Anyway, these are No Purl Monkeys and I made the mistake of leaving them on the dining room table. I didn’t really think it was a mistake, they were just sitting there waiting to be photographed. And then Hannah moved home and saw them and asked if she could have them. What could I say, right?

The yarn, because I know you will ask, is Yarn Pirate Superwash BFL in the color Cicada. It pooled and striped in a way I did not anticipate but I like it just the same. I also really like the socks and had definitely planned on keeping them for myself. As it turns out, though,  I don’t think they would have fit me since Hannah had to struggle a bit to get them on. She says it was meant to be.

I say she’s been home less than a week and she’s already stealing my socks. Sheesh.

Mason has nothing on his to-do list except eat, sleep and play. 

1. Wash the windows. This one is actually mine and I plan on doing it this Friday if the weather permits. Our house is close to a main road and boy do our windows get filthy over the winter.
2. Plant some new perennials. Our town’s Garden Club plant sale is this Saturday and I plan on going and picking up a few things for the perennial bed.
3. Buy annuals and plant them. That’s also on the list for this Saturday.
4. RSVP to all the graduation and birthday party invites. ‘Tis the season!
5. Put the Adirondack chairs out on the deck. It’s time!
6. Replace the broken board on the deck.
7. Clean the gutters.
8. Paint the trim on the windows facing the street.
9. Paint the picnic table.
10. Have a fire in the fire pit. Not everything on a to-do list has to be work, you know!

That would be my kid who is home from college. And not just temporarily this time. You see, she has transferred to the university in the next town over from us . . . and she doesn’t want to live on campus . . . so she’ll be living at home for the foreseeable future.

I’ll just give you a moment to let that sink in.

There are many reasons why this transfer is the right thing for Hannah. First and foremost, the school she was attending didn’t offer the program she wanted to study. Let me explain –  while she still wants to be a teacher (that hasn’t changed since she was 5 years old), she has decided that she wants to be a special needs teacher who works with children with several physical disabilities. This decision did not come as a surprise to me since she has spent the last two summers working as a teacher’s aide at a school that provides specialized programs for kids with all kinds of physical and medical problems and she has loved it. By making this decision she really then had no choice other than to change schools and it just so happens that one of the best schools in the state for this course of study is the one that’s only 10 minutes up the road.

The second reason, and the one that’s at least equally as important to Hannah, is that she just wasn’t happy at school. She hated living in the dorm, she constantly complained about the food in the cafeteria, and (according to her anyway) she just didn’t fit in. So she asked if she could live at home and commute to school and we said  . . . yes.

It will be a big adjustment for all of us – Dale and I have really enjoyed the freedom of being empty nesters and Hannah has equally enjoyed the freedom of coming and going as she pleased. But I’m proud of her for knowing what she wants and recognizing the best way to get there. It will be cheaper and more practical and I’m keeping an open mind and thinking that we can make it work.

Of course, the irony of how I felt in those first weeks when she left two years ago as compared to now isn’t lost on me.

Life sure is funny that way.

I think it’s wonderful that Macro May coincides with the blooming of all the tiny spring wildflowers – it gives me a great excuse to take pictures of Star of Bethlehem!

Have a fantastic weekend, my friends!

Anyway, I spent the better part of Friday morning doing some baking – peach crumb bars, cherry pie and pumpkin bread and then we set up our camp on Friday afternoon. It was a bit rainy but we managed and Dale actually slept in our tent that night. (I’m no fool, I went to my nice warm, comfortable bed which was less than 1/4 of a mile away.) For the event on Saturday we had fair weather – it was cloudy but it didn’t rain – and we had a great turn out of reenactors and spectators. We set up a recruiting station and everyone who wanted to participate “signed up” and received the name of a Civil War soldier from our town who enlisted.

We had some, errrr, interesting recruits. But I’m betting they learned a bit about what it was like to be a soldier and I’m also betting they had a pretty good time.

Dale and our good friend Doug did a roll call and the names of our soldiers were read and each participant assigned to that soldier’s name responded with a loud “here!” It’s actually a very cool moment during the day and we think it’s a fitting tribute to the sacrifices of these men from 150 years ago.

The best part of the day, though, was when my friend Wendy presented the reproduction flag that our town’s Historical Commission hired her to paint. It’s an exact replica of the 29th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry flag and Wendy painstakingly created it from partial photographs and information. Of course you can’t actually see Wendy in that photo – she’s shy and standing by Dale’s shoulder – but you can see what an amazing job she did painting this flag.

Once the flag presentation was done the company marched across the street to the cemetery to pay respects at Frank Harlow’s grave. (It’s not really his grave but you already know that.) Dale said a few words and they fired a salute and then our friend Ted played “Taps.” There were more than a few tears shed, I can tell you that.

The soldiers then marched back through the cemetery and over to the common for the remainder of the afternoon. We relaxed a bit, talked to spectators about camp life during the Civil War, did some socializing and knitting and . . . wait, there was one other thing . . .what was it . . . oh, now I remember . . .

Celebrated Kentucky Derby Day!

1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. From bring out your dead to it’s a flesh wound to we fart in your general direction, this one is simply the best.
2. Young Frankenstein. It’s my go-to funny movie, the perfect thing when I need a pick me up. It’s silly and campy and I love it.
3. The Big Lebowski. Can you believe I had never seen this until a couple of years ago? A guy at a bar in Boston told Dale that he looked just like The Dude and then we had to see it. It’s awesome.
4. Some Like It Hot. Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe – need I say more?
5. The Producers. You really can’t go wrong with Mel Brooks. Springtime for Hitler in Germany . . .
6. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Even all these years later, I simply cannot resist it when it’s on.
7. This Is Spinal Tap. The scene with the little Stonehenge gets me every time.
8. Best In Show. It’s another Christopher Guest classic and honestly, nobody does satire better than him.
9. The Sting. Sometimes subtle comedy can be the best comedy of all.
10. National Lampoon’s Vacation. You wouldn’t think a cross country drive full of disaster could be funny .  . . and yet!

First up, these hand knit socks.

The card said they were knit for a soldier by a young girl from his hometown. The stitches are teeny tiny and they are not ribbed but were shaped in the calf area. I love the purl ridges at the top and also the fact that the soldiers initials were embroidered into the back of the leg.

While the main floor of the museum is mostly military related, the lower floor includes artifacts from civilian life. I enjoyed looking around there a lot and took a few photographs of things I wanted to share with all of you.

I love these fingerless mitts! The stitches on these are really tiny, too, and the thumb gusset looks pretty unique to me. Other than that they look just like something one of us would knit.

I got really excited when I read the information on this card saying that this was a remnant of a sleeve that was hand carded, spun, woven and sewn. I knew I wouldn’t remember all of the details so I took a close up for you.

Isn’t that awesome? Well, except for the part about her dying at the age of 21.

Finally, I have two more sock photos to show you.

According to the identifying card, these socks were hand knit by a young woman to wear on her wedding day. Aren’t they gorgeous? They are pretty long so I’d guess they were knee socks. And how about the deep stockinette cuff – so different than the way we knit our socks now.

Here’s a close up so you can get a better look at the lace patterning. I think it’s just lovely and I’m very tempted to try and reproduce them only with slightly less stitches. Heh.

See? Even when I go on vacation I’m thinking of you all. Or should I say y’all? This was Virginia, my friends.

It’s Macro May and that makes me happy because I love to use my macro lens. It’s tricky to get macro closeups to be sharp and focused so I appreciate the opportunity to practice at it for a whole month. I also appreciate the ability to use RadLab to make my less than focused macro shots look kind of funky, like this one!

Tomorrow is Frank Harlow Day and the weather forecast is iffy. Please send vibes for sunshine and blue skies!