What a Glorious Day!

What a glorious day we had today! If my older daughter hadn't been sick and I hadn't had to work, it would have been pretty near perfect. * We've had a very strange summer here in Oregon this year, with many cooler than average days and even some rain recently, although nothing like the mid-West, thankfully. Today, it was the first really sunny one we've had in a bit, so I went outside and took some pictures of the roses.

*A. just has a little cold, by the way, so hopefully it will clear up soon. I noticed her little sister is starting to get a runny nose too. Yippee! I just love the way they make sure to share their germs, one of the few things I'm not too keen on them sharing.

Everything has come back to life with the recent rain. The roses are acting like it's June and the raspberries have sprouted a lot of new growth, with tons of new blossoms and even some new fruit already. I hope we get more berries because I love them. The raspberries and roses were both new treats for me when we bought this house three years ago. My mom had roses when I was very small, but I have never been able to just go out into my own yard and pick roses or berries whenever I wanted.

I have no idea what varieties we have and I know we don't take proper care of them, but they seem hardy and forgiving nonetheless. My mother-in-law actually gets really frustrated with my rose success because she spends tons of time and energy babying hers and never gets the profusion of blossoms we do. All I can say is whomever planted these before us must have picked really good plants.
This red one smells amazing!

This is the other thing I did this evening. While my husband gave the girls their bath, I ran down the road and picked some blackberries. Unbelievably, these are the first of the season for me. They also smell amazing! I see some blackberry cobbler in my very near future. Mmmm.

On the knitting front, I am still plugging away on my class sample. After much deliberation I decided none of the patterns RaNaye had in her shop were quiet what I was looking for. So, I designed a little scarf myself that I will use for the class. If all goes as planned, I will format it nicely and sell it through the shop for anyone who is interested - assuming she is as taken with the final product as I hope she will be. I'll try to get some sample shots up soon.