Of Ears, Yarns and a flower

Leeloo is five months old now and I have her puppy black almost all cut out. She's all silk blue and tan now. She's still in the process of losing puppy teeth. When we left for West War she went without any bottom teeth between her canines. Today, she's lost one of the bottom canines, finally. The other 'new' thing is her ears. The right one will consistently perk up at attention, then fall over. Sometimes both will pop up, but that's harder to catch. Here's some pictures of the ear and how she's looking right now. I think she may be close to five pounds but won't know until tomorrow when she goes in for blood work (its in prep for her spay in six weeks as a check):

I finished up the Mt. Doom yarn, the lovely Dicentra Dyeworks BFL in red, fuschia and purple roving. I ended up with 466.3 yards of a lace weight. I chain plied it, so its a three-ply, just not sure of the wpi yet:

After I got done with Mt. Doom late Wednesday, I switched back to some unknown dyer's 50/50 Merino/Silk that I received from Morgaine when I bought my Lendrum last June. I have the first two ounces spun up nice and thin:

One of my new tiger lily's had one of its last blooms last night and it was looking particularly pretty. We pulled out the tripod and Brandon played with the timer and settings and we used natural lighting (one in the collage had flash). Since it was out and set up, Brandon played with a flashlight and made a heart for me too. ;-)

This weekend involved lots of yard work in the front and back yards. Lots of weeding and pruning, things look different. I found out that the lemon balm under the willows was kind of choking out my gooseberries. Hope they rebound next year. We'll wait for the fall to move blueberries and a crab apple tree. I think we'll also be taking out an apple tree - small spotty apples for the last few years means - outta here! The peach is trying to show that it might rebound, but Brandon thinks its definitely out. I'd love another one, but this is the second one in that spot. Wonder if one would do better where the apple coming out is? The asian apple may also be coming out or a severe pruning. He let it get a little overloaded last year and it almost uprooted. It was propped up and thinned, but I have concerns about a tree that needs propping. The little fig will also come up front now that it has some growth. It's under the shadow of the Chehalis apple tree. Lots more yardwork to look forward to in the fall I guess! 

I harvested some of the broccoli this last week and had it for a couple of dinners - yummy! This afternoon I picked two zucchinis that will make a nice lunch/dinner side. My early blueberries are the ones that need to move, so just starting to enjoy the middle blueberries that are ripening. Like the cherries, I get a handful each day to enjoy off the plant. I've never grown patty pan squash before, but I think I have one or two of them ready to pick and eat too. There are tomatoes growing, but still green and the hot peppers are getting ready to produce. We are fruitful. ;-)  How is your garden growing?

ETA: I forgot this cool page I found for those old tomato cages that you may have in your garden shed. We have a couple of them that I'm going to try this out on.

Tour de Fleece 2010 and Cupcakes

St. Cupcake Deluxe had a contest for the 4th of July on Facebook that I entered before leaving for War. While I was gone, I found out that I won. I was supposed to pick up my dozen dots on the 4th, but no way to do that. I contacted them on Tuesday (closed on Mondays) and they said I could use my gift certificate anytime. I opted to make the drive then. When I got there, I realized that a Zupan's was across the street. I checked out what they had in their produce area and scooped up three white corn on the cob, and a couple of Mexican Mangoes (their labeling). The mangoes were all yellow and slightly smaller than the green/yellow/red ones I'm used to seeing at the grocery store. Like Whole Foods, they have an interesting selection of cheeses, and some in little sample sizes. So for under $2 you can try a cheese out and not feel too bad if you don't like it and feed it to the dogs. They also had an awesome smelling Cream of Leek and Mushroom with White Truffel soup. I brought home two servings of it and ate it on Wednesday and Thursday. I think I found a similar recipe here to try out. Loved the soup!!

Deciding on which dots to bring home was the hardest part of the selections. I went with Lemon Berry, Big Top, Carrot Cake, Toasted Coconut Cream, Chocolate with Chocolate Buttercream, Chocolate with Coffee Buttercream. I had high hopes for the Lemon Berry, but was disappointed that the cake was kind of a like a corn muffin and not terribly lemony.  Here they are, can you tell which are which?

I ended up not starting Tour de Fleece until Tuesday, three days late. I've joined three teams - Team Yorkieslaves, Sprinters and Team Lendrum. I have the merino/silk that I need to work on, but I wanted something really cheerful. So I pulled out Mt Doom, the red, pink and purple BFL by Dicentra Designs. The first two ounces are all spun up and I've started the second two ounces:

Now I just have to decide what to do with a pair of cream colored crop pants that had bleach splashed on a thigh. Very obvious white spots. Do I try to bleach the rest or try to over dye? If I over dye, what color? I have a pair in light brown, dark brown, sea foam green and a navy blue. Would I be able to do a tea dye?