Spring came while we were away

A week ago Saturday, i woke to this:

The official storm total was 12 inches, but we only had about 10 here, tho it was wet, heavy snow.

Due to some complications at work for Duane, we had to stay down this week until Friday night.  We got home rather late, near 10 PM.  Saturday morning this weekend i woke to this:

I went out and got some pics today.  I also found tulips, and the roses have little leaves, the lilacs are starting to have little leaves and buds, and several of the fruit trees, too.  One of the tulips i found was yellow.  I don't remember yellow tulips from other years, only the red ones.  

It was a very warm week for Big Bear.  The last couple of days have been in the low 70s.  We are suppose to get rain this week, so we hope it will be rain and not snow!

I got to attend the knit group this week.  I had a couple of people model the hat i made.  Someone i know has cancer.  I've made her a couple of hats, but warm ones.  She wears wigs when out in public, but hats at home.  As it has been so warm in OC, i thought she might like something lighter weight.  I hope she likes it.  It didn't take a lot of time, but i'm very pleased with how it came out, especially the decreases at the top.  This project was knit on size 0, 1, and 2 needles.  I used the needles to do the decreases until the last bit where i did the decreases called for by the lace pattern but not the increases that were suppose to go with it.  I got the lace pattern from the Vogue Lace knit book, but i came up with the hat myself, so i'm pleased with the result.

I also was able to give my friend her scarf last week, knit for her Birthday.  So now i can post the pics.  I'm very proud of it, too.  It ended up being something like 740 rows, knit on size 0 needles!  I know it has a few flaws, but even i would have to look hard to find them, so i'm really pleased with how well it came out.

And, as we were in OC for the whole week, i was able to visit with a dear friend on Friday.  She comes to Costa Mesa (a couple of miles away from my ILs house) on Fridays to take care of her granddaughter.  I used to take care of this baby's mama years ago while her mama, my friend, was working.  It was lovely to have the chance to visit with them.

But, lovely as it was, i don't plan to do this anytime again soon.  I was utterly, completely, totally exhausted Thursday night and the whole thing was a challenge.  Fortunately, Duane seems to have settled whatever the problem was and we don't plan to stay down long weeks any more.  Last week he brought me home on Wednesday and went back on Thursday to complete the week.  Well, and it is hard to be home for just a couple of days, too, and be pretty exhausted, and get everything done i need to before we go back again.  Originally we were to go down on Monday this week, but i convinced Duane to tell them we could not as we had other commitments.  I don't think i would have managed had we been down that long.  

I always have lots of stuff in my head that i then never get around to writing.  

So, how is your week?  Do you have warm weather?  Has spring arrived for you?

474

This week

This pic is from our trip off the mountain a couple of weeks ago.  

I stayed home this week.  My office was closed as the doctor was away on vacation.  It feels like i didn’t accomplish much.  I was working on some “spring cleaning” which, in my opinion, is a rather thankless job.  Somehow it is easy to just move piles around so that the end result doesn’t look much different from the start. 

I ended up having Kimmy come to complete the downstairs, largely because i learned Thursday evening that my in-laws might pop in for a while Friday afternoon.  They did, and i would have been a basket-case had it not been for Kimmy.  Even so i was pretty exhausted.  She can do more in 4 hours than i can do in 4 weeks. 

I did attend three knit groups this week and a cooking demo (oven-roasted broccoli).  I’ve finished the lace scarf i was working on.  Well, that was done a while ago, but i blocked it to lie flat and worked the ends in. (Usually i’m pretty clear on lay vs. lie, but this time i had to look it up.  I lay out the scarf that is stretched to lie flat!) I’ve taken it everywhere to show off because i’m so proud of it.  It is the most delicate, complicated thing i’ve ever made, even tho it is just a scarf.  I think it is very beautiful. I’ll take pics and post them soon.   

As an aside, i know my finished scarf has a few mistakes in it, but i think even i would have to look hard to find them.  I’ve heard that in olden times people creating something would sometimes make a deliberate mistake because having something “perfect” was considered an offense to God.

I’ve started a new scarf that isn’t as intricate, but is very pretty and an easy lace pattern. This is the new scarf i'm starting:  Rivulet.  I had about 8 inches of it done and frogged the whole thing.  I had not used their cast on method (it is a pain), but decided to us it because it looks better.  I added an extra stitch to the edges and changed the double decrease so it loops differently, and i'm knitting on size 0 needles (i'd started with 2s before). 

This has been a week for movies, too.  I’ve watched quite a few while trying to get caught up with laundry and while knitting.  I watched Ordinary People, among others.  I remember the movie so very vividly, tho i don’t think i’d seen it since it first came out, tho i did read the book after seeing the movie.  One thing that i remember about the movie was that it was the first time i remember hearing Pachelbel’s Canon in D.  I thought it so very beautiful and haunting.  I’ve loved it since, and own many different versions of it.  I walked to it in our wedding, and only learned much later that it is considered a “wedding” staple.  The organist did decide to do her own variation of it, which i didn’t care for because i like the original, or variations close to the original.  I think she should have consulted with me first, but, oh well. 

That movie made a strong impression on me for its storyline, too.  My own family was different from the one described, and our issues were different too.  But i so recognized the part that Mary Tyler Moore played.  My mother was equally obsessed with making sure we “looked good” and created the “right impression” on everyone.  She worked very hard at this and evidently succeeded in creating that illusion as i’ve had several people tell me that they saw my family as “The Brady Bunch” in real life – except we were not a blended family.  Our family was a real life version of “As far as anyone knows, we’re a nice normal family!” from The Simpsons.  In fact, i bought this poster when i was in college:

Duane and i also saw The Hunger Games, but i think i’ll save that for another time. 

This is an amaryllis, i think.  I was given the bulb for Christmas 2010.  Our house is too cold for it to do well, so i took it to Duane’s parents’ place and his dad took over it.  It didn’t do anything last year.  This is the first time it has bloomed and his dad is very proud of it. 

471