Sunday, June 15th is Father’s Day in the US. To all you fathers, step-fathers, father figures, future fathers, honorary fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, and those who identify as fathers: Have a Great Day! Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I miss you. 🥰 😇

I dropped the ball and forgot missed writing a post for this morning so here I am a few hours late.

I also dropped the ball last week when I said it was Knit in Public Day. That’s today. So get out there and show the world your knitting super power!

It’s a dreary day and our community yard sale is supposed to be happening today. I’m glad I didn’t decide to participate as rain and yard sales don’t go too well together. I only had a few things to get rid of and I doubted people would want to walk up our driveway to the garage to see what little I had to offer. We don’t have a long driveway, it’s just on an incline and I don’t even like to walk up it!

what I’m reading

Our book club book for this month, Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman, is a true story about a young girl in the early 1900’s who goes from Boston to Calgary to live with her uncle due to her health issues with pleurisy. She meets a RCMP, they marry and she goes with him to the Northwest territory, where he is stationed. Though the book was written in 1947, the struggles of a young married couple are still relevant today.

what I’m watching

William Hopper (aka Paul Drake from Perry Mason) was in the 1956 episode of Gunsmoke, Unmarked Grave (S1, Ep 38) playing a bad guy. Mr. Aitch and I love watching old TV shows to see actors and actresses in their early days. Mr. Hopper’s face was obscured by his hat but his voice was easy to recognize.

what I’m loving

what I’m working on

Two front porch pillows I got a few years ago were starting to tear. So I finished a new cover for one this week. One down, one to go.

Have a gobsmakin’ week!

I hope your week was good event-wise and weather-wise.

We did finally get the garage door repaired. We originally went with a nationally known company but when they ignored us for two weeks, Mr. Aitch fired them. He called a local company on Tuesday and the repairman showed up on Thursday. The job was completed in less than an hour and a half.

Our area had some weather excitement and not the good kind. We got rain Monday night and all day Tuesday and were under a flash flood warning. The ground wasn’t bone dry so some of the rain soaked in. And then it didn’t.

We live in the Allegheny Mountain portion of the Appalachian Mountains and water has the tendency to flow downhill, or down-mountain. With the windstorms we’ve had this year lots of trees fell in the rural places. Add rain soaked soil, more heavy rains, those downed trees and a disaster can happen. The trees and branches end up in the creeks, streams, and rivers. Flash flooding happens.

You may have heard about the rescue of students and teachers from a Westernport school in Maryland. That’s not too far from us. Schools in my county closed early on Tuesday and remained closed until Friday. Mr. Aitch and I are very fortunate to not have suffered any damage.

I had to go out Wednesday and took a few pictures of a stream that overflowed its banks on Tuesday.

Fortunately the water has really receded less than 24-hours later. It was over the stone walls. You can see the log jam at the bridge that crosses the stream and how the road got covered with water and mud. That bridge and the one below were under water. Several businesses had heavy equipment clearing the mud and debris from parking lots.

I was standing on this bridge for those pictures and this bridge is definitely compromised.

what I’m reading

Well, actually I’m listening to the book ArtCurious by Jennifer Dasal. She talks about some of the strange and odd tidbits of artists and their paintings. One chapter is about the curious theft and return of the Mona Lisa, one of the world’s most famous paintings. Her style reminds me of my Art History professor at WVU. He often included little known details about the artists and their works during class.

what I’m loving

what I’m working on

I’m still plugging away on my socks. I turned the heel and got all discombobulated. My stitch count is off when I began the gusset. My plan is to unknit the last row I did and see if that helps. I’ll also do that when Pepper is either asleep or not jumping on me when she comes into the room to find me. It’s nice to be so loved.

what I saw on my walk

I only got a walk in on Monday and Friday due to the rain Tuesday-Wednesday. It was just too wet to walk and then the garage door repair on Thursday kept us home. It was very warm and muggy yesterday. In fact Pepper stopped and laid down under a tree less than halfway on our usual route. We turned around and went home sooner than I wanted to but was grateful to get some exercise.

Two gorgeous flowers to share today.

These colorful calla lilies are so bright and intense. I don’t know if they will dig up the rhizomes in the fall to replant next year or if they are treating them like an annual flower.

None of these peonies were blooming on Monday when I saw them but several burst out sometime within the past couple of days. Looks like more will follow from the multitude of buds still unopened.

Have a safe and beautiful week.