Best laid plans and all that

Well, the theory was for my mom to have surgery to put a pin in the leg with the myeloma lesion to help strengthen it along with the various bone-strenthening drugs. This was before she fell and broke that leg last night. (And she wasn't even doing anything silly and mom-ish like climbing on ladders with her crutches -- she was just coming in the door from the garage.) Well, so now she's going to have surgery to put a pin in the leg with the myeloma lesion. But of course, mending an already broken leg is a little more challenging than preventive pinning, to say nothing of exciting ambulance rides and fun morphine drips and whatnot. If one were looking for a less-than-negative side, at least the physical insult of surgery (and the associated hazards of hospital stays) are something she was going to have to deal with anyway. Still, aaaarrrrrgghgghhh. At least I got a phone heads-up from cryptocosm before calling my dad to wish him a cheerful "Happy Father's Day".

Ah, what the heck

(mood=Lake Wobegonish)

Not-entirely-joyous-but-you-know-things-could-always-be-a-lot-worse Father's Day to you, Dad. I love you.

Yard and garden

Picked about a pint of mixed raspberries, black raspberries and boysenberries (mostly the first). Also discovered that I have not one but two cherries this year. I'm still dithering about when to pick them, since there are three different grafts on the tree and I'm not sure which ones should be red when ripe and which ones won't get more than a sort of blushy yellow. Pulled out a bunch of the nasty feral blackberries that just won't quick. Did a bunch of clean-up pruning on one of the bushier roses. I'm trying to figure out what to do about my allegedly "dwarf" lemon which is currently about 8 feet tall. One might excuse it for trying to find a bit more sun, except that the dwarf lime a few steps away is staying content to be 3 feet tall. I've tried clipping the lemon back some, but of course it does all its blooming and fruiting at the tips, so there's a limit to how much of that I can get away with. I'm once again looking at the really heavy "canopy" over my back yard and wishing I'd been more ambitious during dormant pruning season. Problem is, a lot of the shade is from trees next door that have about 80% of their foliage on my side of the line. Legally, I have the right to cut them off at the property line, but I hate to do that to a tree. A lot of it is from my own apple, though, which is just a lot of work to prune. (In fact, I think the last time it got seriously attacked was when Dad did it which would be at least half a dozen years ago.) At least I get some very nice shade on these hot summer afternoons.

xrian was going to come over for apprentice day but abruptly has a sick cat on her hands, so I'm feeling at loose ends at a time when I'd like to have company to distract me. I really need to start being more proactive about dragging people over to visit. (I have been doing things along this line -- I just need to do more.)

Creative project accomplished

I fulfilled my self-promise and have done something creative and non-house-related. I have a new linen top -- this gorgeous pattern weave in shades of "natural" forming rows of interlocking spirals. The cut isn't anything special, just my standard unshaped retangular shell. But I really like making it up in a medium-heavy linen, and when I see a nice fabric like this, I can't resist. I'm an absolute nut for woven-in patterns whereas prints leave me cold. Also made a new pair of work pants in a dark burgundy cotton twill. I even managed to do some mending (which usually comes after dental work on the priority list ... but then, since I had dental work this past week, I guess the mending had floated to the top of the list).

All the DVDs and video tapes are packed behind enough stuff in the spare bedroom that I can't get at them easily. (I knew I was jumping the gun a bit on clearing out the living room.) And with umpteen cable channels it seemed like there was nothing cheerful, or even just fluffy, on the tube today, so I went off to the video store looking for something in a light romantic comedy -- preferably something classic. I actually had my heart set on finding some sort of Katherine Hepburn collection, but no go. I ended up picking up the Firefly series (which I haven't seen at all, although I've seen the Serenity movie). Definitely not light, fluffy, and upbeat. But distracting, at least. It turns out I'm a step behind in the mom news -- they're planning a hip replacement rather than just the pin, which simplifies certain aspects. It may even happen as early as tomorrow, depending on the surgeon's availability.

Good birdwatching in the backyard today: there was a black phoebe launching itself at bugs from the fence by the raspberries, and some sort of oriole in the fig tree, but I didn't get a good enough look to tell which variety.