Gosh! It is going to be a green-up Spring!

On Friday I went on a half-day journey with two friends. With the glorious green-up Spring we are having, my two friends did not want to work the whole day. They are both able to just take off from work. So I met them at one's house, and away we went. It was 80 degrees outside, bright sunshine, and it is a shame to waste that kind of day just being in an office! This is a tiny little post office in a tiny little town. If one blinks twice, the town is missed.

Unfortunately, most of the little post offices like these are being replaced with pre-fab, cookie-cutter buildings that are cheap to make. These cute little places need to be honored, so I took a picture to remember the glory of old post offices.

We found road names like Gobbler's Knob. The further one goes into the mountains around here, the stranger the names get. In hill-speak, a knob is a small, rounded hill. So there must be a lot of turkeys on this knob. Don't you often wonder where names come from originally? The names of creeks and streams has always fascinated me.

Yesterday was a day of work for me. I have a good connection now with someone to do odd jobs. He hauled off my load of trash that was in the back. In real life, he is a painter. He is licensed and bonded-a real plus around here. Yesterday he brought the compressor and power-washed my porches, deck, and the whole house. He will come back when all is dried to stain and seal the woodwork. It was difficult to pick out the color for the stain, but I think it will be the right one when it is done.

While the two men were working so hard, I went out the back to pick up sticks and small trees that had been cut. It seems to be an never-ending job of cleaning up from this storm. I found I needed to be available when they needed a decision made. These guys even cleaned out my gutters while they had the ladder available. I cannot believe how clean my outside walls of the house are! What was once a darker, blueish gray is now a light gray color. It is apparent that there will be a need to paint, but I think I can wait another year for the house. The porch railings will need to be painted soon.

So, yes, there is little knitting done. The most I have done in the last few days was after the journey Friday. The three of us sat around for a coupla hours knitting, and long enough for supper to be prepared by my friend's husband. I have started a sock with a complicated herringbone pattern. I cannot seem to get the pattern memorized. I cannot find a rhythm to the pattern. I tried to start this pattern three times in Tacoma, but ripped out after a coupla inches. I am wondering if this is one of those patterns I don't need to do.

I have finally found a pattern for my handspun yarn that has been waiting in a basket to be knit. It is a thicker single-ply, but it will need to be dyed something brighter than it is. I am thinking of yellows, but maybe blues would be nice. I'm not sure. I need to try out my swatches. I did dye one swatch last weekend when I mixed up a mauve-y pinky-purple. I did not like it on the swatch, but the fiber can be blended with other colors.

Well, now I am going to go out and work in the bright sunshine for a few hours. We are supposed to get a snow by Wednesday. So I want to enjoy the sun and warmth while it is available.

If you haven't seen it, you need to go to WeaveZine and see the pictures of the sheep in sweaters. The shearer came and so did the snow. So what does one do with naked sheep that are shivering? Look at the pictures!

Have a blessed day. Enjoy each day for whatever joy we are given for that day.

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ~Margaret Atwood