It's hot here today. At least by my standards (which include temperatures almost 70 degrees colder than it is right now). The sun feels very bright and there isn't much wind either. I managed to get a tan line on my shoulder while we sat outside for lunch and even in the office my skin felt sticky. By the time work was over though I had a plan...

When I woke up this morning I could hear rain and thunder and when I left for work the sky looked a little undecided about whether or not it would do some more so I had packed my handy-dandy (but limp in high winds) travel umbrella in my bag. For my walk home I pulled it out, opened it up and walked in my very own portable patch of shade.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching drivers swivel their heads around to stare at me as they went past. By the time I got home my glasses were sliding down my nose and I can only imagine how much more uncomfortable I'd have been with the sun beating down on me the whole way.

I got right into playing with plants yesterday. My parents had been over and we'd showed them around our yard and talked about some of our ideas for it. After they left I'd watered and deadheaded my outside pots and remembered that a couple of my indoor plants needed deadheading too (they also needed a lot of water). I decided to tidy up the violets a bit after getting rid of the old flowers and while I was cutting off some of the larger leaves I wondered if I could propagate new plants from the cuttings. (My sister recently gave me a couple of plants that she'd propagated herself and I think it's a pretty cool thing to do.) I looked it up and sure enough you can.

So I got my bag of potting soil and some spare little pots and a few other things from my houseplants bin and set to it. I've got three cuttings each of pink and white African Violets and one of a Christmas cactus (no idea if it will work; I didn't actually look that one up). While I was playing with dirt I figured I should repot a few of my plants that were showing too many roots. Two plants are in big new pots and one is in the same size pot but with a bunch of new soil (when I tipped it out to check on it I discovered that it had no soil - the entire pot was full of old roots).

Now I'm just trying to come up with places for all my plants (bigger pots require bigger spots) and continuing to scrub dirt from under my fingernails.

Oh, and as far as my list goes...
- My toe nails are now pink.
- My coffee every morning has gone cold before I finished it.
- I have some fun new ideas for our garden.
- I made zucchini bread (for breakfast) with a zucchini from my sister's garden.
- I haven't sewn anything yet but I have cut out a bunch of stuff and can't wait to get going.
- I bought needles and thread and oiled my machine (for the first time ever).
- I tidied the family room just enough to get the table set up and will start moving my computer and printer out there as soon as I've posted this (or tomorrow if I'm lazy).

It's been a good weekend - full but not busy. Lots of lazy time. It was raining when we got up this morning - pelting down - making it the perfect day for not going to work. We ate zucchini bread, drank coffee and watch The Labyrinth. And the special bonus of a long weekend - a short week. Yay!

(This picture is not really related to the text below but I wanted to give you something to look at. I'm trying to decide if there is enough of it to make a summer top.)

I love long weekends (who doesn't); they give you plenty of time to do all the things you feel you ought to do while still being able to do all the things you want to do. I thought I'd share my list of various "to do"'s with you.

1. Have a slow cup of coffee, outside if it's not raining.
2. Get some machine needles and sewing thread.
3. Bake something.
4. Make ice cream.
5. Find the floor in the family room.
6. Look at my garden (read "gravel") and start planning for next year.
7. Sew something.
8. Paint my toenails.
9. Look at fabrics for cushions for our new kitchen chairs.

It actually looks like a rather long list like this but it's very flexible. I like to take long weekends as they arrive without too much firm planning. It sort of makes them seem longer.