Spring Sputtered

 

We had an incredibly gorgeous week last week. Wednesday it was almost 80°F! The crocuses and daffodils exploded but as of today the crocuses have been rained out. The daffodils probably still have a week or so. 

Jacques clearly has spring fever. He wants in, out, in, out, in, out... all weekend long. 

  

I finally finished Aunt Alice's socks!

They have been mailed off, and in spite of my best intentions to document these better, I just didn't.  

I tried to knit two at a time, but just couldn't get the hang of it. 

 It felt more annoying than productive so after about two inches I gave up. The "after-thought" heel was an interesting construction. It makes it easier to knit the entire heel (rather than having to knit and purl) but I had to take the first one out because the sock was too small. Maybe if I do more I'll get the hang of it.

The weekend a week ago -  I accidentally yanked a drawer of 10pt type out of the cabinet a little too forcefully and dumped the entire contents on the floor. Ugh. It was a very full drawer. I spent most of Friday and Saturday just sorting all that type back into the case. Bor-ing! Thank goodness for Netflix and all of the great '90's movies. That kept me from going a little bonkers. 

Remember the limes Uncle Ralph sent me? I finally had some time on Sunday to make lime marmalade. 

I found a new recipe online that was too good to be true. Slice all the limes and soak in the same amount of water overnight. The recipe says to use the same amount of sugar as you have of the lime water. That seemed excessive. 11 cups of lime water and 11 cups of sugar? No way.

I used half the amount of sugar. It tasted divine! I cooked it up - canned it and went to bed. But guess what?  It didn't jell.

 So I opened all the jars back up, dumped it all back into the pot and pulled out the good old reliable Pomona Pectin "specially formulated for low sugar jams and jelly."

And boy is it reliable! Co-worker Charissa made scones and we feasted. Then I realized the jam tastes really good on graham crackers too. 

This weekend, aside from enjoying the beautiful weather, I caught the crochet bug. I wanted to try all kinds of things out. Mostly I'm trying to figure out how to make a cute "t-shirt." I'm finding lots of almost-perfect patterns. But I don't want almost-perfect, I want just plain perfect.

 

In the meantime, I'm going to keep practicing and experimenting. It's fun and it keeps my hands busy.  

little projects

 Even though I haven't mentioned many house projects lately, it doesn't mean they aren't' still there. Oh they are, I've just accepted them as part of the fabric of my life. But some things -

 are a time sensitive situation.

This is my front gate. By all appearances, puh-LENTY of room for peoples to travel into my property.

 

But for some reason that little patch of ground, just inside the gate post, always gets trampled. 

I am baffled. 

This year the little crocuses I transplanted a couple of years ago have appeared. They have never bloomed due to the trampling. 

 This year, in an attempt to preserve the poor little crocuses, I decided to move the dirt back and put bricks where people trample.

 

It didn't' take long, maybe 15 minutes. I added about 6 inches(18cm) to the "walkable" space there in the front. 

It is supposed to be warm for the next few days so maybe the crocuses will bloom.

That will be a nice "welcome home."