What happened to July?

Sorry it's been so long. July turned out to be a crazy month. I filled in at the Hutch in my old group for vacationers. It took a couple of years to really understand how much employer paid benefits mean to a family budget. I still have every intention to pursue my landscape design work, but I'm hoping to get back at my old job at half-time so that I can get those beni-s again. Of course they are in a hiring freeze right now so I'm waiting; in the meantime I'm doing on call hours. Working basically full time and juggling the day-care stuff meant very little time devoted to blog/knitting/gardening, etc. Especially since every waking moment was spent getting our trailer ready for it's first trip.

We had made reservations last November to go to our favorite Washington coast spot, Grayland Beach State Park. That put a time crunch to get the Airstream ready to go! (If you don't know the backstory, please go to the trailer link...) We were up into the wee hours the week before the trip doing everything we could to get the place ship shape.

And then we got to do this:

















Needless to say we had a great time!



And now? I've finished my Leyburn socks. So yummy. A little big, but totally wearable. I haven't taken photos of them because they're packed in my suitcase. I'm heading down to Portland tonight for Sock Summit! I'm taking a class from the Yarn Harlot, so maybe she'll take a picture of my socks when I show them to her on Saturday. I'll fill you in on all of it when I get back.

Veggie Gardens and Sock Summit '09

OK, it's been a long time since I posted; I apologize for that. The progress on Ryan's socks is SO SLOW, and I'm itching bad to get them done and off the needles. But when you can only knit a few rows a day, nothing is going to happen quickly. I haven't even taken a photo of them, because really, they are two socks half-way down the foot, in a simple rib. Boring socks, boring photos. Pbbbbht.

In brighter news, Mom and I managed by some miracle of WWW to register ourselves for what shaped up to be the most coveted class in the most coveted fiber conference in years, Sock Summit. Laugh now, but you will be amazed at the numbers. Yarn Harlot and Tina of Blue Moon Fiber Arts have organized an amazing group of teachers around the idea of the hand knit (or crochet, if you roll that way) sock. This group is so unbelievable that the registration server received 30,000 simultaneous connections last Tuesday to register for 4,000 spots. It sold out like a rock concert. Crazier still, Mom and I got 2 of the only 40 spots for the Harlot's Knitting for Speed and Efficiency class; in fact, we believe we were the first 2 to register. Mom had some wacked out (as in very fast) connection to this summit server and was able to register for both of us separately in the time it took for me to even see the registration page. Lots of knitters came away with no classes what so ever, so to get our first choice makes us feel pretty good; pretty lucky, too.

One snafu could have made for a disappointing day; luckily it turned out alright. Mom, in her eagerness to get me registered after successfully self-registering mistyped my email address. And since the site stated that in order for your registration to be complete, you must receive an email-confirmation, I was understandably worried. Mom showed sufficient remorse (I love you Mom!), and we both stayed positive. Luckily, late last night, Rachel H of the SS-2 team emailed me with all of the needed info and assured me that indeed I am in the class. So now I can officially celebrate. YIPPEE!

And because I can't seem to write a post without including a photo or two, I want to show what's happening in the garden.



The "stuff" is for the most part growing in nicely. The two tomatos I got from Patti looked wonderful when I first got them, and one (the Cherokee Purple) still does. However, the Princepe Bourgese (sp?) is yellow, emaciated and lacking all of it's lower leaves. How and why this happened I have no idea. It's not dead, but I need to replant it deeper. Patti also gave me a jalapeno and eggplant. The jalapeno is also quite sad, and I'm unsure what to do with it. The eggplant must be really yummy, because something is eating its leaves and leaving everything else alone. Snail? Squirrel? ??? No idea. At the West Seattle market this weekend my solution (?) involved buying another tomato (Red Zebra, I think) and 2 peppers (Chocolate and Tennessee Cheese). I'm not yet willing to sacrifice the strugglers, but I'm going to need to do something to get these new recruits into the ground.

My potatos (Russian banana) seem to enjoy their location.



I thought it might be fun and interesting to document here some of the front yard vegetable gardens I'm seeing all over West Seattle. My plan is to take photos of one or more veggie plots every week and showcase them here. I'll keep the specific locations to myself; but since these gardens are for all to see, I feel comfortable sharing my finds with you as well.



This house is dedicated completely to the edible landscape. The entire property is given to the vegetable (and strawberries if I remember right). Even cooler is the fact that this year, the neighbor next door is also using the parking strip for vegetables. Or maybe, they're letting the original farmer take over the zone for more space in trade for free food. Hmmmm.



I'm also curious as to why they've got the one little plot covered in netting. (Look in the first photo in the center.) What's it for? And should I do something similar to keep the wildlife out of my lettuce bed?! Some gardeners are so diligent. I'm lazy. If you can survive with my care, you deserve to live.