What's that in the sky--COULD IT BE?

Oh, my--it's the SUN!!!


It looks like we are finally done with the continuous rain-at least for a few days. I'm not holding my breath, though--there's still rain in the forecast for next week. Unfortunately, the humidity hasn't gone away, so it's HOT--no more 70s and 80s this weekend, for sure.

Yes, I've been away for a while, and I apologize, but I didn't really think I had anything to say that anyone would want to hear. For those of you who were worried, thank you for your concern, I'm fine, and for those who sent birthday wishes, thank you also. They were very appreciated--I'm just glad it's over.

As for my little "bounce" down the stairs, I actually healed up pretty quickly. My arm didn't take long at all to clear up, although you can still see just a shadow of the bruise, but it's fine. I was quite surprised--I figured it would be around for quite a while.

Honestly, not much has been going on at Casa Katya. We've just been trying to survive a record-breaking siege of rain and cloudy days. We've not had it as bad as some areas, but it has definitely been hard, both on Mother Earth and us folkel-yokels.

My garden is starting to recover, but I've lost all my squash and sunflower plants--there was just not enough sun to counter all the moisture in the air. I need to go out and pull them up, but I'm going to replant--we have a long growing season here and damnit, I will have my plants if it kills me.

I did get a few sunflowers, and my tomatoes are doing pretty well--



Now, if they'd just ripen; hopefully all this sun will kick-start them into gear.

As you can see by my last post, I've joined this year's Tour de Fleece, which starts today. I'm hoping it will push me back into spinning and knitting--I haven't really done anything in months. However, that didn't stop me from ordering some sock yarn yesterday--I blame Stephanie, she's making some socks from some really pretty yarn, and I decided to order some--call it a late birthday present. That's the first fiberly stuff I've bought all year, not counting what I bought at Rendezvous--that doesn't count 'cause it's a once-a-year thing.

Those of you who remember all my ranting and raving about weird crap happening? Add two more--my "new" grocery store is being sold to another chain, and my bank was just bought by a group from Texas. I'm cursed, I tell you, cursed. It's enough to make me want to hide from the insanity (not that there's much that DOESN'T make me want to do that these days).

The saddest thing lately has been that my long-time neighbors downstairs moved out last week--just down the street, but I miss having them around, especially their little girl, she was very sweet. We have a lot of new neighbors lately in the building across the parking lot, and it's put me a bit on edge. Frankly, I'm not quite sure about some of them. When I first moved here three years ago, most of the residents were either retired, singles, or young couples, and most tended to be the kind to stay a while. These days we have lots of turnover, and the new renters are families with children--LOTS of children, in some cases (and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with children, don't even go there). They also tend to be rather--ahem--combative with each other, if you catch my drift. That plus the fact that the management company here has pretty much stopped taking care of the complex, and I'm not sure how much longer I can stay here. Honestly, I'm wondering how long it will be before we starting having major issues--we've had the police here several times in the last month (I'm not sure why, but it's still worrisome). Unfortunately, I don't have a clue where I could go. There's not much out there that looks very appealing right now.

I've been listening to the Live Earth concert this morning. I've been leaning toward the Australian feed, although I did see a replay of the DC concert that featured Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood. I'm waiting for the Crowded House reunion later in Sydney. Usually I'm not much for listening to music these days, but I'm enjoying this. Right now Metallica's on in London, and Spinal Tap is next--can't miss the Tap!

I hope everyone had a good Fourth and that you're having a great summer.

Oh, and Maggie says to tell you she's very glad the sun's back:


She's such a sun dog.