Nothing to see here.

It's an awful burden, knowing that a friend is going to die. What can I say? My guess is that he will die within the next three years, before he is sixty. It isn't just me, but Sweetie, too. He has had dreams of talking to said friend, who was sitting up in his coffin and chatting. I dreamt last night that he was holding my cheek in his hand, in a loving way, saying good bye. 

I think my friend knows this to be true, and he is afraid. And in denial. However. So it goes. Just wanted to post this, sadly, before the fact. I really like this guy, too. Now and always.

My life has made a 180 and I am so happy and busy and changed from last week. My little store will open July 1. I have been sewing little things every day, and I shall have photos next post.

Be still, my beating heart!

I will most likely not be able to put all of my inner excitement into words, however, I have found a home and kindred spirits right here in River City, er, Montgomery City!

I had two tasks today; a bank deposit and buying stamps. However, on the drive home, I took a sudden left to investigate the other vintage/antique/whatev store in the more "low rent" part of town. (Meaning, just off the main drag.)

At what the sign says is "Gypsy Gatherings," I found a group of people after mine own heart. A small but thriving little shop with rented booths and lots of traffic, and after a year in business, and expansion. I am going to have a booth with street frontage for a mere $65 a month. My dream, (and Sweetie's!) come true! 

My heart is still aflutter, and so I will post more as details emerge. However, I am happy as a clam at high tide and as a pig in slop!

Here is Sweetie in the newly returned Lucky Hat! It has been on the North American Tour of the Hall Family Heads, bringing luck at poker and fishing along the way. Have I written that I shaved his head a couple of weeks ago? It's growing out nicely.

Lucky Hat is Back!

Requires Shade.

The only other business in my Indiana town, besides the post office and the general store, is the green house. I was fortunate to be invited to help myself to three flats of bedding plants and herbs on Dump Day. Sales had been below par, and so Tom was dumping a lot of flora into the mulch pile and it was a sad sight. 

I started with two boxes and Tom encouraged me to take a third, but I know my limits and so kept it at that. Geraniums, New Guinea Impatience, petunias, coleus, marigolds, and a variety of herbs including basil, chives, parsley, dill, lavendar and oregano. 

And two fig trees! In Missouri! (There on the left.) I was told that they will survive the winter if caged and mulched with leaves. That was really the coolest thing, because just the day before, my friend Lorie said that she wished for a fig tree. These are not ficus, but real fruit bearing plants. I am very excited. If I choose to keep my two, I definitely will buy my friend one of her own!

Lots of weather around; more thunderstorms tonight. Wondering when it will be dry enough to mow the grass here - it's getting thick out there.

12 Points of No Return

The sudden summer heat has abated, and the recent days have been cool and comfortable. I've moved my few house plants into the back yard, along with two containers of tomatoes. That is all the gardening I am up to, this year. 

It has taken three tries over three weeks, but I mowed the entire yard in one day using the push mower, without keeling over from heat stroke or muscle fatigue. It's amazing how quickly one can get one's groove back. 

Vernal Equinox Shawl

I have been knitting steadily on the Vernal Equinox Shawl from Ravelry, using 2-ply hand spun mohair. The colors I'm using make it more of an Autumnal Shawl, though. It's not exactly lace weight; about 18 wpi. The center back is at 18" now, about halfway finished. I knit and watch Netflix, and am currently on a Hoarders marathon. That show makes me feel so good about my housekeeping habits.

Trixie likes the taste of mohair

Even better are tortilla chips

And now, Trixie!

Meet Mr. Peabody

I got nostalgic tonight for the Atlanta scene of the 1970s, where I moved in 1975 at the age of 18.  I Googled Lenny and La Banana, aka Roger French an Jo Shifalo, http://www.thestripproject.com/Photos_by_Boyd_Lewis.html and I was swept back into time.

One link sent me to a webpage about The Bistro, where Mr. X and I were on the guest list at times. I saw the Dixie Dregs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQv2UzUGrto as well as The Nighthawks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQQRTn_lRAgThe harmonica player was super hot back in the day and I distinctly remember those tattooed arms of his. 

Which led me to the Great South East Music Hall, also being on the quest list, and seeing B. B. King, Thermos Greenwood and the Colored People http://clatl.com/atlanta/thermos-greenwood-and-the-colored-people/Content?oid=1257732  and David Allen Coe. One bought beer by the bucket there, which had the club name imprinted upon it. I wonder if any of those pails still exist, as they were so prone to rust. 

The Sex Pistols made their American debut there in what? 1976? 

Then there was Rose's Cantina, later Club 666 which the skinheads frequented.

And what we called The Electric Bathroom, aka Alex Cooly's Electric Ballroom, where I saw James Cotton, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, among others. http://www.alexcooley.com/ven-elecbrm.html

I remembered the art movies houses. The Rhode's Theater, The Silver Screen, http://www.buckhead.net/theaters/ and the one in Ansley Mall. 

What it served to remind me of, was that my life in those days wasn't so bad. Really. There was energy and life and talent and fun everywhere, and I was a twenty-something and part of it! Shame that I had a Mr. X in that mix.

My life is not so bad, considering the circumstances. I have nothing to complain about. Sweetie's job is good through August, (yay, us!) and he is getting a monetary bonus for just showing up every day! Seems like some folks there are saying fuck it, and quitting without notice.

The weather has turned hot, but the low humidity here makes it more bearable for me.  Still, I am living in the box fan's shadow all day and night long. 

Yesterday, I gave Trixie her first "hare" cut, more out of necessity than anything else. She found an escape from the back porch through a tear in the bottom of the screen door, and she had taken to having unsupervised adventures for a few days. Which was fine, because she only went into the back and front yard, and knew where the back door was and returned to it. Or so we thought!

Trixie's First Hare Cut

Thursday afternoon, she made another great escape unnoticed by me and mine. Sweetie went out on Search Patrol, only to find her IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET, TWO HOUSES UP FROM US. If not for some kids on bicycles noticing and spooking her, and Sweetie being on the prowl, there is no telling where the Little Shit would have wound up, most likely being a fuzzy pancake. Door is now fixed, as is her wagon. She had a sweet gum ball stuck to her stomach, and twigs and hitchhikers and yard debris stuck all over her. I swear, she is as ornery as Fuzzarelly ever was! And? I love her to pieces.

Gertie gets adventurous

Gertie is slowly becoming more settled into our routine and is not so much with the freaked-out-don't-kill-me attitude. Thank goodness. She and Trixie get along very well, and I am glad to have both of them.

These are two mohair scarves completed last month, both mohair and both done in the same pattern, k2tog, yo, every row over an even number of stitches. Easy Peasy. 

Two mohair scarves

And this is a silly knit bunny about three inches tall, because I cannot help myself!

Silly Bunny, Computer Mascot

I have begun a lace shawl in handspun, two-ply all mohair, dyed a burnt orange with chestnut brown overtones. More on that later.