Fran’s Hobbies
Recently I showed the jojoland scarf I knit. A sweet friend is making this pattern and is having a devil of a time keeping in pattern. I believe at last count she was on her 6th try and she yet to make one complete block. Does anyone have tips for following a lace pattern and not losing their way? We would love to hear from you.
Meanwhile, let’s take a break and talk about one of my other hobbies … gardening. I’m sure you all take time away from knitting, crocheting, sewing, quilting, and crafting to do other things … don’t you? Well here it’s time to “gear up” and march bravely out to the flower beds where weeds are waiting to do battle. I think they spend all winter long working out their cunning stategety for thwarting my plans for perfect weed-free flowerbeds.
I have gloves and industrial strength diggers and pullers and stuff to sprinkle that DISCOURAGES weed regrowth. The gloves are to prevent any blind attacks from rabid slugs hiding in the large weed clumps. Washington is known for their HUGE black and greenish gray slugs. When you touch one it curls up into a ball and the black ones look like huge gumdrops. There is nothing as bad as getting slug slime on your fingers or hands and it takes a scrub brush to get the gooey stuff off.
We had ducks for awhile and they loved the slugs. You could always tell when the ducks got a slug because it “gooeyed” their beaks together. It was like a person eating a carmel and getting their teeth stuck in the carmel.
Speaking of the outdoors, living in the country with children we have had just about every farm animal known to man. I put my foot down when a request came for a pig … sheep, goats, ducks, chickens and rabbits, ok, BUT no pig.
There was the cow my daughter had for 4-H that didn’t want to lead … she had to show the cow so it had to lead. Bless her heart. She tried and tried to get that cow to lead with absolutely no luck. It was a Holstein (black and white). She had a black Volkswagen Bug and one day a neighbor called and suggested I look out the window. Kris had tied the cow to the back bumper of the Bug and was practically dragging it down the lane. The cow never did learn to lead.
Kris returned the cow to the farmer that she bought it from and he gave her another … that did lead. Where there’s a will there’s a way. I just love animals, but I digress.
Back to the garden. It would be much easier to let the weeds and slugs have the flower beds and stay inside knitting but I have been given the challenge of ridding my yard of weeds. My husband keeps saying it is an endless task since the flowerbeds are surrounded by pasture and woods and air born weed seeds. Sometimes he just has no vision.
