Yesterday, I finished the Meadowsweet bonnet and got all the ends woven in and buttons sewn on all the stuff, and everything is ready to go except the afghan, which hopefully will go by the end of the week “under separate cover.” This is good, because according to the latest word, the baby is due “any day now.” The package will contain the following:
All the above is what is going in the first load, together with this darling little bonnet I got at historic Fort Stanton. The baby will be living in Galveston, Tx, and this is the kind of hats babies need there — sunhats! It probably won’t fit her until next summer, but it will be so darling on her. Looks like we may be seeing the baby in October. The Pearland Heritage Society luncheon that mom wants to go to is on a Saturday. She wants to go down to Pearland on a Wednesday. We will be staying with mom’s niece (the grandma-to-be), and there is talk that either Thursday or Friday we will go down to Galveston and see the baby and eat seafood. I hope that means we are going to Gaido’s Restaurant in Galveston. I can remember going to Gaido’s to eat seafood as a small child, and it was always an important destination every time we went to visit relatives in Houston/Pearland. If we do go to Gaido’s, it will be a bittersweet occasion. My dad loved their broiled red snapper.
In other knitting news, my cousin-in-law’s scarf is moving right along. On mom’s, I only put 24 “horseshoes” — 12 in each direction. I think on this scarf, I will put 28. I have reversed the direction of the “horseshoes” — on mom’s the “arms” of the horseshoes pointed toward the ends of the scarf. On this one, they point to the center. The pattern is written so that you can do either configuration. 
There are three schools of thought about how you are supposed to position a horseshoe when you nail one over a door or on a wall for good luck: One school says the ends of the horseshoe should be pointing up, to “catch the luck” and hold it in the house. Another school says you should put it with the ends pointing down, so that the luck it attracts will be poured out onto the inhabitants of the house. The third holds that it doesn’t matter which direction they point, because nailing a horseshoe over a door or on a wall for good luck is just a silly superstition. I do not subscribe to this last view because it is no fun.
I did a load of sheets and clothes in the washing machine earlier and in the course of remaking the bed, I pondered one of life’s unanswered questions: Whyzzit when you are making a bed using a contoured (fitted) sheet, the first corner you put onto the mattress is always the wrong one?
The Owl Underground Archive II 
The origin of the superstition of lucky horseshoes seems to be that they were used to frighten off the “little people” – elves, goblins and fairies – who might harm humans. These small beings were said to be afraid of metal (never having developed its use themselves) and so placing a disused horseshoe over your door would, in theory, keep out these malevolent creatures. This being so, the orientation of the shoe would be irrelevant though some think that the resemblance of a horseshoe to the crescent moon was part of its power. In that case, it might be better to position it with the “opening” to the left or the right.
Those baby clothes are utterly precious. I especially like the sunflower buttons! And you’re right about the sunbonnet. The light is Galveston can be pretty straightforward, and any shade counts.
There’s another place in Galveston you might want to stop by before leaving — the Sunflower Bakery and Cafe. It’s a truly great place for breakfast, brunch, or lunch, but their bakery is one of the best I know. It’s not a frou-frou bakery with tiny little $3 macaroons. It’s a proper bakery with really good cookies, cinnamon rolls, scones, bread, pies, etc. It’s worth a stop even for a bag of road food.
I laughed and laughed at your comment about the contour sheets. It does seem a law of the universe.
What a lucky baby! These are really lovely and such pretty colours. Wish my knitting was going this quickly.I’m knitting for a 9 year old though so it takes a bit longer.
Dear WOL, all those gorgeous garments for the baby, she will look adorable!! Crikey you do keep busy! And I really admire how you deal with the major upset of yet another plumbing overflow situation… I happen to think you’re a Star!
Hope you went on ok at the Podiatry clinic.
Hugs,
Jane