1. Summer is not my favorite season, which is a shame since where I live it makes up 2/3 of the year. Perhaps living in the Deep South most of my life is responsible, although you’d think that would confer some kind of immunity. When I first checked the conditions this morning (depressingly early, thanks to someone small) it was 80, 91% humidity, heat index 89. Now, a few hours later, it’s 84, 81% humidity, heat index 95. The high today is supposed to be 98 and I imagine the heat index will be around 106. I was told that the weather here consists of “summer and Christmas”, but obviously that’s a slight exaggeration. It’s more like eight months of summer, two months of fall, {Christmas}, and two months of spring. That’s a characteristic Houston shares with just about everywhere else I’ve lived south of the 32nd parallel. I just paused to add up that time and it comes to approximately 38 years, with a small amount of that time spent part-time in TN at college.

2. I finished the front and back of the Amira sweater and they’re blocking. All that’s left is seaming, knitting around the armholes, and weaving in ends. I think it will be pretty but the light in the sewing room for photos is dreadful. I really need to get on a chair and replace the lightbulbs in the fixture with different ones.

3. The pink striped baby blanket finished blocking (finally!) and I will list it today.

4. Currently Moppet is wearing green kitty pajamas, a pink life preserver which is too small, and silver heels which are much too big. Always the fashion icon.

5. I need to turn my attention back to illustration. Whenever I think about it I have a feeling of distress and confusion: what happened to the skill I once had? I have retained some muscle memory for piano over 20 years of drought, but the drawing memory seems to have faded.

6. I was reminded by a recent post on Pleasant View Schoolhouse that I have been intending to sew a new set of cloth napkins since well before we moved here. I picked out a cotton fabric and plunked it on my sewing table to move it up in line. Perhaps next week.

7. I am considering a foray into flax-growing if we move to the property with land. Just a smallish plot to see how it goes. I would then experiment with retting and preparing it for fiber. I would have to purchase hackling combs but I’m hoping to persuade my father to build me a break. (hint, hint) While I’m hoping to service my spinning wheel and practice with some wool roving, I’m not yet ready to spin flax. To see whether it would be worth my while to work on it I will first purchase some linen yarn to knit. If I like it, then I will consider spinning some. Otherwise I would sell any flax top I had finished in the shop for someone else to spin.

8. I am reaping the questionable rewards of putting off needed alterations: all three older girls have multiple items for me to take up. So far it’s 2 dresses, 2 tops, 7 skirts, and a missing button. This is enough work for the rest of the day.