Some knit's and a couple of "Thank you's"

First of all i want to thank everybody for commenting here or e-mailing me with their thoughts on Star's passing. I really appreciate the kind words.

The first week was quite bad , i caught myself looking out the window several times checking on her until a split second later it hit me : not there anymore :(

It's better now , i think it finally sunk in. I never thought i would miss her so much, especially since i haven't actually used her in the last five years and she was just a front lawn ornament.

Now to other things.

My dear Mom send me another goodie box with lot's of knitted baby socks:

and some German chocolate (best in the world) but i didn't get a pic of that, ate it all :)

...and myself , i knitted these socks for my Daughter in laws mom for her help with putting Star to rest:

and these fingerless texting gloves for my step daughter in law for her birthday this last Wednesday:

I already started another pair of patchwork socks and after that i will make a pair of thick socks for my daughter in laws grandad for letting me bury Star on his beautiful pasture.

Updates...

This is just a short post , no pics.I 'd just like to update on a couple of things that have impacted my life in the past weeks and thank everybody ( here and in the homeland ) for their well wishes.

First my old mare: she has fully recovered from what I'm sure of now was a snake bite.She has lost quite a bit of weight during the first 4-5 days because she didn't eat. It takes many pounds of feed a day to keep a horse looking good. If they don't eat for several days they loose weight fast. Sometimes a hundred pounds or more in a few days.(boy, wish i could do that !!!)

But, she is back to eating everything i put in front

of her and asking for more.

So, hopefully I'll have her a little while longer.

Next, my ankles.

They are almost good as new. Well, not really. Both are weak and i wear braces on both of them ,especially when I'm outside wandering in the yard. I'm very careful where and how i step.I've always had weak ankles and unfortunately always will, I'll just have to be careful.

On the knitting side : I finished another pair of ( black!!) socks for a customer in Washington state, must be getting cold there :)

Also still trying to figure out how to get those holes centered in those beautiful beads.Any help or suggestion is greatly appreciated. Just be reminded that they are lentil shaped and do not lay down flat.
I started on another pair of patchwork socks last night. They should be ready to go in the shop by about Sunday.
I will put a picture in here after all. It has nothing to do with above story's.
These are my mother in laws African Violets that i inherited from her.

She had them for many years and tended to them with lots of love. They bloomed all the time and every time we visited her i admired the pretty little flowers.
So when i brought them home i got all the info on how to keep them off the Internet( i remember my mom had one for years and remember that hers was very fickle especially about the light it got) . I re potted them with new soil and tried to find them a good spot by a window, but after a couple of weeks decided there wasn't enough light and moved them to another spot and that's when the miracle happened:Blooms!!!

This plant has been blooming for about 3 weeks now.

I have one more plant and four cuttings. I hope they will bloom too once matured.

I wish i could tell mom-in-law but due to her advanced stage of Alzheimer's she won't understand :(

Well, this was not that short of a post after all and pictures too !!

What a perfectly horrible day....

Talking about a bad day, yesterday was it !
First i found that my old mare Star , which I've been desperately coaxing along to hang around a little longer before galloping into the big pasture in the sky, had not ate her supper from the night before. Which is very unusual. I promised myself that as soon as she would stop eating i would do the humane thing.
She went of her feed a couple of times before in the last year but after a day or two she started again, i guess sometimes she's just not feeling good.I got days like that...
Well yesterday she just seemed different. I spend loads of time with my animals and watch them closely.So when they're behavior changes i notice right away.
After looking at her more closely i noticed a lump between her front legs on her chest, about as big as an egg.It was hard as a rock but didn't seem to be painful when i touched it. Well, that wasn't there the night before! So i decided that something bit or stung her during the night. I've never seen a bee or hornet sting look like that so i ruled that out.
Next thing :  snakebite!!
I haven't seen any snake around the house this year but that doesn't mean there not here.
Anyways, i dumped the uneaten feed out (since it had soured over night) and gave her a fresh ration of sweet feed.
 She took a little bite and i thought "Yes!!" but then she turned around and walked of.
Not Good!!!!
So i went down to the local Co-op and got a big bottle of penicillin and gave her the maximum dose.
I watched her close all morning and noticed that she was constantly drinking water. She also came back numerous times to check her feed but never ate any.
By noon i was afraid that this might be it.I'll not let her stand over a trough full of food and slowly starve to death. I could see that she wanted to eat but just couldn't.
By this time i was pretty upset. I know that she doesn't have much time left , she is about 28-30 old , that's quite ancient for a horse. I lost several pets during the years either of old age or sickness but it doesn't make it any easier.
Also I've got the problem what to do with her .This is not a little dog, this is a 8-900 pound animal.
It requires a little more than a shovel . Nobody in our neighborhood has a backhoe, also, we don't have enough room here to dig a huge hole.We can take her to the dump but i just can't handle having her buried in garbage! what to do, what to do ? Then my son called and i told him about the situation.
A couple of hours later my daughter-in-law  called me back. She apparently talked to her mom and she is willing , when the time comes ,to bury her in her pasture ( she has a backhoe !!) and since she is working for a vet and has put many horses to sleep over the years, to send Star, quietly and with dignity to the big pasture in the sky. The relief !!
Late in the afternoon i noticed her nibbling around on the sweet feed. She also looked a little more alert. YES !!! maybe, just maybe....
Well, stepping out of the house all excited , i tripped and , can you guess it ?,  sprained my ankle!!, this time the right one.This was one of the times where I'm grateful that we live in the country, far away from neighbors ( well, at least out of screaming distance), because the words coming out of my mouth!!! a sailor 's got nothing on me!!!
I laid there, on my back (talk about deja vu ), cussing and crying at the same time.Frustration, pain, worry all pouring out of me.
The pain!!Uhhhh
So now i got two bad ankles and i don't know if you ever seen what it looks like , someone limping both sides.It looks like a footsore duck.

Happily i can report that this morning Star is looking much better and is eating again, she still drinks a lot of water and the lump has gotten bigger, about the size of a small orange, but softer. If i could, I'd do the happy dance , but.....

If you look close you can see the lump between the legs.

I had calmed down enough by last night to start a new pair of socks to go in the shop.

It's a pretty easy lace pattern, only four rows repeat with every second row a straight knit row.I made several mistakes anyways, guess i was a little preoccupied, and had to frog several times.

oh, by the way , i also broke my glasses yesterday. Thank goodness i still got my old pair. They are not as good as the new ones but they'll do till i can get the other pair fixed. All in all, a horrible day!!!