65 Questions (what happened to only 20?)

Aren't gardens wonderful? This gladiola spike was 5 feet tall.


1. First thing you wash in the shower? under my arms
2. What color is your favorite hoodie? navy blue velour (my only hoodie)
3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? of course
4. Do you plan outfits? occasionally
5. How are you feeling RIGHT now? achy and in pain
6. What is the closest thing to you that’s red? the light on my mouse
7. Describe the last dream you remember having? It was about work, so I don't want to think about it any more
8. Did you meet anybody new today? only online
9. What are you craving right now? Dinner
10. Do you floss? Nowhere near as often as I should.
11. What comes to mind when I say cabbage? corned beef
12. Are you emotional? I cry at sentimental movies (and even books I'm reading)
13. Have you ever counted to 1,000? Only in Spanish
14. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it? I almost always bite, until it's all melted in the bowl or the cone
15. Do you like your hair? Most of the time
16. Do you like yourself? Usually, but there's room for improvement
17. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush? not in a million years, unless I got paid a million $.
18. What are you listening to right now? America's Funniest Home Videos
19. Are your parents strict? They weren't that strict, but we did have the wooden spoon and the belt as a last resort
20. Would you go sky diving? No, but I would go para sailing
21. Do you like cottage cheese? My favorite way is spread on toast, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and broiled until it melts. YUMM!
22. Have you ever met a celebrity? Jane Fonda taught a seminar at my college and ate in the cafeteria during a regular meal period.
23. Do you rent movies often? Just Netflix (4 at a time)
24. Is there anything sparkly in the room you are in? My stained glass lamp
25. How many countries have you visited? Ten
26. Have you made a prank phone call? I may have when I was young and foolish
27. Ever been on a train? I rode one into New York City to go to a Broadway show once.
28. Brown or white eggs? Brown
29. Do you have a cell-phone? Yes
30. Do you use chap stick? I like the flavored stuff
31. Do you own a gun? No
32. Can you use chop sticks? Yes, but not as well as most folks.
33. Who are you going to be with tonight? Hubbie, DD, online friends
34. Are you too forgiving? It depends on how upset I am.
35. Ever been in love? Yes
36. What is/are your best friend(s) doing tomorrow? Working in my LYS (yes, you, Marina)
37. Ever have cream puffs? My absolute favorite dessert
38. Last time you cried? When my DD got angry and yelled at me
39. What was the last question you asked? What do you mean?
40. Favorite time of the year? Spring
41. Do you have any tattoos? No, and never
42. Are you sarcastic? Not usually
43. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect? No
44. Ever walked into a wall? Once
45. Favorite color? Blue green (teal)
46. Have you ever slapped someone? I vaguely recall doing it once
47. Is your hair curly? My hair is wavy at the ends, and would like to be curly if I cut it
48. What was the last CD you bought? probably Jimmy Buffet, but I also remember buying a Simon and Garfunkel boxed set
49. Do looks matter? To a certain extent
51. Is your phone bill sky high? No
52. Do you like your life right now? mostly, except for my job
53. Do you sleep with the TV on? Only if I fall asleep watching it in the living room, but I have done that.
54. Can you handle the truth? Yes
55. Do you have good vision? Better than I used to
56. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people? Not right now
57. How often do you talk on the phone? not that often
58. The last person you held hands with? my 6 year old niece
59. What are you wearing? Khaki jeans, sandals and a t-shirt
60. What is your favorite animal? puppies
61. Where was your default picture taken? At my 7th birthday party
62. Can you hula hoop? Barely
63. Do you have a job? Yes
64. What was the most recent thing you bought? Yarn and clothes
65. Have you ever crawled through a window? Once

My Secret Garden

Mystery Flowers

As if my obsession with Ravelry wasn't enough, some of my friends on that site just introduced me to a new website for gardeners, Folia. This flower has been in my garden since we bought the house. We've dug the bulbs up every fall and replanted them, given them away, and still don't know what this plant is. Someone told me it was a Madeira Lily, but it doesn't look like the Madeira lilies I found online. It's tall, with dark reddish green foliage, & lots of flowers on each stalk. The corms are smallish, rust colored, cushion shaped and hairy. Any ideas would be appreciated.

ETA: Success! It's a Watsonia variety.

This one is supposed to be Ranunclulus Tecolote, but it also doesn't look like anything I found online. That's a Meyer Lemon in the background of the second picture.

Next comes this iris rhizome I've been moving from house to house for almost 30 years. It's a tall bearded iris, with a golden throat and shaded purple petals. We moved the planting this year and the iris is in heaven, blooming at least a month earlier than it usually does.

Meme: 100 Books

Copy this meme to your own blog and edit it to match your reading style. It's kind of fun to see the kind of books everyone likes. A very wide assortment.

Look at the list of (100) books below.
Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicize the ones you want to read.
Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
Movies don’t count.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) one of the best
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) at least 20 times
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) at least 20 times
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) at least 20 times
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien) at least 20 times
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) at least 20 times
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) -
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) at least 20 times
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) at least 20 times
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) at least 20 times
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) several times
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) many times
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) I've read parts of it.
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) no thank you
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) at least 20 times
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) at least 20 times
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) over and over again
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

What, nothing by Rosamund Pilcher? I was surprised I've only read 47 out of the total 100. I read a lot, but I tend to read in groups. If I like one book I will look for the rest of the author's books and read them too. I've read everything Fitzgerald, CS Lewis, Steinbeck & Michener wrote, plus all of the OZ books. (I know I'm forgetting some favorites.) I was also surprised that there's nothing by Hemingway on the list.

Sunday Seven, Part VI

Seven things I am grateful for this week:

1. Spring flowers
This picture was taken last spring in my garden. This year the freesias and madeira lilies are already in bloom, but the bearded iris usually bloom in April and May. I've taken the iris rhizomes that produce this flower with me wherever I've moved for the last 26 years. The very first time the iris bloomed in my garden was the day my DD was (almost 26 years ago.)

2. Knitty On Line Magazine
The new Spring issue of Knitty is out! More sock patterns to try, OH NO. Fingerless gloves, a great lace scarf, kids clothes, a wonderful briefcase bag, an interesting shrug, great cardigan sweaters, and more. I even have some of the yarns in my stash.

3. Caring, generous knitters everywhere
4. Good friends (who knit)
5. Creative Yarn Producers like SWTC, K1C2 and Habu Textiles.
I got the newsletter from SWTC with a new Tofutsies sock pattern today.
6. Sunsets
Last night the sunset was just incredible over the ocean. I'm very lucky to live where I do.
7. Daylight Savings Time (except for the lost hour of sleep today)

Sunday Seven

I like this idea. Here are the seven things, with links, that I am thankful for this week:

1. Hand Knitted Socks
2. The fact that I don't seem to be allergic to superwash wool, baby alpaca or cashmere.
3. Stitches West takes place near my house so I can afford to go, and it's during President's Week, so I can take the time off.
4. The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett. I read it again every so often. The weather here is getting more springlike and things are popping out all over.
5. Koolaid is good for something.
6. The fact that my husband doesn't like football.
7. Counterprogramming on TV against the Super Bowl (see item #6 above). I got to see the National Ice Skating Championships which I missed in January.