Horticultural Intervention

I have some really nice and patient neighbors behind me. I'm not the greatest neighbor to have as I don't really take care of my yard like I should. The back yard, while small, is overrun with weeds and ivy and I don't prune my Japanese cherry very often.

It's the tree they were concerned about because it casts a lot of shade on their property. The tree is I think as old as the house if not a decade younger and taller than my house.

So when they mentioned the tree, I was afraid they wanted it taken out. "Oh no," they said. "We just want to trim it so that we can get more sunlight in our yard." They'd do it right, not just hack away at the branches leaving a flat side. They'd do the whole tree for free. All I needed to do is get someone to haul the debris away. No problem. I found a hauler who would do the cleanup and take away the debris.

So this is the before. Overgrown with sports and sprigs growing everywhere.

Now, this is the after. After one big truckful of debris and 3 hours of work. The hauler was quite nice and efficient. It was an excellent opportunity for getting rid of some other yard debris I had in the yard that had been there for a while.

Space! Air! It's going to be a happy tree this summer.

Don't tell me lace isn't addictive.

Someone posted on the Knitting for Sale list the Melanie Shawl pattern by Sharon Miller being up on eBay. Since it's still in print, I didn't think that one could get a good deal on it, but I put a watch on it. Sure enough there were a couple of bidders, but it was still below the exchange rate. So I threw a bid on it and won it! With postage it's a few dollars more than what I would have gotten for it from Heirloom Knitting, but who knows what with air mail postage from the UK to the US if that would have made up the difference. Has anyone knitted it in anything other than the HK Merino Lace? I was thinking the Baruffa FA RE laceweight because that's pretty fine stuff and the HK Merino Lace called for in the pattern is reeeeeally fine stuff. Like fat thread.

In the meantime, I'm working away at the Voyager Lace Stole and liking it and the Berroco Comfort yarn quite a bit. I'm doing it wider than what the pattern calls for but then I'm wider than the model demonstrating the stole.

Have a safe Memorial Day, folks in the US!