Fairy house, "new" benches on the deck, knitted hats, and my sweet potato vine

Violet visited us this past weekend (Yes, that's turquoise hair. She's almost ll...), so we decided it was time to do something about the fairy house.

The old fairy house was basically a tree stump with a convenient opening for garden fairies. It had served its purpose in my rock garden for at least six years, and it had fallen into serious disrepair. In other words, it has rotted away.

Violet and I decided to go with terra cotta this time. To the casual observer who knows nothing about garden fairies, the new home might look like flower pots in disarray.

Actually, the fairies' "compound"consists of a main house, a guest cottage, a garage, and an in-ground pool. So there.

This is the smaller of the two benches on our deck. We've had them for at least twelve years, probably longer.

The wooden seats had become warped and rickety over the past couple of years. I was thinking it was time to toss them.

Ken came up with a better idea. He spent a little time in his workshop sawing boards from some trees he cut and had planed a few years ago, and voila! "New" benches.



On the knitting front, I've been knitting hats to donate to various charities. I'm doing this as I continue recuperating from that Potter's Shawl experience, which perhaps you recall.

I used the "Nice and Knit Beanie" pattern, free on Ravelry (or free if you simply google the info in quotation marks above).

The pattern is well written, and it gives me an opportunity to use up various worsted weight yarns.

Finally, if you look at my new header photo, you'll see that my sweet potato vine is thriving. In the pot to the right on the bench is the second vine to come off the same sweet potato. It, too, is doing well.

Now I need to go out to the fairy garden and continue to spread bark mulch. I've procrastinated long enough.