What's Going On?

Today I went out at lunch time and bought five different hosta to plant in pots in the garden, they seem to make it through the winters very well.  I have spoken to several people and they all lost their butterfly bushes this winter for some reason.  I guess the combination of rain, snow and freezing did not suit them.  I had three and lost all three.  Some people’s lilacs did OK, but mine did not, and were nowhere near their normal glory.  I also treated myself to a fuchsia; I do love them but have not bought one for several years.  This one is deep purple and deep pink, will hang somewhere near my back door on a shepherds hook.

Last weekend we did yet more cleanups, but really the work in a garden never ends, but I do like it under control.  I just remembered I should have bought cherry tomato plants; I will just have to make another trip.  Jack gave me several plants and they are all in, but no cherry toms and I do like them, plus they produce much earlier.  The little tree rats are sooo bad, known as squirrels.  After I planted flowers in pots on my patio, they were into every pot digging; I had to replant several flowers that had been uprooted and not just once.

I have been working on my crochet skirt to match the circular shawl that I made.  I have started this skirt four times.  The first time I was a long way down, undid that, two nonstarters and now I’m on my fourth try, I think this combination of crochet stitches will work.  Just very plain, will put a scalloped edging around the bottom in a slightly different shade of grey that I have left over from the shawl, if I have enough to go all the way around.  It’s been cool enough that I have felt like crocheting; in fact it’s been cool enough to have the gas fire on.

I am still working on my Japanese flowers, and will make these into a shawl, I have to work out how I am going to do that, I am thinking some kind of green leaves and chains.  I want to get some more yarn in different colours, but will probably have to send away for it as they do not have all the colours that I want at the shop.

I want to de clutter, but need time to do so and that is something in short supply.  I am thinking of the garage and a yard sale.

We just got the second quote in for the furnace and are still waiting for another one, but now we have reached critical mass as the furnace cannot be started at all and we have been without hot water since Saturday.  I told Rob to take a shower at the gym.  Mr. B. and I will have to figure out something soon, let me say we are washing but with hot water heated up in the tea kettle, oh yes, it’s all very primitive.  Thank goodness it is not the middle of winter. 

Still trying to work out with the oil company who disconnected our furnace after looking at it for a routine service and then three weeks later decided to deliver us a whole tank of oil at over $700.00, and they think we need to pay for it, or we are in breach of contract and will have to pay that too, at $400.00.  Mr. B. is working on this.  I told them to come and suck it out.  Does anything in this world make sense?

Still reading Into The Whirlwind and Within The Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg.  I think I like the second book somewhat more.  There is a movie that combined the two books with Emily Watson playing the lead.  I would like to try and find that movie.  Now that is an era where one did not try to make sense of anything, because it was crazy.  One person was bragging to Eugenia that he had the good sense to get caught for embezzlement and given a ten year sentence, in 1935 and if he had waited just another year they would definitely have had him as a political prisoner and sent him to the mines and that would have been far worse than his sentence at the hospital, to go to the mines was a death sentence.  One never knew what to expect in Stalin's Russia.

The Boy bought himself a reconditioned MAC he has been using my laptop all these years.  In fact he wanted the slightly older version because of some video card that was in it and not in the latest version.  He had it for about two weeks, uploads and adds all the short cut keys, when he noticed that the keyboard was not working properly.  So phones Apple and they immediately send out all the packing, including tape for the MAC to be shipped back.  After three days he gets it back, still the same problem, he is very upset.  Phones Apple, they track it and it seems that FedEx never delivered it just sent it back to Rob.  He was happy about that.  So off it goes again to Apple and they put a brand new keyboard in, and something else they thought was not correct and he is now a happy camper.  At least their customer service stands behind the name, which is more than some companies do.

Christy