what I've been up to

I'm currently on summer break from school... a very much needed break too, let me tell you. I've been taking my time to relax and do fun things.

I've been gardening, although the weather has been odd this entire growing season and most everything has gone impossibly awry. The corn was decent but could have been better if the spring hadn't had schizophrenic weather (hot, cold, hot, cold), which stunted its growth. And we had good tomatoes for only about three weeks when it should have been almost two months. The peppers have been *tiny* (bells 2"x3"), even with fertilizer. The okra, which we were overwhelmed with last year with half as many plants, has only been trickling in. The eggplant did well early on, but are having problems now with insects and spiders just not buggering off. And worst of all, the roses are all plagued with black spot, even with weekly spraying, because of the late afternoon rains and lingering humidity (usually this is not a problem until late August). I lost one of my rugosas to it... Lucky for me, I got 5 seedlings off of it before it had to be axed. With more luck, by next year at least one will have survived and I can replace the lost one without having to buy a new one. Pray the rain comes when it should be coming this time of year, the early afternoon, so things won't continue to get worse.

I've also been knitting like a mad fool. I've done a baby blanket, three pairs of booties and three hats for my cousin who is expecting her third in October. I've also already finished several Christmas presents. I'm currently working on a lace shrug for myself, a pair of socks for my mom (my first socks!) and an afghan. And of course, my yarn stash grows by the week no matter how many times I've resolved not to buy more. (I can't help it! Yarn keeps going on sale...)

My friends and I see a movie every weekend. This last weekend we saw "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I liked it although it was darker than the first movie version. I could definitely see Tim Burton's hand in it. And his other movie, "The Corpse Bride," will be out in September. I'm not sure I'll see that one or not. "Nightmare Before Christmas" scared the bejezzus out of me and still does if I watch the whole thing, and to be frank, "The Corpse Bride" looks like it would freak me out even more. Very, very macabre. I would definitely leave the kids at home... If I had kids anyway...

Now I need to figure out how to publish photos on here...