More Not Knitting Pics

I haven't done much knitting lately, so I have to keep this blog going with other pictures for now. Debby and Chris visited on Saturday and we enjoyed viewing some gardens and historic buildings at Prescott Farm. I especially liked the friendly ducks and geese.

Jeff made a couple of new friends.

The ducks were looking for handouts.


The fence inspection squad. I'm sure the geese would love to have a go at the herb garden and strawberries within.


A windmill...or is it a Dalek in disguise?! (Yes, I've watched too much Dr. Who lately!)





Debby and Chris brought us a lovely sunflower for our garden, but I'm keeping it on my kitchen counter for now. It is so bright and cheery!

More Blooms

White Canterbury Bells seem to open a little later than the purple/blue ones.

I have very little yellow in my garden, so these ox eye daisies do stand out in a cheery way.

A detail of fire weed.

I like the bright pink of the rose campion.

I can't think of the name for this one at the moment...can someone refresh my memory? The original seedling was put in, bloomed and then died, but this one popped up about 3 feet away from the original one!

The Shasta Daisies are just starting to open, so I'll have pictures of them soon. The Lollipop lilies just began to open as well.

Pedaling, picnicking and polo...

Summer days are so long and there is so much to do!

Saturday was packed with activities, starting with a 26 mile bike ride at 7am with 3 friends. It was bright and very sunny, but not too hot yet.

After the ride, Jeff and I stopped at Starbucks for refreshing iced coffee, went home and got ready to set out to Colt State Park for a picnic with people from Jeff's job. The food was good and we enjoyed being on the water and watching the boats. There were really cute red-winged blackbirds trying to sneak up to the picnic tables for food, so we had to keep an eye on them. I'm sure they feast very well on all the crumbs there!

After the picnic finished, I realized we'd actually have time to meet up with friends at the local polo match. I was able to reach them on the mobile and Jeff and I rushed to get changed and ready! Jeff got our folding chairs in the truck while I attempted to throw together some snacks. I grabbed a basket, a couple of wine glasses (just from a tasting, nothing precious in case they were to get broken) and a handful of linen napkins. We stopped at the grocery store for pre-cut fruit, mainly strawberries that are so good right now. We also picked up a bottle of chilled wine and beer at the liquor store. On the way, I got it all arranged in the basket! Within 45 minutes we had our snacks, drinks, chairs and were at the polo field with a little time to spare before the match started. The only thing I didn't manage to do was pick a big hat to wear. Oh well!

We found our friends and got our chairs set up together and assessed our snack and drink choices. Between us, we had quite a bit! They had brought gin and tonics, complete with limes! We had such fun!

The local Newport team was playing Scotland. Newport won by just 1 goal. I took some pictures of the action. You can see how fit and muscular the ponies are in this picture.

The flags represent each of the countries that play during the summer.




Half-way through, people walk out on the field to stamp on the divots. There was a bagpipe band and Scottish dancers for entertainment too.

At the end, the riders gallop around the edge of the field and the spectators crowd in to give the riders high fives. There are prizes awarded, including one for the best playing pony.

After the polo, the 4 of us went into Newport to have sushi and talked until the waitstaff were ready to close the place! It was so late when we got home, but we stayed up a bit longer to see the new Dr. Who episode, Turn Left.

A Summery Saturday

I have signed up for my second year of the Tour de France KAL and chosen the yellow jersey. I'll post about my anticipated project when my supplies arrive!

This morning, Jeff and I drove over to Narragansett with our bikes to meet up with a friend for a ride. We began at 7 and had some cool-ish haze/fog protecting us from the full heat of the sun. A raccoon crossed our path at one point. I'm not sure what it was doing out in the daytime! It looked a little wobbly, so we were glad to get past it quickly. You can see on the chart that we did 26 miles at 18.2 mph average.

Later in the day, we had a lot of fun playing with the dogs as they enjoyed the paddle pool.



Saffy has to roll after each dip and several times she got filthy rolling where we burned the brush pile several weeks ago. Jeff had to give her some showers, which she actually seems to like...hmmm...maybe she was getting dirty on purpose?!



Even in the heat, Silas wanted to play fetch.

The flowers could use some rain, but are doing OK for now. There are some peonies and phlox by the house.


In the 'island' bed, the Canterbury Bells are at their peak now.



In the 'butterfly garden' there are so many pretty shades of pink and a bit of blue.


Lastly, I have basically finished Tea Time! I just have to find the right buttons for it. Hopefully I'll have some pics to share with you soon!

Heat Wave

I've officially switched to iced coffee for the summer. Just my usual non-fat vanilla latte, but on ice. Yum! I buy the coffee and vanilla syrup at Starbucks and make them at home.

I wandered around the yard with the dogs this morning taking some pictures of the flowers. The butterfly garden is so chaotic! It's a good thing the butterflies don't seem to care about design ;)

A hardy geranium...

and a detail pic of it too.

The Italian Alkanet is looking a little sparse this year. Actually a number of the plants are and I'm pretty sure it's because of the drought we had last summer. Luckily, I didn't lose any and I'm hoping they will recover their size for next year. Anyway, I love the blooms on this plant. If you click the picture to see the full size, you'll almost be able to get a sense of how iridescent they are, but it's hard for my camera to capture that.

A detail of some of the flowers in the first flower pic above. I really like those pink daisies, Robinson's pyrethrum mix, I think, some of them are more of a dark pink/red. You can sort of see a few of the dark ones in the back of the pic, with the yellow centers. The sort of fluffy looking ones are Knautia, watercolors mix, and the butterflies love them.

There are about a dozen of these poppies now, Princess Victoria Louise, if I'm remembering correctly...

This salvia is a gorgeous shade of blue.

Dianthus, newport pinks.

Centranthus ruber.

The Canterbury Bells are just starting to open. I didn't notice the big daddy long legs spider on it until I was uploading this pic!

I love lamb's ears.

Saffy and Silas have no energy in this hot weather. Though they've been shedding, they still have a lot of winter coat left.

It's not possible to do much in this heat. I've been working on Tea Time and am about 25 rows away from finishing the fronts. At that point, I'll have to seam it and then pick up stitches for the neckline ribbing and the button band.

I've been waiting for late evening to do anything more strenuous. I was glad to get the lawn all mowed last night. It had started to get away from me again, though it seemed like I'd just done it! There was a tiny baby bunny in the yard with a little white spot on its head. I had to get off the mower and herd it to safety. It wanted to just sit still and try to hide in plain sight, but that's a terrible defense against a lawn tractor! I hope it doesn't eat too much of my garden!