Sara I never post on my blog anymore won the snowmelt contest! (OK OK, to be fair, she is active in Ravelry). She guessed May 24, and, guess what? It was totally gone by then! There were a couple of minor wet spots that were raised a bit above the ground… these typically result from ice melting below them. But no ice… I figure it had finished melting that morning. A groundhog even appears to be living in that snowmelt area…

Since Sara works and lives in Augusta, it was easy to deliver her winnings on my way to a meeting (she lives on the east side and works on the west, I live on the west side and work on the east).

She seems happy with the circular needle holder and a couple of buttons. Or maybe it was the delivery of that frozen caffeinated beverage… It has been wicked hot here these past couple days (90’s and humid).

I did a bit of spinning over the weekend…

Something from Amy, not sure what color, burnt toffee maybe? I got this a few years back to use with the drop spindle. Which hasn’t been happening… so it’s now for the wheel. I’m not trying for anything special, just to get back in the groove… then I’ll move on to that alpaca I was working on months ago, or maybe that “I’m trying to spin thin” wool.

Chris has some unknown sick tree. What I want to know is, has she figured out what it is yet??

We have way too many sick trees at work, mostly maples, birches, gingkos. The larger maples are likely suffering from sugar maple dieback, but the saplings were probably just not planted right. Or were crappy stock. Or are ailing because they’re on the grounds of the old Maine Insane Asylum, and over 150 years of sadness and suffering is built up into the soil. Here are some old postcard images from the glory days.

That last one is dead, the gingkos to the left don’t have the dead branches like the others, but they don’t look good.

The healthiest looking tree on the grounds? A weeping birch.

snow

still there… but going quickly!

Doesn’t look like much, but there is a fair amount of ice there. I’ll put my wellies in my car to investigate early next week.

winter wood

We have four cords of wood in the driveway…

what else?

Whining. The cortisone is wearing off. The right elbow is starting with that twitchy weird feeling that presaged the actual lateral epicondylitis in the left. The left has that cold after you hit your “funny bone” feeling at the back, and has started again with pain in the lateral epicondyle. I have not been knitting very much. I was out of work for a week, so little to no typing. I won’t be moving much or any of that wood. My dye plant seedlings still await their planting (maybe I’ll harden them off anyhow), and they won’t make into the ground this weekend.

I won’t make this year’s Fiber Frolic. Which is for a good reason, my FIL died Mother’s Day night, and the service for him will be that weekend, in PA. Just 6 months after MIL died around Thanksgiving.

Maybe I’ll get out the spinning wheel… But after a nap, I feel better, but still get tired easily. waaaaa….

contest winner!

It’s Molly Bee! She sure seems to be on a good luck run lately, new implants, hanging out with baby lambs, a door prize… and she deserves all of it! Molly Bee is deciding which needle case she wants. She’ll let you know… (Oh No! She asked me to surprise her!)

Now we wait to see who wins the actual melt date part of the contest.

spring!

It’s been weirdly warm in these parts for this time of year. Last year? Snow and lots of it. This year? Things are growing. It might not seem that exciting to some of you, but, hey, this is Maine. And even though that knitting veterinarian has iris blooming at a preturnaturally (I hate that word) early time, most of us don’t get so much so early…

And so, what is up in my yard this evening… (and how exciting is it that at 6:15 pm it is light enough to take photos???? Very!)

scilla, rhubarb, crocus, and daylilies (the ordinary kind)

I think this was the first thing up in the yard,

goutweed, a nasty thing. But… somebody recently sent me the recipe for goutweed soup! Maybe I’ll feed it the office this summer.

I planted dye plants and sweet annie last week, and look, sweet annie is up!

The weld is up too, but not the indigo or madder yet. We’re a little short on sunny window space, and any horizontal space in a warm room, so they sit on the dryer. We learned that the washer is a bad place to leave a seed flat.

Eggplant, victim of the spin cycle.

boots

Well, I’ve ordered boots online, at least twice, but returned them all… for various reasons. On Friday, although I was earning zero dollars (state shut down day), I contributed to the economy. I intended to by flip-flops, but came home with these,

Shearling lined, like slippers, and the price of slippers (way way less than boots)! They’re men’s and a little loose, especially in the heel, but they’re like slippers! That I wear outside! And to work! And they’re comfy in bare feet too…

birthday week

Mine is later this week, and we’re having a celebration at work that day for everybody’s birthdays this spring and for something that I can’t talk about yet (but soon! soon!!!!), and one of our interns is on a cake baking frenzy, so she decided that today would start my birthday week.

Good things come in odd packages,

and she was a little embarrassed about the appearance, but O-M-G, it was INCREDIBLE, FABULOUS, AMAZING!!!!!

Chocolatey, moist, rich, nom nom!!!!

and all gone!

knitting

First of four repeats of section C is done! Cutting up the pattern so a single line of instruction is in one place and putting in stitch markers all over the place really helped.

Third year, can you believe it?

Here’s the bottom line. Guess when this giant pile of snow at work will be all gone and I’ll send you something. Two winners, one random and one who guesses most closely when it’ll be gone.

The pile this year:

Here’s the details.

Comment in this post by Monday, March 15, 5 pm eastern time (we switch to daylight savings time the day before) when you think this pile of snow will be totally gone, so that there’s not even a patch of ice left on the ground. This post. Leave a date.

I will draw a random winner that evening.

And then we wait and wait and wait until the pile is gone.

Hints:

Here was the pile in December.

Here is the post about last year’s winner.

Here is last year’s pile.

And here is the post about the winner the year prior (a different pile).

We didn’t get as much snow this year as last, and it seems to be warmer earlier… but one never knows around here!

The prizes:

For the random drawing, the winner can choose one of these needle cases. Here’s some inside looks at a few of them,

And here are some that have stuff in them.

For the winner of the melt date, maybe one of these, maybe something fibery. The Fiber Frolic usually happens between the contest announcement and the melt date, so you never know…

If a non fiber person wins, well, we can talk! Maybe some good coffee from my favorite roaster.

Today I was driving from Massachusetts (30th high school reunion last night!) home to Maine and stopped at the rest stop in Kennebunkport. And who do I see in the women’s room?

Knitters! We. Are. Everywhere.

Looking at some sweater cuff, talking about the stitches. You can imagine it’s hard for me to keep my mouth shut, and I had to tell the woman I thought that the cuffs were not knit sideways, and that the pattern was much like the mitten cuff I’d just knitted. And then we were blathering about Ravelry and all things knitting. And I was telling them how I was on my way to pick up some raffle winnings from Mel, including sock yarn and two pounds of blue-faced leicester.

When I heard from a stall, in a voice of awe and desire, two pounds of blue-faced leicester?

You could hear the drool hitting the seat… wipe it up baby, somebody might think you dribbled!

But…

Mel works near Portland but lives near Kittery, and I’d totally missed him! So it’ll be a while until I get pics to show you, so you can drool too!

By the way…

The reunion was a blast. Everybody seemed to have a good time, even though many of us haven’t seen each other in 30 years! It was all about enjoying each others’ company and what we have in common. Which was so wonderful.

On the left, Carl (the first boy I ever kissed!) and me… He married a really sweet girl from our class. On the right, me and some trouble! Some things never change, eh?