And Rain Came Down

We had the weirdest weather yesterday. It was near 80 when I left for town at noon to run errands. The sun was shining and there was nothing in the forecast about rain. Nothing. It looked and felt like a typical mid-July day in Montana.

By the time I got to town, clouds were gathering. I pulled into the Walmart parking lot around 2 pm just as big, fat raindrops started hitting my car. Dark clouds continued to pile up. While I was getting my hair cut an hour later, the heavens opened up and let loose. I was completely soaked running from the salon to my car, a distance of about 100 feet. The drive out of town was slow going because it was still raining hard and there were several inches of standing water on the roads.

We did not, unfortunately, get that kind of rain here at the house. Most of the precip this summer seems to be going north and south of us. (Alberta is getting hammered.) Usually, the atmosphere is so dry this time of year that any precipitation evaporates before it reaches the ground. To get that amount of rain—that amount of un-forecasted rain—was bizarre.

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More of my hollyhocks have bloomed and I do have a “black” one, which is really a very dark purple:

I need to get in there and cut back the weeds.

I discovered that ground squirrels like cilantro, as if decimating my broccoli starts wasn’t enough of an insult. I planted dill and cilantro a few years ago and now it just self-seeds all over the garden. I found a patch of volunteers a few days ago and lovingly weeded it. (The rest of my family hates cilantro but I am quite partial to it.) When I checked on it yesterday morning, all that was left was the dill.

The husband went out to the garden with the shotgun last evening. He spotted the little criminal, but couldn’t get a shot off before it disappeared down into its hole. I’ve also seen the neighborhood cat, Sylvester, parked by that spot.

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Before I make a pattern, I’ll often check for reviews on the PatternReview.com website. (An account is required to read reviews, but the account is free.) I didn’t do that for the Simplicity 9469 because Tea’s recommendation was enough for me, but I took a peek at some reviews after the fact. Apparently, several other people like that pattern, too, as it had a number of five-star reviews.

Joanns and Hobby Lobby have many of their summer fabrics on clearance. While I was in town yesterday, I picked up several lengths of fabric for making muslins. I have Burda 6610, which I had already traced, and which is similar to Simplicity 9469 except that the Burda pattern has bust darts:

I want to make this one an as intellectual exercise, to see how the fit compares.

I’m teaching a serger class today. We are making Christmas ornaments and napkins. Those projects were chosen so we could try out some new and unusual techniques with decorative threads.