Blogger is not happy!

I am not sure if this will post.  It seems Blogger is unhappy.  Poor thing.  Too much work for a silly program to handle, I guess.

We have had a miraculous warm up that makes me happy.  I have been working in the yard doing all sorts of Spring cleaning.  I have the weedeater running, and I trimmed the holly bushes/trees.  That was a hard job that took three days.  It only takes me three days because I am old and have to rest more than I used to.

I also made a monumental decision to dig out the front flower bed and start over.  My friend that passed away had a certain garden tradition.  He always, always dug a huge, huge hole.  He would sift and sift and stir around the dirt and play in the dirt for a long while.  Then he would decide what had to be planted and get on with that chore.  This is my modified version of that. 

As I mentioned I am getting old.  I have to rest.  I am doing the digging by hand, not machine.  I am tired of my annual digging out the Johnson grass.  It seems to flourish more when I thin it out.  So this year I thought, "Why are you doing this year after year?"  So the smart thing is dig out the bed and start over.  UGHHH!

I did beg for help from a friend that is in his 50's that does yard work for a friend of mine.  He is supposed to come on Tuesday.  Of course, the weather man says we have a chance of rain.  We will see.  I may have a swimming pool.

I am puttering around with the knitting.  I made a decision to quit the baby blanket and mail it on.  So I got ambitious and finished the red sweater up to the knitted band around the front and neck.  I have it cast on, just not finished.  I have done two or three rows on the medieval sweater.  That's it. 

I finished one skein of pretty pink merino/tussah silk.  The other bump sat languishing for a few days.  Today I divided it out and I almost finished the first bobbin of that.  So soon I will have a lovely batch of pink/green yarn.

Not a lot to say.  It's almost always the same thing every day.  I am most grateful and appreciative for the warm up this week.  I know the rest of the mid states and the eastern seaboard are covered.  We are to get a cold front tomorrow that will bring us to the mid 40's again.  Sigh!  A sample of Spring to come I guess. 

Soon it will be March.  Hard to believe.  Once we get through March, the weather is usually more forgiving.  Of course, we have no idea what this winter will be doing.  I almost think we will have snow in March.  We had it in May of last year.  The first time ever recorded.  Crazy stuff.

My niece is due to have her baby any minute now.  I am anxious for her to move along and start the next phase.  She is never one to wait around and be patient, so these last few weeks have been misery for her.  She can't sleep, she is uncomfortable, etc.  We've all been there.

That's about all.  I took the critters for their yearly check ups and shots.  Patty has lost more weight and is at a good place now.  I just have to maintain it.  They are both doing well for older pets.  They rest a lot, too.

Have a great rest of the weekend.  Enjoy the sunshine when it comes your way.  It's so wonderful!

A Rough Week!

This is the highlight of the week.  I read about a technique of putting some roving wetted with vinegar and water into a large resealable plastic bag.  Then you apply the dye randomly to various parts of the roving, squeezing the dye into the roving to saturate the thickness, and when completed seal the bag tightly.  Plop this into a pan of water that is no hotter than 180 degrees.

I wasn't happy with one color, so I mixed a little bit of another color into the cup.  That gave me the green turquoise color.  The yellow wasn't very strong, so I added some orange, and I got a lovely golden yellow.  The red is actually a soft adobe red and not as pink as it shows here. 

I am over the moon happy with the results.  I only did a 4oz sample to try it out.  I did not want to ruin any of my good BFL if it didn't work right.  I think this is a keeper technique for small batches of color.  It would not work so easily for a large batch of dyeing.

The rest of the week has been sitting and thinking and sitting and thinking.  I am finally grieving for the loss of my friend.  It has been really rough with crying and snorting and blowing my nose.  On top of that I got a bill for my bone scan.  It seems Medicare denied payment, and I will not drag all the nonsense of the conversation out. 

And other financial things came up this week.  I had to decide to prioritize what I could deal with emotionally, and the financial things came out last.  So I will deal with them later.

I have hardly knit a stitch.  I did get the baby quilt to a point of sewing on binding.  I am happy with that.  My niece showed pics today of her baby shower, and I did not see a single handmade thing there.  Sigh!

I am on the last ball of yarn for her baby blanket I am knitting.  I like it.  It looks like water to me.  Or at least it has the visual texture that reminds me of water.  Whichever it is. 

The birds are eating me out of house and home.  They are regular piggies these days.  It is going to get cold and yucky this week with snow, sleet, ice, freezing rain, or something.  So they are dealing with the weather by just eating.  I bought a new suet feeder and that is the hit of the week. Even the cardinals are eating suet.  I have never seen cardinals eat suet. 

Noodles has been limping along on his gimpy leg for a coupla days.  I guess he has arthritis where the bone was broken.  He isn't hunting as much, but I do see him outside staring into the grass on the hillside.  He is ready if anything moves.

I guess that's it.  Nothing earth shaking going on.  Just dealing with this weird extreme weather is tiring.  I just refuse to whine any more about it.