Another lost weekend. Laundry, cleaning, organizing. No TV~! well, one DVD. Lots of knitting. I received some yarn in the mail that I ordered on sale 40% cashmere & 60% silk. It was 4 ply and the plys separated easily. I worked a gauge swatch with 2 plys and got a gauge perfect for a sweater that I was interested in making, so I am very happy that I now have plenty of yarn for it. I have also spent a lot of time knitting on my blue variegated tank top. The yarn for that is a fingering to lace weight DMS yarn about 50/50 cotton and acrylic. I really like it and I think that I will use it to make socks in the future.

I hung my laundry on the clothesline this weekend. I really love my clothesline. It brings back my childhood, and it is so much more efficient than my dryer. Not only in energy efficienct, but I also have enough line to hang a few loads of wet clothes and I don't get the backup that comes with having to wait for a dryer load to finish.

I am listening to a lot of audio books these days as well, the real reason I haven't been watching TV. I am so motivated when I can do things and be entertained at the same time. Music does that for some people and I like music, but I love having someone read to me. That takes me back to my childhood as well.....I am spending a lot of time in my childhood lately. Hum???

I read Martha Stewart's blog today about her Chow dying. I sat at my desk and sobbed. I can almost not write about it. The feeling that I will have when Jack dies, or any of my five, but Jack for sure . . . well . . . I can't even describe the pain that shoots through my heart thinking about it. Jack is going to receive way more hugs than he is will want when I get home tonight.

So that's all from Powell Cottage where the tomatoes are looking good and the cotton is high.

Sleep, Glorious Sleep

It will look like there are two entries for June 17th, but actually the "lost weekend" one is from the 16th. Apparently I didn't get enough sleep during my lost weekend, because last night upon arriving at home and after feeding the animals I went to bed. Yep, 6:30pm and I was out I woke up a few times during the night, but I didn't actually get out of bed until 7:00am this morning. I feel great! Really great! Okay my list of to dos for last night got blown out of the water, but I feel great so I don't care. Eeeek! Tonight I will have to double up.

My beloved pups were so patient with me. No one tried to wake me up until around 6:40am. By then tho' they were tag teaming me trying to get me out of bed. Somehow tho' I slept in between each appearance of a new dog upon my chest. I have learned to tell my cockers apart by weight and feel of the coat. I don't even open my eyes anymore if I don't feel like it. Of course the cats start screaming for breakfast as soon as they know I am up. Luckily Hester, Hilda, and Hazel don't start clucking for attention until about 9:00am if I still haven't fed them by that time. They allow me to stay in bed late on the weekends. I would say sleep late, but the dogs see to it that I don't really get any extra sleep on weekend mornings, so staying in bed is just an illusion of extra sleep.

Radish update: My seeds have sprouted. Yeah, vegetable cream cheese is in my near future.

That's all from the well-rested at Powell Cottage.

Lost Weekend

This was a lost weekend for me. It happens many times when the paycheck has been deposited, the errands run and I am left to my own devices. There was a moment when it felt like the early 1960's to me. I had just put some clothes on the line to dry and I was cutting up some pajama bottoms that had ripped irretreivably into soft cotton rags. I remember a time when we did not have paper towels in our house, but instead a drawer of dish towels and in the broom closet a bucket of rags. I remember black and white films in school regarding fire safey that showed containers of oil rags going up in smoke on their own. Now, instead of throwing out old Tshirts, or sending unneeded gifted Tshirts to the Goodwill. I actually cut them up to make rags. I still use paper towels, but I am weaning myself off of them.

I spoke to my Dad on Father's Day, and watched golf on TV. I knitted and cleaned and took care of the garden and the animals. I napped whenever I felt like it and of course threw my schedule all out of whack for Monday morning, today. I am not a very good housekeeper. It is something that I work on all the time. I once had a large house and that was just too much for me, and I once had an efficiency apartment and that was just too small. My house now is small but still overwhelming when it comes to cleaning. It seems like you just get with something and something else has gone terribly awry. Somedays I get depressed about it, but I continue to give myself pep talks, because I think that just barely, inch by inch, I am catching up. I have faith. I will get my house cleaned all at the same time at least one more time before I die. AND. . .if it doesn't happen I probably won't care anymore.

Well, that's all for today from the clean livingroom at Powell Cottage.

Working From My Own Desk

I have a second job. In the evening I enter 4 things to sell on eBay. I know, I know, everyone thinks that this is going to be a gold mine and after a while they are dissuaded of that belief. I have, however, worked through both the ups and the downs of that phase and I am now happily back with my eBay pursuits. I figured out that the second job (that I determined I needed) would probably pay $8 an hour. $32 a night. I am very often able to make $32 a night on eBay and even if I don't the cost of gasoline saved and eating dinner at home allow some leeway on that dollar amount as well.

So, . . . after the dogs have been let out and the cats have been fed and I have changed to my home uniform (shorts and Tshirt) and the garden has been watered, I sit down at my desk and see what needs to be shipped. I used to have on and off spurts of getting my eBay work done, before I came up with my system. You know those medicine dispensers (for want of a better word). The ones that say S M T W T F S on the tops of the individual compartments. I use one to organize and standardize my work. I have 5 small mother of pearl buttons that I put into the compartment for the day I started (again) to enter eBay items. Then as I enter one item I move that button from today's compartment to tomorrows compartment. My rule is I have to do at least 4 a day. I have the 5th button for those days when I get a spurt of enthusiasm. I will do one extra and use that one to make up for the days when I just don't want to be bothered. Unfortunately these days come way to often, but the button procedure keeps me doing my job. How pitiful would I have to be to not enter 4 measly items in one evening (only 3 following a really enthusiastic day).

With this good luck, I get to spend my evenings at Powell Cottage and care for the animals and the gardens. It's a pretty great life!


Have a happy day ~

Carbon and Radishes

Last evening after looking for radishes at the grocery store with no luck. I chided myself and went home and planted radish seeds. It's those moments that make me think harder about my "carbon footprint". That is the first time I have used that term. I have been hearing it everywhere but it has just entered my lexicon. I have a blue kitchen trash can lined with the blue liner that the city allows for recycling pickup and I have the list of allowables taped above the can. Still I find myself going back to the regular trash to grab back some item that I threw out, but which should actually be recycled. I have just started being this dogmatic about recycling. About time! I think.

So radishes, I have tried a method that was mentioned on a podcast called Tales from Terry's Allotment. He grows carrots in a large deep container (I imagine something like a trashcan). They sometimes are feet long rather than inches. I thought that sounded terrific and even tho' it was after carrot planting time in Texas when I heard the podcast I set up a container for myself. I added some nasturtiums for a trial (long spindlely things so far), and that is where I laid out my strips of radish seeds.

Growing your own food...it is so rewarding in so many ways. Cheaper in sooooo many ways!

Well that's all for now from Powell Cottage.

Powell Cottage

Hi, I am Anne. I live in Powell Cottage along with 5 Cocker Spaniels, 2 cats and outside 3 chickens. I have a flower garden and a kitchen garden. I am my family's historian. I am a 3rd or 4th generation knitter. I am hoping that this blog will be a stress reliever. I have always written to relieve stress, but knowing that the world can read your words adds a bit of excitement to it. It is late and this is just my trial entry. So . . .


. . . Goodnight from Powell Cottage