I know we had a drought over the last few years, and I know that the water table was down significantly, and I KNOW we needed the rain. But really. I am fairly sure that we haven't had sunshine for more than 24 hours at a time since the beginning of april.
This week, that was about 6 hours on Friday, from about 2 until evening, and then it rained again. And Saturday, which they had declared universally sunny and rain free, it rained sheets of rain. Enough. Is. Enough.
If I wanted to live in The Land of Cloud Cover I would have stayed in Central New York or moved to Seattle.
When I was in elementary school I read a short story about a girl living on a distant planet on which the sun only came out for one hour every seven years (details recalled thanks to wikipedia) and the girl was from earth and was looking forward to the day so much, and something happened and the other kids locked her in the closet and then forgot about her when the sun came out so she never got to see it. When I was a child that story traumatized me, it stuck in my head and whenever the weather is like this I start to think about that poor girl. The story was called All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury.
I do love the internets.
Yesterday we went out to NJ to go to the yarn store and spend my birthday gift cert, but as fate would have it, the yarn store had SUMMER HOURS (!!) and was closed when we got there at 3:20. Hmf. No yarn for me. So instead we went to the quilting shop and I picked up some fabric to make placemats,
a skinny jellyroll (apparently these are called 'honey buns)' to make a log cabin quilt for some unknown person at some unknown time,
and a 10" stack (layer cake) of Christmas fabrics - again, just because I liked them, I'll make something with them someday.
I do blame the woman in front of us. She was getting a million fabrics cut and I literally had about 45 minutes to kill while waiting for them to finish with her...I kept picking up MORE AND MORE things. Now to just finish with the baby quilts so I can move onto projects I'm doing 'just because'.
I made good progress on the Embrace the Lace scarf, the little repeats really are fun to knit.
And a close up to see the color
This week I also started a test knit for Anne in Fearless Fibers cashmere, the Fruit of the Vine scarf, the colorway is Endless Night. (no pics yet)
I am working on the sailboat quilt and have a nice little armada built up.
Hopefully next weekend I will be able to finish the top of this quilt and start the quilting. Then it's on to the next baby quilt. IF I can finish this one next weekend I will be decently on my way to my goal of finishing the four small baby quilts by the second weekend in July. I still have 3 weekends at home before we start traveling again - it's theoretically possible. I would really like to get through these so I can start making whatever strikes my fancy again. I'm tired of feeling like I can't work on something 'just because' because these baby blankets are on my 'have to' list. Hence my forced productiveness.
Cuteness.
Aw, sweet doggie cuteness!
Oh, so THAT's where our rain went. We should be having every afternoon thundershowers...none for two weeks. So it's a watering schedule to keep the magnolias, grass, and roses alive. That's so wrong for Louisiana, I'm telling you!
Posted by: Barbara-Kay | June 14, 2009 at 11:37 PM
Ray Bradbury had a gift for writing the kind of story that stuck in your head... not scary in the typical zombie-eat-your-brains way.... but spooky and all too real.
Reminds me some of a story where the many suns around a planet set once every many thousands of years. When time night came it scared the pants off everyone and civilization was destroyed. By the time day came again and civilization was rebuilt... no one remembered that this was cyclical and it set up to happen again.
And again and again and agin...
Posted by: Kathleen C. | June 15, 2009 at 08:27 AM
I completely remember that short story! It affected me, too.
The shawlette is knitting up quite nicely.
We finally got a break from the rain and had a nice day on Sun., which was much appreciated. here's hoping you get one soon, too!
Posted by: Jodi | June 15, 2009 at 11:40 AM
We could use some of your rain -- send it on over! I love the fabrics that you got, although I'm having trouble figuring out what I'm looking at with that jellyroll... I can't wait to see the newest Anne test-knit! :)
Posted by: Jocelyn | June 15, 2009 at 12:40 PM
We are wondering when summer will arrive, too. Neatnik is done with school (I'll grant you her school lets out earlier than most around here) but the sun is not being all that cooperative. And it is only 57° here. What is up with that?!
Nice haul, though. Did you ever have one of those cynical/funny thoughts like the woman in front of you was a "plant" and only there so you'd spend more time shopping and adding to your order? Yeah, sometimes I get these weird random thoughts...
Posted by: trek | June 16, 2009 at 08:13 AM