Interview Me...and Lolly Did!

So Lolly of LollyKnitting Around asked who wanted to be interviewed...so...I thought, Ilike her blog & find her interesting...so - go on Girl - Interview me!

Her questions...my answers!

1. You are the world traveler: what countries have you been to? How long do you usually stay in one place?
Countries I've visited (in semi-order): Canada, Finland, Russia (when it was the USSR still!), Lithuania, Sweden, Spain, Hong Kong, Taiwan, England, Italy, Scotland, British Columbia, China, Japan, Mexico, Ireland (one night only and I was in a hotel sleeping off a 102F fever). I've also been thru airports in Thailand, Amsterdam and Paris.

I spent the most "all-at-once" time traveling through the USSR. These days I'll spend about 3 weeks at a time in Asia - the usual split: up to 2/3 time in China with the rest split between Hong Kong and either Taiwan or Japan. I spend FAR TO LITTLE time in Italy -- Florence is the most feminine and wonderful city --- oooh I'm hoping to return for work in September. Working in Italy is a treat as the days end at 6pm. After 6pm it's family time...which means leisurely meals out. I haven't been to Italy in almost 2 years -- since the devaluation of the dollar to the Euro. Hmph.

2. Why did you take up knitting? Was it your love of fashion, or your desire for a new hobby? (or both?)

I started knitting about 27 years ago when I was "knee high to a grasshopper". Why? Because my Mom knit and I wanted to learn how, so...she taught me! Learned how to crochet, sew and cook then too! It taught me patience which comes in most handy now! Many (not all!) in college used to snicker at me and my needles...now many of them are asking to learn!

3.What is your favorite decade, stylewise?

This is SUCH A TOUGH QUESTION!! But - I think it would be the 1940s...30s? 50s! 20s? OK OK 1940s if I HAD to pick. When women looked like WOMEN and both men and women wore hats. When we didn't have to teach men when to wear a suit vs. a sport coat. When women wore gloves and hats and had marvelous handbags and shoes!

4. Name some of your favorite NPR shows...

oooooooh...
Car Talk (Click and Clack ~ The Tappet Brothers), World Cafe, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Live from the Mountain Stage, Wait Wait - Don't Tell me, Prarie Home Companion, Morning Edition, All things considered, This American Life, Whad'ya Know?...

5. What are you planning for your garden this year? Flowers, herbs, or veggies? (or all of the above?)

The photos are from gardens of 2003 & 2004 (and in front of the old deck.) I have already in my garden: Daffodils, Tulips (Black Tulip on right and fancy pinks below), Lupins, Anemones, Chives, Mint (3 varieties but tons for Mojitos!!), Mums, Hydrangas, Crocus, Lily-of-the-Valley, Hen & Chics, Allium (shown on the left in front of my garden Monkey pot stand), Bleeding Hearts (pink and white, Pink shown below), a bunch of greenery that I don't know what it's called and self-seeding cherry and roma tomatoes (amazing how if you travel enough and let enough tomatos fall and rott into the ground...they re-seed themselves the next year!) There are also probably 5+ varieties of additional flowering bulbs that I've planted that I don't remember their names... When I dug up the entire garden last year to put a new deck in with my Dad (which is GEORGOUS BTW!!), the bulbs were all heaped into a pile and then replanted around the new deck...so I'm hoping that I get home in time to seem it all in blossom!
I'll add Basil, Thmye, Rosemary if mine didn't winter, possibly peppers and a TON of annual flowers -- I've pots aplenty and hanging baskets to fill after the last frost. I used to start all my plants from seed...but with the travel it's hard to depend on who ever feeds my cat to also keep them alive.
I'm lucky that my garden is quite sheilded from the weather between the surrounding buildings and the apple tree in the middle that I get about 1/2 bushel from eat fall. Good cooking apples.

If you want ME to interview YOU, please leave me a comment email me saying “interview me.” If you leave a comment, make sure you leave your blog address. I will go in the order that people asked to be interviewed, and depending on the turnout, I cannot promise more than 5 interviews every few days (I'm traveling!)
I will respond by asking you five questions here on my blog.You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.