Making a Splash

The Summer Sorrel hit a milestone of sorts this past week: The yoke is finished. The rest of the body  is reverse stockinette down to the ribbing.

Oh, no! All the rest of it is purl stitches? Actually, the rest of the sweater is knit inside-out, so it's easy.

Spring has finally sprung. We have blossoms on our cherry tree.

We have a flowering tree in front, right about on the property line with our next-door neighbor. I think it's a weeping cherry blossom tree. It has been blooming for several days. We went out and clipped a few branches and put them in a vase.

The next day we had extreme winds, rain and tiny hail. 

Now the neighborhood is strewn with tiny white and pink petals from all the flowering trees. The flowers are still on our cherry tree, though. I guess it was a little more sheltered in the backyard.

Between the bad weather and Dusty's bandaged foot, we didn't get much walking in, but we did manage a couple of short walks when it was dry. Here, Sandy is checking our Dusty's leg-lifting technique. Sandy lifts his leg when he's marking during a walk, but if he just has to pee, he squats like a girl.

I take both dogs, even when Charlie comes along. He's still a little unsteady as a result of the procedure he had over a month ago, but he's making steady improvement and is back to driving, even if I'm going along.

As we were walking, we came across a little bird pecking on a tree. I tried to get a photo, but the bird was so busy, he's just a blur. I think it's a red-breasted nuthatch, based on the coloring of the feathers.

One of the important activities of the week was the return to Earth of Artemis II.

We watched the splashdown. It brought back memories of the Apollo missions.

It was great to see them exit the capsule in good shape.

The TV transmission has improved a lot since the Apollo missions, as have a lot of technology. The Apollo astronauts had to use slide rules for any calculations needed during the voyage. When Neil Armstrong exited the LEM on the moon, we got Timo (then a toddler) out of bed and took photos of him watching human beings walking on the moon for the first time. He doesn't remember it, because he was only 19 months old at the time, but he says he remembers Apollo 13.

Sunday afternoon we went to the concert given by the Central Oregon Chamber Orchestra. I took my knitting.

Two of the pieces they played I remembered from back when I had a large collection of vinyl LPs: Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and Haydn's Symphony No. 101, "The Clock."

One of the pieces, "Celestial Threads," was new, and the composer, Chris Thomas, was onstage, playing the cello in all of the pieces. It's heavily influenced by Korean poetry, read in Korean before the piece was performed.

The piece was written to highlight the voice of mezzo-soprano Charlene Chi. She was amazing!

Some time this week was spent on the trusty laptop, working on the stories I've selected for the next book. All the stories are related to science and/or nature. I made granola, regular sourdough whole wheat bread, and some banana bread, because we had three bananas that needed to be used. (Recipe under Tip of the Week, below.) I chopped up some walnuts to go in it, because Charlie had bought a huge bag of walnuts at Costco when I told him we were out of walnuts for granola. I'm throwing the walnuts into salads. They give them a nice crunch.

We had National Pet Day on Saturday, so in honor of the celebration of our non-human live-in friends, here are two of my three grandkitties, Olive and Mango, doing what they do best.

Besides all that, I had an endoscopy, Dusty went back to the vet to get a new bandage on his foot, the choir participated in a memorial service for a parishioner and Zachary turned 14!

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still working on the Summer Sorrel top.

What's on my iPhone: Fnished The Strange Case  of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss on the AudiobooksNow app. Now listening to The Friend of the Family by Dean Koontz from Discount Audiobooks and played on the BookPlayer app.

What's on my sewing machine: Put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Do you know how to tell the difference between a butterfly and a moth? Mandy knows, and she teaches Charlotte and Jolena how they can tell the difference, too, in On the Wing, this story from The Doll's Storybook.

What's my tip of the week: Here's the recipe for my banana bread. I made it with honey this time, because the only maple syrup we have open is the special batch from our Wisconsin/Madroña friend.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog, and they are reproduced in print with a few changes.

The stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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