Slackers Unlimited sign me up

When my friends can tell me the date of my last post and how long ago that was, I guess I need to start getting more regular about this blogging thing.

The problem is severalfold:  1) the sun finally came out which means we have had 3 weeks to do an entire winter's worth of outdoor cleanup around here because we have 120 people coming on the 16th for a wedding reception ; 2) I retired and I am not interested in all day chores so only do 3-4 hours of 'must dos' each day ; 3) I have some books I need to read so I can return them to the library in time ;  4) I have a lot of knitting and spinning I want to accomplish. It turns out that blogging came in last. I think that I need to put photos on the blog entries and I haven't been taking any and if I had it would take time to add them.  At the end of each day, G and I flop into our chairs and watch 'Touch of Frost' from Netflicks.  I have done 5 burn piles in the last week.  See the March 23 picture of the fallen tree, then add about a million and seven sticks and branches that are lying all over the ground and need to be picked up and put in the burn pile and you have 3-4 hours of constant motion of bending, dragging and lifting.  It tires me out by the end of the day.  My left thigh cramped so hard on Sunday afternoon that I couldn't straighten my leg and had to creep forward all crouched down.  After years of driving a desk this has been an intensive fitness program.  By the next morning I am feeling good and I know this is good for me.  I just don't have photos to show.  We have had some help with weedwhacking, chainsawing and burning and I am incredibly grateful for that.  We are heading into the last week and into the housecleaning (my least favorite thing).

In my last post I didn't identify the shawl that I pictured.  It is called LazyKaty by Birgit Freyer on Ravelry.  The books I have been listening to are the Louise Penny "Three Pines" mysteries.  I just finished 'Bury Your Dead' and it was excellent.  It is a wonderful series with characters I love, especially Inspector Gamache.  Don't read "Bury Your Dead" until after you read "The Brutal Telling" or the flow will be different.  I suggest reading them in order.  I am now reading a series of mysteries that take place on the Shetland Isles.  There are 4 of them by Ann Cleeves.  I'm on the 3rd one and am enjoying these too.

I've been doing some babysitting and the toddler man is letting my get some knitting done.  That's a big step forward!

My knitting down the WIPs has made little progress.  Instead I have been knitting a Susan Pandorf shawl called In Dreams and am using a Verb for Keeping Warm natural dyed silk.  I just finished a cowl from yarn that was in a sock blanks that I got from Nancy Roberts. The pattern is at Ravelry and is the Inspira cowl by Celery Stalks.  A group of us from MeadowFarm (MF) have done a KAL.  I started a pair of socks from another MF KAL but have fallen behind as the wedding cleanup has been progressing. I also knit a Noni felted bag for MF as a sample.  It was very interesting and fun to knit.  I have never made a bag before, and it isn't really something I would personally use, but the construction was what I wanted to know.  It has these undulations in the sides that are fabulous.  Ellen is going to do the actual felting and I can't wait to see it when done.

Today is my library volunteer afternoon and a knit night at MF. I shampooed the living room carpet this morning, then babysat while S took a cat to the vet.  I also pulled up some cactus from the back garden.  Now that I have grandkids, cactus don't look as wonderful as they used to. Where I used to see interesting shapes and colors, now I see fingers loaded with spines and eyes poked out on spikes.  It doesn't make for a good image.  I have actually clipped the points of some of my favorites so the eye poke thing can't happen.

I'll be back again after the wedding.