I Like #228

 Welcome to another week of things to like!  I missed last week; we had an all day research workshop on Thursday so I never got my post written, so I'm glad to be back this week.

The best thing is that I got a new HVAC system last week.  It's not terribly exciting (and was very expensive) but is definitely nice.  We've had a few nice days of weather lately, but many days still in the mid-90s, and my AC had been limping along really ineffectively for a long time before finally giving up the ghost.  It was almost exactly 30 years old, so that seems like a good run.

The dogs are super sweet as always, Spooky always getting into something, Bentley trying not to be trampled, and Blue joining in wherever he can.  

I was very entertained by Bentley's ear here. 

I spent all day after church on Sunday preserving the rest of the crabapples.  I made and canned 26 half pint jars of jelly, 12 pints of jelly, 12 pints of crabapple syrup (delicious on pancakes and maybe cocktails), and 8 pints of crabapple butter.  It took several trips to walmart for jars and seals (in spite of bringing back lots of jars from my mom's) and resulted in a very sticky floor, but I'm so happy to be finished.  Combined with the batch I made this summer,  the total was 18 pints of crabapple butter, 49 pints of jelly, plus the 12 pints of syrup and two large batches of crabapple fruit leather.  Considering about 1/3 of the fruit was given to my sister and friend (who are busily making their own batches of jelly), that seems like a fairly good turnout for one crabapple tree!  Especially since my canning pot is pretty small, so I can only processs a few jars at once....

 

Of course now I have to find lost of things to make with crabapple jelly and butter.

I have one dahlia left alive, the plant looks horrible, but it survived the great bug-rain-heat apocalypse and has made a few lonely but beautiful blossoms in the last week.  Excitingly, a random marigold has sprouted up and flourished underneath it, also just in the last few weeks.  This was a whole bed originally planted with dahlias (only one of which came up) and then completely covered in pumpkins, and then those all died, and now I have this beautiful flower.

We took Spooky and Cash back out to hike around the lake the other day, Cash swam and had lots of fun and Spooky was even brave enough to wade in up to his elbows once!

I hope everyone is having a good week and that summer temperatures are breaking where you live.

Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

I Like #227

Welcome to another week of things to like.  Some good news in my world this week, a big research grant I'd been waiting months to hear on finally came through at work, so we're very pleased.

Wonderful new-to-me art this week, Italian artist Peeta makes paints buildings to look like amazing 3D sculptures.  (via)

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I finished knitting a new pair of ankle socks this week.  I screwed up the Kichener stitch, so there's a weird look at the toe, but otherwise they came out good!  I decided to try making a ruffled edge and it I love it.  It was annoying to bind off because to make the ruffle you wind up with 4x as many stitches as you started with which is a lot to bind off, but that's ok.  Here's hoping I can keep them away from Spooky!

Someone put this up at work this week and it made me giggle.  I love puns anyway, and gnomes, and genomes, so :)

Poor Bentley got himself really stuck inside this plant stand this weekend,  he was so freaked out and stressed and stuck.  I'm so grateful I was home and I have now put that plant stand somewhere else where he can't get to it.  I did help him calm down before taking the picture, but it was stressful because of course spooky and blue thought it was a great game.

Spooky hoping he won't have to go to bed in his crate (hot take: he did have to go to bed in his crate).

Blue is such a love~  My legless seal dog.

I hope folks are having a good week!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

 

I Like #226

 This was a good week; Alex came up to spend the three-day weekend with me and we had lots of fun, going to the zoo and the swimming pool, eating ice cream, and playing with the dogs.  He's such a hoot!

Becky adopted two retired research guinea pigs from the university and I took them to her this weekend.  They poop a lot but are super adorable little potatoes.   They are now named Fudge and Coconut.

Alex drew a great picture for me to give to the vet at work thanking her for letting us adopt them.  <3

The zoo had a fun exhibit of dinosaurs (both animatronic and skeletons) installed in the butterfly garden which was a fun thing to walk through.

All the dogs are doing great, Spooky has been eating the apple tree constantly.  Alex loves playing with him, so we had lots of fun with that too.

That is not a stick.  That is a broken branch he retrieved from the apple tree.  Sigh.

Alex asked if he could use the sewing machine, so I helped him make this little banner.  He stitched it all, front and back together and then stitched down the letters and did the top stitching.  The sewist in me was so excited, but the science nerd wasn't sure about the message.  He was super cute though, when finished he only wanted me to take a picture of the back because he wanted to surprise his mom with it at school on Tuesday.  

I hope everyone is having a good week!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

I like #225

Welcome to another week of things to like.  It's been a chaotic week and kind of a struggle for me, but there are still some things to like.

A wonderful new-to-me muralists:  Nespoon, who makes gorgeous lace like murals (amazing) (via) 

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And of course the pups are wonderful and snuggly

Spooky and I went on a nice hike with our friends Cash and Brett.  Brett picked up some pretty barite rose rocks.

I found a cool praying mantis on the one zinnia still alive in my garden.  I've never seen one before- super cool!  According to my identification app it's a Carolina Mantis.

I hope everyone is having a good week.  Click over to Lee Anna's for more things to like!