March Madness

Spring snow! I thought we were only forecast to get a couple of inches, but Mother Nature outdid herself. The snow blower had a rough go of it, but it was a little too much to ignore, and way too much to shovel by hand. Might be one of the deepest snowfalls we've had all winter. Good thing I like snow!

It's Working!

This year, I got an early jump on the Easter decorating. Well, one spot, anyway. On a mild day soon after Ash Wednesday, I went looking for a branch to use for an Easter Egg tree. 

In the past I think we always used dead branches. But something about that didn't seem quite right. I wondered if maybe the idea was supposed to be cut a living branch, and get it to bud out by Easter. 

Ideally a willow or forsythia would have been the perfect choice. Easy to green up, I'm sure. I thought about lilac, with its pretty heart shaped leaves, but I couldn't bring myself to cut any of my own lilacs. So I snipped the end of a rogue mulberry, that needs to be removed anyway, and brought it in. I added water to the stones in the crock, and hung the ornaments. I wasn't sure if a mulberry would do anything. They are one of the last trees to open their leaves here, and being more of a hard wood, I didn't know if my branch would even take in enough water. The buds were so teeny tiny.

I guess the conditions were right, because this morning I noticed bright green leaves starting to unfurl themselves. 

Such fun!

Yarn Along, March 4, 2015

Another Yarn Along day, and I feel like nothing exciting happened during the past week. This is when cabin fever starts to set in. I went to work, came home, did some knitting, watched some tv, cooked, played with the cats. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

The calendar turned to March, so the countdown to retirement is now two years and eight months! I need to keep that goal in mind, so I don’t get carried away with my spending. February seemed to have a lot of costly expenses in it. Most were necessary, but I could always try to do better. It’s easy to get carried away buying something that’s needed. I shop at the Co-op and buy some things in bulk to save on money and packaging, and then fall down at the cheese island and buy fancy stuff. It’s even worse if I don’t get to eat it all before it goes bad. And I do like to try new things, and fancy foods, but I need to limit that to one or two at a time, not one or two from every department!

Knitting this week was much more of a thrifty endeavor. I worked on items for my Etsy shop, including this pair of baby booties. A friend had given me some leftover fingering weight yarn, and there was just enough of this dotted white Regia to make a pair of booties. Fun!

While knitting, I listened to “The Blood of an Englishman” by M.C. Beaton, the latest in the Agatha Raisin mystery series. I find that I listen best while knitting. Sometimes I can do dishes and or walk on the treadmill, but if I try to do desk work, or organizing, or computer work, I find I miss too much of the narrative. So I had a nice knitting, relaxing weekend!

Joining with Ginny and the rest of the Yarn Along Gang.