Better Late or Better Never?

Before we do anything, please take a moment and sing to the dog. She is hiding under the counter waiting for her BIRTHDAY CAKE, which I haven't made yet because I don't have any liverwurst. Poor doggie.

We have rejoined our attempts at getting her in the pool on a regular basis. I am very afraid she will fall in someday and not be able to get out. I am not so much interested in getting her to swim, which she seems to have knocked, but instead to find the steps at the shallow end so she can get out. But when we shove her to the middle of the pool, she scrambles for an edge, ANY edge, and can't get a hold. Then she panics. So we keep taking her in and shoving her out to the middle and calling her to the steps. Over and over. I might as well face it that this dog is not a water genius and will probably drown in the end and I will never forgive myself. The good thing is that she gives the pool a wide berth, walks around the edge of the courtyard hugging the wall to avoid the water completely. Any ideas other than a Kapok life preserver? (see below)

Horror-Scope from a few days ago:

...but it's a mistake to believe that anyone will understand what's really going on if you just swing into motion without saying anything. Just remember that it's not their fault if you choose not to show your vulnerability. No one can come to your rescue if you don't ask for help.

Funny, no one has offered a rescue- must mean I didn't remember to ask!

(Removed Image per comment below)

Here's a tattoo in progress on a girl who sews. Please note that this is on her chest and will pretty much be visible with everything she wears. I just don't get it- how can someone so young make a lifetime commitment to body adornment (I know she's young because her skin doesn't have wrinkles or spots) that well may outlive it's use! Say she gets into weaving, is she going to get a full loom on her back, then maybe welding- reserve both thighs? The thing I find interesting is there is no rotary cutter, no digitized machine, and thread spools like that haven't been around for decades now. Everybody I know has a magnetized pin holder so when they drop one they can run it across the floor and it jumps back on board. And the tape measure is on a spring mechanism so it isn't perpetually tangled. In short we are looking at the 1930 version of sewing. Huh?

OK, what's been going on here- a few friends and I took a tour of Palm Beach the other day. This old postcard is actually Ft. Lauderdale in the '30s, not Palm Beach but I figure its the same water, right?
We hired a guide we heard speak a few weeks ago and piled into a nice big car and away we went on a 2 hour survey of all Palm Beach's places with stories. And there are a lot. The final drive-by was of a house where the owner had his estranged wife shot by a hired gun with an armload of roses.

I was well familiar with the case as I had watched it unfold on Court TV from the day they captured the husband in Thailand where he had fled right after the shooting 19 years earlier. I love murders and true crime stories and this one captured me completely but when they flashed his picture I nearly went into shock. I used to date this guy 40 years ago. His name was pretty common, especially for someone from Boston, so when just hearing about it I hadn't had any red flags flying but sure enough, it was the same guy. Fortunately he was weird enough that I didn't get too involved, and the day he shoved me was the last day I saw him. I may be low on the self esteem totem pole, but that was a deal breaker. Wish I could have hung a sign around his neck to beware for the other women he dealt with over those 40 years. Now he's in prison so his career is over, my only complaint is that it took so long to catch him.

And now for the educational part:

This is a huge Kapok tree I snapped on the tour. The roots are buttressed out from the trunk, like fins, instead of free like a banyon. And this one is just coming into leaf- you can't see from the photograph but there's a slight haze of green just starting. Kapok was used commercially in life preservers where they used the fuzzy white coverings on the buds, very much like a cotton boll. I don't think it's used any more with all the synthetics that perform better, but I could be wrong. Let me know.

And speaking of Banyons, we saw our fill of those too. One stately mansion on a small private side street had two huge trees guarding the front door and both were festooned with phaleanosis orchids that had been attached by nailing up the root balls to the trunks. What a beautiful welcome to that house. There had to be 50 plants on each tree, all white and waving in every direction. I didn't get a photograph but, like my aunt says, I 'took a mental picture'!

So, we all had a good time and a good lunch and a day away from the sturm und drang, whatever that is. And this was waiting for me when I got home:
A present from a great friend, two balls of Artyarns mohair covered with teensy beads and sequins, absolutely luscious yarn and as a bonus she also picked out a pattern for a shrug and a gorgeous pin to hold it together. I couldn't wait to get at it so started that night knitting up more of a shawl which gave me an opportunity to play with some lace knitting (I figure when you knit holes that you get the illusion that it's bigger, right? Well, I am decidedly not a lace knitter but the forgiving mohair hides my sins and the shawl is unbelievably beautiful. I added in a bit of silver yarn to also stretch it further. I can't say enough good stuff about this woman- she is absolutely the most thoughtful, down to earth, generous and caring person I have known in years. Hope she is around for the long term and has an inkling of how much we all appreciate her.

So, only two of the bindings to finish up and the Drop Cloths can be put to rest. Today I took photographs of the first three and need to finish the last ones so I can take down my jerry- rigged photo set-up involving ladders and gorilla camera mounts and straight pins into the walls of my bedroom where the new linen curtains do a good job of light diffusion. (Unfortunately they don't do so good on the privacy part of their job!) But finally I have them hanging and diffusing after 7 months of being in the box waiting for me to get at it.)

Ticking away at the to-do list.