Blessed rain and other good things

 Where we are 

One of these days I'll be back in circulation, but not quite yet

The second is for those knowledgeable European friends who exclaim oh but you Americans have a dry heat. In Arizona maybe. In NJ not so much.  

Blessed rain, yesterday evening, cleaning the air and the pollen off my car.  I can feel the difference in breathing and my eyes are less irritated. 

The indoor scallions are done, and now there's a colony of fungi. I expect David or Chris or someone will tell us what they are.

New credit card arrived. And they make it very easy to acknowledge receipt, put it in use. Why don't medical people use decent IT on their sites? Yes, I know, they're cheap. Credit card companies spend more and get better work. 

Meanwhile I can now update the various online people who use my credit card for regular donations. One worthy organization has been nagging me since April to update. Many emails. I finally said it's impossible until I get the new card, not even due for months. 

I also said I was thinking of discontinuing membership if they didn't stop harassing me. Whereupon they thanked me for my message and said that in accordance with my query, here was the date of my membership expiration!  Bring on the clowns.

The people actually doing the work of the org.  are wonderful, and the IT people are making them look aggressive and not very bright. 

Remember the missing check to the food pantry! It finally came back. Addressed to the same address as always, now with a big sticker applied by some bright spark in Trenton to say undeliverable, inadequate address. Oh well, at least it wasn't cashed.

Another concern, because of not driving for a few days, was whether my car would start. I tested it after the rain cooled the air a bit. It started, yay. With this car, not being driven much, it's been an issue.

And here's this morning, before the heat comes rushing back again 

Lovely Stella d'oro day lilies. Whoever developed this variety was no businessman. I bought one, thirty plus years ago, whose divisions have brightened two developments, numerous private gardens and a median strip in Trenton. Not much return to the horticulturist, huge ROI to the buyer.

I'm glad you enjoyed the animal tales, more some other  time. Yes, there were moments of excitement, usually from the humans, rarely the animals.  Client management is a big part of a petcare enterprise. Sometimes people would ask about how to start this kind of business because they got along better with animals than people. I had to explain that without people skills,  there's no business! Eighty per cent of the agita comes from the humans.

Happy day, everyone, here's hoping for minimal agita for you today.

Lammas, white rabbits and Yorkshire Day

 White rabbits! It's Lammas, the quarter day halfway between some celestial thing and another, celebrating the wheat harvest, for making bread -- loafmas.  Full moon, too. It's also Yorkshire Day. Deliciously cool. So this long-transplanted Yorkshirewoman celebrated with a toasted walnut muffin and a pot of strong tea for breakfast.

This is the Yorkshire Tea Terrier from a hilarious ad showing him speeding around the Dales bringing tiny (he's little) drinks of tea to thirsty hikers, the Yorkshire answer to the St. Bernard with his cask of brandy in the Swiss Alps.

and here's  Italian basil rooting in water after only a couple of days, high hopes for this

Yesterday cooled off enough, down to the 80sf, so I used the last of the chicken which had sustained me through the heatwave, in a cream of chicken soup, Thai basil for extra flavoring. 

I had a bowl of this with pita bread toasted with cheddar cheese inserted, while I watched an evening of Suits, which was excellent, planning on evenings doing this. I have the first two seasons in hand. Also more c of c soup.

And I was thinking about the upcoming rug, measured what I need, wondered in passing if I could employ bamboo garden canes to construct a temporary loom, couldn't find them. Then I remembered Gary borrowed them to prop up his young corn being flattened by wind and rain, so they're somewhere in here

 So I'll probably use a large frame from one of my stitched wall hangings, about right for the small rug I have in mind.

Yesterday I had things go right, thought I'd mention that because it does happen. The two seasons of Suits both came into together the library for pick up, and the new ATM card actually worked first time, to my amazement. Not only that, but you can now choose the denomination of cash, not just the inevitable and often useless $20, nobody could make change!

Also the slow readers at the credit card company are veering into comic relief territory. Yesterday, after my bank cleared replacement payment, they responded to my days ago message about how they hadn't yet processed the replacement. 

Except they hadn't grasped anything, and explained that the payment had been refused, account closed. That was the initial one, dolts! I responded tersely pointing this out, refraining from name calling though,  and explaining they'd accepted and processed the replacement, so all was settled. I'm looking forward with some glee to their further take on this. I could go on, it's a bit like teasing telemarketers.

Happy day, everyone, celebrate everything! Why not. And the wheat fields symbolized in Ukraine's flag are timely.

Issue resolved, new visitors, new flowers

 Yesterday Gary brought over some houseplants to stay with me during his upcoming trip, whenever that happens, one family emergency needing him to stay here, another requiring his presence in Florida. Meanwhile it's improved the decor of the patio for now

This was after my walk to the pond and the jewelweed neighborhood

And finally I seem to have got ahead of the bounced and replaced check situation with the credit card people. They're very slow to process, and as of yesterday, the replacement payment had still not been credited. 

I got an email referring me to the secure messages area of their website, with an urgent request to send a replacement payment. Which I had done five days ago.  

Finally today my bank alerted me that the payment was completed. Still not showing on the credit card website. Talk about slow. Meanwhile of course, there's a large new charge for the second refrigerator. This too shall be paid.

While Gary was here we talked fridges and how he'd had to remodel his cabinets because his new one wouldn't fit in. He measured for me and decided I wouldn't have that problem. And explained they could always take off the fridge doors to get it in, then replace them. News to me. He'll probably be away when it arrives, otherwise he'd supervise the whole thing, knowing him.

And thanks to Caro and her latest weaving caper, I'm thinking about how to create a little rug for where I sit on the sofa, cold floor in winter, currently my bedside rug is there.

This rug is a cotton warp, roving weft, see her sparkling merlot blog for picture.

It's going to be a great way to use some beautiful organic cotton roving, very short staple, difficult to spin for that reason. Two experienced spinners tried and gave up, gave it to me to use in art. Spinning short staple cotton is niche.

I've stuffed art dolls with it, and the comfort dolls I used to make for ICross Canada. Clean material, fine for little children, unbleached, undyed. But I still have quite a bit. 

So maybe here's where it can go, along with wool roving. I have to figure out the logistics, since I don't have a big heddle. I might have to use a heddle stick and strings, not a favorite technique of mine, but maybe it's needed here. And maybe I need to fashion a new loom to size. All to come.

All this thinking is happening while I get breakfast wearing the lovely new robe, now complete with pockets.

And the Haggard Hawks solution is:

ELSEWHERE!

Happy day, everyone, here's your flowers