Saturday, January 25, 2014

Such Strange Weather!

I will not whine, for today is a lovely, sunny day.  I have been working on yard work.  From this time forward, each pretty day is spent on clean-up yard work.  It is my habit and my work that keeps me sane.

Two days ago it was 5 degrees and the wind chill was unknown-cold anyway.  The wind was from the north.  I even put blankets over the door to the screen porch and the back door.  I had a draft snake against the front door.  The insulated shades were down on the north windows.

Yesterday the sun returned with some scattered clouds.  It was still below freezing with a wind. 

So today and tomorrow will be yard work days.  It is still windy, and we are still in a fire alert ban.  Not for the lack of moisture, but the wind will carry a fire a long ways.

The dog and cat have been enjoying the outdoors with me.  Patty gets bored watching me and wanders around looking for cat s..t.  I don't know why she is so intent on finding that stuff.  It is so gross to see leaves and grass hanging from her mouth.  I always know where she has been.

I am currently hacking away the honeysuckle on the west side and trying to save some of the trees it covers.  I will leave enough for birds and critters to nest, but it is encroaching the yard.  The trees in their desperation are bending and sending out weak limbs for any sunlight that can be found.  So whack away and trim the tiny trees and the weak limbs.  It all works out in the end.  By the heat of summer I am lost to the weeds and the honeysuckle and I can barely get the grass mowed.

The birds are eating tons of sunflower seeds.  I cannot believe that I fill three feeders twice daily now.  I even throw some out for the ground feeders and put a little bit in a pan on the floor of the porch.  I am concerned about one female cardinal that I think has a disease around her eyes.  A friend told me that there is something that does that and that she has seen that on one of her finches. 

I did get a lot of knitting done on the medieval sweater during the coldest day.  Last night I cast on and began the second sleeve on the red sweater.  I went through a period of several days that nothing I was knitting interested me, and I just did not knit. 

I am plying the second skein of blue yarn, and I am anxious to get it done.  I dyed some BFL roving yesterday with a new technique I wanted to try.  I only dyed 4 ozs, and I like it.  I think it is going to spin really nicely.  I want to spin that up next just to see what it will look like. 

Well, I want to eat a bite of lunch and then back outside to whack some more honeysuckle. 

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