We used to have several of these bushes, but they were planted under the windows and would cover up over half of the glass. The maintenance staff took them out last fall. They did leave this one at the side of the house though, and I am glad they did. It is covered with pink and white blossoms, more than I have ever seen on it before. I have no idea what this plant is. My knock-out roses are almost ready to open, too.
I have been very busy with my library volunteer work. A few weeks ago I came in to find 3 large boxes of books stacked next to the desk. The name inside was that of a resident who uses a wheel chair and had told me over a year ago that he had some books to donate. He needed some help from the staff to get them to the library he said. I thought he finally got some help; however, that evening I read in the newspaper his obituary. Apparently, his family donated them instead. Some Grisham, Margaret Truman, Deaver, Ludlum, one Clive Cussler, lots of authors I don’t know. I kept about 10 of the books. The rest either had poor reviews or were too violent and psychologically disturbing I thought after reading reviews and looking them over. Too graphic in some cases. I can afford a little space for those readers who want these types of books, but there are very few who will read them. I need to haul them off to the public library as donations for their library sale.
The Friends of the Library book sale was last Thursday. I bought 26 books for $26, including 9 large-print titles. Friday I went to Fort Wayne to do some shopping so stopped in at Half Price Books. Purchased 18 books there. Now I am busily adding them to the LibraryThing data base. Of course, I have just shot myself in the foot since now I will have to weed the fiction to make space for new additions. This is a constant problem these days. Most of the marginal items have already been discarded. My helper can type up most of the labels. I also need to change the bulletin board from the Mother’s Day theme to a June theme, probably weddings this year as I do have some books with nice covers that can be photocopied for that.
Some of the “new” books; I have 8 in my tote to take over Friday.
I also am trying to knit in the round. I am using some of my “practice” yarn. A friend gave me a set of interchangeable needles and cords for circle knitting. They were her mother’s; I feel honored to be using them. So far, I don’t like using circular needles as well as the straight ones, but it is essential since I am trying to make a beret. I have finished the “brim”, but now I need to use the “make one” technique to increase the stitches for the hat, a totally new step for me. The internet videos have helped a lot, but I am using a fuzzy yarn with slubs which makes it hard to see the distinct stitch parts. That might be good as it will cover up some mistakes, but hard to find the “bar” I need to create an extra stitch. I am winging it. I keep reminding myself this is learning practice and if it doesn’t turn out, it isn’t that big a deal. Maybe I will have a finished product to show in several weeks. but I may end up frogging it into a pile of yarn to use in a different way.
I wrote this earlier on Windows Live Writer, but I keep getting an error message that Blogger cannot find the draft. At least I think that is what it means. It just says "Not found". I had to copy and paste. I hope I don't have to learn how to use the composing function direct on BlogSpot all the time; I really liked Windows Live Writer. I see other people have had problems since Google changed its security.
