Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Urgent Breaking News!!!!

Just thought some of y'all might like to know that a trailer is finally available for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Colin looks gorgeous, as usual.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Monday, July 12, 2004

Finally summer is coming to northern Michigan. It's supposed to get into the 80s today -- a significant improvement from the low 60s we had as highs last week.

This is obviously the weather for cotton tank knitting as evidenced by most other blogs, but I am still plugging away in Shetland wool on Donegal. I have finished the body, except for the neckband. I should have a photo for my next entry.

The cleverest yard sign in my neighborhood these days says, "Support Our Troops -- Vote Bush Out".

Rant of the day: lawn chemicals. Why do so many people risk the health of their children and their pets by spraying their lawns with herbicides and pesticides? What is the value of a uniformly green lawn? I don't get it. I don't even find a monoculture of uniform grass attractive. My interest is drawn to yards that feature a variety of plants; those that are haphazard and somewhat wild in appearance are the most interesting of all. One neighbor has a front yard totally devoted to flowering native perennials and herbs; her front-yard garden is a bounty of color, texture and scent and always a pleasure to pass. By contrast, the ChemLawn-aided lots of neatly-manicured grass punctuated with a few well-behaved shrubs and annuals are boring.

Yesterday an acquaintance told me he had spent 3 hours mowing his grass. He has a riding mower; if he had done it with a push power, he said it would have been 6 hours. I can't even contemplate this without shudders of horror. But in fairness, I should suppose that if I told this acquaintance I had spent more hours than I care to count knitting Donegal, he would have been equally horrified that someone would devote dozens of hours to making a sweater when sweaters can be purchased at Wal-Mart for a few dollars. As a former neighbor said, "We all have our sicknesses."

Our small patch of lawn is due for a mowing, but the clover is blooming with lots of pretty clumps of white and I can't bring myself to shave it away. If I don't mow it soon, I will be sorry because we have a push reel mower and it doesn't work well if the grass gets too tall.

Speaking of push reel mowers, I've long been tempted to lobby all of my neighbors to get them, or at least borrow mine. On my block, three houses mow with push reels; the rest use gas-powered mowers, except for one electric mower. All of the power mowers are extremely noisy and unnecessary on the small lawns in my neighborhood. It would be so much more pleasant to lie in the hammock reading a book on a nice summer day if everyone would give up their power equipment!