Sometimes she'll sit just right in just the right light and I can see the toddler that P is going to become. Then she moves, or the light changes, and the moment is gone. Don't grow up too fast, precious girl.
After several weeks of cooler than normal weather, the heat of summer has arrived, at least temporarily. The garden is progressing nicely. We lost the snap peas going out of town for the weekend; they weren't ripe when we left and were overripe by the time we got back. But we've gotten a couple of cucumbers that I've made into refrigerator pickles (all eaten already) and D has gotten the first few ripe tomatoes. Unless something goes terribly wrong with them, we're going to have tomatoes coming out of our ears in a couple of weeks. Still a bit early for everything else, but there are tiny baby ears of corn coming. I managed to neglect the catnip patch for far too long. It had been nearly killed off by a dog laying it then after a rainy spell it seemed to take no time at all for it to grow to 3 feet tall and flower. I just trimmed a bunch of it back that was getting in the way of the door but with the way the bees and butterflies are all over it, I didn't want to take away too much. What I did cut is now hanging to dry to keep the cats supplied with their dope through the winter. In the continuing theme of home improvements, D managed to get the clothesline up a couple of weeks ago- a proper one with actual poles and line and not one of those flimsy umbrella things. I've picked out the colors officially for some more of the painting. Rather ahead of what we planned, there's a wee one on the way and a nursery to be set up, so I've been focusing on cleaning out our junkroom/"0ffice" so that it can be painted and repurposed. I would also really like to get the kitchen done before then; it's the only room whose color scheme really bothers me and I'm realistic enough to know that once Bean gets here, we'll probably have a year or two of not doing any of the sort of work. Dingy ivory on the cabinets and darker ivory on the walls. Bleck. It looks dark and dirty no matter what gets done. The colors are chosen for the cabinets and the walls, it's just a matter of getting the money around for the paint.
All day yesterday, all any of the news stations could talk about was blizzard warnings. This morning I woke up at 5am (no idea why) and not a snowflake to be seen. Typical news exaggeration. Turns out they just had their timing wrong. While I personally think that this is what winter in central Indiana is supposed to look like and that it's a bit ridiculous how quickly everything shuts down, I do have to admit that this is more snow than we've gotten in quite awhile. The new normal says that this is unusual, unfortunately (Don't even get me started on my rants about the climate change deniers.) The house that you can barely see across the yard is a very bright red, which shows just how much snow is in the air. The puppy and I have already been outside to play. All of his tennis balls are missing, so it was fetch the snowball instead. This makes today's plan finishing up the mittens I gave D for Giftmas (yes, I wrapped a WIP and, if I've got the needles for it, making up a cowl to go with him. Working outside means that he truly appreciates all the handknit woolens.
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