Work In Progress, Damn Rabbits, Milkweed, Audiobooks, and Down with trump

 

Corner to Corner Afghans are fun to make and you can see it grow a bit quicker than you can just knitted side to side.  I'm guessing on when to change color, because I don't have equal amounts of these colors.  The fiber is called Cotton Fleece, 80% cotton and 20% Merino Wool.  So much softer and easier on the hands then I find 100% cotton to be.  I'm using a size 5.5 inch needles.  I have twice as much of the rose as I do the green, and less still of the Robin Egg Blue (according to the label), but too me it looks sorta Turquoise.

This was the start.  I like to start new projects right before a trip whether we're traveling by car or plane, so I don't have a large project on my lap as we travel.  So I started this wee triangle and grabbed the additional colors to pack.  When I took the picture of the progress above I had 174 stitches on the needles and it measured 37 inches wide and 17 inches to the point, and 25 inches on the two sides.  

On a previous trip I had started this corner to corner.  This is heavier yarn, but at the moment I don't seem to have the label to tell you what it is.  I'm using size 8 needles for the heavier yarn.  Funny thing (as it wasn't planned), when I measured this and counted out the stitches, I had 174 stitches on the needle for this work in progress as well.  It however measures 48 wide, 22 inches to the point, and 33 inches on the sides.

Took this additional photo because in the first one you can't really see the color change to the darker variegated.  The current plan, based on the amount of yarn I have is to continue with the darker variegated until what perhaps will be just slightly more than half way and then switch back to the light.  I have 3 large balls of the lighter variegated and 2 of the dark.......so we'll see how it shakes out.

This is bulky yarn.  Quite a bit heavier than the above afghan.  I'm using a size 10 needle for this one.  It was started several trips ago and currently has 150 stitches on the needle and measures 46 inches wide and 29 inches tall.

It's hard to see the colors in the first picture of this ghan, so took a close up of a section of it.  It's much more colorful than the first picture shows.

All of these projects are now deemed home projects as they're too large to comfortable work on in the car or on a plane.  Don't think I'll be traveling again until September, so hopefully I can finish up something here, though I don't tend to work with the heavier yarns much in the summer months.........so we'll see how it goes.

I'm pretty excited my Swamp Milkweed didn't bloom last year but is starting to now.  I had planted two plants last year.  I'm hoping the aphids aren't as bad this year.  I've been told you can wipe them off with a wet paper towel, or just hose them off; but you don't want to do that if you have Monarch eggs on the underneath sides of the leaves.  This is pretty close to the ground and a bit hard for me to get down low enough to check out the underneath sides for little white eggs.

This however is what's left of one of the new Milkweeds I planted this year.  The 5 bare sticks you see is all the rabbits left.  I was checking the garden at 7 am this am and chased 2 rabbits off.  The leaves you see were all scattered and I piled them up for sake of the picture.  There was a tiny start to it flowering yesterday.  I've used pellets, whirl a gigs, and have now purchased those sonic steaks with lights you put in the ground that's suppose to ward off animals.  It doesn't seem to be working.  This has me pretty frustrated.  I don't know if the plant will come back.  If any of you know, please sing out.  I was able to find a u-tube video that showed how to do a root cutting.  One of those 5 bare sticks was taller, so I took a cutting and we'll see if I'm able to get roots and can plant it.

When We Meet Again by Kristin Harmel.  The above picture is a screen shot from Libby while I was listening to this book, the next two images are from Goodreads and Google.  The 3 jackets are very different to my way of thinking.  I don't know which book jacket was designed first, or why there are so many different ones.  I've not run into this before.  I often pick a book by it's jacket and then read the summary.  The first jacket picture to me, best represents this book.  I really enjoy this book about WWII prisoner of war camps that takes place here in the US.  While I knew they existed, I didn't realize how many of them there were.  AND I don't think it's a subject widely known or understood.  It certainly wasn't discussed in my history books back in the day........but then I'm old as dirt, so perhaps it is in the books now?

The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos.  Another WWII story of hardship, loss, and love even well after The War was over.  It helps you realize though times were very hard, and lots of people couldn't be trusted; they were some folks who did not loose their souls.  I recommend you put this on your list.

The Day The World Came to Town by Jim Defede.  LOVED this book.  I knew about airplanes landing in Gander Canada due to 9-11....I'm sure we all do; but this book shares so much more.  I didn't realize how many planes landed there, or the huge number of people they took care of.  The incredible opening of their hearts to help people they didn't know out.  Truly heartwarming.  Reading this knowing how truly disgusting trumpie has been to our good neighbors to the North is heartbreaking.  Heart Breaking.  PLEASE put this on your list.

The Big Lie by Jonathan Lemire.  I've read soooooooo many books about this disgusting excuse of a man on so many fronts.  This book focuses on his continual lying about winning the 2020 election.  Lots of details we've maybe only heard bits and pieces about.  The Big Lie actually started back in 2016 when he laid the ground work as he was expecting to loose to Hillary Clinton, and should have....probably would have had Comey not pulled a last minute run around.  Sadly, his first mention of the Big Lie started at a rally here in my home state of Ohio.  GROAN!!  Though I've read many books about this man, his corruption before and during the election process, I still think it's important to read as much as one can about this CONVICTED CRIMINAL.

Though I saved this to my computer before Pam Bondi got fired, it still seems worth sharing.  She is complaisant in hiding the Epstein Files and protecting donnie john and all the other Pedophiles.  How any woman can betray other women/girls/kids like this is beyond me.  I hope she ultimately goes to jail for failure to do her job.  Her job was NOT to be trumps personal lawyer; but that's what she was.

Good Businessmen do not loose money on a cassino.  

All our tax dollars being spent on this diversion of trumps, because the Iran war hasn't been enough of a diversion to get people to stop talking about and investigating the Epstein files.  This meme showed up in my knitting group.  The caption was something sure hope she's not using her good scissors.  Anyone who knits, crochets, sews etc will know the importance of their "good" scissors.

Sherbet Colored Baby Blanket, and Politics Galore

 

Leia's blanket is coming along, a bit slower than I might like; but I tend not to knit as much in warm weather.  The colors remind of sherbet.  The bright pink section I'm working on will be the main section, then I'll repeat the mint green, bright pink, light pink for the edge.  It currently measurers 13.5 inches by approimately 40 inches wide.  I can't quite lay it out without the risk of losing stitches off the ends of the needles.

These books aren't listed in any kind of order, I just collected up the pictures of the political books I've read since posting any previously.

14 Hours of Audio.  Watergate, Deepthroat, Nixon's downfall.  A best seller, and a Pulitzer Prize winner.  I did not read this book at the time.  Actually my wedding day and the Watergate break in occurred on the same day.  I was too self absorbed to pay much attention to this at the time.  But, thought it was important to read/listen to now as a point of comparison.  Nixon was a crook, and a liar; but sorta looks like a choir boy compared to trump. 

12 Hours in the audio book.  This book details the hot mess that exsisted during trump's administration.  The temper tantrums, the last minutes changes in decision.  And how erratic the decision making process was handled in The Oval Office, In The Residence, On AirForce One, and even The Situation Room.  His staff would go into a meeting thinking he had made a decision and then he would change his mind, often as a means to embarrass a member of his staff.

I found this book absolutely fascinating!!!  What an accomplished woman.  She was involved in so many levels of politics her entire life, not just her adult life.  I listened (14 hours audio) to this as her retirement was announced.  It just seemed like the thing to do.

7 hours of audio.  Rumsfeld, Chaney, and Bush lied over and over again to the American people, and to congress about the state of affairs with regard to Iraq.  They refused to pay head to detailed reports about how failed the invasion of Iraq was.  How many lives were lost unnecessarily?  How much money was spent?  The infighting between those that hungered for power is also exposed in this book.

6 hours of audio.  This book focuses on Alexander Butterfield, an aid with far too much power.  He knew about the secret tapes that blue things apart for Nixon.  You can see how obsessed Nixon was with secrets and deceptions.

14 hours of audio.  Beyond a scary time, the end of trump's administration and the beginning President Biden's.  So much at stake, the most dangerous time in US history.  Woodward and Costa interviewed over 200 people to write this book.

11 hours of audio.  Much of this book seems like a repeat of many things you've already read about and or heard in the news; but to hear these tapes with trump's own voice, and all his dis-jointed sentences...run on, and or actually not sentences.  His ramblings, his utter lack of decency in all forms is beyond the pail.  

These important books total 78 hours of audio!!  That's a lot of political jazz, but it seemed to me to be truly important to read/listen to them all.  So much deceit, so many lies, so much corruption.  I really shouldn't include the book about Nancy Pelosi in this group, but since I was grouping the political books together; I did.

I've been doing yard work, going for walks, and trying to keep up with my planks.  I've not done well with trying to do any yoga, and I'm not knitting as much these days.  The hours just seem to slip by.