… is knit some yarn
A few last few loose ends from Saturday’s open garden: detailing Nine’s sneakers on our way out the door to school this morning -- vacuuming up mulch scraps from inside her shoes, still there from very early Saturday morning (she was in charge of fixing up the area around the kids’ swing set) and giving the outsides a good scrub with a Mason Dixon warshcloth. (Why didn’t we clean up her shoes on Saturday, or Sunday even? Funny, I was asking myself the same question.)
I also need to remember to water the things planted during Friday’s final rush, return the loaner plants to the friend who helped style the back porch Friday afternoon, and send thank you notes to the garden club friends who helped out as hostesses (including the one who contributed a whole mess of pretzels. Fall soccer snacks: check!)
Finally got to pick up a bit of knitting Saturday night, and Domino Knitting has already paid for itself. A whole other set of loose ends, conquered. Look: knitted in ends on the wrong side of Nine’s Not a Rug Anymore Vest.
And I swatched the brown needlepoint wool for the Afghans for Afghans vest; got gauge on the second try, with size 7 Denise’s. It was pretty nice to work with, and seems to be a close match in weight to some left over wool from last winter (ball bands long gone), so we have stripes available.
Butterfly Report:
There’s this one:
A black swallowtail. We had caterpillars of these feeding on fennel in two different parts of the garden earlier this summer (there’s a picture here) but never saw chrysalises. Nine spotted this butterfly on the front walk Sunday afternoon, right next to the stone wall that runs behind the border. I nudged it up onto my finger to move it to a butterfly bush right nearby, and discovered that its wings were still a bit wobbly – a very, very new butterfly. The pupa must have been hidden in or on the wall.
And one of the monarchs has snuck off without our noticing; we found a smudge on the underside of a leaf where one of the chrysalises used to be. Its former neighbor (the one we watched pupate) is still there, but more of the pattern and color of an adult butterfly is showing through its shell; same for the other three I’m watching. Soon, very soon.
There are more and more adult monarchs in the garden every day, too; the migrating generation passing through our latitude, from what I can tell from Monarch Watch. This guy (and yup, it’s a boy – the spots on the lower part of his wings, on either side of his abdomen, give him away) is probably on his way to Mexico. There are also still at least two caterpillars feeding on the milkweed. (Insert bad joke of your choice about living in a monarchy here.)
