After an unexpected few days of early summer rain, our garden is beautiful. We have a small urban lot, full of shade from trees in the back, so our garden is a small strip of border in the front yard that I cut in by hand when we bought our house, almost 18 years ago. Yearly work on the clay soil has made it rich enough to support my plants. When we bought the house, there were some scraggy bushes and a very sad tree growing. Now, it brings me inspiration for knitting and dyeing, and a lot of smiles when I discover its secrets. I thought I would share some of it, beautified by the rain, this morning.
This surprise growth zucchini vine is causing me a lot of amusement and also, providing dinner for tonight.
Sweet woodruff, with it's tender whorls, is my favorite ground cover. I've been nursing some tiny cuttings I planted under our cherry tree, in hopes I'll end up with a big swath of it.
And because this is apparently the year of the ant in Alabama, I have Tansy, two large stands of it, growing on the path that leads to our front door. Not sure it deters the ants, but it's certainly pretty.
Every garden needs a lion-guardian. Harry is mine. And because Maine Coon Cats are curious critters, he's always very engaged in my knitting.
The rest of the week I'll be knitting on Drachenfels, my forever project (on the left). I'd like to finish it in the next few weeks, but since it's all garter stitch and I'm in the long stockinette portion of my Mithril sweater, I may have to cast on something a little bit more fancy — some brioche or some lace — for those times when you need to be all wrapped up in the knitting. I've just wound the yarn for Mithril's sleeves (on the right), but I'm enjoying the silk & linen yarn so much, that I think it will give Sleeve Island a good name for a change.
