I was thinking of showing you the progress on the Tulip cardigan. I’ve finished the seed stitch borders all around the body and I’m now edging it with attached i-cord, a first for me — which is good, ’cause one summer goal was to learn some new knitting techniques. Then just the sleeves, the neckband, and i-cord ties. But I decided to wait ’til it’s finished to show you.
Instead, here’s something from my garden, a shrub we put in last year in a difficult spot — poor soil, close to the waterfront altho’ not the first line of defense. It’s been more successful than I could have hoped, this Leycesteria formosa (Himalayan honeysuckle, if you prefer common names), and has reached four feet already of its promised height of six to nine feet (yes, many of us older Canadians still use feet for some things). Apparently, in some locations it can be worrisomely invasive, but my modest Google research suggests it will be okay here on the Coast. Right now, the white flowers “hanging in dense drooping panicles of red coloured bracts” are attracting bees and hummingbirds, but even better, the large purple berries which follow are, according to my 1998 Island Specialty Nursery catalogue (I love this nursery in Chemainus — it’s so great!) “beloved of pheasants.” Now, we used to spot pheasants on our tiny island up until a few years ago — apparently someone introduced them at some point, not sure if it might have been for game or what — even if there were any left, I don’t suppose they’d try to get by my noisy Golden Retriever. But wouldn’t that be fun?
love your new photo of the waterfront! (I’m sure you will have some fellow knitters on here soon)
i hope so — the ring button I’ve signed up for doesn’t seem to be functional yet, but I’ve been de-lurking at some of the sites I love. Not really fair to expect them to check me out when I never have commented there, but I’ll cross my fingers. feel free to tell Britta if she looks at knitting blogs at all.
glad you like the waterfront photo — I wish I could make it a bit smaller, but my skills aren’t up to that — maybe you can help me next time you’re over
Love your pictures too. Also, I’m with you on the feet thing. I think of food measures and distances in metric but I had to put my height and weight on my passport recently and realized I have no idea of my height and weight in metric. Hopefully it won’t hold up my passport application.
have no idea at all what I weigh or how tall I am in metric — not at all convinced the next generation is doing any better either when it comes to those kind of measurements. As for passport applications, I just had to sign one for a six-month-old baby, the daughter of one of Megan’s friends — a passport with a shelf life of five years will have height, weight and picture, no less, of a six-month-old. Hilarious!
and they will have to wait 6 months in line to get it….ha ha