Single White Bloom

 When I first had moss roses in my patio plot there was a variety of colors including white. After the standing water one wet spring, none of the sprouts appeared. A few years ago I purchased a plant and tried again.

In the past several years I have had no white moss roses. Last week a single white bloom appeared. Maybe it will have time to go to seed, and I will see a few more. Lots of the blooms seem more ruffly this year rather than cup-like.

The Knockout rose bush is getting flowers again after a dormant period. Fortunately, several of these seem to have longer stems and not in clumps of 3 or 4. I should be able to fill my budvase again.

We went to our friends' yard/garage sale Friday morning. This was supposedly a first sale in decades. There was junk, but not many attractive items. I bought a DVD movie, a jigsaw puzzle, and a travel version of Qwirkle. In the past I have packed the Qwirkle bag of tiles, but it took up a lot of space in my suitcase. This should pack easily, but of course the trade-off is the tiles are quite small.

I am ready for autumn. A few trees have some slight color, but mostly the trees and plants just seem faded and tired. The grass is still lush and green though.

 I ordered a set of 4 plates with forest creatures in fall settings for my plate rack. These are canape plates rather than dessert plates so smaller. The sales price on Macy's website was enticing. Now my news feed has photos of bowls and plates and cups from the bigger set. The canape plates are projected to arrive Wednesday. I will probably wait until the 17th to put them out along with my autumn pillow covers. Close enough to the autumnal equinox.

Starting to see football games on the TV. Notre Dame didn't win against Ohio, but they did better than I expected. 

We have had pleasant days; cool enough in the mornings to go walking, but of course I can't walk more than a few blocks. I did sit on my front porch reading a Hoopla ebook yesterday. It is book 2 in a 3-book series: Orphan Train series by Jody Hedlund. I had book 1 in softcover (purchased months ago at a book sale) and was pleased to see I can finish the series without a trip to the library.

A Slowed-Down Day

My husband had a scratchy throat Sunday afternoon which turned into a nasty cold. So far I have a few sniffles which I hope are spring allergies, but I am waiting for the other shoe to drop so to speak. No sore throat yet. We plan to attend a Good Friday communion service if he feels well enough.

My potted tulips were starting to lean far over away from each other. Tonight I cut them off the stems and put in a vase. They probably won't last much longer. I did enjoy them.

I played 3 games of online Qwirkle this afternoon. I kept losing so I had stopped playing for awhile, but today I had better success. The moves by the computer show me that I have a set way of looking at the possibilities and miss opportunities. I think I have learned some hints.

They mowed the lawn yesterday for the first time since autumn. We might get up to 78 degrees Saturday, but the warm southwest winds are also bringing rain, including for Sunday.

I keep putting off the next step in the Kon-Mari organizing/decluttering method. After clothes and accessories which I have finished, comes books. I look at all of my books and feel overwhelmed about pulling them all off the shelves and seeing if they "spark joy". I am thinking about doing a small sorting and folding of kitchen towels. That is an area that needs work. I know, it is a way to procrastinate on the books, but maybe it will get me going again.

Next week is collection week for the Swap Shop. I do have a small pile of things to contribute. It's fun to get something for nothing, though sometimes nothing appeals or is needed. I did get a table clock with large numbers a few years ago, and every day I am thankful for its place in my home.

I bought 6 books at the public library sale to add to Grace Village library. I should try to process them before tomorrow afternoon. I went to the library Wednesday afternoon around 3:45 after literary club finished to do some shelving. My heart sank when I saw 3 very large boxes on the table. Yep, unannounced donations. I did a quick glance, taking the Bibles and devotional books to the Give and Take table. I will be lucky if I keep 3 or 4 books out of the hundred or so that were dumped in my lap. I start to feel a little burned out when this happens. I have no idea who put them there.

A few weeks ago I bought 3 skeins of yarn at a moving sale which advertised yarn, quilting, and needlework kits. Most of the stuff was for quilting. The yarn was mostly small lots of different colors and materials. The 3 skeins I bought were $1 apiece; the price tag on them said $13 each. Wow! Wool yarn is expensive. I had mostly been using cotton or acrylic yarn from Walmart and Meijers. Since it is a small amount, I looked for a small project. I thought about a hat, but my one experience with circular needles didn't go very well. One of the hat patterns had a cowl with it. Aha! I would look for a pattern for a cowl. I have reached a point in the pattern where I do yarn overs and knit two together. I am painfully slow doing the knit two together stitch. It is going to take awhile to finish this project. When I get it done I will post a link to the pattern.