Many years ago I read a book by Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek. It made a huge impression on me, and from time to time I’ll pick it up and read random passages.  As I was walking through the library this morning, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it, on tape!  I imagined how much fun it would be to have one of my all time favorite books read to me and checked it out.  My only working tape player is in my car.  It took ten minutes,  that’s all, to turn it off.  The voice reading it was sharp and hard, not the voice of the book, nor the voice in my imagination.  I tried to listen.  I felt sick.  It’ll be returned tomorrow.  I wonder how I would have sounded reading it aloud… it’s a book that needs a whisper.  It was lost in translation..  If you are an observer of nature, check out the book. 

I’m looking forward to the next week.  I haven’t taken the time to read or spin much lately.  There has been a lot of work.  When I get time in the evening, I’ve been knitting.  During the day I’ve fit in dyeing and the early spring yard clean up.  But, we’re heading north.  I’m figuring there will be plenty of outdoor work to do, there’s always lots of that kind of work this time of year on our farm.  If the snow is out, and it may not be, ( last snow is usually the second week of May) there will be gardens to uncover, till and top dress in preparation for planting.  The hostas we grow to sell must be uncovered and set out to warm and the balsams have to be topped.  I haven’t pruned the apple trees yet, and it’s not too late to get that out of the way.  There will be lots to do, but with only dial up my computer time will be measured, not on all the time,  and may give way to spinning and I hope, reading. Then again, it could snow…

One more reminder.  You folks in the midwest, the hummingbirds are everywhere.  They are arriving. Reports show them to Lakes Superior and Erie.  In the Northeast, there is a report of a showing on Cape Cod, Connecticut, and Mass.  I have yet to see one.  By this time next week, perhaps.

The Branching Out Scarf is finished.  For once, I decided to block it.  This was entirely due to the fact that I had some rather serious doubts regarding it’s eventual very short length.  It worked, It’s somewhere in the 5-6 ft. range, long enough for me!  I knit ’til I couldn’t, finally unwinding the little ball of yarn and measuring what was left against what I’d need for just one more pattern repeat and an edging.  It’s that knitting math thing again.  When it was over, I had about 12" left.  It was the perfect project. 

Knowing that next week is for Spinning, not dyeing, I dyed two colors yesterday.  One just may be my all time favorite and a color I probably can’t repeat.   ( I was correcting a color I didn’t really love and out came this).. maybe I could get close, never know.

The other was just because I really wanted to make one for ‘French Lilac’.  I know they are blooming somewhere.. fragrant buggers.   

It was a late evening, and now a slow morning.  I stayed up waiting for the yogurt to finish.  I didn’t get started on it until nearly 8pm, when I remembered discovered we were low.  I’ve used this Bulgarian starter for over 20 years.  A friend gave it to me.  His mother brought it from Bulgaria as a young woman, she died several years ago at 92 yrs.  It’s been around.  Both my friend and I have traveled with this yogurt, taking it to Mexico and Guatemala and leaving some for starters with cooks and chefs along the way.  Several years ago he went to Bulgaria and visited relatives.  He brought back a new starter (supposedly same lineage) that we used to beef up this one.  Occasionally or not so, mine gets funky from sitting to long and we share back and forth.. keeping track of who has it fresh. 

I don’t know which button was better… if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, visit Abby’s blog, here.  It’s very cute, but I am sporting the BIG RED button!

Whew… what a morning.  One of the things I do (not all together well) is to put together proposals for our company.  I’ve been scanning and printing and wishing I had learned and not forgotten the little bit I DID glean from that online Photoshop class ( that nearly gave me an ulcer and landed me on Nexium for a couple weeks from leaning forward, tense and frustrated and wanting to smash my computer for hours and hours on end)  I took last summer.  I took that class primarily on dial-up..  never again.  I want someone nearby, that uses the same version of the program, on and on…   ah well…

This lace knitting has got me, really.  It just holds my attention.  I’ve almost finished the Branching Out scarf..  I wonder how much I can stretch that bugger when I block it, it’s almost 40" so far.  Figuring that I should finish it tonight, I’ve dug out my lace leaf socks, I’ve got 1/2 of the first sock done.  It’s beautiful and I wish I could just remember where I put the pattern or what book / magazine I found it in, without having to search around for it.  Somehow, yeah, guess why, I put it aside without it’s pattern, a definite NO NO!  Always, always, keep a copy of the pattern with the project.  This is how I left it…  well not exactly, there a two more repeats, but that’s the last time I remember it and that was in Honduras last year.

And while looking for that picture, I found another that reminded me of another project that isn’t terribly far from completion,  though for the life of me I can’t tell you just how far.  Better dig it out, heck, I could wear it, and I’m into this stuff… 

Me and my projects are a lot like the seasons, coming around again.