Gotcha!

Actually there were two different males, but the pictures of the one on the lawn didn't turn out well.

Stalking

Taking lessons from my cats, although my intentions aren't for a nice light snack.

Yet the sneaky Cardinal remains elusive.

Blah

April is turning out to be a big let down. Sure, it's been more sunny than not, it hasn't snowed (KNOCK ON WOOD!), grass is green, the birds have been singing their little hearts out, we finally got the approval from town hall to start a Middleton Community Garden (I've set up a blog site but have not blogged a single word about the trials and tribulations of starting something from nothing), I've read some wonderful books (list may follow one of these days), and the pretty quilt that I've been working on has a mostly completed top, yet... I can't put my finger on it, but something is not quite right. I've got a major case of the blahs. It lifted slightly when I finished my spring socks and give them a test drive that very same day--they made me extraordinarily happy. Seeing the colourful birds at my feeders--the American gold finches, and purple finches and chickadees, and blue jays, and cardinals, and sparrows, and even the shiny jet black crows--they bring a smile to my face, for a short time. I've been walking every day of the work week, attempting to get in some sort of shape and force myself outside at least once a day. Even that is a struggle. Blah. If I get one good productive day a week, I'm happy. Which is rather pathetic. Bottoms up on that cup of self-pity.

Anyway....

On a happy note, today is Pam's birthday is why not pop over and leave her some good wishes...
Happy Birthday Pam!! All the best from one cat lady to another...

Twice in One Day!

Almost unheard of. Yet here I am. I sewed today. Want to see?

This is what the patches will look like.Sewing gazillion triangles together.This is how far I got before my back gave out.

Progress! I like it!

Reasons to Be Cheerful

I enjoyed Canary Knits' list so much, I thought I'd like to make one of my own (and because several of her items are also on my list):

• getting coffee in bed (apparently not every husband delivers coffee to his wife in bed...that makes me pretty darned lucky, and definitely cheerful (once I get that caffeine into me!)
• cooking books, mainly Joy of Cooking and Food to Die For (which has the absolute best pizza dough recipe EVER)
• perfectly cooked pasta
• polite, well-behaved children (although those are a rare breed)
• photo albums
• thunderstorms (complete with lightening that brightens up the whole sky!); what a perfect time to curl up with a great book
• art supply stores
• pretty notebooks and journals
• pen pals
• yarn... lots and lots of different yarn
• beautiful fabric... lots and lots of different fabric
• book stores
• libraries
• cats that like to snuggle
• being able to hang laundry out on the line
• bird song in spring
• spring flowers emerging from still partially frozen earth
• cheesecake!
• favourite magazines
• watching movies with my kids
• the colour yellow
• flowering house plants

Oh, and how is this for a tease? We passed this sign this past weekend on the way to Moncton where hubby attended the Fly Fishing Forum. And me on a yarn diet. Damn.

Fickle

Look what I did today:

It's for a quilt called Ribbons from a book by Carol Doak called Your First Quilt Book (or it should be!).

Now you know why the sweaters (plural!) are going so slowly. Ooops!

So Green

Not our lawn, not yet.

FYI, this colour is not even a little bit accurate. It's almost 10pm and the light here sucks. The actual colour is a lovely soft chartreuse. This feather-weight of a sweater-to-be makes me very happy.

There's also been moderate progress on the Olympic sweater. I can't get over how slowly these sleeves are knitting up, but I suppose it's all relative to how much actual knitting time I dedicate to it. Huh.

BTW, HAPPY SPRING!

Warm Welcome

To welcome Spring, Nova Scotia pulled out all the stops including 20 degree Celsius weather. It was nothing if not spectacular. But Nova Scotia weather being what it is (fickle), today's temperature barely crawled over +5. Talk about a reality check.

That's fine. Really. Hubby made a nice fire in the fireplace. I even got back to knitting on my Olympic sweater, seeing as I may actually still need it for the next few months. Truth be told, the ladies at Friday Knit Night guilted me into it. One in particular. I haven't seen her in four weeks, and when she saw the body of the sweater laying in my basket, she remarked how much I had got done in just that short time. I confessed that the body has been done for over two weeks. I then proceeded to explain my issues with the sleeve (read: state my excuses) and how the sleeve has languished in the basket for better part of the week without a single stitch of progress. (Because I started another quick and dirty sweater as my avoidance technique, and on which I had every intention of knitting that night.) Now it's starting to look like neither sweater will be done by the end of this month. Que sera...

Lambs Abound

Yes, indeed. The lambs arrived early and have been sticking around. Knock on wood.

And because such glorious weather is hard to resist, I have been venturing out of the house, chaperoning various activities at the kids' school, and basically trying to wake up from my winter hibernation. The sunshine and blue skies definitely help.

What they don't help is getting my knitting done. I've been an absolute slacker in that department. Ever since I had a dropped stitch mishap on one of the Olympic sleeves, progress has been virtually non-existent. See what I did here? I can't remember if I saw someone do this before or if I read about it somewhere, but let's just say it worked. I used an extra needle to pick up stitches along the round where I had the dropped stitch. Then I just pulled out my dps and started ripping. I didn't have to worry that I would rip too far because my good stitches were already on that extra needle. Then I worked the missing stitch and I was off to the races, or rather off to read a book after all the stress of a very preventable goof. (Should have been paying more attention to my knitting than the movie that I was using as background noise.) Nifty, I tell you. Don't ask me why it took well over an inch of knitting to discover that my pattern wasn't lining up. Duh. Yeah, so sad. Right. I'd really like to be wearing my pretty sweater soon. To update, I have the body done. I haven't done any actual cutting yet. I plan on blocking the body and having the sleeves finished before I commence mutilating my knitting. That's to say that I intend to pick up my knitting again and start working diligently on it until it's completion. HEH

In Like a Lion

True enough. Notice how if someone has nothing better to talk about, they'll revert to talking about the weather? Yup.

So. Ever since the rain and warmer temperatures have taken most of the snow on our property, effectively turning the back yard into a swimming pool, I take it as a personal affront when more seasonal weather occurs. Like this wet snow and hideous winds. Brrrr Just listening to the wind makes me cold. Forcing myself out of the house is a major event, like this morning when I had to meet our 4-H general leader to pick up our family's share of chocolate bars to flog to the unsuspecting neighbours. I tell you, I'd much rather have preferred to stay in the house, bundled up in wool, and read. (Hey, I was some what productive yesterday: the family has clean clothes to wear again, and I baked 4 loaves of bread so no one will starve to death, and I thwarted the monster dust bunny take-over.)

So that's that. I have no pictures today...too lazy. I did finish the body of my sweater last night and even started the lace on the first sleeve.

That's all I have. I'm waiting for the lamb part now. I am so ready for spring....