Weird Summer
10:03 p.m. - 2014-07-21


This is an El Nino year so we have heat, drought, and humidity. Bummer. Our garden is smaller this year but the cucumbers are plentiful enough to give some away, and the winter squash is trying its best. The poor basil is limping along, but I managed to make quite a bit of pesto so far.

The big project for this summer is to make some short-sleeved cotton shirts for the spouse. The first one I finished was a success, so now I can mass produce that style. Before I get started with that, though, I am trying out a vintage sport shirt pattern from the early sixties. I am using some Hawaiian fabric that I had in the stash. I got distracted at one point and finished up a blouse that has been cut out for many years, but I know it will fit one of my sisters. I thought it turned out pretty cute, a short-sleeved blouse with a collar and stand. Long ago I had cut out 5 or six of these shirts for A, but her fashion sense moved on and now she rejects the fabrics we originally chose. However, I gave two or three of these shirts to my sister (who is roughly the same size as my daughter) as I finished them off, so I guess these will have the same fate. I have been looking at my UFO projects that have been languishing for a long time, especially a very nice raw silk blouse for me that only needs the buttonholes and buttons.

My new regime of not being allowed to turn on the computer until I do at least 15 minutes of exercise every day is really working for me. My older daughter has converted me to smoothies this year, and this has increased my fruit consumption a lot. She also adds green stuff like kale to her smoothies, but I haven't tried that yet. It used to be hard for me to eat enough fruit and veg but the smoothies make it easy.

Maybe the drought is driving the squirrels mad, but I have seen them having squirrel fights twice this week. Two of them were having a noisy altercation on the fence today and one knocked the other right off. Turf war? We got the jump on them this year and managed to get most of the apple crop in before they could damage it. I did have one peach on the new little peach tree and those pesky squirrels not only stole it but broke the little branch too.