Mostly cloudy

That's the weather right now. Dank, humid, wet wet wet. I tried to take a photo of how muggy it is outside - but it only looks green to me. Not that I am complaining, either - we had enough of drought last summer to last me a lifetime. I am grateful for every drop that falls and more grateful that in between the rainstorms we get sunshine ... sometimes even dry sunshine. I am counting on a lovely autumn. I know the farmers around here are counting on bountiful crops. 

So. What else am I grateful for today .... Well. There is Mercury, going retrograde, which means I get to kick back and take it easy for a few weeks - a good thing since fall is always a crank-it-up time of year. Faithful readers know I HEART the fall for its many holidays, crisp weather (and opportunity to wear sweaters), myriad conventions and out of town meetings, prelude to Christmas and, oh yes, because there is a birthday right at the beginning of it. So, yeah, I'm grateful for fall. But I'm also grateful for this little hiatus in August where I can think and dream and even mind-wander a bit. I'll be all the better for it when things gear up again.

I'm also grateful that I have enough leave time saved up to take tomorrow off. I'm sort of encroaching into the surplus. I like to have 2 weeks stashed away just in case, not only because I still have one parent who is elderly and could turn needy any time, but also because that's just my comfort threshold. But come the end of September I rack up another week. I can dip into the well a bit this month. And I am going to go play in the museums with a girlfriend tomorrow. Both the Va. Historical Society and the Va Museum of Fine Art have new exhibits going on and there's bound to be a great lunch offered up between the 2 of them.

Oh! Yes. And I'm grateful I have such a big stash of sock yarn. Of course, I'm also a little ashamed that I have so many almost completed first socks in zip lock bags, each of them holding an Addi turbo or Addi lace needle prisoner. BTW .. have any of you knitters ever wondered where the name Addi comes from? Think I'll contact Skacel and ask them. Anyway - I sure am grateful to them for selling such a superior product. I'll use inferior needles if they have good joins, but I always come back to my beloved Addi's. Only, of course, I'm waiting on a size 4 circular, in the mail right now, because the inferior brand needle I was using on the green lace scarf snapped in two night before last. Thank goodness there is a sock with a needle in it just waiting for me to get a move on. So - lots of knitting things to be grateful about today.

And I am grateful for the movie White Christmas
and the blessing song. I like to watch it once in the summer (at least) to feel crisply cool on a scorching day but I love to watch it anytime. And today I am humming the blessing song.

And here is another lovely thing I'm grateful for - New Cushions on my Glider!Yes! I bought this fabric on Memorial Day weekend and had a local man sew them up for me. This has become a favorite place to sit and read the Sunday paper or knit a scarf ... a green scarf ... or a substitute sock from the stash ... which I think I shall go do right now. Ta.

Count your blessings.