Knitting, Entertaining, and Loafing

I've been busy, knitting, entertaining, and loafing and knitting some more.

These packages were sent out Monday and should be reaching their destination today. I do hope they will please their recipient's.

On Tuesday I entertained a couple of my gardening club friends, it was wonderful to see them again. They came with arms full of gifts and hugs. How nice it is having friends who love you and don't forget you when you are out of circulation for awhile. We walked the property and they made me feel like the plantings have progressed farther than the way I see it. One of the ladies is head gardener at the local country club and can sympathise with my battle of the soil. She shared some of her experiences of fighting with this thick clay that seems to suck all the oxygen from the soil, smothering the roots of anything planted below the surface. We are working on raised beds for the iris and my prennials, but raised beds are expensive to build and fill with good planting material. Still the backbone of the landscape is to do, the plants that are most costly and having a root system that must be put directly into the soil, not above it. After walking the property, we sat on the porch and had a glass of the wonderful Earl Gray and Lavender tea that Cindi sent me in the Whoduknit Spring Mystery Swap. It was delicious iced and both ladies enjoyed it as much as I do. Thank you Cindi for that special blend.

After the ladies left and DH fetched a pizza for our dinner, and we played a game of Scrabble and had a glass of wine, I cast on the stitches for the ITE-IV exchange. I have the first repeat finished and the knitting is coming along rather fast. I would like to finish it along with the second part of my No Sheep For You Exchange by the end of next week. I want to begin doing some volunteer work and don't want other responsibilities hanging around until I see how it works out. I've aways wanted to do 'Meals On Wheels' when I retired. I have to check into it and also look at other possibilites that may have a greated need in this area. I know I can find something constructive to utilize a few hours of my time each week. I want to; and feel an obligation to give some of my energy and time to help someone less fortunate than I.

Yesterday my neighbor and I 'loafed'.

Isn't that a great word, I love it. My mother use to use it in her conversations and as a youngster it would always catch my attention. There were lots of wonderful words used in 'those days' that have slipped from our conversational vocabulary, sometimes being replace with a much less polite word.

Anyway, we loafed and it was a spur on the minute thing, no planning of what to do or where to go. We just hopped into my car and I started driving. I think perhaps I had a small town in the back of my mind when I called my neighbor and ask if she wanted to loaf, but if I did we never went there. Instead we drove the back roads north, to Culpepper. We spotted an antique store with a parking place (no fee or time limit) right in front of it's door, and decided to start there. It was a large store and we spend quite awhile enjoying the things inside and walking down some of our memory lanes. By the time we were ready to leave we were ready for a late lunch and decided we'd walk up the street and see what we could find. There seemed to be plenty of places to eat in this small northern town. We turned into a corner cafe but once inside decided we would rather have something lighter than their menu appeared to offer. I noticed a cafe across the street with a table on the sidewalk and said "there's one over there". My neighbor looked up and exclaimed "thats 'It's About Thyme' ". Fate must have taken us there; my neighbor just lost her son a few weeks ago and she's finding it hard to cope with the loss. This was a restaurant she had read about and suggested to her DH she would like to go to. It was so nice to see her show an interest in something and I was so glad we had found our way to this little town and found this jewel of a restaurant. I think it was everything she had expected and we indulged, including dessert and coffee. Afterwards we window shopped the shops along that street and then headed home. A full day, fun, and most of all, it was a good day for Sally.