the TV's on... but nobody's home...

Home from the warm to the cold... home to the daily stuff i was not responsible for whilst away... home again home again jiggity jig...

i enjoyed my time away immensely.... sat in warm sunshine.. took a bunch of photos ... finished that sweater i started (after a false finish with monkey arms that had to be ripped back LOL)... finished a pair of soldier socks .... had two books read to me (And Furthermore by Dame Judi Dench and Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen which i am still having read to me)... read two other books (one was the review of the other day and the other was The Tudor Mystery (i think - can't remember and it is packed in a box on its way back here).... interesting take on the transfer of power from Edward to Mary to Elizabeth... with a little stopover with Jane Grey...

i enjoyed being able to sit and watch the "big" tv without having to jockey for position early... no so now... where b&c (my nickname for the husband) is watching inane comedy on cbs right now... comedies that i cannot even really sit in the room with... lol... he wants to watch the glee version of Grey's Anatomy tonite, which we don't really watch... but since thursday is not exactly the superbowl of tv night, i'll bite....

this post has a ranty-kinda flavor, but i feel i've deserted the blog for long enough and needed to say something again.

i will be starting a new little beret for my girl as soon as the yarn gets here. The talented pamela allen posted a freebie the other day (the day after my natal day to be exact) on her blog page TANGLED - and it will be lovely for spring... the blog title is A Beret for Baby and it's just adorable. My "baby" isn't new born... but she is just perfect for a little beret for spring...

and since...i think i've heard this song about 10 times today in commercials for the musical Grey's Anatomy... my musical offering is .. chasing cars... enjoy it...

a quote?

forget what we're told... before we get too old.. show me a garden that's bursting into life...

book review

as part of the previously mentioned Bookishly Attentive Romance Reading challenge

The Accidental Wedding - Anne Gracie

Maddy Woodford has too much on her plate. The granddaughter of a french comtesse, and daughter of English gentry on her father's side, she should not be penniless, living hand to mouth or caring for her 5 orphaned half brothers and sisters. Thanks, however, to her father's debts, she is doing just that. The family estate is entailed for her young brother and run by an elderly neighbor who has designs on making Maddy his wife - with or against her will - which is why she is hiding with the children in the English Countryside in a ramshackle cottage.

Nash Renfrew, younger brother of the Earl of Alverleigh, is a diplomat to the
Russian Empire. Returning home to England to assume possession of Whitethorn Manor, which was left to him by his uncle Jasper, he unwittingly becomes Maddy's landlord. The two would never cross paths had two little boys not have created a slide out of mud beneath a nearby wall. In an attempt to clear the wall in a rain storm, Renfrew's mount slips and he is thrown headlong into the wall and injured. Maddy, seeing the incident, takes him into her small and (and her bed) to nurse his injuries. Waking days later, Renfrew has no memory of his past, of who he is or where he was headed... but definitely remembers he is a man who is drawn to a beautiful woman. Does he regain his memory? Does Maddy stay hidden from the nefarious Mr. Hulme? Does the obvious attraction between Maddy and Nash bubble over into passion?

Anne Gracie tells their story with humor and enough twists and turns for the read to wonder whether Maddy and Nash will ever wind up together -which they... I won't give it away.

My first Anne Gracie novel was fun and frothy and finished too soon. I like her "voice" and the backstory she created for her characters - i will read more!

Regenerate...

.... it's amazing what nature can do for your soul when the birds are singing, the weather warm, and the sun shining..... after what can only be called an evil winter... i feel like i can breathe again.

Actually i find myself sighing a lot... just a peaceful gentle sigh... from the lanai...

i am not at the home base but in the land of sea turtles (according to the sunday paper), baseball players and palm trees (not exactly in that order)... i ate breakfast outside this morning.. i am making this post outside this morning... i went for a long walk without a coat this morning... yes... it does the soul good...

i am almost done with another pair of soldier socks... i have to admit i left them to be finished on my flight here and flight back, since they are soooo easy to knit - no pattern necessary.. no problem just a ball or two of yarn and some "sticks". I've started a sweater for little miss in colors that her mom adored last year... it took me the better part of a year to find handpainted yarn in the same color way... of course they discontinued the yarn i made her first St. Patrick's Day sweater out of....

i don't think i can remember how to do the open in a new window link, but i will try. The sweater is a freebie from Classic Elite, Princess Smocked Cardigan and the yarn i am using is a handpaint from Araucania called Aysen in the color 823... foresty and blue-y... and just her colors...

i am better for this respite... or i will be...

where life will lead this day...

... where i reside we are having a "rain event"... which is far (FAR FAR) preferable to a "snow event"... flooding notwithstanding... the muted sky looks drained of color and therefore life ... but the hawk must still be hungry because he just passed overhead....

March brings "sixes and sevens" weather to my neck of the woods. I fear we have not seen the last of the icky white stuff - because it always snows once close to my natal day - and my natal day is this month... but the prospect of heading out with only a heavy cardie.. or a sweatshirt... and no boots or outdoor clogs.. is just pleasant.. the end...

Today i will finish the sweater that i thought would take me a weekend and instead has taken me a week.. mmphm.. guess i don't budget time well. I am on the button bands in the front - but i have to make a concentrated effort to remember which side says "boy" and which says "girl" - i don't think the young people i am gifting this to will really care.. but .. let's try to get it right, at least in my head...

my soldier socks will be done this week as well - have only been giving them the obligatory 20 min a day - which is really not enough to get them done pronto.. but i have some tv watching to do and they are mindless in the "round and rounds"... so they will be done and i can get them posted as well.

another blog i read alerted me to some new (to me) sock patterns that i might like to try. stop laughing - i can hear you from here - yes i do patterns other than SFS .. i just don't mention it often.

oh.. and i hate the camera i bought.. just hate it.. it doesn't do what i want.. and it is very annoying at that.... and as i say this the neighborhood deer just bolted through the back.. what is this? a nature preserve? all i need is the wild turkeys (not the drinking variety the squawking variety) and we will be able to seriously call noah for a new ark...

noah?????