HAHAHAHAHA I am too busy

I thought this was going to be a necklace a day week, I would make one necklace a day and post a picture. Silly me. The one I started on Monday is still in my tray..... and I gotta work all weekend. So, here are some picture I took of the County Fair in July.

Fecundity

You know I don't really read books, I just sample them. I am done sampling Agatha Christie's autobiography, and now am on to The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton by Kathryn Hughes. This is of course, about Isabella Beeton, author of the eponymous guide to Beeton's Book of Household Management, popular since 1861.

Anyway, the sentence that has struck me so far is about Isabella's mother, Elizabeth. Widowed at an early age with four children under the age of eight, she remarried a man who also had four children under the age of eight. So, they instantly had eight children under the age of eight. That seems plenty, no?

But no, apparently not. The new couple went on to have THIRTEEN more children, for a total of twenty-one, seventeen of them delivered by Elizabeth. She gave birth to her last child at the age of 47 in 1862. Ouch. That hurts just to think about it. It is amazing that she survived all the births.

And it is especially sad to contrast her with Isabella, who apparently died at age 28, giving birth to her second child. (Note: I haven't gotten far enough in the book to be sure of that...).

I cannot even fathom having seventeen children and four stepchildren. Not at all.

Everyone's doing it

Just after I wrote about my "so called scarf" project, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, yarnstorm, and found that she is making the same scarf. I really like the yarn she is using. It is fun to imagine many people walking the earth with the same scarf on.

Haiku

Autumn has descended upon us seemingly overnight. I was thinking that as I walked my dog yesterday. And, as I thought the words "Autumn Descends" I thought of haiku. How many haiku could I think of relating to autumn? Now, all I know about haiku is the 5 7 5 rule and the general theme of nature. How many different moods could you capture?

Undergraduate:

Fall is upon us
Football games and binge drinking
No more muffintops

Schlocky:

Autumn descending
Leaves turn and fall to the earth
Sunset of the year

Fatalist:

We all will die soon
Just as the leaves and plants do
Dust to dust forever

I guess I won't give up my day job.

Of course, the best writing about fall is by U2:

October


October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care
October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on
And on

Thank you, youtube

Who knows how the brain works? Last week I was opening the refrigerator door when inside my head I heard a few lines from "Corner of the Sky", a song we used to sing in high school. And by "we" I mean people I knew who could actually sing. Maybe someone did it at a talent show, or as an audition for a school musical. Whatever the source, I have always remembered that song. And then it appeared in my head, 24 years after high school. I don't think it was a case of hearing it in a commercial and subliminally forgetting that.

Anyway, thanks to the magic of youtube I was able to find more than one video of the song being sung, so I could sing a long to my heart's content. There was even a NIEHS web site with the music and lyrics for kids to sing along to (my husband wanted to hear "Hi-Ho" from Snow White, go figure). Anyway, only look at these videos if you don't mind the song getting stuck in your head.

Who knew Bo Bice did this song during American Idol?

A really good high school version


Rivers belong where they can ramble,
Eagles belong where they can fly.
I've got to be where my spirit can run free,
gotta find my corner of the sky.

Am I still working on this?

Some time ago I saw the pattern for the "my so called scarf" and decided to make one. I think I had bought some Manos del Uruguay yarn and was looking for a pattern for a scarf. After I saw this pattern, I bought two skeins of Malabrigo, color Violettas, and decided to use that instead.
I knitted up a skein and thought it was long enough so I bound off. Then I decided the back side (on left) was none too attractive and that I needed to use the second skein to make an identical scarf, which I would then sew to the first scarf and have a double thick scarf that was nice on both sides. Unfortunately, I had used up the entire first skein for the first scarf, so I realized that I would need a third skein to have enough yarn to sew up the two individual scarves into one. It took me over a year to get that third skein! I called the LYS where I got the first two skeins to see when they might get more, and they kept saying "Oh, so and so would know, I'll have her call you back" but so and so never did. Finally I bought the yarn over the web.....


And so now I can finally work the second scarf, sew them together, add some fringe, and probably make matching hat. Finally. Next time I will try to plan better.

Oh, and I still have those two skeins of Manos and have not used them either.

Tee hee I forgot this

Some time ago we went to dinner at a restaurant out of town. I took my camera, asI am always on the prowl for good photos. There was not much of interest until I got to the Women's restroom in the restaurant, and I saw this print next to the sink. What a sweet pastoral scene, a young lady learning to fish.


But wait, let's look a little closer. What does that boy have on his mind? Fishing, or a glimpse of black stockings?

The look on his face just makes me laugh. Maybe he just has no eyelids.