Zebra Pattern Blanket

The last time the kids were here my granddaughter asked if I would make her a zebra pattern blanket. I told her I would have to find a pattern as I didn't have anything like that.

After some on line searching I found something I thought would work. When I asked what colors to make it in I was informed she wanted "black and teal, both of them sparkly". It wasn't too hard to find the sparkly black yarn but I couldn't find a sparkly teal that I liked. I found a brand and line of sparkly yarn but there was no teal in any of the stores. I did find it available on line and went ahead and ordered it through WalMart.com. It was most inexpensive through them and I didn't pay for shipping since I had it sent to the store. 

The original pattern was for a baby blanket but I added about 100 extra stitches to make it a bigger size.  I'm not sure how zebra-ish it looks. It's almost more tiger-ish but it still turned out better than I thought it would. 

I made the border using a sparkly hot pink. As usual it looks better in person than in the photos.

Ollie likes my yarn box.

On to the next project!

Crazy Cat

Our silly kitty, Ollie, is not a bad hunter.  A few weeks ago she waited at the deck door with a chipmunk in her mouth. Not wanting her to bring the thing into the house I made her drop it before I let her in. To my great surprise as soon as it hit the deck it hightailed it for safer pastures, namely the rock pile where it lives.

Then, just the other day, Ollie showed up with another chipmunk. There was a good amount of blood on the deck and the chipmunk was on the deck. (This is the picture above.) So I opened the door to let Ollie in and dispose of the chipmunk. And guess what happened then?  The thing was still alive and as soon as the cat was inside it took off and did a lemming impression off the end of the deck. I don't know if it survived.

One thing is certain.  The chipmunks are a little less bold about coming onto the deck and eating the bird seed.

Our Poor Garden

Above is a picture of our latest garden offerings.  There are the final Yukon Gold potatoes that the gophers didn't get, some green beans, and a couple of turnips. 

The other stuff is questionable.  We have little watermelons on the vine, the canteloupe and acorn squash have lots of flowers but not much in the way of fruit. The corn looks kinda puny. We spotted a few ears but they don't look so good right now. The calypso beans are nothing but sad empty stalks thanks to the grasshoppers and they have started in on the chard now too. This is in spite of lots of spraying. The onions look great and the other two types of potatoes still look good.

Granted, this is the first year we've tried a garden in our new location here, but I think we've learned a little. We definitely needed the deer fencing or we would have had absolutely nothing but possibly the onions. The tomatoes are in pots and they would probably do better in the ground.

I have some ideas for the garden next year, which includes moving it closer to the house. I think the soil needs to be amended (which we didn't do this year) and I'm even considering raised beds. My dream is to have a "secret garden" which means I want to build a big solid (about 8' high) wall around the garden. 

At least my flower boxes on the deck rail look fabulous!

National Bird

We noticed a different bird flying around just down the hill.  The white head and tail gave it away as a bald eagle.

Some crows were harassing him so he moved frequently.

One thing is certain:  I need a better zoom lens!