The daffodils are everywhere! The trees are exploding!
All the tourists hoping to see the cherry blossoms in April had better change their flights. They'll miss them by three weeks.
I'm knitting up a storm
but I can't show you what...
Here's a small peek.
And this is totally unrelated.
It's the best error message I've ever received.
Today is Nature Photography Day. We're having super-fun-Springtime.
The carpenter bees hovered and bobbed, sometimes bonking into one another.
Soon our fence will have piles of sawdust all around.
My morning walk was the sort that invites long deep breaths.
I was a silly stroller with a camera, admiring ordinary things.
Blooming things about the house.
Living in a row house, we have limited space for growing things.
But I potted some bulbs last year.
We greeted the change to daylight savings time with some baked french toast (raisin bread, with apples). Good smells help us wake up early.
And we've spent the weekend waiting. Watching our ailing Pete, who has stopped eating and drinking. He's curled up in his blanket on our bed, less than half the kitty he was a year ago. We expect we'll be saying goodbye soon. We're sad. It's a quiet house.
That's what Mom used to say.
It fits the way the wind blows inside our house. Those who parent teens know what I mean.
The first baby crocus came up.
With the crocus came other blossoms -- discoveries on my camera, taken by a stormy Z on a day when she was channeling her energies artistically.
She took the photos above and below the crocuses.
I'm sampling some yarn for a chunky cabled sweater. This is Beaverslide Dry Goods Mountain Midnight. It is 90% merino, 10% kid mohair. It's wonderful. I'm also going to try some with mohair.
Here's a week-old picture of last Wednesday's snow.
We got barely a dusting, but it was enough to give our dancing solar snowman a reason to wiggle. I have a feeling it's all the snow we'll see this year. It's been a warm winter. I'm not complaining--the walking weather and the sunshine are welcome.
Mitts in the works. These are a tester. They'll be done again in blue.
The bulbs in the potts are poking up.
The orchid is ready to bloom again.
Pete is getting really skinny, as his illness progresses. We are trying to keep him comfortable and warm.
The morning wake-up walk is absolutely necessary.
Before I go walking, I never think about how soothing nature is, or what discoveries I might make. My mind is fixed on my tea, the warmth of being inside.
Thankfully, I somehow do get myself outside, and then I give thanks, heartily, for the refreshment of it.
Water took many forms today; sometimes a river of stone, sometimes a ripple of reflection.
Where are the geese? I haven't seen them this year.
Today was the day to capture the leaf prints.
I try to walk with my head up, but today, my eyes were to the sidewalk, where the goodies are.
They appear most often after the rain and mud have cemented them to the sidewalk.
Eventually, homeowners with leaf blowers peel up the stuck leaves.
These patterns are temporary; the next rain will take them.
That's what I told the kids at the bus stop, when they asked me why I was crouching and photographing the sidewalk.
I hope they notice these things; I'm glad they were curious and asked. They live rushed and densly-packed lives. They get a lot of exposure to new ideas and activities, but I'm not sure how much growth can really happen when there isn't time to process one's experience and respond to it.
I'm thankful for a childhood of roaming through vacant lots, catching grasshoppers and examining weeds and crickets up close. I have happy memories of floating on my face in a river, the sun warm on my back, and looking through clear goggles at the bright stones and baby fishes under the water. Good stuff.
This year we have a real autumn.
The colors weren't so spectacular, but the climate has been wonderful. Instead of only one month, we're getting two months of autumn, and I'm very grateful.
I walk nearly every morning in our little neighborhood. I pass the same kids and dog-walkers as I make multiple loops.
Some days, like today, I carry a camera and try to catch what I can before it all changes again.
What the hey -- it's snowing on pumpkin carving day.
No accumulation, but some very big wet flakes. That made it fun.
This year I tried a white pumpkin. Who knew it would be green inside?
E and Z did the big orange ones.
Here are the happy faces on our doorstep! Z's has no eyes. We call it the Charlie Brown pumpkin. E's is a classic.
I carved out a cone shape, and our friend B inserted it back into the pumpkin, inverted. It was a pumpkin horn! I had so much fun making more pumpkin horns that I skipped the face.
While you're getting ready for Halloween, don't forget your toes.
Enjoy the wonderful colors of the season.
Do some exploring...
... and gather some good things about you.
Fall dropped upon us from above. I think we'll get a colorful one, given all the recent rain. As colorful as these stuffed peppers.
I'm not used to wearing long pants. I found my socks. The air conditioner doesn't come on anymore and I have a weird sluggish feeling...
I think I'm cold.
Or caught a passing bug. Ragweed. Now I remember... this is the time of year that my head slips into a fog of Benedryl and sniffling nights.
I'm learning to walk in my sleep.
Another set of mitts completed. These were scratchy until I washed them with a little conditioner. Now they feel not exactly soft but smooth... much easier on the hands.
And this fellow has been eating our tomatoes. He's huge. He's a tomato hornworm, and will grow into an enormous wasp moth if other critters wasps don't implant their eggs in his body, as does happen to these guys.
I wish him well.
Hurricane Irene was a little tired by the time she got to us. She didn't do nearly as much damage in our neighborhood as we were expecting. Lots of rain, wind, and the debris that normally follows.
But since we were expecting a big storm, we spent the day indoors. Z got busy with some clay earrings. She'll probably have more to say about them on her blog. They are extremely cute.
And I did some knitting. We've decided to give another holiday bazaar a try this year. We sent in some photos for the jury; we'll see if we get a chance to have a table and sell our wares.
It's educational, I figure. Recently I took Aunt B's great advice and listened to this Freakonomics Podcast on Parenting, and felt quite reassured about the lack of spendy activities Z gets enrolled in.
The price of a table at the bazaar is cheap compared to a weekly art class... and Z is already keeping track of her expenses, working up her business cards and calculating her prices. She's learning about wire working, glazing, molding... Seems to me there's a lot to be learned from such ventures, for not a lot out money.
I'm getting ready for Irene--cooking like crazy. Yesterday it was a peach custard pie. Today, a plum galette, muffins, and a huge frittata.
We don't expect the storm to be too bad for us. But we do expect to lose power for a couple days. So we'll have to do a lot of eating, to save the food in the fridge. And to pass the time.
Also we'll have to burn a lot of candles in the evening. You'd think we'd miss the internet, the electricity, the cordless phone. But no--I always miss the light. I don't mind eating trail mix and taking cold showers, so long as I can see to knit.
Here are a few more pictures of recent events.
It was necessary to stop at South of the Border, with its immense tacky displays. But once was enough.
As usual, we did our share of eating, including Paula Deen's restaurant in Savannah.
Z loved the Rolls Royce at the Dali museum, with the mermaid in the back seat. We peeked at the home of Flannery O'Connor in Savannah, and her church, St. John the Baptist.
The Dali Museum really needs to be seen from both inside and out.
Our nature hike wasn't all horrible huge bugs; we did see this magic purple mushroom, and some interesting signage.
Z got some tutorials from Me-Mom; how to crochet a worm...
and how to bake a pie. I finished a pair of socks.
We ate some gelato and Z photographed interesting bicycles.
When we got home, we had a little bit of birthday. Sweet Z made me a cheesy berry pie-thing, and she painted my toes. Later we'll have an indoor picnic with friends (the outdoors being too stinking hot).
My gift to myself was the completion of a secret goal: I'm 41, and I can run.* Five miles!
Thank you, Z for this fun card!
*On the treadmill. On the ground it's less. But it's progress!
For three years now I've been trying to photograph the cardinals.
Rough weather last night. Tornado warnings all around our vicinity. We made beds in the basement and kept the radio bedside, E waking to listen to the report when the thunder persisted.
A long, constant roll of thunder is not a good sign.
Outside, Fuzzy's nemesis was yowling. We hope he found a place to hide.
More warnings and watches today. We've been lucky -- there has been some serious damage in neighboring counties, but thankfully not in our midst. High humidity, a lot of wind and water, and the blossoms all gone. (photo at left by Z)
Suddenly summer. Such a warm day, and a promise of thunderstorms tonight.
Though I miss the spring and summer of the Wilamette Valley in Oregon, I also enjoy certain warm weather things about where we live now: Thunderstorms and carpenter bees, the red cardinals and fireflies. Good things abound.
There have been a few resurrections. A pumpkin, for one.
And the catnip and the carrots.
There's a plant on the plant shelf out front, and it is actually blooming.
We got our little dump of wet snow, and on her 13th birthday, Z went to the sledding hill.
Lots of trees were down. This branch kindly missed our window and landed on the back patio. Internet was out all day, but we had power, thankfully. Many folks don't.
Today's weather recipe is "Wintry Mix." Ice.
Z was thrilled about the ice that canceled her exams today. I am amazed that E made it off to work (20 minutes to scrape the ice off the car). She skittered off to the town center with a friend.
A few days ago about two inches of snow fell on us. We are not getting the mass quanitities of snow that we got last winter. I am longing for just one dump of about 8" so Z can go to the sledding hill.
It's plenty cold though. I started a yoga class this week, if for no other reason than to untie the knots in my back from shivering at the kitchen table over my knitting. Brrr.
Photo by Z: portents of things to come.
In a few days my "Elements of Design" group meets and I have to show my work on the topic of Positive and Negative space. I'm a little late getting started.
Learning design is half the goal, I figure. I also want to learn a new skill at the same time. So now is the time for double knitting. I haven't successfully attempted it before. It's tricky; two yarns at a time, two sides at a time, switching knit and purl with either hand and following a chart.
I watched videos on You Tube to see how it's done, and did the obligatory practice swatch. Here's one side. It makes no sense.
Just a teaser today, but enough to wreck many cars on the freeway as our scant precipitation hit the frozen roads. It's been c-o-o-o-l-d lately.
Fortunately, it happened at lunch time. E's drive home should be better.
Meanwhile, I knit. Last minute gifties!
I hope to be boxing and shipping in just a few days.
And I also hope to be posting some knitting instructions online... I've been getting requests for some charts and patterns from folks who want to knit these sorts of things.
I love the crunchy leaves, blue sky and cold dry air. But my eyes, my throat, my sinuses...
It's like always having a cold. It makes me tired.
Last night I got out the Penguin. He's the cool mist humidifier. He makes sleep possible. I still wake up with my eyes crusted shut, but I don't sneeze and cough all night.
Soon this will pass. My nasal passages will adjust to the dryness, the ragweed and mold will be gone. I hold my open eyeballs under the running faucet (it keeps the pinkeye away) and wait for winter.
He'd been staring at the base of the oven for three days. He was sure he saw or heard something down there. I believed him -- perhaps a cricket or spider, I thought.
Then one morning Z was eating breakfast when Pete batted a little fuzzy thing across the floor -- fffsssttttt.
"Mom, it's a frog!"
It was a fuzzy frog.
Z dropped it in water (it took a couple changes of water to get the fuzz off) and then let him hop outside.
Perhaps he came inside on the plants, which recently were moved inside to avoid the coming cold. Silly me -- it's been in the balmy 70s the last few nights, and the plants and frog both would have been much happier outside.
The best month of the year.
Z and I took a little stroll through the crunchy leaves.
We saw Nature.
On a day with a heat index of 103, we got an intense little storm. It started with a gray patch in the sky, then lightning, rain dumping, trees falling, and we couldn't see across the parking lot. We told Z no, she couldn't run out there in her swim suit, or she'd get conked by a tree. The street steamed, then flooded.
As I was about to turn on the blender for a smoothie, the lights went out. The kitchen was dark and useless. Two days later, we were eating bananas with peanut butter and thinking of all thing things souring in the fridge.
We slept in the basement and gave thanks for the 20 degree drop in temperature. We hung out by the pool when we wanted daylight. Power in the county is not yet fully restored.
It's that time of year again, when we wake up to the jungle. Our house is cooler inside than the steamy outside air, and the dew point is 72 degrees.
The little tomato likes it though. Hopefully the houseplants I've moved outside are happy. Last year's Easter lily will bloom soon.
The oregano is bolting and the salad is too bitter to eat, thanks to the heat. I've chopped it down and planted summer veggies in its place.
Our tiny backyard garden is flourishing with colorful treats.
A garden is not complete without a mysterious bowl of mud.
Lately we sleep with the window open, so we've been treated to some special wake-up calls.
There's a bird in our complex who has taken to imitating car alarms. At first he had just one variety, but now he's got about three. He goes off at roughly 5:00 a.m.
At least he's not imitating the sounds of the garbage truck backing up, or of the Verizon construction equipment.
Z and E were good to me on Mother's Day. I got a dinner and some plants, and these little goodies. The chocolate with cayenne pepper... oh my. I like more spice than I used to. It's pepper chocolate, pepperjack cheese, Thai food. Yum. Except we went out for Italian this time.
So here I am snuggling a kiddo and getting more wrinkles every day... Also getting to be more like my own mother, in unexpected odd ways. I'm a little freaked out by that but not entirely opposed. I wonder if it will happen to Z. I don't exactly wish it upon her, but these things happen.
Cycles of life. Mama goose came back this year along with Papa goose, who wouldn't let the camera get too near. Z took these photos of the new arrivals by the lake.
I'm missing her right now. She did not come home from school today, because she is off to Outdoor School. She was very excited to go, with her sleeping bag and her tie-dyed T-shirt. Today I fell asleep in the sun on our patio, lost without my routine of the after school snack.
... because he is trouble. But who can deny him this warm day? And his sister is kindly not teasing him by sitting on the fence. She is just modeling relaxation.
So long as he stays put, he can be out. He'll come in soon, when he's hungry.
I have days when I should not get behind the wheel of a car. Brain is lulled by the sunshine coming in, and I get honked at.
It's hard to care, it's so lovely outside. After a sudden summer, we are back to spring, 70 degrees.
I am in a fog. I will make soup from whatever ingredients are in the house, and possibly take a nap on the couch.
The lettus is growing quickly! Today I came home from a neighbor's house with more pots, so the arugula will soon get a home.
Bummer that we can't have tomatoes yet, but the strawberries are up from Florida, so that will do for salads for now.
Anniversary date day! Friday E and I had the day to ourselves. We took a little hike around Clopper Lake.
The weather was wonderful -- 72 degrees! Sunshine! Spring got dropped upon us quite suddenly.
Then we watched Julie & Julia and ate pizza, along with a whole bottle of champagne that was given to us by our neighbors. It's been 17 years!
Our landlord has been careful about keeping up with the gutters. So we don't have icicles like this.
A year and a half ago friends gave us an orchid, when we moved into our current house. It bloomed and lay dormant for a while.
Then suddenly it decided to bloom again. Why did it choose February? Perhaps it is a portent of Spring!
That's a blizzard. We've got limited visibility here today.
Yesterday E and I dug out the Camry, but it's supposed to get another foot on top of it today.
We haven't had mail service since last Friday, and I have a feeling we won't get any mail until after President's Day.
Z was supposed to have her birthday party yesterday, with bowling. We'll reschedule.
Friends who could walk came, so we had cake and movies.
The cake was a mound. Z wanted it that way.
The candles made flames of different colors.
And this tree... it's getting a little friendly.
Yesterday morning, we woke to this.
But then later in the day, it looked like this. And that falling fir tree is worse now, and really worrying us, as it is just barely touching the roof. The lump in the middle is one of our cars.
So we did some snow walking. Getting out the front door, we realized it had indeed been windy last night. The plows had come, but their work was already undone.
Our cars were signaling a lot of sore back for me.
Z got the funny idea of walking to the play structure.
But she didn't really like getting snow in her boots. In the last two months, she has grown I think six inches. Her snow pants are suddenly too short.
So we returned to our little house, and I did some digging. The snow fell as I dug, and when I was finished, another half inch or so was on the ground and car.
E got his exercise by our latest method, our new treadmill. I have also grown fond of it. But on a day like this, any chance to get outside is good.
I was in the grocery store today and it was insane. All the carts and baskets were in use, so I had to carry my items in my cloth bags. The radio says to expect one to two feet of snow this weekend. Plan to be holed up for three to five days (right! most likely one). We are rescheduling Z's birthday party.
Yesterday's snow was great for snow men -- wet and sticky. She and a neighbor tot designed the little snowman together. Later Z did some sledding.
Somehow I ended up feeding four of the neighborhood kids last night. Sloshy coats, mittens and snow pants spilled into the hall, hung off the doors, and dried by the heater. Empty cocoa cups were brought to the sink--all good girls.
That's what Z said when she woke up this morning. This is the view from our living room window -- just makes you want to hop on the treadmill and space out.
No school today. Forecast for the weekend? Eight more inches.
The church bowling party was cancelled, and so we skipped church as well.
They said only an inch of snow, and only a 50% chance, but we got five fluffy inches.
For many days we had temps below freezing and the lake was ice, the snow wouldn't melt. Z took a ride to school with friends in a neighbor's warmed car.
Then we had Spring for two days.
We see why the old dirty snow piles aren't safe to play on, especially over the sewer covers.
