Number 9 needles and my personal best

I'm going on a art retreat next month and all I wanted to do was take my camera out into the Dayton desert and try to find some wild mustangs to photograph. But sometimes you have to do things that aren't on the top of your list, in order to have a consensus.  Our group is a wonderful and agreeable group of woman that are all very talented in many different ways. So we always try to do things that everyone is in agreement with.
Case in point...
Our art group (SCAT) meeting was here at my place last week. We had decided, early on, that a fun project for the retreat would be a felted hat with a felted flower and a pair of felted slippers.  We would make the hat and slippers ahead of time and teach everyone how to felt them and make more felted flowers for those who hadn't been to the meeting where we learned to make them.
As for knitting slippers... I though it would be fun, but not ever having followed written knitting directions before... I was very intimidated . I had only done scarves and flat, straight knitting.
These slipper directions are a real learning curve. These directions called for RS, LS, SSK, and K2tog. They wanted me to "kl,ml,knit and stop before last stitch, ml, kl" one way and purl the other.

Then the writer tried to introduce some humor with, "Ready?... let's go. ( Make two).

Of course... make 2... it's a PAIR of slippers.
And then there were the (parentheses) with snappy little insider comments.
 I started one slipper at the meeting and got off to a pretty good start. I had two friends that not only knew how to knit well... they also finished their pair of slippers already.
I decided on the yarn I would use and mixed three LION brand wools together so I could achieve "bulky" status, which I needed, to felt these slippers when I was done knitting them. I still maintain a "STASH" of yarn, even though I haven't done any knitting in over two years. The yarn is in three containers out in the garage. You never know when the knitting bug will hit. You have to be prepared. I'm probably "prepared" for the rest of my life.
On Wednesday, I was doing really well. I had support. Both ladies were patient and understanding. I was surprise how much I did remember from a few years ago, when I went a little crazy with the "knitting scarves and felting them" portion of my life. Some of it is like riding a bike... the basics come back... BUT... The ladies went home.
That was last Wednesday. I'm still on my first slipper and today was a hard core bad word day. It was a "Should'a called someone" day. But I didn't. I guess it was pride. I don't know.
I finally went to my Knit Aid book for abbreviations.

 SSK was not there.

So I went on line.

Here, I found a woman with brown fingernail polish to go with her orange yarn, explaining how to skip,skip, knit (SSK) and how to knit two stitches together (k2tog), how to increase and decrease and what the right side (RS) of the knitting looks like. Wow! I love the Internet.
So I continued under the tutelage of the lady with the brown nails and learned all kinds of stuff.
I also went to the Tiny Owl Knits site that makes the pattern for these "moonkoosa boots". It's a fun site and this is the link... for you.     (The gray slipper on the top left of the website is the one I'm knitting.)

I love the yarn colors I'm using. 

By tonight, I am almost finished with one slipper. I've found that I'm very good at decreasing... but awful at increasing. Could be that I'm knitting right handed and, even though I can do a lot of things with both hands, I'm basically left handed. It's a good excuse anyway.
So... My next step is to repeat rows 1 and 2 until I have decrease down to 4 stitches(sts.) and then there's another page telling me how to put this "boot" together.
I may not be leaving this computer all night.

It's a matter of achieving a goal... like the athletes in the Olympics... which I watched from beginning to "closing ceremony" end... which was wonderful... and made me realize that, with training and talent, you can do just about anything.
EVEN when you think you can't.
There were some tears this afternoon... and that's when I went for the chocolate in the freezer...  I do know what comforts and motivates me.
I'm buying a wool hat from someone who knitted more than one hat... just for the fun of it. Imagine that! She loves making them. I can only take so much of this endurance knitting, so I opted for a homemade, already done, knit hat.
Because... I'm almost out of chocolate.

I will post my slipper/boots when I'm done with them. Any mistakes will be felted into oblivion.
I figure I may come in about 7th or 8th in this boot competition. I won't "metal", but it's about the accomplishment... and endurance... and my personal best.

Yarn Wonderland and Fiber Lust

This unassuming little store is call The Yarn Boutique. It's in Lafayette, California. They still called this area La Fiesta Square. If you have ever been to Lafayette you will remember that this is one of the older shopping areas.The store is in the back of the parking lot near a creek.There is ample parking nearby.
This yarn store is like falling into the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland.
I was Alice and I fell into a wonderland of yarn and fiber.

Oh my! You can hardly walk around the aisles. The place is filled to the brim with every yarn that you can imagine... and equipment... and books.. and needles.. and spinning stuff... and ... more yarn.
It is an over-abundant haven ("heaven")... for the obsessed.

And BUTTONS... thousands of buttons.

Samples of completed yarn patterns are everywhere, so you can see what the yarn looks like knitted into a child's sweater or socks..
... or a scarf.

... and baskets of roving sold by the ounce.
But then, as a White Rabbit ran between my legs (It might have been a cat.), I saw the yarn of my dreams.

It's called NORO yarn.
I'm sorry, truly I am.  I bought something that was not Made In America, but there is nothing like this made here in the states. If you know of a good local alternative... comment.... I'm all ears.
I don't think that the sheep care whether they are in Japan or California as long as they are feed everyday.
I know, I know... that's not the point.
I will try harder. I will have more restraint when I'm not so in love with all of this.

Each hank was $10. for... oops, I can't read the wrapper. I think it's a 50 gram ball. Which means (if my calculations are even close) that you have about one hundred nine yards of yarn to knit with.
I bought two balls of this. Noro is 100% wool. The description says Kureyon. I don't see a color name on the tag but there are specific blends in different shades and they are all unbelievably beautiful.

Since I've been home I have taken some photos of the yarn and some of the roving that I bought.

This is the Noro yarn, above. This weekend I finished crocheting  a scarf using the yarn and tomorrow I will felt it.
I will do a post, with photos, on the methods to my madness Tuesday.

I also bought some Merino Hand Dyed Spinning Fiber. for my Nuno felting .
The store had so many lovely blends of colors, but I loved this one.
It's called FOREST.
It goes with my livingroom.
I may just leave it on the side table until I use it.
It's like a magical gift waiting to be opened.

This is called Anzula fiber. Please, look at this up close...

 I know that I get kind of goofy about this stuff but... LOOK AT IT. It's SO beautiful!


Anyway, I have just finished crocheting a medium length scarf with the Noro yarn and, if my shrinkage calculations are good, I will have a really nice felted  neck scarf for... a Christmas present.
Stay tuned...

***************
The Yarn Boutique is at 963 -C, Moraga Rd. Laffayette, CA.
 The customer service is great and the prices are reasonable.  They wind your yarn for you and the owner's are helpful and very nice.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Alaskan Camper

Bachelorette week is over. I'm solitary today. I was actually just me yesterday too, but stayed in touch with my friend, who left in a rainstorm early Wednesday morning. We called each other, back and forth, as she traveled  back to her home in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

This is a photo of the mountains to the east of her house. I took it last summer when I visited her.

  I love cell phones. I was able to follow her drive back to Montana. What would we do without cell phones. They are the 911 where are you?, I need help!,  drive carefully, stay connected, electronic wonder of this century. I was able to follow "D" back to her home where I finally got an email saying that she had built a fire, fixed a cup of tea and tucked herself back into her wonderful place in the northern reaches of Montana.

It only took her two days to get home. She drove to the Columbia Rive,r in eastern Oregon, the first night and all the way home on Thursday. That's what I call burning rubber.
I am left with great memories of her visit and a bit of a mess to clean up before The Prospector comes home from his fishing trip because we had fun while he was gone.
Look at this.. I have until tomorrow to make room for eating food at the table again.

We shared ideas. She showed me stuff on my sewing machine that I didn't even know about. She fixed the needle on my machine. She taught me how to use a cutting board and a rotary cutting tool.
I taught her how to knit..

And how to felt the knitting... which, when accomplished, she promptly cut up and made a bag for her new Panasonic HD camcorder. 

The knitted felt (on the left) became a bag for her camcorder and the colorful felted fabric on the right was the first piece I had her do (with fleece) so she could learn the felting process, by hand, from scratch. The knitted piece was felted in the washing machine. I forgot to take a picture of the finished bag but it was really nice. It will protect her camcorder in her purse.
I had some Lion's Fisherman's Wool yarn in my stash, so we used it. I love this yarn. It's easy to knit or crochet with and comes in wonderful earthy colors. It "felts" like a dream.
"D" knitted two different colored yarns together to make a strong, beautiful piece of felt that would protect the camcorder. She cut gussets and sewed them in as side panels wrapping the main piece around and letting it overlap the bag as a flap. Then, she sewed it all together. She designed the whole thing to fit her camcorder. She even calculated the shrinkage carefully, measuring both the pre-felted knitting and the felted pieces. That's a nurse for you. She didn't want to go to all that work and not have it fit perfectly. IT DID!
I can see where the exactness comes from. She does quilting.... and her profession is Nursing.
Preciseness is her middle name. No Wabi Sabi woman is she.
Her husband, the mountain man/hunter gatherer will be wanting a vest or socks for his winter camping trips when he sees her newly learn skills.


So we spent the week knitting, talking and laughing about our lives and how differently they turned out than what we imagined when we were young.
We ate out a couple of times. I made bread pudding for dessert. She showed me how to make a meal out of a baked potato with a little bit of hamburger or... in her case, bear.. or rabbit.. or fish or whatever you can cook up on a campfire in the middle of nowhere. She adds lots of onion, tomatoes (we had plenty of these.) , cheese, sour cream and whatever you like. It's a meal all in one. Add a salad and WOW! Yummy good.

She brought this wonderful dog from Montana too. Her name is Wanda. She's an Australian Shepherd. A very, sweet and gentle dog. She's a senior citizen like us and is almost deaf. I loved this dog.
Wanda has one brown eye and one blue eye.

Wanda loves "D"...

That's a smile on Wanda's face when she looked up after being touched by "D". It's the way that "D" gets Wanda's attention. This is a very well trained dog. "D" husband hunts with Wanda and she can almost read  facial expression and maybe even lips. She's a very intelligent dog.
She also let this happen... without getting upset.

Wanda put up with Carl wanting to be in "D"s lap every time she sat down. Cutter (right) tried to usurp Carl's position but did his antsy puppy thing and didn't stay in the lap very long.
Actually, things went really well with the three dogs. Only one time did they argue over some hamburger and that was my fault. We will just leave it at that.
Suffice it to say... Wanda defended herself. Carl was his usual " I want it and no one else is going to get it.".. a typical CORGI attitude. They all got a TIME OUT.

One evening we drove to the Mokelumne River... but mostly we stayed home because I was taking care of the farm chores while The Prospector was Fishin' and we couldn't go too far away.
So we watched the Bluebirds,

worked on our projects and "D" got to meet some of the "locals"...

A baby rattler greeted us on our way back from lunch one day. The first one I have seen all summer.
How nice of it to show up for visitors.
It was very small and didn't even have rattles yet... but no less dangerous.
We got out and took some pictures, then with "D"s help (she watched from outside the car), I drove over the snake careful so I wouldn't run over it. It didn't want to move off the road and when a Rattler doesn't want to move... you don't argue with it.
This was the first day of "D"s visit ( last Friday) and the Prospector was still home. This is how the conversation went when we got up to the house.
Me: "Guess what we just saw down at the switchback in the middle of the road? A baby Rattler."
Husband: " Did you kill it?"
Me: "No. I don't like to kill them. You know that. It was just a little thing."
Husband: "Little ones grow into big ones. How far down?"
Me: "It's probably gone by now."
Husband: "Remember the prints in the dirt on the switchback? The big one probably has a den down there."
Me: "Well, it was so little and pretty. We just didn't want to kill it."
Husband: "Good grief."
Then he left with a shovel, a gun and a bag. Talk about overkill. When he got back he said it was gone. He couldn't find it anywhere.
I said, "Too bad.", but secretly I was OK about it. Even Rattlers have got to have a place in life. Besides, we have been very lucky this summer not having any Rattlesnakes around here. It would be bad Karma to kill a baby if the Mother was watching from the grass. Wouldn't it?

So "D' and her vintage Alaskan camper headed back to Montana on Wednesday morning.
Carl and Cutter are back to being as relaxed as Corgis can be and the house is kind of picked up. The weather has turned really cold at night.

"D" and I have plans to take a road trip together next summer. She has a daughter near Seattle and we're thinking maybe Vancouver Island, or British Columbia, or the Washington coast would be a good place to see.

I miss you, my friend. The miles are many but the years are going by with warp speed. We have started this summer tradition of spending time together. It's a good custom that we need to continue until we can't... until the fat lady sings... until the "Deadly Donkey falls from the sky".*
We can choose to live the way we wish to live during these remaining years and I for one want to go out enjoying the moments and making choices. We know this don't we? We have had this discussion.
Years ago I bought this card.

I've kept it because it always reminds me that living is a not just a gift handed to us by our parents, it's a path, a way of seeing... and choices.
Being aware of "The Deadly Donkey" makes us pay attention. Not "the sky is falling" kind of attention, but the kind of awareness that gives one courage and the bravery needed to continue on... in a good direction.
See you next summer...
or anytime really...
you're always welcome, here,
but definitely next summer...
A new adventure.
We will continue to dodge the donkey...
Or Grizzly bear.. depending on where we go.
Keep in touch.
*************************
*The Deadly Donkey is one of the interesting thoughts of
Edward Monkton, Oxford, UK
Copyright 2004

A Busy Weekend and a Memorial Day Moment

FRIDAY: 
My friend "J" and I went to Placerville. We hit one of the biggest Thrift stores in Placerville.

 Snowline Hospice is the biggest Thrift store I've think I have ever been in. It's clean and well organized with very reasonable prices. We were in THRIFT STORE HEAVEN for hours.
Then we got hungry. I don't know Placerville very well and "J" does, so I asked her to pick a nice place for lunch. It would be my treat for her birthday and we were celebrating. So we went to
THE SEQUOIA.

This is a beautiful restaurant. It's a very old house that has been restored. If you like ghost stories you can read about this mansion and its strange happenings here. 
The food was delicious. After lunch we hit another thrift store. 
This is what you will need....

These were all my wonderful "finds".

The LEATHER purse, the wool sweater and the shirt were $3.50, $3.00 & $3.00. All the other things were $1.00 each. Oh, sorry.... the little frame with a hand painted picture in it was only $.50 
I looked up that cup on an antique site and found it for sale. They were asking $25.00 for it. I just love it when that happens. My thrifty heart just starts pumping more blood and I get a warm fuzzy feeling all over. Do bargains do that to you too?
We had a great day. The weather was beautiful and cool. The drive on highway 49 was wonderful. Everything was green and the rivers were full.
*********************
SATURDAY:
This was my "yucky" day. The day of eating cookie dough and seeing angry Gerbera Daisys. Maybe I "thrifted" too much the day before.
The grand babies were suppose to come up here. They were bringing Mommy and Daddy with them and staying overnight but they called and said that they had a change of plans.  Too much work and not enough time. We understood... Boo hoo! We made plans to go to Micky's Grove in a couple of weeks. Life gets busy when you have kids, jobs and a house to take care of. I remember this well. It's OK. I will see them next weekend. I'm going down to my sister's tomorrow and I will be there until  next Sunday.
So Saturday was a bust. The only good thing was that I finished knitting my "Andalusian" wool scarf and went to bed early. 
**************** 
SUNDAY:
I slept until 9:00 a.m. This is just strange. Got up and had some coffee. Took a shower and The Prospector says, " Did you remember that we are going to Ione?' 
I kind of thought that he might change his mind. I should know better. When it comes to TRAINS, TRACTORS,AUTOMOBILES or the acquisition of GOLD I should never ASS/U/ME that he will forget or change his plans. We were going to take the kids to see the train show in Ione. This show is called the Ione Railfair and Vintage Motorfest. It's sponsored by the Historic Amador Central Railroad Assoc.
The Prospector still wanted to go,so we got in the car and drove down to Ione, about a 20 minute drive west of Jackson. to see the show.
This was a bigger show than I expected. You can see the website here. There were all kinds of antique farm machinery, a few classic autos like a great old fire truck.

...and a model train exhibit.

A beautiful Wells Fargo Wagon that I got to sit in and someone took my picture in it. 

I'm waving from the window. It was very elegant. Wish it had been hitched to some horses. What fun it would have been to really ride in it. There were no windows... just canvas rolls that could be lowered to protect you from the elements. I imagine that this was not enough to keep the hot, cold , dusty and windy weather from making the trip unpleasant but it was better than nothing and, back in the day, folks probably thought this was innovative . Still, what an experience it would have been and it sure would have beat walking.
We found out that the tickets for the Speeders, the individual rail cars that give rides, were sold out. This is a 20 mile trip in one of these motorcars that travels on the old railway back up toward Jackson. This was the first time that they had ever been SOLD OUT. Now I was glad that the grand boys weren't with us. They would have been so disappointed.
 We decided to go on the Skagit Motorcar. This is a 30 minute ride for $3.00  This was like a taste of the longer trip so we boarded the SKAGIT. 

This was fun. We had a very informative engineer who told us a lot about these rail cars. This motorcar transported the railroad workers to jobs on the rail lines. It was very noisy and clickity clackity, but the scenery was beautiful and I saw parts of Ione that I hadn't seen before. When we came to one of the highways, two of the men got out and stopped traffic so we could cross the highway safely.
The driver reversed the car and we returned to the "station", which was really the Ione Junior High School.
We had lunch and bought some Kettle Corn to take home. 

Then we looked at all the old farm and railroad machinery. 

The Prospector found just what he was looking for but it wasn't for sale. Darn! He's been talking tractors every since.

Here are some prices for travel in that fancy Wells Fargo buggy in 1867.

Which one is the model and which is real.? Top left is a little tiny model of a lumber hauler. I thought that was a cool way to show how detailed the models are. The "logs" are small branches.
Finally the "Speeders" came back from the morning trip. We watched them all come into the "Station". 

Each one was unique. Each one is privately owned. They all belong to a club that does these trips on many different tracks that aren't being used by Railroad companies anymore. They maintain the tracks and clean up the litter along the line. Everyone looked like they were having a great time.
We watched them arrive and then we drove home.
Did you know this?

Next year we will bring the Beans (our grand kids) and get here early. I just know they would love going for a ride on these "Speeders".... and the "big kids" too. That would be their Daddy and Papa. This is like" riding the rails" without all the danger... just fun.
We got home and the dogs joined us in the living room for a nap.
Later in the evening we went over, with some cookies, to met our new neighbors. Actually not "new" but this is another story for another time.

Monday:
Today I stayed home. 
The Prospector drove up to met his brother in Pine Crest, to check out their campsite for their big week this summer. It's tradition. They always go up there to see where the site is that they have reserved..... to see how many vehicles, boats, trailers and tents they can squeeze into the space. 
They said that it was cold today. There was snow on the ground up in Pine Crest.... and  I think there will be snow there all summer. It's never going to stop this year. The fish will be frozen to the bottom of the lake all year. 
But, Oh the excitement. It's something to look forward to. It's tradition. 
I stayed home and cleaned the house, or should I say, the dog hair. Are your animals shedding. OMG! The hair is everywhere. 
Then I felted my "Andalusian" scarf. I bought this old wash board and it has come in so handy for felting.
Rub, rub, rub!! This took about 20 mins. of hot soapy water and rubbing with my hands, another 15 mins. of scrubbing on the washboard and then a few more minutes of hand rubbing. I rinsed it in cool water until all the soap was gone. 
I could feel it tightening up.  I love the feeling of the yarn going from limp and loose to heavy and strong. It's so satisfying. There's something so organic and magical about this process.

It turned out great. I stretched it, shaped it and left it to dry out on the porch.  Now I have to put some buttons on it or crochet some flowers.... or embellish it somehow.

 All day I was thinking about a boy named Barney Boyer. He was a year behind me in High School.  He was killed in the Viet Nam War in 1965. I don't know why I thought of him. I didn't know him well, but he was someone I knew who died in a war.... fighting for our country.... no wait.... not for his country. He was fighting to help the South Vietnamese against the NVC.  We were there to support South Vietnam. To fight the spread of Communism.
  Barney was probably about 20 years old. Do you think he really understood all the political implications?. I wonder...
What is a life worth? I want to say that he died in a "just" war, but I still don't think that we did the right thing over there in Viet Nam. We left the country too soon..... or maybe we should never have gone over their in the first place. But , I know one thing for sure. Barney Boyer died and he was just a boy.


I wore my POW bracelet today. It reads Maj. Henry Serex- 4/2/72.  I was 29 years old. I was pregnant with my second child.  This bracelet was my effort to support a war that I really didn't understand. When I look at this bracelet it reminds me that war is Hell on Earth and that there has got to be a better way. Don't you think so too?

Click on any of these photos to enlarge them. 
Talk to you in a week or so..... 

 

Buttons, buttons... Who's got the buttons?

On Friday, when I almost ended my gardening career by doing too much outside, I finally came in for lunch.

Don't you just love it when you have really good left-overs? My husband has been fishin' on the Mokelumne a few times a week. It's kind of a competition to see who gets the biggest fish from the middle of the Middle Bar Bridge. It seems that you can't fish from the edges of the river because it's.... well, I'm not sure why.... but you can't. The water flows into the Pardee Reservoir. It's water shed at Middle Bar. You can't swim there either... naked or otherwise. He always seems to get some of the biggest fish from the bridge though and he always, well almost always, bring dinner home after a day down at the river.

This is fresh trout and cut up asparagus with some Balsamic dressing on it.
Dinner the night before was served hot, without the dressing. Now I was enjoying it a second time, cold, for lunch. That's what I call yummy leftovers. The dressing is just olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.
The Prospector had gone downtown and picked up the mail on the way back. There was a pink slip in it for me. You know.... the little slip of paper that tells you they couldn't get the package into the mailbox so you have to retrieve it at the local Post Office?
I was too pooped from gardening so I waited until Saturday to drive down and retrieve my package.
Well, on Saturday, I picked it up and look at this....
I knew right away who it was from....

My friend, Jan from Little Pink Houses, that I went to Benicia with recently, had sent a rather large package to me. She and I have a long standing debate about MONKEYS.
I don't care for them. She does.
I think they are kind of scary. She thinks they're "CUTE".
So what does she do.... one time  she sent me monkey slippers. This is the kind of friend that stretches the boundaries of friendship just a bit too far. IT'S always got to be about MONKEYS.
Anyway.... I saw this remark on the package and I knew it was from her..... well, by the return address too. She said " no monkeys" but you have to be careful with some obsessed monkey lovers, so I opened it very carefully.
AND WHAT IS THE FIRST THING I SEE?

Yes, she just had to give me pause for thought.
I lifted the paper up carefully. NO Monkeys in the box. Just two lovely paper bags, tied with pretty wrapping string..

that were filled with BUTTONS.

Look at all the wonderful buttons, medium to large, to very large. All very vintage and lovely.

Like this one that is 2 1/2 inches in diameter. and when you hold it up to the light it turns brown and translucent.

Or this one that's so "art nouveau" pretty.

Or one that looks like wood.

I love all of them and can't wait to used them on purses or scarves that are in the making.
Then at the bottom of the box was a great big red plastic ornament. Can you guess what this is for? What I will do with it?

I put it out in the garden to take a picture of it. Pretty isn't it?
When the Prospector found some ruins of an old house near the river a few months back he brought me some broken pieces of old china and a little glass bottle. Do you remember the sweet little bottle? I did a post on it.
  Jan said that I should learn how to do mosaics with all the broken pieces. She has done some and they are beautiful. Then she told me  that she found a plastic ornament at, I think, the Dollar Store that she was going to cover with old broken pieces of china. I thought that was such a cool idea. Well, she sent me this big plastic ornament to cover with old china or mirror.... or glass. Last night I looked up how to do mosaics on eHow.com and now I have directions to transform this red orb into a thing of beauty.
They were no Monkeys in the box ... not even a small one hiding in a corner. But, what a box of goodies.
Now all I have to do is finish this....

 I'm making a purse out of an old sweater. It will look like this (below) when I get all the felted pieces together...

I've had such fun with it but I have this bad habit of getting the pieces together and then not finishing what I'm working on.  Like wanting someone to finish cleaning up my mess in the garden, I would like someone to finish this purse for me. I know... FINISH WHAT YOU START, GIRL!.
I love the flowers on the front.

I think I might just put one of Jan's buttons inside the flowers. What do you think?
I haven't attached any of this to the purse yet so I'm open to suggestions.
I have also mastered the "Andalusian" stitch in my knitting and will be felting this scarf soon. This scarf will need a nice big button or two on it for decoration. 

I'm using Lion Brand Fishermen's wool in Maple Tweed. I can't wait to finish it and felt it. This will be a long skinny scarf  that you can wrap around your neck a few times.

But I may put it on hold until I finish the purse.....
or do both, on and off, or cover the big red globe with mosaics,
or go outside and plant some ''red" yarrow next to my yellow one (another friends idea).

Finally there is time for everything.
Too much of EVERYTHING.
But it's what I was waiting for... and it's all WONDERFUL.