Not sure where this behavior comes from. I hung a curtain in the doorway between the kitchen and the bedroom last fall to cut down on drafts. Guess the Bode has been shy about eating, you can see the nose and paws from the kitchen side. Now I guess the curtain needs to become a permanent fixture.
I checked to see if blogging about giving up following Yahoo Groups for Lent registered in any search engines. It is not an exhaustive study, but it appears that many people gave up Facebook this year:
Dad Wonders If He Can Last All of Lent Without Facebook
How to give up Facebook for Lent and keep your friends
Although I stayed subscribed to two Freecycle groups, I kept the messages on the web site and didn’t go there. I did the same with the Celt’s Vintage Crochet site, figured that requiring a moderator to participate by having to add me back after Holy Week was unfair.
The result was spending less time on the computer which did allow for other projects, including reducing the wool yarn stash by knitting it up.
With one Yahoo! group in particular there seemed to have been a change in what was formerly a supportive atmosphere. I had a lot invested personally. The turning point was when a member jumped all over another participant who innocently posted an urban myth, one for which there was an element of truth. I really felt sorry for the original poster, becoming the victim of “gotcha” on top of living with a chronic debilitating medical condition was just not fair. (I felt that incident, along with several others, actually crossed over the line into bullying.) Friendly discussion and trying to be helpful by providing more information was the former norm. Sigh…
We had a thunder storm roll through this morning but it is sunny now, supposed to get quite warm over the weekend. The cool weather seems to have extended the season for the spring bulbs. These were starting to bloom a week ago today, told mother when she was here that they must have been waiting for her.
Yesterday morning I noticed a flash of yellow out the kitchen window while cooking rolled oats for breakfast. There was a pair of goldfinches at the bird feeder getting sunflower seeds. The male was almost entirely in his summer plumage. I have been hearing them but not seeing them. Guess they have been busy replacing feathers.
It was not a good day for people to go out in summer garb though, with temperatures not much above freezing and windy when I took Bode out in the morning. It was getting close to pleasant when the sun came out, but was darn cold most of the time. The skies cleared and the wind dropped by late afternoon though and we went out again under a cloudless blue sky, then when we returned went out into the yard and used the weeder to dig out some dandelions that escaped my attention last year.
On Wednesday although it was cold and rainy we ventured out to get Bode some food. He is really happy when he sees the big bag, and has come to know the clerk at Iseman’s who carries it to the car. We then crossed the street from Manorville into Ford City and I stopped at Brightmeyer’s for my annual flower fix. They had some viola, but said things were late this year and didn’t even have the cash register set up yet. This time last year I had them planted and picked a few flowers to take to my mom when she was in Allegheny General. I got two packs to have something to put in when the daffodils fade. Sure felt tropical inside the greenhouse.
On the yarn stash reduction project, yesterday I finished a top down bolero sweater in dark green wool/mohair blend that my sister got at Rhinebeck a couple years ago. By cutting in the front edges, shortening the sleeves, and reducing the stitches across the back with darts, was able to complete it with a few yards of yarn to spare. When I measured the yardage (using the clock reel) one skein was slightly over 300 yards and the other had almost as much, less what I used to make a pair of fingerless gloves to try the yarn. I then washed the skeins before winding them into balls to knit. The yarn still felt tacky and had a strong cedar scent despite that. Not sure if it was the spinning oil or the dye, but working with it irritated the skin on my hands. I put the sweater into hot water with Eucalan last night after I finished it, not sure if that will do the trick. It still didn’t feel really soft when I steam pressed it this morning.
I am getting more into cardigans. One of the reasons is that while my mom is doing quite well considering what she has been through in the past year, she still has trouble using her left hand — she calls it Charley and scolds it when it doesn’t do her bidding. Getting dressed is difficult, but she can put on a cardigan sweater or sweatshirt a lot better than a pullover. Last week when she got a bit chilly she put on a cardigan in natural dark brown wool homespun yarn (also part of the stash for ages) then decided to wear it home despite it not having buttons yet (procrastination on my part). It did look nice on her and was nice and soft too.
Guess this is a good time to start in on the subject. Yesterday morning I noticed that the forget-me-nots and alpine strawberries were starting to bloom.
One of the strawberry flowers had a dark center, which I remember is a sign that it had experienced frost.
The wiegela bush out front is leafing out. The tulips are blooming now, and although the cherry blossoms and Forsythia are starting to fade, the magnolias, crab apples, spice bush, and azaleas are quite showy, makes for a reward for going out and braving the cold to walk with Bode.
This year my Lenten Journey involved giving up Yahoo! Groups. It turned out to be more of a sacrifice than anticipated as I then learned the Celt’s Vintage Crochet site had officially closed and all the doily patterns there had moved to a Yahoo Group page.
That did get me off the doily kick plus while in the MDA chat room talking about downsizing and moving (which I have done twice since 2005), decided that I needed to get serious about working up my yarn stash. By a happy coincidence, I found information on Bosnian Crochet and Shepherd’s knitting on Ravelry and even a group for Slip Stitch Crochet after seeing a short article on it in Knitting in the Old Way and being set up by an article on the web a couple years ago. As a result there are a couple more hats in homespun yarn that has been resisting my efforts for many years.
Last week my mom let me take the family antique clock reel to use. They have been rearranging their house and had moved it upstairs from the sitting room where they had it on display for years. It works, my father restored it over 20 years ago. I used it then for winding skeins of homespun yarn. Found when I checked that 120 turns (which is what is needed to pop the weasel) is about 300 yards. Being able to measure the yardage of the yarns in the stash should help immensely. I took a bunch of photos yesterday when it was sunny and mild outdoors.
I did finally finish the buttons on the Tomten sweater I have been working on, so except for a final wash and blocking it is officially a F.O.
My mom is planning to visit here with me this afternoon while my dad takes care of some errands in Kittanning. This will be the first she has gone out instead of having someone come to their home to stay with her. It is almost the anniversary of the first of her two strokes. Sure have been a lot of changes in the last year.
Spring doesn’t officially start until Friday, but it is warmer outside than indoors today. I have the windows open and can hear cardinals and finches outside. Yesterday a pair of finches visited the bird feeder. When I took Bode out earlier this afternoon saw Mallard ducks in the river, two drakes and a hen. When it is this nice out it is hard to get a dog to turn around and go back home when you get tired. There were a lot of people out walking, pushing strollers, and riding bikes.
Some of the shrubs have buds greening up and the spring bulbs are up but have only seen crocuses in bloom so far. If the trees weren’t bare, you could imagine today being in May or June.
When I stopped to rest on a bench yesterday, noticed that the mockingbird that sits on a house roof by the path was back. Was wondering where he had been though, he was imitating the cries of hawks not songbirds.
Last week we celebrated mother’s 82nd birthday and my next door neighbor will soon be 83.
