Simple pleasures of summer.... or not...

I think watermelon just says summer, don't you?

This summer has been a particularly tough one climatically around here. Its been about a month or so since we had rain (although last time it rained we had over 60mm in 24 hours and lost one of our freshly shorn alpacas.... funny weather eh?). I get really edgy when we don't get rain for a while, and hand watering the garden just doesn't seem to be any consolation as far as the plants are concerned. Unfortunately this has made establishing trees up at our farm incredibly difficult and heartbreaking (not to mention expensive). Many plants just have not made it through (and we still have half of summer to go), especially the vegie garden, where I had planted many pumkins etc. Between the lack of water and the current plague of grasshoppers they just haven't survived. But on the up side we should get a good crop of potatoes, so that is something. And the peaches.... they are about to ripen up, the backyard smells of them when its hot (so pretty much all the time!). Can't wait to eat them! Oh, and preserve some too, bottled peaches are sensational.

Since its been hot alot lately, I've gotten a bit of knitting and spinning done. I've spun all the grey alpaca fleece (all 400g of it... small animal), and finished the Winterberry Socks which where a birthday present for my mum (and I managed to get them finished on time!), and have been working on a dress for our daughter in a Bamboo yarn. This was a bit of an impulse buy as I've been trying to be good and not buy yarn till I use up some of what I have, but it just felt so soft and drapey, I just couldn't resist. The dress is my own 'design', just a simple tank top style dress, should be nice for her to wear in summer. I am looking to start on a jumper/sweater for her with the grey alpaca yarn soon, I just need to buy a printer cartridge, so I can print out the pattern!