Coming up for air!

Oh how I have missed my people. Yes that would be you. June is just a blur still but, I've finally made it back to my computer. We had moves to help out with,a few family crisis,rain that went on for weeks,a summer cold that just wouldn't quit not to mention 2 additional house guest that needed the use of my computer.Things are adjusting now and I have a little more time for me. Alright enough complaining and excuses,let me till you what I've been up to. Stitch and Bitch is still alive and strong.We changed our gathering place and so far everyone is happy with our new coffee shop.Cynthia is one of our newer students and, has discovered the fine art of potholders.After a week on her own she came up with these.I have to say,I think she has the knitting bug. Her talents are many and I plan on showing her off in the coming weeks.



Michelle came in with her newest accomplishment.She saw this pattern on knitpicks
and jumped right on this project. She was quite pleased with the results and so were we. Nice job Michelle. This is Sarah,we just finished moving all her possessions into a storage facility and she is currently making dish towels with borrowed yarn.Everything she owns is currently out of reach but that didn't stop her urge to knit.
She will be staying with us till hubby comes back from being on tour.His band is currently doing a 2 1/2 month tour of the U.S.A I'm exhausted just hearing about the schedule.

In my corner I've also started with the canning thing.Last year went pretty well and I thought it was going to be the same this summer. What was I thinking. The little garden has had more rain then necessary.June had 23 rainy days and the rest was overcast or on the chilly side.The pickling cukes came in before the spring peas. Hard to believe the peas were picked on July 11 for the first time.Crazy, I know.I decided to do up some dill pickles this year.

I got the jars all packed with the grape leaves and dill on the bottom. I stuffed as many of those slices in there covered them with the pickling concoction and processed for the mandatory 10 minute boiling bath. They are now resting comfortably on the shelf where they are not to be TOUCHED for 6 weeks. This is suppose to give them the proper amount of pickling time to produce the perfect dill pickle. We'll see.Back in the garden I'm fighting with the mother of all woodchucks. He loved my broccoli and is even more fond of my mescalin. Soon he will die. I'm this close to the last straw.

With all the new schedules going on around here I needed to do something mindless so I went into the kitchen and stirred up a batch of banana muffins. I didn't have any granola to sprinkle on top and I went to the freezer to get some of the cobbler mix I have tucked away for just such emergencies. I haven't used it in a while so I thought I'd taste before sprinkling it on my muffins. It was awful !!! Gone was the buttery flavor,the crunchy nuts and the brown sugar sweetness I was hoping for.I spit it back into the freezer bag and as I did so I remembered this was the foccacia/sun dried tomato/Parmesan cheese breadcrumbs I use for my meatballs. I must make a point of marking those freezer bags.Looks like we won't be having meatballs anytime soon...........................said the hobbit