Miscellany
Do you remember these little, folded-paper fortune tellers from school? You’d write fortunes, answers to questions, on the inside and your friend would pick a color or whatever, that you’d spell, opening and closing the inside as you spelled out the word?
I thought every school girl in America had done this at some point or another (in the back of boring classes in elementary school, as often as possible). Imagine my surprise when my mother said she’d never heard of it before. Wow! If nothing else, I was sure either my sister or I had, at some point, brought one of these babies home from school.
I came home to a really usual sight today. See?
What?
You don’t see it?
Look closer.
A man waaaay up in the tree across the street.
Apparently, our neighbors are having a couple trees cut down. I’m trying not to think about it. This was a gorgeous tree, the only one in their front yard, and the one I’d find myself looking at most often when sitting in my favorite spot with Chappy. But, you know, it’s not my tree, and it’s not my house it’s looming over, so . . .
I have to say, though, the show was very entertaining. Watching the guy at the top of the tree cut off the smaller branches, and then tie rope around the bigger ones, which the fellow on the ground would brace and pivot to ease them to the ground. We were all watching–with Chappy barking every time a big branch would go into the chipper.
Things were going swimmingly until about 5:30, when (1) it started getting too dark, (2) one big branch got caught in the rope so that they couldn’t get it to the ground, and (3) the chipper broke. That last log they tossed in there must have been too big!
Still, it was entertaining. And I’m sure it will continue to be when they come back, presumably tomorrow, to finish the job. Except I won’t be here. I’ll be at the Fair Isle Vest Finals competition. I’m looking forward to it!
And, are you one of the people hooked on Sudoko? Well, apparently, it’s GOOD for you! (My favorite site? www.websudoku.com.)
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Tannenbaum.
House Calls
I can sympathise about the tree. A few years ago, my husband and I lived in a semi-attached in-law apartment at a farmhouse on a dead-end road, right next to a bunch of woods.
The problem was, the woods across the fields from my front porch belonged to the rich family next door. One day, they decided they wanted a clear field there.
That summer, I spent several weeks having to watch and listen to an entire woodlot being taken away. A woodlot that I used to listen to woodpeckers in, that a hawk used to fly over, that I used to watch deer and moose come out of.
And not a thing I could do about it, since we were renters, not landowners.
As for Sudoku, allow me to recommend the following site:
http://angusj.com/sudoku/
This gentleman has written an absolutely marvelous Sudoku game for Windows-based PC’s. Aside from having every feature you could want in the game (filters to show you where numbers are placed, color codes you can apply to test your theories, ability to create your own puzzles and play them, enter the puzzle from the newspaper so you can solve it in the computer), it’s absolutely free to download and use. No crippled demo, no time-limited trial, nothing.
I am in no way affiliated with the game designer - just a happy user. I hope you enjoy it!
I remember those paper fortune tellers. About 4th or 5th grade?
It’s always sad when a tree is taken out. Especially one so pretty.
Flashback re: those fortune tellers!
Bummer about the tree… Have fun tomorrow.
Those paper fortune thingys were cool. I agree that it was about 4th or 5th grade but I don’t remember Hannah ever playing with them. Maybe it was a 70s thing.
Your Olympic Gold top down sweater looks great. Congrats on finishing.
a note, you might start blocking your swatches before knitting. Lately I’ve been doing that, and have found that most of the wools that I like to use for cabled sweaters (Karabella Aurora 8, Mission Falls 1824, Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran, and the list goes on…) most gain 1/8″ per inch knit when blocked. That ends up being an inch over 8″ and therefore can add 4 to 6″ a garment. Most superwash wools won’t felt, so shrinking the growth back out of them is close to impossible - so accounting for it in the gauge swatch is really the best way to go.
So glad you got the buttons,
So sorry to see the tree go.