Airline Out Of Business...And It Rains.....I Need Something Pleasant To Happen!

I finished the shoulder shawl I was knitting using the Carat yarn; just need to bind off and weave in the ends. I love the drape of the shawl and I'm going to enjoy wearing it around my shoulders. I love the golden thread that goes throughout it, just enough to make it interesting yet not flashy.

And another bag made for a niece except for adding the lining. I love this lime green don't you?

And here is the Fidget I've been enjoying.

Yesterday I woke, made coffee and turned on the TV to catch the morning news. The first item on was another airline has gone under, the third in a week. What stuck me was, it was the airline my friend and I have tickets to fly to Knitters Connection in June. It is the only non-stop flight out of Richmond and the only flight that don't go around-the-world to get you there. Now searching for a 'cheap' flight has begun and with the price of gas I don't think we are going to find a really 'cheap' fare. There is one good thing about the situation and that is, I can choose a later return flight. I have signed up to take Cat Brodhis' Magic of Moebius class on Friday and was going to have to miss most of the afternoon session in order to catch the flight back to Richmond. My traveling companion didn't realize the close time schedule when she booked our flight and made the hotel arrangements. I was really disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to attend the entire afternoon session. This is the first big knitting function I've attended and want to get as much from it as I can. I may yet decide to attend the entire Stitches East this fall.

We've had rain, rain, rain, for most of last week and its still raining. We are less than an inch catching up from last summers drought; for that we can be thankful. On the other side, if we continue to get rain our iris will begin to rot in the ground, especially in this Powhatan hard clay. We have amended the soil and amended it again and continue to amend but it takes a long time to turn poor soil into something rich and beautiful. A few years ago when the National Iris Convention was held in the Northern VA area there was a year with lots of rain in the spring. I remember driving up to take a load of home baked goodies to one of the homes to be on tour. The goodies were to be used to help feed several bus loads of people over several days. After placing the bake goods inside we were invited to see the gardens. The lady who's home we were at was sick at heart and once we walked into her beautiful gardens I could understand why. As we entered her gardens, the smell of iris rot touched your nostrils. Iris were rotting in the ground and the foliage falling over at ground level where the rot had taken its toll. It was a sad thing to see and heartbreaking for this lady who had spent two years preparing for this event.

Preparing for the National tour is not an easy task. It involves planting a few hundred iris from all over the country, some old, some new, and some seedlings that have yet to be named. The rhizomes are sent to the Iris Society Chapter hosting the convention two years prior to the event. Members who have agreed to 'Host' for the convention then plant the rhizomes in the their garden and are responsible for taking care of the plants and maintaining their beds for the next two years. Generally it takes two years for an iris to have good bloom. This lady put hour upon hour into reworking her gardens and planting the display beds. She had nursed the iris that first fall and through the first winter, through the spring rains, summer droughts, and then through another fall and winter to have the best show possible when the buses arrived. She had worried about disease, insects, too little rain, too much rain, and keeping wandering animals out of the gardens. Everything was looking beautiful until the 'ROT' struck, what a disappointment for her. But the show had to go on, and it did, and although there was lots of rot there were still hundreds of beautiful blooms to enjoy in her garden.

Today our plants are looking healthy and growing quickly. We've agreed to open our gardens for our local chapter this year and so we are already holding our breath that the weather will cooperate with us and that we will have a 'rainbow' of color to offer when the garden is opened.