Sundazed

Warning: this post is 100% free of new-baby (or old-baby) photos. If you want to see the latest and greatest, you can click on my Flickr badge and/or go to D5's blog and click on her Flickr badge.
I'm not boycotting baby pictures, but I thought it might be nice to have some thing else for a change.

Like this:


Which is the yummy and very very lemon-y bundt cake that D4 made for D5's birthday. We sort of have a world-class collection of Bundt pans; this one is tulips, in case you didn't recognize them. The glaze is especially lemony--nothing like stepping outside and picking lemons right off the tree! (Hey, they hang over on our side of the fence, so we're allowed. Besides, when Uncle Eddie* planted the trees, he said it was so my little kids could have fruit.) The recipe is here if you want to try it.
Let's see. How about some camellia shots? The white one on the side of the house is in full bloom now and oh, so pretty. Most white varieties bloom early, I think, at least when we'd be scrounging for white flowers in Feb. for the Camellia Festival floats, we could never find very many.

Don't know the name of t his variety, or if it's one that was hybridized by the nurseryman who built our house.
It's a pretty one, though!


I love the way the big buds open up. I like the dainty camellias, and the singles, but the big ol' peony-flowered ones are my favorites.

Does this look like November to you?
Yeah, not to me, either.
We're getting another bloom out of the Transvaal daisy that D1 had sent to her grandfather back in April. I took it home, repotted it, and it's been sort of muddling along quietly since then. All of a sudden, this week it's burst forth with a couple of huge blossoms. I think that when I redo the yard, it will go into the ground. Plants like this that have been "forced" into bloom often take a while to revive and thrive, but it looks as if this one has decided to make it. It's a nice reminder of a very sweet man. (Yes, and my very sweet daughter, too!)
Can't go too long w ithout showing this off. It's Yarn Pirate's gorgeous superwash merino, in a special overdyed colorway she calls Merlot. In person it's a little wine-ier and a lot more red, and it's soft and nice. I am thinking shawl--ET ordered two skeins, so that's 960 yards, which ought to be enough to make a respectable shawl.
Yes, I have some Lenore from BMFA, one of the Raven colors. There are some pretty significant differences in the two... and I love them both. I seem to be on a dark-red kick lately, and I'm hoping that I will be able to get it all knitted up without getting really tired of the color! Nah... that won't happen!

This interesting jumble needs some TLC. It's an ebay purchase, 9 skeins of Bartlettyarns 2-ply in a creamy color. I think it will be enough for an aran sweater. This is one of ET's more "stellar" purchases: I was making a square for NETA, if you recall, and ran out halfway through. So ET got helpful and bid on this auction for what she THOUGHT was 2 skeins of the same yarn. Nope. Not the same yarn, and not just 2 skeins, either--although, with shipping, the total cost was under $17 which is almost stealing for yarn of this quality. There is definitely work for my swift and ball winder in the near future! While perusing ebay, ET ran across this: Rowan Yorkshire Tween 4-ply in Desiccated. Used double, this ought to be a good worsted-weight-equivalent, don't you think?

The final bit of ET shopping included this loverly Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a very pale apricot color. I think this will be very becoming to Audrey and also to any hypothetical cousin-to-be or future sibling.

Okay, off to commune with the ball winder and swift and that cream-colored yarn. Otherwise, the furry ones will be nesting in it. I've already caught them eyeing it...