Dreary Then Sunny

Hooray, hooray, the sun came out today!  By afternoon it was sunny and bright outside with a sharp-ish wind whipping around the house when I went outside with my ankles exposed.  Brr.  They kind of blend into the background (which is the point) but I noticed just a hint of yellow in these two Goldfinches that visited the thistle feeder this morning.

And this Robin was prospecting for something to eat at the same time.


The chipmunk busied himself gathering up as many of the fallen seeds and corn he could.  Hm, it's probably a she getting ready to make a nest.  I don't think male chipmunks make the nests.

The female Downy Woodpecker came to work on the seed wreath today.  Usually I only see the male but today it was the missus' turn.  How she can hang upside down and peck away at that thing amazes me.


This afternoon I found out that my trainer at the Y is leaving for an internship at the end of April so there goes my fantasy of having MF whip me into some semblance of shape into the foreseeable future.  We compared calendars since I'm going to be away the next two Thursdays (next week at a knitting escape and the following week at the writers' conference) so I'll be sweating to MF's tune for the next 2 Monday's and then alternate Mondays and Thursdays until April 29th when she goes off to become a grownup.  Bah.  That shoots my tidy little plan of stretching out my trainer sessions to every other week to make them last longer.  Once she's gone I'll have three sessions left so I asked her to choose one of the remaining (guy) trainers.  I'll miss her, she's firm but nice and she really knows her stuff.  Plus she lets me whine and then makes me do all the reps anyway.  I sweat like a hog and feel great afterwards.



When I got home from the Y while I waited to stop sweating so I could shower, I got out this way-too-big hat I knitted when I was first starting and crocheted a slip-stitch row where the hat meets the brim.  That pulled it in just enough that it shouldn't slip down over my eyes when I'm out blowing snow.  It's a very warm hat and I really like it but couldn't wear it because it was too big.  I finally figured out how to fix that.


My lesson on Duplicate Stitch at knitting guild went well.  It was a good thing that I bought

those two clearance sweaters ($1.99 ea.) at Goodwill the other day because two of the people who wanted to learn hadn't brought a swatch.  I also took all of the blunt tapestry needles I have along with a couple bags of solid color yarn leftovers and a sheaf of charts for them to work with.  The hardest thing for them to grasp was that they weren't embroidering on the stitches, not going up and down through the stitches, but laying the yarn softly over the top of one stitch at a time but they all got it in the end.  It's very gratifying to see the smiles and sparkling eyes when the light dawns and the ideas for what they can do with the technique start to come to them.  I enjoy teaching people how to do things and I might be okay at it too since they all seemed to learn it.

21 March--Tropical Obsession. 

The rain came down hard, slashing at the leaves of the oleander, swirling in the palm fronds. Nola stood, drink in hand, watching it pound the surface of the ocean. Absentmindedly she raised the glass and sipped, surprised when the ice cubes clattered into her teeth. Her inner voice kept repeating two words “Jack’s dead” over and over, sounding unreal. The hours she had spent in the police station being bombarded by Detective Inspector Rooibos’ gentle questions also seemed unreal. Her hand shook as she lowered the empty glass, the pale dawn light glimmering on the near solid curtain of raindrops that kept her on the patio.

It's a full moon tonight.  The Full Worm Moon.  Man, I love those old traditional names for the full moons, they're so descriptive.  Last night the moon was at its fullest and was a Supermoon, which means that the Moon is closest to the Earth and appears larger.  Too bad it was overcast here last night but then I wasn't at the lakeshore which is the best place to watch the moon rise because there aren't any trees and buildings between you and the horizon.  Lala and I watched the Supermoon rise a few years back in Sheboygan and it was awesome, breathtaking, amazing.  Pick a superlative and that was the Moon that night.  I wonder if there'll be a full moon when we're in Yellowstone.  I'll have to check.  Wouldn't that be awesome?
--Barbara