In the Garden

Two Saturdays ago it was completely necessary for me to get out of Dodge.  So, I gassed up the car, got on the road and found myself in Burlingame, aka Land of Delicious Thai Food and Home of the Sibling. 

I’d been feeling the need to go a botanical garden or something like that; when I lived in San Antonio, there was a local botanical garden that I frequented – it was only $4 a pop with student ID. I liked going there because it was quiet and pretty, and filled with flowers and plants.  The irony being that I hate to garden, having suffered an eye injury when I was nine in the line of duty (directly contributing to my eyeball issues – while I am fine, I can’t watch or even talk about anything to do with eyeball injuries).  But: no matter; I like botanical gardens. 

There are a couple of botanical gardens around here, one in Berkeley and one in San Francisco.  We know that I abhor both those cities, so it’s doubtful I’ll get myself over to those gardens.  But I’ve always wanted to go to the Filoli Gardens, which my parents had gone to a few years ago and I had always wanted to go, but I think I was living in Texas then.  So I looked the gardens up and discovered that they are but 12 mere miles from the sibling! I thought they were much farther south and would be annoying to get to. 

But they aren’t.  So I emailed Abby and asked if she wanted to go, and she agreed, and so I headed over there in the morning and we went over to Coconut Bay, where we had the chicken red curry lunch.  It was extreeemely hot and cleared our sinuses.  Still delicious though! Best Thai food ever.

Then we headed out to Filoli, which is basically an English-style estate out on the peninsula. It definitely has Jane Austeny vibes and you can tour the first floor of the house and the extensive gardens, including the daffodil fields.

Filoli Gardens

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It was pretty cold and cloudy when we went, but still fun. Since then, it’s been really sunny and nice out – but then again, spring has sprung. I miss my winter! Cold, cloudy, and blustery is my favorite sort of weather.  You know how some people get depressed in the winter? Season disaffective disorder or whatever it’s called?  It’s the opposite for me.  Give me fall and winter – you can have your spring and summer! So I’ve been in a bad mood this week.

Monday I finished my Hearts Afire socks. Tuesday I had a migraine and stayed home from work.  Wednesday I was gone all day for work – I had a meeting in the evening and barely got home in time to start watching Lost.  I am not super interested in Sayid-centric episodes but, um, I will say that for awhile I thought he would be sympathetic to young Ben, but then he totally wasn’t and did what I thought he’d do since last week… Lost is getting interesting! I’m glad it’s ending and we’re actually getting anwers.

Anyway, so I will post about the Hearts Afire socks next time.  I’m also working on the periwinkle Malabrigo earflap hat, which is about half done.

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See the entire Filoli Gardens set here. It includes interior shots of the house, too.

Things I Have You Wish You Did

This whole weather change and lack of daylight and general crankiness has really got me out of sorts this week. Luckily, I have this awesome custom-handmade quilt to get me through seasonal affective disorder:

quilty goodness

You will notice how I am strategically holding the quilt upwards so as to hide the crap heap that is my room. I have a lot of clothes/yarn/jewelry/books/magazines/lamps. And you don’t need to see that. And pretend I washed my face.

Now: to finish the Lizzy socks (ten more toe rows), start some laundry, and decide what socks to knit the sibling for this most fabulous quilt. (Probably blue.)

Post Holiday wrap-up

On Friday, I celebrated Independence Day with my immediate family by eating pork ribs at their house and then going home, and then going to the fireworks at College Park later in the evening. I’ll spare you the police and fire-zone related issues, and suffice it to say, a good time was had. My aunt, uncle, and cousin found us and we all watched the fire works together.

My sister took a short video of them:

Yesterday (saturday) was my 28th birthday, and there was yarn and sheep cake involved:

Huffin and Puffin

(I ate its jugular vein; that is, where the pink ribbon is. I named it Stan.) Earlier in the day, I went peddle boating with my dad at the Lafayette Reservoir and then we had breakfast at Country Waffles.

Now I’m going to order my loom and call it a day.  Looks like we’re in for another heat wave, yay. At least the air quality has been better lately from all those fires that have been raging across California.  Oh, and I learned how to put washer fluid in my car, that was pretty exciting.