When my kids were little and people asked how they were, I usually quipped they weren’t involved in drugs or other teenage associated shenanigans.
Now that they are young adults, and make me proud every day, I am happy to report they sleep through the night and are potty trained.
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Yesterday was a perfect day to spin outside and whatever I left behind was a gift to the birds for their nests.
I have plans to make a pair of leggings for a friend in South America, where it is almost winter. She wanted grey. Amazingly, I don’t have any grey yarn but I had grey roving and I spun it up into a worsted/bulky two ply. Not my best effort but I have let my spinning wheel languish for far too long. In order to wind a skein of my new yarn, I had to take a skein of Blue Faced Leicester/Alpaca blend off the bobbins. It is luscious and I have tons of it.
I think I bought a pound of BFL roving and I distinctly remember buying the alpaca fleece. There are several breeders in the area and when I saw an ad for alpaca fleeces I headed out to the address. To my surprise, it was a chiropractor’s office. I walked in and approached the receptionist. As if I was engaged in an elicit trade, I quietly asked if I was in the right place for an alpaca fleece. Sure enough, she pulled 3 bags full from behind the counter and I paid with my credit card. I cleaned it and carded it and have been gradually spinning it. I plied it with the BFL and think I’ll either knit a soft, cushy warm garment from it or use it as weft for a blanket. After I dye it. Perhaps with the lichen I have been collecting.
My braided rug is coming along. I tore strips from several old sheets and it will make a great rug for one of the bathrooms. I began with an old table cloth in the middle and it wasn’t the right weight or material. But it will remain as a reminder.
This little dress is on the needles and the baby has been born. 
It’s the Clara dress and is an easy, knit, great for meetings and travel.
If you build it, they will come.
Tim installed this sweet Purple Martin house the other day. I was nervous
when the Bluebirds checked it out because I thought they would change the
neighborhood and keep the Purple Martins out. We have never seen Purple
Martins near our house but heard they love to eat mosquitoes, which would be
good, or some people report dragonflies, which wouldn’t be so good.
Today, I saw the Martins checking out the house. Noone has put a deposit on
it yet, but I am hopeful.
The weather has warmed up – a bit too much – and spring is in the air. Yesterday, the high temperature was 85 degrees f and the low was 35 f – a whopping 50 degree spread. What to wear? Actually, we don’t even notice the cool nights, except we sleep well, or I do anyway. We’re outside doing all sorts of projects – Tim is working on his cabin; I’ve been trying to figure out what are weeds and what are not; and the boat is ready to launch.
Trees are blooming and love is in the air (and in the hills). I see a heart in the trees.
Our first Humming bird returned, Bluebirds are checking out the boxes (including the Purple Martin house, which is supposed to be used by Purple Martins) and Eastern Phoebes keep trying to build a nest inside our porch. It’s complicated when the birds refuse to keep to their own neighborhoods. Goldfinch are wearing their bright yellow feathers and are so colorful.
It’s so nice outside, I haven’t been doing any quilting or weaving. I still do laundry though and love to dry clothes outdoors on a windy day. I may find clothing scattered around the lawn, but they smell nice.
One of my favorite pictures is my porch swing in the snow. Here it is in the spring.
Time to go enjoy another day.
On all fronts. Despite nighttime temperatures in the 20’s f, Spring is definitely here. Shoots are shooting, I see the grass but the wooly bear still hasn’t moved, even though I sprinkled some sprigs of grass near him.
I have managed to layer four or five quilts and am getting ready to start quilting them; perhaps one or two by hand.
My new Icelandic sweater is finished. I had to attend a forty hour course, which provided at least thirty hours of solid knitting time. I was basically done when the course was over but ran out of yarn. Rather than go back to the Icelandic source for Lopi, via Canada, I ordered Reynolds Lite Lopi and knit the button and neck bands. They match perfectly. This wasn’t the same lot, or even the same brand! Go figure.
Four bracelets are in the works for a reunion with high school friends. So are 12 placemats.
Now the loom has a blanket on it. My widest project yet but by no means the hardest. I’m using Plymouth Encore yarn, which is very smooshy and washable.
The kitchen has a batch of sourdough starter in the works. I found a loose recipe on PBS’s site with Julia Child. I took a pound of grapes, mashed them up a bit in cheesecloth and added flour and water. The concoction has been bubbling away for about a week and will soon be ready to create a rustic loaf of bread. And I will feed it more flour and water and perhaps it will last for years. Will I want it to last for years?
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We miss fresh greens in the winter and even would like more in the Spring. I found a little hydroponic grower and have sprouted arugula, mustard greens and red lettuce. We’ll see how this goes.
Now to get my butt off the couch and get outside and enjoy Spring!
The other day, I waxed on about Spring’s arrival to the North Country. Not so fast.
Mountain Man proposed a hike to Scarface, a relatively diminutive peak by Adirondack standards, so I said yes. A nice Spring walk. NOT!
There was an icy “spine” most of the way and I clumped along in snowshoes. It was Spring after-all and i left my micro spikes home. I can only speak of most of the way, because when it became too gnarly by my standards, I turned back and headed away from the hills.
That’s Spring in the Adirondacks.
My walk out provided plenty of time to collect a pocketful of lichen, which had fallen off the trees, and to contemplate rocks.
I may not see dead people but I do see things in rocks.
I am not a material person. Like a lizard (?) I have shed my skin and possessions more than once in my lifetime.
But I recently had a birthday – a big one – and am as pleased as punch with my gifts.
Here they are. To avoid any favoritism, they are listed in order based upon the number of years I have known the giver. My kids are very competitive; each one asked me if they were the first birthday wisher. Yes to the 6:00 am text message and yes to the 8:00 am phone call.
1) A beautiful bouquet of spring flowers, just when I am getting a wee bit tired of winter weather.
2) A beautiful floral blouse, fits perfectly and looks perky.
3) An extremely functional, handmade gift for my pepper mill. I have one of the older brass pepper mills, featured on the Frugal Gourmet years ago. It’s so tall and top heavy, it’s lethal around pottery or glassware on the counter because it frequently tips over. No more.
4) The sky delivered a beautiful sunset and should probably be listed first.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the car these past several days. I drove to Montpelier, back home, to Washington, DC and will head back to Montpelier for two more days after one night in my own bed. I haven’t had a home cooked meal for a week!
But I ate oysters, and Ethiopian food – hard to find in the Adirondacks. Most importantly, I spent a few days with my daughter.
The weather was beautiful and provided a real zing of Spring. Except for a parking ticket and a nail, which punctured a tire in two places, it was a fabulous trip.
We rented bikes and rode around the Mall and visited the monuments. Capitol Bikeshare has kiosks around the city and you pick up a bike from one location and return it near your destination. Then we picked up different bikes to head home. What a concept! I downloaded the Spotcycle app, which told me where bike stations were and how many bikes were available there.
We were a few days early for the cherry blossoms on the mall but saw a few trees in full bloom in other parts if the city.
We headed home to the remnants of winter, with snow on the ground and temperatures below freezing once again.
A business trip brought me to Montpelier, VT, the smallest state Capitol in the US. Although it’s only a short trip over a lake, and around some mountains, I am not in Kansas anymore. This is quintessential New England. A shire town means County Seat and is the term used here. Middle Earth.
There’s a lovely village green on the campus of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where people and canines play frisbee in the snow.
I was very sad to find the New England Culinary Institute closed for break. I was looking forward to dinner there. But I found plenty of alternatives. There is some food I can’t find in the Adirondacks so I try to eat it when when I am out. I found a sweet Thai restaurant, Royal Orchid and had coconut milk soup and potstickers. Yum!
It’s very hilly and a short walk downtown for a great variety of coffee at Capitol Grounds. Along the way I passed frozen puddles ,
Colorful hilltop houses
And a whimsical, mustached bark man.
When you have snow…go skiing. Travel and surgery caused me to miss the past two winters. I downhill skied once 3 years ago, traveled to Australia in 2010 and was on crutches in 2011.
Yet a beautiful mountain is only 30 minutes away. And we just had 16 inches of fresh snow. And it was midweek. I gave it a try on Wednesday and was reminded how much I enjoy it. Best of all, my ankle worked ( the one that had me on crutches last winter).
What fun, even if my style hasn’t changed in 40 years. I tried out the newfangled skis, shorter than me, had a group lesson, which turned out to be a group of only me, and relished the day. Sweet.
I returned yesterday with DH who immediately wanted to go to the top – he’s a mountain hiker after all. Even though I had been to the summit, three years ago on my one day skiing, I balked.
Some male-female dynamics automatically triggered in my brain and I resisted, initially. Perhaps I have been led astray in the past? Lets just say I had not been to an ER before I met DH and now I have been there twice; first due to broken face in a boating accident; and then due to an ankle injury, which occurred while following him up one of his high peaks. Just sayin’.
So away we went and it was lovely. I’m sold. And I didn’t visit the ER. The view of Lake Placid was stunning.
I’ll be back today after a half day of work. After all, we have snow.
Island and North Country Life 