Toasted

So, it appears that my brain does not function well when the temperature goes above 98 degrees.....which is partly why I have been so absent from here.  (Plus, I know you all are sick of hearing me whine about the heat, but here I go again.)  It has been deadly hot here and a significant amount of my time each day has been spent trying to keep my sheep and alpacas alive.  The alpaca boys get a filled pool twice daily, the sheep have a multitude of fans running and I check all the automatic waterers several times daily to be sure they all are full of cool, clean water.  I don't know what else to do.  It seems Mother Nature has decided to push us to the limit.  Our pastures have been toasted, along with my brain, and while we had a tremendous wind and lightning storm last night, we got none of the rain that happened oh so close to us.  At any rate, I know it could be much worse. So many people up and down the east coast and even my neighbors one road over are without power because of the storms.  Thank goodness for electricity and air conditioning!

(Sadly there's no pool for these girls. This weather makes me wish I had a Border Collie again so I could herd them down to the creek, where it is much, much cooler.)

It's hard for me to imagine how I grew up in a house without air conditioning.  I do remember that most of my summer days were spent in the swimming pool at the city park that was just across the street.  Even after my family moved out to the "burbs" (which was maybe a mile away), I was allowed to take a city bus to one of the pools in Lexington.  It was such a different time than now.  By the time I was 11 or 12 years old, I was allowed to ride the bus (alone) to go downtown and meet with my friends.  At that age, I was still sewing for my Ginny doll and it was so much fun to take the bus to downtown and spend my baby-sitting money on as many 1/4 yard pieces of fabric as I could afford!  (And, who would hire an 11 year old to baby-sit these days?!)

(Mara shawlette in beautiful Briar Rose)

I have managed to do a few other things besides adjust fans and fill alpaca wading pools.  Last week I made a very quick trip to the Asheville area of North Carolina.  I was on a mission and drove down and back on the same day.  I'll have more to share about that in the next few days.  I have been knitting on my Mara shawlette, using some beautiful Briar Rose yarn.  (Chris dyes up the most gorgeous colors!).  I'm nearly ready to bind off and will soak and block it before putting a picture here.  Several weeks ago, I finished the Silk Moon Crescent shawlette, designed by Jaala Spiro .  I used Noro Kureyon, because that's what I had in my stash.  I love the way it sits easily on my shoulders.  I think it will be just enough warmth to use a lot during the winter (if it ever comes again!).  Susan Anderson had a knit-along for the pattern and there are lots of beautiful ones on Ravelry to look at and be inspired by.  I'm thinking this might be a go-to pattern for family Christmas gifts this year.  (Have you noticed how many of us are knitting shawlettes right now?)

(actual color not this dark)

(Love the shawl pin - purchased at the Squam Art Fair)

On my drive to and from North Carolina, I listened to "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed.  (Do you use Audible?  They're a great place to download books to listen to when you need to be doing other things.)  My husband loves to hike, but me?  Not so much!  If I ever had any inclination to take up hiking, this book took it right out of my mind!  I just kept thinking, "this woman has a death-wish". It's interesting and held my attention the twelve hours in the car, but I'm glad I didn't invest in the hardback.

I've had a rough start to the Tour de Fleece, but am on my way.  I'll share my challenge in another post, but I'd love to know if you're pedaling (treadling?) this year.

**Once again, sitting in my friendly Kroger's Starbucks using their WiFi to upload my pictures.  You don't want to get me started on my opinion of my Windstream (terrible, lousy, no good) DSL service!