Busha Full Of Grace

Can You Go Home Again? Perspective.

I'm so in love with my home right now. This is a shot taken this morning as I left for school: my roses reaching up toward the crescent moon still hanging in the Maxfield Parrish sky. This feeling I get as I close my gate beneath the iron garden arch, bursting/dripping with Cecil Bruners at this time of year. The fragrance, the quiet morning beckoning me away toward wordly life. My sanctuary. The yard around the white house that reflects happy family and laughing, squealing grandsons and all the barking, annoying dogs that I have loved. The two new apple trees planted for me last Mother's Day. Oh, and more. The memory of teenage boys sitting on my porch, becoming men and giggly girls reading star and beauty magazines.

On that note, I will tell you a little bit about how the economy has reared its head here at this home. Being in my first year of business as the country's economy crashes, has been challenging. At my school site, the sweet little loft apartment that houses my office has been sitting fairly empty.

I have Decided to move into it and rent my home out for a few years.

Camille leaves for college this fall and then it's just me. I can do this. I can make believe it is the loft apartment I would have lived in out of college had I had the opportunity. I will have my chickens and my garden right there and will leave less of a carbon footprint living where I work.... or....working where I live. I'm getting used to the idea. It's all still pretty new, yet my goal is to be out and have my house rented by beginning/mid June.

Wow.

Building and Taking Down Fences

Yesterday I had a garden workday at school. Parents came to help build a fence around the area that will be the garden patch so that the chickens may still roam free without ravaging our garden. It was a very fun day of happy workers. The weather was HOT, and of course, come afternoon, the garden plot is the sunniest place in the yard.

Then in the evening we had our first meeting with Zak's girlfriend's family, over dinner at Taste of the Himalayas. It was nice to meet them all.

A friend of their family brought his dad, Henry, who is 92 years old and sharp as a tack.

I sat close to him so we chatted through dinner and realized that he raised his children (who are my age) in the same area where I grew up. I mentioned that I went to high school at Mercy, Burlingame. He said, "Oh, those sisters of Mercy who had no mercy!" I laughed at his accuracy and then his son added that he grew up in the woods surrounding that school. I told him (with a grin) that I did as well. I think he meant as a young, exploring child and I meant as a young, exploring teenager. The most beautiful thing is this: Heather told me that Henry's wife, his lifelong partner and mother of their 5 children, died a few years ago. Henry still puts on music in the living room and pretends he's dancing with her. I see it as not in a morose way of denial, but in that beautiful way of the spirit of joy that love brings, living on forever. It reminds me of that Kathy Matea song Where've You Been. If you aren't familiar with it, it's worth listening to as a beautiful love song.

Dinner was delish. I had my favorite Chicken Tandor.

The evening air was warm. We chatted a bit in the promenade and then Shannon and I went to the Irish Pub to get some bread pudding for dessert.

It's Sunday morning, and I had a very full Saturday. I slept until 9:30 this morning! Unheard of for me. And now I'm muscling the will to finish all of the laundry today before it's back to school tomorrow.

Oh. THAT hat.

Yes, I finished it that night. And it looked very cute lying on the table, right?

And then I tried it on Sassy. And then I tried it on Temple. So let me tell you. If you know anyone who just gave birth to an eggplant, have I got the hat for them.

Counting Bean(ie)s

I finished another little beanie for Temple. I absolutely love this yarn: Terra natural inspiration. It is 60% merino, 20% baby alpaca, and 20% silk. I knitted it in colors rose petal and chamomile. I hope you can see the variation in the yarn, it is handspun and the rose petal is represented very subtly in the chamomile.

I worked a simple beanie pattern, on a size 5 (16" needle), CO 56, then working K2P2 ribbing for a little over an inch, changing to stockinette stitch for 6 inches, then gradually decreasing to the crown.

And here it is on sweet little Temple:

And now I have begun a simple, crocheted beanie for Sassy. In black (yes, black, that's what her mama likes. And as much as I disagree that black is not a color (or non-color) for babies and children, I must admit Little Girl's sweetness and exotic, Aztec beauty shines from black)

I'm using a size F crochet hook and single crochet stitch, with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan for texture. I recently used this black Astrakan to add a fun scalloped ruffle to the little blanket I knitted for her.

Hopefully by the end of today I will post a photo of the completed beanie.

Being Busha

Spring Break has allowed me many luxuries. Easy, carefree times of living life from moment to moment. It's amazing how even a sink full of dishes can look lovely in the spring morning sunshine.

Mostly, I'm loving the simple days allowing me to enjoy my grandchildren. On Monday night Satchel and Ike had a sleepover at my house. On Tuesday morning we had our traditional pancakes (and sliced apples, and boiled eggs) for breakfast together, then the boys played out in the yard for atleast 2 hours while I cleaned up the house and packed a picnic. We headed out for Bartholomew Park. As we passed the playground at the Town Square Satchel said he wanted to swing. I told him we were going to Bartholomew instead. He asked if it had sand and swings and I said no, reminding him that it had stone walls and trees and grass and bugs and maybe even snakes. He said that was much better. It was beautiful there and we were pretty much by ourselves.

We walked through the vineyard, past the mansion, along the stone wall into the oak grove above. We spread our blanket out on the lawn and enjoyed our picnic. The the boys played and climbed as they wove the most intricate stories together. I sat on the wall, taking it all in, as I knitted some.

Satchel was a mountain lion again

And this time Ike was with us (last time he was living in Chicago) and he was a squirrel!

That was Tuesday. Wednesday was more of the same, except it was a day of making soup and babysitting at Gumpy's house. It looked more like this:

Today? Who knows? Right now it's a cup of tea and relaxing watering of my flowers. we'll see who calls first!

Saartje's Booties Completed

This morning I finally completed Saartje's Booties. They have been lying in a pile for 2 months, one hanging from two pieces of one needle. The first bootie turned out perfectly, then I had nothing but trouble on the second. I used the Rowan's Tapestry yarn that was left over from Molly's hat. Also, size 1 bamboo needles. Well, what went wrong? I snapped a needle and had a helluva time getting this fibery yarn transferred from splintered bamboo onto a new needle. Then, I ran out of yarn and had to make the decision to buy another skein. I was not about to let these little suckers get the best of me. I frogged a zillion times. But days, weeks, months passed.

Then, Brooke told me how much she loved this pattern.

Then, I saw Temple's saggy, baggy, peeling, velvety soft newborn feet.

Then, I touched them and kissed them.

Then, I finished the booties.

Regardless of the lumpy, freyed condition of the second one. They are full of love and determination.

And I will begin again anew with another pair. But these are a legend in their own time.

Nocturnal OCD

Why is it that we awake in the night and obsess upon things that, sometimes plague us in the day but, often times, only bother us during the wee hours of the morning when the house is dark and quiet? For me, it can be something that I haven't thought about in months, even years. Things I thought I had worked out within my consciousness that resurface as if it were day one again. Sometimes things that don't have any relevance at all. Things like an old landlord that was unnecessarily unkind to me...years ago. Or times with deeper meaning, betrayal by a friend that never found resolve. Or an old lover who walked away without a word. Or that gross human error I know I made that could never be righted.

When these things rear up and look at me through the darkness, I torment myself for hours, searching for new resolve: I will try to make them better. But then when I drift back to sleep and soon find myself in a new day, the need disipates. Not because I find any kind of healing unnesssecary, but because I have already tried. Most probably, have already beaten this issue to a pulp looking for peace.

I'm a pretty upbeat person. Happy. Grateful. I try to be straightforward and compassionate in life. But at night, sometimes the boogie man comes. And I don't know what to do with him.

Sweetness Sleeping

Good Knitting Things Happen

Several months ago I lamented about the socks I was knitting from stash yarn (that no longer had a label) that I couldn't complete because I didn't have enough. Well, imagine this! On Tuesday after we visited the hospital Satch and I went to the knitting store nearby to choose some yarn for me to knit him the dragon socks from Cat Bordhi's book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

I let Satchel choose the yarn. When we got home, lo and behold, the yarn was nagging at me, reminiscent of yarn I had already knitted. But I never thought for a minute that it was the yarn I used on the socks because it had more black in it than I remembered. Still I had to check....

Thank you Satchel! Now I can finish my socks too!

Stats

OK, yesterday my stats rose to 2,216 in one 24 hour period. So as I figure, if I have a grandchild a week, and one of his or her parents is a blogger, I can safely quit my job and live off of blogging ads.