Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

My birthday came and went with no calamities. Better than that, even -- I had a 3-day weekend with the Viking, a lot of extravagant meals out, and weather close enough to perfect. I got lovely books (entered and tagged in Library Thing if you're really curious), lovely earrings, and, my favourite, two lovely new koi for my pond.

We lost Olaf to an infection earlier this year, so Astrid Fish had been all on her lonesome, but no more. The Viking got me a black and white butterfly koi and an orange and white (not butterfly. garden variety?) koi. They're both approximately 7 inches long, which means that Astrid dwarfs them (I guess her to be about 16" now), but they have been schooling together. I suspect the two new ones are Sigurd and Gudrun but I haven't worked out which is which yet.

Finished object report: Baby lime Shedir:

shown with the in-progress blanket, which is so simple it's barely a pattern, in Sugar 'N Cream cotton, colour 'Sherbet.' I'm not sure if the colour is coming through well in the photo or not; it's variegated in yellows and oranges ranging from so-pale-it's-offwhite through to ... well, orange sherbet. It's sort of creamsicle coloured. Sis was very clear that she didn't want 'traditional' baby things in traditional baby colours, but hats and blankets are sort of required equipment, and I like the citrusy colours. So.

When we first brought Maeve home, I was instructed to take lots of pictures of her. I have been lax. She has grown up to be quite fluffy big girl, and has picked out for her favourite nap spot a particularly ratty chair. Sometimes she shares it with Fergus:

But mostly she prefers to have it all to herself.

verso - recto