Dr. Huey. I find this rose all over the place. Unfortunately, it’s because Dr. Huey is or was a favorite root stock for grafted roses. When the graft dies (as it mostly does in the cheaper roses), Dr. Huey shows it’s face. In my travels around our local area, I see it it many gardens, though I doubt that most folks realize the significance of it
And the unusual. Green Rose. The blooms are made up entirely of sepals instead of petals. The blossoms are green with a touch of red on occasion
Eileen’s knee continues to improve. Dinner tonight in Portland without the crutch. Still some pain, but we’re both beginning to believe that the injury was less than it could have been. She has an appointment on July 10 with the surgeon to check on progress.
Tiny bit of work on shawl this morning. Only 1/2 a round (though that’s over 500 stitches) completed before I headed out to the pile of hay that still needs to be moved. Day off today and another tomorrow before a full weekend of work.
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Nothing like spending your days in a hot kitchen when outside temperatures are in the triple digits.
Western Oregon just finished a short heat spell with highs in the low 100’s. I managed to pull work during the three hottest. Pizza kitchen was just barely livable, as the air conditioner struggled to keep us cool. And on top of that, we had a very busy weekend with a statewide softball tournament in town.
Feather and Fan Shawl. Things are moving more slowly while we deal with Eileen’s knee, but there is still progress. This shot gives a bit of an idea of the pattern.
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A long post….
More roses blooming on the RidgeTop.
Rosa acicularis, aka Prickly Rose. An amazing set of recurved thorns that seem to catch on everything. 
Rosa dunwichensis. A pretty little low growing white rose that was first ‘discovered’ near Dunwich, Suffolk not many years ago. 
Rosa eglanteria (syn Rosa rubiginosa) aka Sweet Briar Rose. A pretty little rose that’s considered a weed in some parts of the world. Grows quite sedately on our garden. Crushed leaves smell of Apple Cider. 
While Eileen won’t be running any marathons any time soon, her knee injury is progressing nicely. Still some swelling but not much pain and she’s slowly being able to move around a bit easier every day. We won’t know the full extent of the damage until she goes in for an MRI in about 3 weeks. Still, she’s feeling better and she’s determined not to let this completely ruin her summer.
Work. I’m convinced that the whole town knows when I’m working and they’ve made a pact to make my work nights hell… 
Even though I’m not supposed to be working full time, I’m going to be so close to a 40 hour week this week, you’d think otherwise. Monday was 6.5 hours, Tuesday was 9 hours, Thursday was 9 hours, Saturday and Sunday are scheduled at 8.5 hours each … Wait .. That totals 41.5 hours. And that assumes I don’t work extra hours this weekend and we have a State Baseball Tournament going on. Yes… Overtime…
Blobs. I’ve finally crossed over the 1000 stitch mark on the Feather and Fan Shawl, as you can see on the sidebar. But I didn’t knit a stitch today, as I couldn’t convince that 6.5 ton of hay to stack itself, which meant I got to spend the day man handling 90+ pound bales and restacking them in the barn. Ah.. The joys of farm animals…
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Eileen’s injury has been diagnosed as damage to her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). The ACL is one of four ligaments that join the femur to the tibia. The orthopedic surgeon that made the final diagnosis, told Eileen that they don’t generally try surgery on patients older than 50 (Eileen is 55). So now we wait it out. There is a 1/3 chance that she will fully recover, 1/3 chance that she will partially recover and 1/3 chance that there will need to be some kind of surgery to get her back on her feet again. We’re hoping for the first 1/3.
Not much work on the Feather and Fan Shawl the past couple of days, and probably my time is going to be more limited as I take on more of the work around here. But, tomorrow is a day off (actually, I guess it’s really today) and even though we need to clean house and I’ve got 6 ton of hay being delivered in the early afternoon, I’m going to spend some time with the green blob.
Nine hour day today in the pizza kitchen. Owner had to leave for the Oregon Coast with a relative and called me in early. It’s now just past midnight Wednesday morning and I’m sitting here sipping a beer and trying to unwind enough to be able to get to bed and sleep. Nearly there…
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Eileen’s knee injury was much worse than we expected.
She’s torn a major ligament in her knee. Her doctor sent her to an orthopedic surgeon who made the final diagnosis. No surgery, for now, but her summer will be on crutches or in a knee brace and our summer of hiking and biking has been put on hold.
Makes my whining about my knees sound pathetic.
Eileen’s got a good attitude and we’ll make it through this.
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Mine’s been pretty crappy.
Saturday, someone or something broke out my passenger side window on the pickup at work. Nothing missing, but I’m only carrying liability insurance on the truck, which means I get to replace the window at my expense – just when I’m starting to get my finances straightened out.
And yesterday Eileen injured her knee, jumping out of the back of a semi trailer, while helping out one of the historical groups she’s been working with. We won’t know how bad the damage is until tomorrow when she sees her doctor, but it’s bad enough that she’s on crutches and in quite a bit of pain. And since I’ve been working days through the weekend and tomorrow, she’s been stuck in the house and I’ve got *all* the chores.
Needless to say, not much progress on the green blob.
It can only get better, right??..!!
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A day off and a visit to B&N to see if there is anything interesting in the knitting section. Not much… At least for an old fart male… 
But, I did score a couple of books by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – the Yarn Harlot – Yarn Harlot and Knitting Rules!.
I love her humor and her style and Knitting Rules! actually has usable information. Along with observations on non-knitters, managing your stash, and a thank-you letter to the inventor of ziplock bags, there are techniques to help you identify fiber content of that skein of yarn you lost the ball band on, needle information, and typical head sizes. Fun and infomative.
The green blob – aka Feather and Fan Shawl – continues along nicely. Pushing close to 1000 stitches around and getting more squished all the time on my short needles. I think I’m going to see if I can finish it on these two. It’s going to be tight.
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Today marks Jake’s 18th birthday (89 human years). My favorite cat and my favorite picture of him – as you would know if you’ve been around here awhile.
He spent it mostly sleeping, with a bit of eating and then more sleeping.. 
He’s in amazingly good health for his age and I’m hoping we can make another year together.
Happy Birthday Grandpa..
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As I type this, I’m listening to Johnny Cash’s last album. Mostly covers with only three songs by Johnny. Everything from Nine Inch Nails to Paul Simon to Lennon/McCartney.
A fitting last album. The title song is a powerful statement of Johnny’s beliefs and he makes songs like NIN’s ‘Hurt’ and Sting’s ‘I Hung My Head’ more his then their writer’s. Dark and beautiful.
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The Feather and Fan shawl continues moving along. But the two circulars (I think they are both 24″) I’m working it on are starting to be a bit too small with 600 stitches (the sidebar numbers have been wrong – 888 is final stitch count) (see below) 888 divided between them. I’ve started calling it the green blob. It’s always this green mass of fabric in my lap whenever I’m working on it. 
Starting to think about my next project. I’ve got a couple of things I really want to try and Rose of England (from Marianne Kinzel’s Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting) is somewhere near the top.
Update — It’s way too early in the morning for me to be making a posting when I got to bed at nearly 12:30 this morning – Current stitch count is 888 stitches and final count will be 1320 stitches.
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