Ah, long weekends...

The first week of classes at university are over! I have two online classes and two classroom classes. All my first week requirements are completed for the online classes. I have a bit of catch-up to do in the junior English class I added after dropping a low enrollment class I thought would be cancelled. The beauty of this English class is that it is offered at the community college site where I am driving my youngest to her classes two days a week. I will only have to drive into the St. Louis campus two afternoons a week when the parking lots will be much less crowded.

Water lily pond with Chihuly floating glass orbs at MOBOT

This Labor Day weekend is a bonus break to catch up on sleep, complete an English paper and plow through my other course reading requirements. I took yesterday off to visit the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) with family & friends. I love the Garden venue and the Festival is a wonderful cultural event. Of course,  as a  foodie, I enthusiastically enjoyed a mushroom, bok choy, soba noodle dish and purchased some new chopsticks for home use. The day was hot and muggy but a lovely breeze cooled down the early evening. It was nice to simply walk throughout the Garden and enjoy nature.

Lantern photo courtesy of MOBOT.org

The Japanese Garden is an 11 acre site that showcases specific traditional Japanese garden features. The garden has several waterfalls and islands as well as a tea house and hut. There are numerous stone lanterns and a zen garden. It seems every angle gives the walker or photographer a wonderful picturesque scenario.


Seasonally, the Garden changes offer a lovely environment whenever you visit. I often leave these gardens longing for just twenty-four hours of garden maintenance by MOBOT professionals for my own yard. I rarely see any weeds at Missouri Botanical Gardens and the perfect condition of the plants is amazing. Obviously, they have crews that are not distracted by school or work, that water regularly, and do the very important daily garden bed maintenance. I unfortunately, can only dream of this sort of dedication, so I manage with somewhat inattentive garden maintenance & survival of the fittest plantings.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Labor Day weekend!

Odd disconnect

I have retreated indoors... Shockingly I've barely been in the yard these last two weeks, only quick jaunts to the mailbox or to gather tomatoes. The front yard got mowed, but only once. Our frequent thunderstorms are greening the neighborhood environs, my unmowed backyard definitely looks pretty wild. All I want to do is knit and read; seems like a serious hibernation mode is happening here. Work has been quite physically challenging. I am more sore than usual which is somewhat depressing, but is probably the cause of my low activity level.

Lately, the world full of bad news ranging from the devastating Ebola epidemic in Africa, the horrific massacre of the Yezidi tribe in Iraq by Isis, the tragic border crossings of South American unaccompanied minors and the violence here at home, following the police shooting of a young man in Ferguson, Missouri. All these situations create a sense of helplessness for those of us unable to effect any change in these situations. The militarization of our community police forces is shocking and somewhat demoralizing, since apparently we, the local citizens are the enemy here in small town Missouri. The backlash from this situation is the realization all residents are potential targets, race doesn't matter, retaliatory police firepower is aimed at all of us!

On Break

Green beans and tomatoes are being picked! I love fresh garden veg and am always thrilled with the first harvests. My two months of classes got me way behind on garden weeding, but we are still getting a fair amount of produce from slightly neglected plants. A typical summer in Missouri is ongoing, hot, humid & dry, so extra watering has been required. The rain barrels were empty two days ago, but we've had several big thunderstorms this week, so now they're overflowing.

During these few weeks off before the fall school semester, I have been working on my "to-do" list. It seems there is no end to this list of chores!  My youngest, is learning to drive and as instructor in residence, I've been spending a significant amount of time in the car. She is doing well enough and I haven't been totally terrified yet, thus I am fairly certain she will pass her license test this fall. I'm also doing the final picot bind off on the Tiara scarf; I'm getting scary short on yarn so hopefully, I'll have enough...

I am primarily taking the remaining couple of weeks to rest up, clean up and generally get organized, so life once classes start, won't be a total disaster. The dogs agree & opt for rest.

World of Words

"The limits of your language are the limits of your world." Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1922

I discovered this quote in one of my notebooks and have been thinking about the depth & meaning of these words for several days. Initially, an image of the Eliza Doolittle character, from the musical My Fair Lady, came to mind... someone with horribly accented, mispronounced speech that dooms her to poverty in the gutters of London. Eliza's physical and vocal transformation under Professor Higgins' tutelage, offer this new, educated Eliza many more positive life opportunities. More recently, the dramatic film, The King's Speech, emphasized the extreme importance of speaking with clarity and power but... speech and language are actually, two different things.

Language encompasses both speech and the written word; yet, isn't it also a mental dialog we automatically and unconsciously apply to every aspect of our environment? We use language to communicate ideas as well as feelings through verbal, postural and written means. The depth of our expression is influenced by our creativity and the effective use of a familiar language. The element of shared meaning is at the crux of language, flavored by the delivery of speech. That which humans have not experienced, rather our limits are devoid of language & from which we cannot communicate.

Stroke victims who have limited language live in a more limited world than the one they previously inhabited. Speakers of languages different from our own have as many limits in our environment, as we would have as a non-native speaker in their homeland. Still, each human strives to develop language to express their ideas to others. Infants communicate without the benefit of what adults consider language but indeed their expressions convey needs, ideas and feelings. Perhaps instinctively mimicking our first primitive attempts at language millennia past.

Words, indeed language, so crucial to our survival are also the tinder of destruction. Disagreements through faulty expression, and even the dire specter of war can be the result of the limits of language. During my philosophical pondering of this concept I can see many situations world-wide that are dramatically effected by the limits of language. Language is deeper than the spoken word, it reflects limits of individuals and cultures. Language also delineates the limits of the world of the speaker. So many different lines in the sand...

Sign of the times

Almost finished Tiara scarf

Our local yarn store, Knit and Caboodle has closed. This sad event unfolded over a month, with the final day last weekend. It is amazing how close you become to your fellow knitters while sitting around the knit-along table, working companionably on individual projects. My daughter has shouldered the responsibility of organizing a new knitting circle at our local library. Hopefully, a few of the "Saturday-at-the-shop" knitters will attend and we can continue our knitting camaraderie.

As much of a loss our local yarn shop is to us, overall, it is a positive change for the shop owner & we all wish her well. Thank you Connie! For seven wonderful years of local yarn, supplies, lessons & most of all, patient help with our knitting challenges, questions and problems.

Gladiolas are blooming

July was starting out with the typical Missouri heat in the high 90's and dripping humidity, then one thunderstorm later we have been enjoying cool & dry weather. The highs are now only 80F/26C followed by the luscious coolness of nighttime temperatures around 58F/14C. The energy intensive AC is off and the attic fan draws in the lovely night air keeping the house a delightful 72F/22C. The rain barrels have still been filling from the occasional thunderstorm, so garden water consumption from the tap is minimal.

I successfully finished my two online university courses and am now enjoying some down time before the Fall semester starts. I received one scholarship and two grants to utilize in the completion of my degree, so as long as my GPA is in the accepted range, I don't need any more money for school. What a blessing! It is such a relief not to have to worry about school as well as household finances! I have started to feel like I am indeed, on the right path to forging a new career. This time next year I should have my Bachelor degree in hand, if all goes as planned...

Anyway, many household chores were neglected due to the intense workload from both of the month long online classes, so now I am slowly catching up. The garden is a bit weedy, especially the mailbox one; grass has grown through the lasagne layers of compost I laid down over the lawn two years ago. Thought I would share pix of the current bloomers, those wonderfully easy to grow Gladiolas. The bulbs are a quick plant, and if you do some plantings every two weeks, spring through early summer, you will enjoy a succession of blooms. They are considered annuals and I do plant bulbs yearly, but most survive the cold winters here. I have some bulbs that have been in the ground almost three years now and they continue to bloom. They do need some support because of the their heavy flower load. I have accumulated many bamboo garden stakes that I push into the ground near the tipsy gladiola, then I twist-tie the long gladiola stem above and below the blooms with the craft supply item called chenille stems. Works great and if you buy green or brown chenille stems, then the support system is visually unobtrusive in the garden.

Knits Done

Well, the Frankenstein socks are finally done. Yep, I finished them Saturday night. The gardens had been tended to and I needed a bit of a relax after all the classwork this week. Months ago I started these socks and that second sock sort of languished post heel turn; instep completion is soooo boring!

 I named them Frankenstein not just for the green in the Patons Kroy Jacquard sock yarn, but for the cobbling together of several patterns to get the finished product. I found a free rib & cables download on Ravelry, used a 1974 Coats & Clark Learn How to book for a nifty "box pattern" heel flap, followed with Ann Budd's gusset and heel turn, then finally back to Coats & Clark for their toe decrease to gathered tip. I am not a Kitchener stitch fan and much prefer the old fashioned gathered toe, it wears well for me and I can reliably remember how to do it. This toe decrease was much pointier than I have done in the past, but I loved the heel flap. I have to admit I really learned about sock construction having to fit together these separate pattern pieces and as a result I am a much more confident sock knitter. Well, given our current heat, I'll be putting away these beauties for much later in the year.