16 hours

will bring the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

I had blogged earlier about being in training; so, now here's what's been keeping me busy this week.

From the top. The variegated plant is a butterfly bush that takes the place of the 10 ft. tall (yes, 10!) Joe Pye weed. It was a bit of a muscle-reawakening experience to remove Joe Pye. He was insistent on taking over the pond garden. (3 other plants were also bought and planted -- an orange penstemmon, a bee balm and a lavender. Then, the bee balm was an experience since his placement required the shovel/crow bar removal of a persistent sumac! DH was really good with the crow bar portion of this one and then helping with the lavender since my energy was wearing thin.) There may be a baby Joe Pye weed nearby. If that is what that volunteer is, then he will also meet the shovel after he blooms. The honey bees and the butterflies love Joe Pye...and we're sorry to remove Joe because of that. But we brought in new plants that will also be loved by the bees and butterflies and hummingbirds!

For the yarn portion of the photo we have the Canyon swatch in Lion Suede for a moebius cowl, the blue/green Caron for a Crofter's Cowl, the rest of the Banana Cotton fleece for a Razor Shell Cowl and the cast on plus 1 1/2 rows of 1x1 ribbing for the Bohus Dean Cap. The first three are 'right on' in the needle/gauge department. The cap isn't large enough yet to tell if this swatch will work for the cap or not.

3 guesses and the first 2 don't count as to what I'll be knitting on later!