one on the blog I was trying to duplicate, was that she wrote her directions in UK terminology. Our US terms are not the same.  Now I know!!! 
Also....my neighbor Jane got her gigi hill order and is letting me keep her bag on wheels to show people before my party.  IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!!
Come to my gigi hill party on July 29th to see the rest of this line of great oil cloth bags!  I will be serving a Chinese Chicken Salad and Summer Pasta Salad for dinner.  Come eat, visit and check out gigi hill!
Now I have to go get my suit on because two more darling Lil' Dumplin's are coming to swim with us.  
So I leave you with this.  My favorite summer flowers would have to be Gardenias.  The scent is heavenly.  It brings me straight back to 1975, when I worked at Placentia Family Restaurant, and my favorite customers brought me bags of this fragrant summer flower.  I wore them as a corsage, and I floated them in water in my bedroom, and I can still see their faces today when I snip my gardenias and bring them inside to savor the scent!  Happy Summer all!!!


12 comments:

NanaNor's said...

Hi Kris, Your posts always leave me feeling so energetic and refreshed....you always accomplish so much each day, from gardening, to crocheting, to quilting, watching grands, taking wonderful photos-and cooking. Your bounty from the garden and your cooking inspire me to want to cook more of my own food except we don't have a vege garden. Love that you are working on a new skill with yarn. Me, I stick with quilting! I too love Gardenias and years ago found a cheapish perfume in Hawaii called Island Gardenia that I just loved. Thanks for sharing your day with us-wish I could come swim, we are in the 90's here too.
Hugs, Noreen

everyday katie said...

Gorgeous...all of it.

Genn said...

Oh I want that weekender bag now!!! It is SO cute. That's it. I'm gonna have to have a party.

Nice job on your flower. It's cute.

Unknown said...

The bag,
the flowers,
the pool,
and those veggies, beautiful!

Lisa

Katie said...

Kris, what is vitiligo??

Your pool looks incredibly refreshing right now & so does your Garden yummies!

Great job on your Square! Be seeing you soon, can I bring a bucket to harvest from your garden, avocado trees & lemons too ;)

Jennifer said...

Oh my - the pure bliss of a backyard pool...and then all to yourself under the sunset. I am just a bit envious here! Hope you enjoy many a more evening just like it as summer continues. Don't you just love summer!! I hope your party is tons of fun - I love all the things:)

Charlee said...

Wow your garden is full! and great square see its not as hard as it seems once you get the hang of it.

Debbie said...

Oh Kris I soo agree with Noreen. You are always so busy and energetic and seem to always get so much done. It's inspiring...your garden bounty is wonderful and I am soo impressed with your crocheting. The pool look soo pretty. I am excited to have you come over. I have a feeling we will just chat and chat and chat....we will work it out soon. ENJOY this summer ~ goodness it was hot today wasn't it? HUGS, Deb

Tawny said...

I am so jealous of your gorgeous veggies and fruits!!! I wish I could have a garden like that...and a pool for that matter ;)
Great picture of the moon!
Joe said you asked about me and my blogginess...or lack of, oops! Glad he was able to help and you enjoyed your friends!!

Pam said...

What a bounty you pulled from your garden - lucky girl. I would give anything to sit in a pool to watch the sunset!

Katie said...

I do remember Uncle Don having that!! I didn't realize it was hereditary or that you had it, I'm sorry to hear that! Does the sun make it worse, maybe they will come up with a miracle cream for it soon that will reverse it!!

Anonymous said...

Well I think for a first time attempt your square is brilliant! Really lovely colours too - I'll look forward to seeing some more of these

Ruth

xxx