These photos have been taken over the last week and a half. I do not remember a spring so full of flowers. Often the flowers start too soon and we have a frost which kills a lot of buds. This year, the cold held on so long that nothing bloomed until we were pretty much past freeze warnings. We have not had many really warm days, maybe two, so spring still feels tentative, but it’s clear we will not see any more snow, at least.

Here are the daffodils my father planted in the early 1970s, still coming up at Mom’s house:

I took that photo in the twilight so I ended up with flash, and the yellow is sort of over-exposed. Still, I delight in the big standard yellow daffodils and the big standard red tulips that return each year, more than 30 years after my father died. What a gift these are!

Here is a view in the neighborhood behind our house:

What a view! Look at all the colors on the trees and bushes, all at one time. Wonderful.

And two views of a bush I have never noticed before. Actually, it seems I’ve seen these as small decorative bushes, but this one is as tall as me and in front of a victorian brick house in Old Town. Does anyone out there know what this bush is? It is absolutely beautiful and I think I’m in love… (unfortunately, our yard is very small and I don’t think there is room for a bush as tall as me, but I can dream)

Here is a detail. The flowers turn lacy and white at the edges when they start to fade and wither. This actually makes them more beautiful, if you ask me:

I think all that knitting and other creative work we have done on behalf of the spring’s arrival, may just be starting to work!

I really try to keep you guys up to date and not leave you waiting for posts… I’ve been crazy-busy so have fallen behind.

• We have been singing a bunch this week. Brian and I played for a private party on Friday and we have another private party next Thursday. All good.
• I have had a number of classes to teach, both computer and knitting. Saturday I teach polymer clay and Needlefelted Embellishments.
• The weather is springlike. This year it was not “April Showers bring May flowers.” This year we had flowers at the end of April, we still have them. But the last few days we have had rain. Friday it was coming down “in buckets” so to speak.
• I am knitting a baby outfit from my yarn and Knitting at Knoon’s pattern. More details and photos later.
• Brian bought me seeds for an herb garden. I have done well some years and not so well others, we will hope this year is a good one.
• I have been cooking and baking. Food is such a comfort and a joy at times!
• And I can never say enough about my beloved. How I got this lucky in life, I do not know. We play music together, we eat together, we go for walks together, we laugh and laugh. It is a good life.

Back when I can write a real column… for now it’s bits and pieces. I’m well, I’m happy… I’m busy. Hugs!

It’s beautiful here right now, though the temperatures have plummeted and we are having frost warnings for several days this week. The flowering trees are spectacular this spring, it seems every possible bloom has bloomed. Some years we get frost at just the wrong time, after buds have formed, and it’s just not this beautiful. I am drinking it all in.

I pass Mt. Hope Cemetery, a historical spot in Lansing, almost every day. The early important civic folks for Lansing are buried here, it seems every large stone has the name of someone whose name is also attached to a park somewhere. Ransom E. Olds (founder of Oldsmobile) is also interred there, his family mausoleum visible from the street.

I love taking photos there in the fall. This year I realized I wanted to photograph it again in full-flowering spring splendor. Here you can see both seasons, the same view from the other side of the road.

The year my cousin Karen got married in Houston in April, I was bowled over by the bold flowers and color there. I spent a long weekend drinking in the beauty. Then I returned to Lansing in mid-flowering-tree season. It took that trip to understand the kind of beauty Lansing displays in the spring. For all the bold in Houston, the balance was gentle, almost feminine beauty, covering the landscape. I’m glad to have that perspective.

(To be honest, this spring photo is about a week old and the trees are totally green now. I wish I had time to sneak over there again today and photograph it again, but that’s not how the schedule looks for now.)

We have spring, for the last several days (actually about a week). I hear it is supposed to snow on Sunday? Ugh. We can hope I heard wrong.

I do remember one April 25 where there were piles of snow still underneath any shady bush. It’s possible to get snow again. Let us hope it is not so extreme to get a ton of snow… it has been humid yesterday, and over 80F today. Sometimes when humid warmth is hit by super-cold air, we get piles and piles of snow.

Right now I’m typing this with bare feet and wearing a tank top, bare arms even. I typically get cold easily (I would be happier with a wrap or light sweater but I’m on my way to a cozy bed so I’m not layering anymore at this time). I love knowing it was over 80 today!!!

Photos? These forsythia bushes really look great this year. Some years the frost hits just wrong and they don’t bloom much at all. this year, every single yellow bush is totally covered. I love these when they are this happy! Notice how the trees around them have no green leaves at all.

These photos were taken about a week ago. Today we have so many leaves on the trees that there is shade on the street. Amazing. They took about 2 days from almost nonexistant to thriving. The change has been incredible to watch.

Diana/Otterwise chose this beautiful yarn to Knit Spring into Existence. She has has some challenges this spring to say it kindly, thus the shawl she started had to be frogged (rip-it, rip-it). However, she says:

I didn’t finish this shawl, it got frogged when I totally screwed it up due to brain fog. But I did knit toward spring with it.

I’ve also attached a springy photo of tree buds from up north in Gaylord.

And can’t we all benefit from some hopeful, optimistic flower buds???

Note added later: Diana reminds me that the yarn is one I dyed (I had forgotten I’d done sockyarn in this colorway). It is TipToe Sockyarn in colorway “Spring Sunshine.” No wonder she chose it for this project!

This spring thing comes and goes, but we have not had snow for several weeks. As I type this, the temperature is just barely above freezing. A few days ago, we had an incredible summery few hours followed by wind and rain.

My days are incredibly full this week and next, I may give you more photos than text during that time. Off to teach Guitar-Trim Socks at Rae’s! If I’m lucky I’ll have time to go to Threadbear after work, to see Jillian Moreno and Amy Singer (Knitty) launch their 2nd Big Girl Knits book. I hope.

We spent a lot of time this Sunday/Monday trip to Chicago, walking and exploring different neighborhoods in the city. We had never done that except for going to Devon (where Indian food, groceries and clothing make me very happy).

As we proceeded between destinations, we saw a few animals. The first two photos here we saw walking down a residential street in Lincoln Park (if I remember right). The cat in the window was first, the dog was literally next door. They were just sitting there looking out the window as though watching television or something.

But the last photos here were out of the blue… we were in the car and pulled over into a side street to check the map. As Brian was figuring out where to go next, I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye, and saw it was a squirrel. Then I noticed a reddish-orange colored item he was carrying. After a little looking it became apparent that this was some sort of food package. I figured he was trying to get the residual food from a wrapper.

Wrong. He was unwrapping… a chocolate bar. Really. I saw the wrapper fly away and there he was, chomping away at his chocolate.

What are the chances I would ever see this, in any place, under any circumstances? Crazy!

This was Thursday night after dark:

This was Saturday around noon:

Thursday I found daffodil shoots several inches high with yellow buds showing. Friday morning, the little snow in photo #1 was all the snow in our yard (and the pile it represents used to be almost as tall as my car). Friday during our performance at Foods For Living (2-4pm) it went from no snow to an inch or more. By Saturday morning, it really looked like 5 inches (~11cm) on the front windshield of the bug. Ho, Ho, Ho!

That is news enough for me today. Spring is officially here, even if it is supposed to snow tonight.

We are preparing to go sing right now, and then we sing again tomorrow. My voice is doing very well after so much illness, I am delighted. There is nothing like singing when the whole body supports the sound!

I have lots and lots of photos taken but none processed for web yet. One is an 8-year-old boy wearing a hat he knit… in the round, on circular needles and then Double-Pointed Needles. Very Cool! I also have photos from Carla for the create-spring-into-existence project.
Photos soon, I hope. Until then, maybe I will see a few of you at our concerts.

Thursday it was so warm and sunny that I left my coat behind and did not miss it. I was wearing my beret/hat, a sweater and legwarmers, but no coat, scarf/shawl, or gloves/wristwarmers. No problem. It was lovely.

The snow in our yard is down to a very small pile, not a whole yard wide and not all of two inches deep. At its  largest (in February), it was several feet high from so much shoveling all in a short while.

Friday they are predicting snow. In a 24-hour period we may get enough to shovel. That’s March in Michigan for you.

I still like it better than the February we had. (Ugh.) Thaws alternating with snow is my cup of tea right now!

Every year in February/March I favor hot greens and light turquoises. The year I came home from 38 days in sunny Africa, to a blizzard, I realized what I was doing. I was trying to “Knit Spring into Existence.”

That year I went to Threadbear and bought some Koigu handpainted brushed mohair in an incredible spring/grassy green. I continued to scan the store until I found 4 other yarns that also spoke of warm shoots pushing up in a garden, with a clear blue sky above.

With those yarns, I started to knit a stole (which actually took me more than a year to complete). That impulse purchase in the end became my Party Stole pattern.

This is not the only time I have done something on this thought-wavelength. I have noticed for a half-dozen years, that if I dye yarn in February it comes out in the spring-green/turquoise realm, every time. Right now I am wearing spring green bulky yarn footies over my thinner wool socks. I have knit a pair of spring green alpaca/wool Aran-weight (thick) yarn socks in the last month or two. I am also test knitting a mitten, and I could have done that in any yarn from my stash but I picked a hot green Cascade merino/angora blend. I am again trying to knit spring.

SO: I propose a little project. I propose we all knit spring (or crochet, sew, embroider, dye, spin or otherwise work creatively) in concert. This can be a one-day instant project, from a favorite pattern or a new project from one of the excellent books on one-skein projects. It can be bigger, but I’m thinking instant is closer to my concept. For some reason, any project at all can make me feel like I have regained my power over this miserable weather (or even life as a whole). Hey, I’m a mortal human but I can pretend.

I invite you to send me photographs of your project, anything that feels like bringing spring to town early in your own mind. It does not have to be my pet color scheme. (I am guessing Diana/Otterwise is likely to choose yellows for sunlight… I recall her cooking an almost-entirely yellow meal to celebrate solstice.) I will post the projects I receive from you any time in March.

But please hear me… do not send me huge photos straight from your camera. I can not afford to be slammed by too many huge photos at a time. If you know you are not techie enough to edit your photo to a smaller size, consider putting it on Flickr or another website for photos and send me the web page address where it lives (this is ideal, more so than an attachment). If you do not have that option, write me first, before sending a very-large photo via email. If you send me an attachment photo, the largest measurement in either direction should be 400 pixels or less. Thanks.

That said, my email address is Lynn (AT) ColorJoy DOT com. I am eager to see what/if you care to share. Thanks!

(Photos: Me wearing my Party Stole (pattern), Gentle Joy colorway of my Tiptoe Sockyarn.)

Kristin Nicholas linked to a blog I had not read before this week, KnittingIris. These are magical but real photos of hoarfrost, the most incredible natural beauty, photos from three very cold winter mornings. If you need to feel better about the cold weather, this might help.

KnittingIris also has some wonderful photos of the recent lunar eclipse. Worth seeing, in my opinion.

On February 29 we were still chilly here, and the piles of snow were so big sometimes they could block the view of most of a small car. Somehow we lucked out and got a serious thaw just in time for March.

It was 52F/11C when I woke up yesterday. I turned off the furnace and opened the back and front doors, and let the fresh air revive our house. I thrive during months where I can keep windows open, and I never quite feel fully alive when cooped up. It was a delight to have those doors open for about an hour. I wrapped up in a blanket, wore a hat and wristwarmers, and my heart felt toasty warm!

They had predicted a large drop in temperature yesterday and a small accumulation (1/2″, about 1cm). Neither happened. And I woke up today and the sun is shining just as much as it can. There are clouds but room between them for the sun to make its way and brighten up my house in a way that I have not seen in far too long.

Apparently we are just north of where the predicted weather actually hit. I talked to Diana yesterday and they were sitting around freezing, while we were balmy. They are only just over an hour away, southeast (near Ann Arbor, we are in Lansing, Michigan).

Today they say it will be below freezing and they are predicting 2 inches/5cm. That seems so minor, like no snow at all, after the feet and feet of snow that has come down during February. One can drive in 2 inches of snow without a plow. We are in business now!!!

I am counting down, not literally but emotionally… my violets typically bloom in March. Come on, Violets! Here is a photo of them from a previous spring:

Well, here I am late afternoon updating the post. The sky is now typical Lansing-winter white, and the National Weather Service is predicting snow both day and night for now through Saturday. At least 30% chance of snow every day/night till Friday night, where it becomes merely a “chance” of snow.

Just the same, it’s getting close to the end of this weather and I am feeling better just thinking that thought.

It snowed again last night. Depending on where you look it may be 1-3″ of snow. It’s not very cold out, and if I had energy and leisure I’d make another snowman. I’m really excited to be working, though, so I’m OK with all that.

The birds seem unaware that it looks like winter. They are singing like it is spring. I hope they are right. It is the last day of February, on a long-February month, and I know that my violets in the yard usually bloom in March. So maybe the birds remember things like that.

I am taking photos for my patterns today and my camera ran out of batteries. Luckily I live pretty close to a place where I can get them, but I’m still working with wobbly knees so I drove. I noticed that it seems half the neighborhood is out shoveling, even though it’s midday on a work day. It would be the perfect day to meet neighbors… but I’m working and can’t go out and socialize.

I saw a funny sight on the way to the store. This guy of retiree age was pushing his very fancy snowblower. First I noticed how he had to turn his head to not get snow in his face (that would really bug me). Then I looked at the machine he was pushing.

The blower was really big… most are about the width of a shovel but his was more like a lawnmower, with a blade over knee-high. And this guy was cleaning snow… off his street. His street. Wow. Maybe he likes snow, or maybe he likes his snowblower as much as my father did. Or maybe his car just doesn’t go when the snow is this deep. The guy’s driveway was only one lot away from a more-traveled street.

As for me, indoors is where I want to be when it is snowing outside. Unless it’s really warm snow and I can make a snowman. But not today.

Photo: Snowman Brian and I made on January 1 of this year. That was fun!

Nature is bigger than me. We’ve had one squirrel (or so it seemed) in the attic off and on for a few months. Yesterday the noise level increased, it seemed there was more runnng around. Then I heard chirruping sounds. That was new. I think we have a mating couple talking to one another. Great!

I am not in charge. Thursday is a busy day but on Friday we will go into the attic and make sure we get any boxes that are stored in there, out of there. We know where they are coming in, but with piles of snow on the roof we can not close it up until it’s warm. We need to know they have gone out for the warm afternoon to gather food, and then we can close the hole. That is, if there isn’t a nest of babies.

Guess we need to actually go into the attic every so often to make it feel less safe for them. Or something. Slamming doors and growling like an animal just makes them sit still for a while but they are not moving out. Eucalyptus oil did not deter them for even a few days.

OK, focus on the good stuff… Tonight is the Schuler Book event. And I’m assembling photos for you of the evolution of my ZigBagZ pattern. That story may take a few days.

I am looking forward to a Friday with no appointments. Have a great day today, and stay warm if you have snow… as I do.

The sun shone beautifully today. It was cold but not dead-frigid as it has been lately.

I swear I turned into a cat for an afternoon. I remember my cat Muffett was the ultimate pleasure-seeking being. He looked for comfort, and only moved when something else seemed more pleasurable than what he was currently doing. He loved sunshine and would move with the sunbeams all day to stay warm and happy.

I moved my laptop around the house and followed the sun today. I sat in my office in the chair until the sun was mostly hidden behind a tree. Then I moved to the living room floor (on a pillow to be nicer to my joints when I had to get up). Then the sun would move and I’d move the pillow. I wanted happy sun in my face, and vitamin D in my skin. It was a winning combination.

I’ve made a choice to put something in the ZigBagZ patterns which I had originally planned not to include. (Text description for the Zig Chart, for those who do not like working from charts.) I’ve included both charts and text in previous patterns and I”m thinking folks may expect it. This is a lot of detail work late in the game but I think it is worthwhle. This means pulling out some other explanatory text later in the pattern (to keep it to 8 pages, gasp) and I think this is a better balance overall.

I tell you what, when I’m done with this I will be craving a garter-stitch scarf, the most simple knitting ever. Something that takes no brain for a while. The brain cells are screaming for a vacation!

Luckily for me, my friend Cynthia is going to look over this latest inclusion as a proofreader. I’m too close tot he project at this point to trust myself with entirely new text.

And with that I’m back to converting a knitting chart to text…

Photo of my only pet ever, Muffett, 1979-1996. He was so friendly and special that my friends cried when he died.

It is 13F outdoors (-10.5C) and we are having a lunar eclipse as I type this. It started at 8:45 and was supposed to be most beautiful around 11. At about 10:30 I decided to brave the cold and go out to get a photo.

My night-landscape setting did allow me to get the photo. The moon is flanked by one planet and one star (I did not do my homework on what they are) which look here like little white scribbles. I had to prop the camera on the top of Brian’s car and try really hard not to wiggle or breathe for many, many seconds while the camera tried to drink in as much light as it possibly could.

So my moon and my planet and my star are all a little fuzzy here, but you can see how the left side was starting to become a sort of dark orange where the shadow of the earth was edging in sideways. So cool.

I think it is good to see how tiny we are. An eclipse *is* a big deal, a mini-miracle, and with the magic of modern science we know when it is coming and when to look. I think that is just wonderful.

May you have a wondrous and magical (but not too cold) day, night, week…

I slept till 3pm Sunday. What a surprise. It didn’t start out a restful night, but when I finally opened my eyes I thought I might be Lynn again. I’m still weak, but the emotional me is beyond pleased.

Ice Queen Weather

The view from our living room Sunday was surreal. There was so much light coming in from everywhere! The sun shone, and it bounced around to the point where it seemed light came beaming in from every window at the same time, all three sides of the room. The sky was so clear and the air so cold that even when snow got into the air, the snowflakes turned into pulverized particles of ice, like fairy dust.

Saturday night at 6pm it was just barely under the freezing mark, and then it plummeted south quickly. Right now (writing this draft after 9pm Sunday) it is -5F, with a predicted -6F low tonight (-21C for my international readers). It was another good day for staying in. I am very, very happy for our Mail Carriers on foot, that it was a non-mail-delivery day.

My Incredible Support Team

Sunday the phone kept ringing. Friends who knew I had been ill spent time leaving me to heal but figured they should make sure I was on the mend by now.

Altu, April, a music friend, all made brief calls to hear my voice. That is where I really count my blessings. All week I had offers from local blogging friends, dance friends, other friends… did I need anything they could bring over? What could they do? Since Brian is so good to me I needed nothing, but it was lovely to have offers.

I have created the nicest possible community of friends I could have possibly asked for. No, it’s not just me creating it, but the space must be clear and warm for people to feel comfy joining in. Of course, nobody can join my circle if they have never met me, if I have never reached out or gone socializing in any way. That bit was on my own shoulders long before this week.

Knowing the Difference

I remember when my father died, my mom really did not have confidantes or buddies. She had co-workers. She knew people at church. We knew a group of neighborhood families. Mom had not totally isolated herself, but she also had so much to juggle in her life that she did not really have strong friendships that supported her well. With a career and an unwell husband, it left no time for nurturing personal friendships. She had our family, and when Daddy died the three of us did our best. We still feel like a powerful and loving team.

For the record, Mom is a social butterfly now, with so many friends and activities that she will never be alone. She will never want for someone who cares. Mom has done a bang-up job of becoming herself and I wish to emulate her strengths myself. At this point, Mom is one of my support folks from afar.

I, too, had a time in my life where I was quite isolated and had little time for building personal support friendships. When I lived half an hour from work and depended on my then partner to drive me to and from work, lunch hours were the only time for socializing. I could go to lunch with others who also worked downtown, mostly co-workers.

At least I had the phone, and I did use it… and I found respite in the independently-owned Fabric Gallery store, a tiny but super-high-quality sewing heaven which thankfully was walking distance from my house. I spent time there every Saturday, and it was rejuvenating. You do what you can with what you have. I discovered wool jersey fabric during those years… even when I sewed as my creative outlet, it was knit wool that made me happiest.

Counting Every Blessing

In my current life, I have the music community, dance, knitting, the East Side (Foster Center was important to me before I taught kids to knit there). All the yarn shops where I teach are full of friends, particularly the shop owners. Then there is Altu and the community centered around her restaurant and the music I coordinate for her there. Many of my students I now count also as friends. I have the blogging community which is local as well as international in scope. And now I have Ravelry on top of that.

After a week where it was just difficult to breathe, I am so happy to see what blessings (if I may call them that without sounding church-y) I have in my life. I am so happy to take a moment to make this gratitude list, not only of the things and people I am happy to have in my life, but where I stand in my life’s journey, as well. It seems appropriate to take in “the landscape” this early in the calendar year, as we proceed forward.

For the record, Brian is first on the list. I was happy single, but my life is magnified in all good ways since we joined forces. He was so helpful to me when I was so very sick the first 4 days. Unfortunately, he came down with an awful cold Friday and so now we are sort of parallel-sick trying not to pass our germs across the room. This, too, shall pass.

Permission to Knit for No Good Reason

In more frivolous pursuits, I have been afraid to try to knit anything Sunday, though it has been the first time my hands had the inclination to pick up needles in nearly a week. I do not want to make any mistakes and it seems I feel guilty doing a sock with no reason attached to it when I have pattern deadlines looming heavily at my schedule’s door.

I think I’ll shed that guilt and let myself knit a sock for the pure joy of one knit stitch after another. The value of that is in the repetitive joy of the knitting and its relaxation. Joy and relaxation might equal healing, right?

Tomorrow I will see if the knitting-editor brain has returned along with the more normal temp. It would be good if I could do some work, at least get started in a gentle way. I won’t be teaching tomorrow but perhaps I can do something useful on the computer.

Now where did I put that sock?

I feel luxurious today. I’m one who adores open windows, open doors. I even roll down the windows in my car, at least a little, most of the year.

So winter is really hard for me. I can’t hear the sounds of the outdoors, can’t feel the fresh air. Instead we have the hiss of a furnace, which for some reason is very distracting to me. (Am I the only one who counts one of the disadvantages of winter, as having a furnace blowing much of the time? The sound, not the warmth…)

Well, today it’s just around freezing, and there is no wind at all. In the areas of the house where heat rises through the roof, the snow is melting and there is a steady drip of water I can see through the window. There is the tiniest bit of snow coming down, and it is peaceful and beautiful.

The house just felt full of germs and stale air. So I turned down the thermostat, wrapped up in my Ethiopian blanket and opened the front door. Aaaahhh.

If it has to be winter, this is pretty good. OK, I can’t do it very long but I feel some relief.

Whenever I have an instinct to control something not in my power to control, my favorite saying is “I’m not in charge.” It has perhaps never been so true as this week.

I was a bit sick last week for a few days (small potatoes, as Gramma would say), but I recovered, danced at Aladdins, felt just great. Then Monday I got hit hard. It’s a mean flu, different symptoms every day. I spent a day and a half unable to keep anything down other than a little water. Even tea did not agree with me.

I do not get that sort of sick very often and I had forgotten. I am grateful for a few friends/family who were able to give me real advice on how to get through the nausea. Today I’m through that challenge, anyway.

So I’m not in charge. This was to be such a busy, exciting week. It has turned into a “sit on the couch and don’t move” week. Fortunately I was able to cancel or reschedule my events… but a few break my heart. The knitting guild retreat on Sunday, where I was to teach color combining for real garments, and Rae’s birthday yesterday… well, I’m sad.

Today I have my brain back and I’m able to eat again. I’m not yet well, but a corner has been turned. For two days I could only get on the internet to see if I’d sold anything that had to be shipped out, and my emails had no more than a sentence or two. I couldn’t read or knit, so I sat still like a good girl and stared at the ceiling. Yes, me.

It was not small potatoes this time, though even this will not hang on that long. However, I think it’s important to notice good stuff, and the view out of the front window is clean and snow-covered and white. If you do not have to go out, this is lovely weather. I hope I can knit some wool today and make it a winter lay-on-the-couch-and-heal day.

And as another favorite saying goes, “This, too, shall pass.” I should feel better next week and I’ll lay low this weekend. It’s sort of required.

I am repeating a snow photo from January today, please forgive. It looks like this today, only more. Much more snow.

When you have to slow down, the natural world becomes apparent. Even sitting on an artificial chrome couch with Naugahyde cover, in a wood box built to protect me from the elements, I can see a lot of the outdoors. One of the advantages of a small house is that this living room has windows on three sides, it is a lot like the proverbial goldfish bowl.

The Natural World on My Block

Yesterday it rained. This is January in Michigan, and rain is not unheard of (my friend Mike Ross wrote a song called January Rain, about a particularly bad day he had).

However, this is usually the season of snow and cold. Lansing tends toward piling up snow for several weeks, than a short melt, then more snow. This last few weeks has had more melt and less snow than feels normal.

I worked on the computer (thank goodness for wireless internet and laptops) sitting on the couch. I kept being distracted by movement outside the window. It was that dratted squirrel again. He’s so cute to watch and I do like him much better when he is outside of my house.

Clearly that one nook in the front tree is his favorite spot, because I’ve showed you two photos of him there and again yesterday he’d go there, then run up and down the diagonal tree branch, then sit for a moment longer. He didn’t stay up the branch long enough to do anything. I assume he was out looking for food while it was warm enough to do so.

Of course, I also saw him in the rain gutter, his avenue to the hole he chewed under the shingles to get into our attic. Ick. That’s where he ceases to be cute.

A Short Breath of Fresh Air and a Dose of Reality

At 7:30pm I realized it was 45F degrees outside and rainy. Since I’m fighting a bug, I’m even more aware of air quality issues and the lack of open windows in the winter. So I turned down the thermostat, wrapped up in some blankets, and opened the door for a few hours. I am a huge fan of open windows and doors, and it felt so good to not be locked up so tight.

It rained peacefullly and there was no wind at all, so it took a long time for the house to feel colder inside. The humidity was a nice change, too.

But something threw a switch and it got mean out there. It sounded like Dorothy from Kansas was going to land her house in the street at any moment. The National Weather Service says it was 45 degrees F (7.2C) at 10pm, and 19 degrees F (-7.2C) at midnight. Whew!

More Small Potatoes

I remind myself that I’m human on earth and that means I’m not in charge, and that many things don’t fit in easy boxes. Getting this nasty cold is reminding me of this idea more intensely these few days. Sitting still and watching the weather (and the squirrel) go by, reminds me how little I am in charge of my life.

But I’m doing better at remembering my Gramma Illa’s theory that many things are small potatoes. Really, everyone gets a cold sometimes and they do go away. They slow us down, they make us uncomfortable, we don’t enjoy it. In the big scheme of things, though… it’s small potatoes and it will be over soon enough.

I observe little Isabel, the 3-1/2 yr old toddler in my life, and I see how she really still believes that the world revolves around her, which is normal for her age. When things go wrong we have to explain to her that it isn’t her fault, because as the center of the universe she would believe it was. Really, we all are the center of our own universe… which explains a lot of confusing behaviors in others at times. Yet, as adults we know our power is not all-encompassing.

I Don’t Think We are in Kansas Anymore, Toto

The wind is so strong outside that it is blowing through the cracks between windows in this old house. It is not extreme most of the time, and I’m not asking for advice since a little fresh air is excellent.

A little airflow does not upset me at all, and the house is small enough (and the furnace efficient enough) that it is just fine the way it is. Our windows are varnished hardwood, very beautiful, and I value them as an artform… just the way they are.

We have 8 small windows and a door in the small L-shaped area that is our living room and my office. I did take some of that thick not-too-sticky plastic weather tape a year or two ago, and taped the larger crack that is between the upper and lower moving window parts.

Yesterday, when we would get a huge gust of wind, we would both jump from a very loud noise. A whoopie cushion, but louder!

It was one of the windows in my office. I’d opened it for Brian when we were dealing with telephone-line issues near that window. The tape is still sealed on one side but it broke its bond on the other.

Then the wind blew so hard that it pushed quickly through the crack, and the loose side vibrated. Instant whoopie cushion! Quite amusing when you are fully awake.

So, How is Your World?

Nothing new in this corner of the world, really. The world turns, the sun sets, we sleep, we wake up, we have a cup of tea, we work for a while. How about you?

(The photo? Beats me. I downloaded a bunch of photos and this one was in the middle for no apparent reason. I thought it was beautiful so I didn’t delete it. I call it “Wild Abandon.” It is so sunny I hought it appropriate to a winter day.)

Well, Monday was one of my favorite holidays, right up there with Thanksgiving. We celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I did work, but I work teaching others and I think teaching/learning are reasonable pursuits on that sort of holiday. I have written long essays on this day in previous years. I am not writing about it today, but that is not to say that the holiday escaped me. It definitely did not.

However, I was reading the comments on Stephanie’s Yarn Harlot blog the other day, and someone mentioned a Squirrel Appreciation Day. And it’s on the same day as Dr. King’s day? Amazing. I admit that the date of Dr. King’s celebration changes because of Monday holidays, but I found it impossible to understand the idea of a Squirrel Appreciation Day at all, and to have it compete with MLK Day was surreal.

I remember a friend from New Zeeland who moved here for several years. She says the first few weeks they were here, they used up much photographic film trying to get good shots of those adorable squirrel creatures. They seemed so exotic!

But for me? If Dr. King is about peace, then squirrels are not. We have one spectacular tree, and from it a squirrel can get on our roof. From there, he/she can get into enough mischief to cause my house damage and me a bit of jangled nerves.

We had a squirrel when I moved here, who was fat and fearless. I think someone was feeding him and I was not amused. He would come up on the step and when you yelled at him to go away, he just looked at you. As in, are you bringing me food now? Quite spooky. They live near humans but they do not usually get along with us quite that well. They should rightfully be a bit afraid.

One day we found squished squirrel in the road and that one stopped coming around so we think it was him. As Kenny says, Curiosity Killed the Cat, and Indecision Killed the Squirrel. They are always trying to figure out which tree is closest to run up if they are startled, and sometimes they head to the closest but not safest tree (or phone pole). Maybe I’m a squirrel, I suffer from indecision myself, though it has never threatened my life at this point.

When I moved here there was a protected spot on the roof where a lot of angles came together, where the squirrels had gnawed a hole and were trying to get through to the attic on the other side. Our neighbor at the time, Marvin, put a metal plate there with a plywood board over it, and that ceased to be an issue.

Then this year I kept hearing “someone” up in the attic, at all hours of day or night. We have had birds before but this one seemed to be scurrying in a way a bird would not. I figured it was a squirrel. We found that one was going in and out the vents on the roof. We got new animal-proof vents. And the sounds did not stop.

So about a week ago I talked to friend/musician/woodsman Paul Bennett and mentioned the squirrels. He didn’t miss a beat. He said, they are traveling in the gutters of your roof, look for a low spot on the very edge, and they get in the attic by chewing a hole through the roof boards, underneath the very last bottom shingle.

So a few days ago, I heard it again. And I went outside. It was the perfect weather for the discovery… and sure enough, it was a piece of cake to find it once Paul had described the situation. On the front of the house where we added on the new porch several years ago, there is a side gutter. And there was clearly a little entry hole, and even squirrel tracks going from the gutter a foot or so from that hole up to the top of the roof. Wow.

Well, then I read about squirrel appreciation day. I personally am afraid for my house, that the rodent will gnaw through electrical wires or something. I’m a little less worried about the things stored in the attic, though no doubt it could become bedding for the furry little pest.

But I read the whole page written by the Founder of Squirrel Appreciation Day. And I read that the animals do not like the scent of mint, and if you put peppermint oil on a cottonball in the attic space, they will vacate. This sounded too good/simple to be true.

I had a cottonball, and I had some very strong Eucalyptus oil, which is to me even more obnoxious than peppermint. So I put some oil on the ball and put it in the one attic door I could reach easily. I can get Brian to help me go into the one other door near the squirrel area when he gets home.

I’m crossing my fingers. I am not one to put out bait, and closing up the hole could trap the dude inside which could be very bad. I really want this furry tenant to go his merry way without a formal eviction of any sort.

As I type this I can hear someone up there walking around. It’s really spooky. Let’s face it, we are humans on earth and we make little climate-controlled boxes to keep ourselves warm and protected. But we are not in charge of nature, and animals are much more resourceful than humans are in cases like this.

While researching this column, I found a web page that says in Council Bluffs, Iowa it may be illegal to do what I am doing.

City Attorney Richard Wade said roughly in the 1930s, the City Council adopted an ordinance barring people from bothering black squirrels.

According to the ordinance, it is illegal to annoy, worry, maim, injure or kill the squirrel.

My squirrel is red. Go, cottonball!

What a strange weather day we have. We will not see a hint of sunshine today, even at noon it felt like dusk. The temperature is 60F/ 15.5C, unheard of in January in this area. The sky looks like a typical full-cloudcover December day. It’s almost surreal.

It rained two nights ago and started to melt in earnest around then. Our January 1 snowman has lost any resemblance to a snowman, it is now just an unusual pile of snow in the middle of the front lawn. He gave us (and some of you) much joy in his short existance, at any rate. We got about 3 good solid days out of his glory before things started getting warm.

I am sharing two photos with you today… Yesterday’s sad snowman-remains, and the glory of a perfect Michigan snow, from my mother’s front yard on the 2nd, just four days before. Sometimes the sun does come out, and if it is right after a lovely snow, you can get photos like this.

I think I’ll go for a walk today, anyway. It will be another day without appointments so I can play with my schedule a bit. There is SO much to do from my home office/studio, but if it is 60F, I just think it is imperative that I take a walk.

I hope your day is great. So many folks are going back to work and school today. I hope this brings the joy of reunion rather than a sadness at the routine. Remember, if you are one going back to work… income is definitely a wonderful thing, not everyone has work right now.

And truthfully? One must have a place to belong. I figured that out when I had too much alone time and not enough work, back when I lived alone. Peers are essential to a person’s life, particularly if you are like me and relatively social by nature.

(I’ve been knitting… photos tomorrow.)

We had a great New Year’s Eve and I want to tell the full story of that with photos maybe tomorrow. However, the big fun for January 1 was the snow.

It is 36F degrees (just above freezing a bit) and last night we got several inches of gorgeous, wet, perfect snow. For some reason I decided I wanted to make a snowman with Brian today, as we drove home from the event last night. He was all for it.

So today we got out there and I participated in the first snowman-building experience since my father was alive. (Daddy died in 1973, I was 14.) I don’t remember doing it in college or in any of my former adult homes. Honestly, I’m not much for being outdoors any big length of time and I’m also not fond of being cold. But today there was not a whisper of wind, the snow had stopped falling, the sun shone, and the snow was about perfect for snowman building.

I have the perfect partner for me. He got us started and I followed suit, not remembering much about this process. He did the biggest physical labor parts, and we both had fun adding to the artful bits as we got going. Brian found sticks for arms and then he kept going with spiked hair, a great touch. I found gloves and an old scarf, the stem of a red Swiss chard leaf for a mouth and the end of a white yam (they are white inside and purple outside but not very sweet at all, I get them at the asian market) for a nose. He made eyes with bits of the sticks (they are actually spent flower stems from the daylily).

I think it’s a mighty fine joint artistic product! What fun.

And because there was no snow coming down and no wind? We did not get cold at all. It’s great to have good warm wool/alpaca clothing to bundle up in while spending time outdoors. I’m not sure I’ll be building snowmen every year or anything, but there was literally no cold to complain about. It was a great thing to do, to start the year.

May all of you find 2008 to be happy, healthy and full of abundance in the larger sense of the word. I count you all as friends, and you are part of my own abundant life. Thank you.

It snowed today, and snowed and snowed. At 11am there was just a dusting, but by 4:00 we had over 2 inches (5cm) on this car. It was not cold, in fact most of the time it was just above freezing. It was that perfect sort of snow that they try to re-create in movies and on TV. I was glad I only had to drive about 2.5 miles.

The tomatoes I pictured here on the Solstice (mostly green at the time), were joined by 2 more fruits I found on the bush almost a week after I took that photo. The new ones are the two at far left. One just was not ready for even a gentle nudge, apparently, but the other is doing great. When I put the first batch out, only two had any sense of color besides green. I am eager to make some sort of sauce for pasta perhaps. Either that or I’ll make some greens with tomatoes, another favorite of ours.

In other news, Altu asked me to walk her through a sweater pattern. She learned to knit in Ethiopia as a young person, and made a lot of sweaters. However, they had only one thickness of yarn and you could change the gauge by doubling it. So she learned how many stitches to cast on for herself, and she learned to make up the sweater as she went, shaping by instinct and experience. She has never followed a pattern.

So Rae helped me find a sweater that would work for both Altu and me. It’s the split-neck T Shirt from Knitting Pure and Simple. I will interpret the pattern for Altu and we will knit together on our regular Thursday afternoon lunch date each week until we have finished sweaters. This could be fun!

My size needs less than 850 yards and I happen to have four skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece that add up to just a bit more than that. Funny, this yarn is supposed to be a worsted weight (5st/inch) but on size 8 needles after blocking I’m getting 4.5 stitches an inch which is the gauge the pattern wants.

I did not imagine this yarn could get that gauge, so I swatched like crazy. I held it together with sockyarn, and thicker alpaca lace yarn, and added yet another laceweight to the first. In the end, when I wet blocked, I got gauge with a single yarn strand of Cotton Fleece. This is very good, that makes the project more portable.

I looked on Ravelry for other folks’ versions of this sweater. One woman used a contrasting yarn for 2 garter ridges (four rows) on both the arm edges (instead of ribbing) and the neck. It looks wonderful, so I may do that. I have lots of yarns that might be just right with this cherry red, for an edge or two.

I’m going crazy with ideas for projects. I finished another pair of really-tiny-socklets for earrings. I keep looking at tiny toy projects like the heart I made recently. I still want to embroider. I did darn some socks and need to do some more. I love that I finished those 2 pairs of socks last week.

And my singing voice is so strong right now! We don’t have a concert scheduled until a few weeks into January and I wish I were singing tomorrow. In the wintertime I often have struggles with allergies and the inevitable bugs that go around. Right now we rehearse and I sing my heart out to the two of us. It’s really fun, but I love the stage. Soon enough, I guess.

I just love Kristin Nicholas (though we have not yet met in person). I’ve loved her knitting design work and her color sense for years, before I read her blog. Now that I know the blog, I have learned of her other artful endeavors (paintings and illustrations, as an example). And she is a good writer. Her books are on this page if you are interested… order direct from her and get an autograph on your book.

She lives on a farm with her husband, young daughter Julia, a herd of sheep and a menagerie of other animals including artful chickens and a guard llama. Often on the blog she talks about the animals and the nitty-gritty of farm experience.

The sheep are a big part of this… she shows baby lambs when they are born, she talks about the challenges of keeping the animals safe from coyotes, and talks about how they rotate the sheep between several pastures during the course of the year.

I’m really clear I am not cut out for farming, it’s such a complete lifestyle (requiring going outdoors to work for the animals every day, no matter what the weather… not my thing). I really respect those who make the life committment to care for animals, any animals. Hundreds of sheep on a farm is beyond my comprehension.

In October they moved about 150 sheep down the road about 3 miles, and this week they moved them back. She took excellent photos of the experience, and told of the process getting the sheep home again.

The story is so interesting, I did not want it to end. Perhaps you’d like a short digression from the holiday crazies, and you can go read the December 20 post of Getting Stitched on the Farm. Or just look at the pictures…

Brother Eric and Sis in Love Diana got “sun comeback tour” shirts to celebrate that Friday is the Solstice, the day our sun starts getting closer every day for six months. Yesterday I was positively blue after holding it off all season… I am ready for the sun to come back and kiss me again.

I am not a sun worshipper but I am definitely a warmth lover. These days I dress in so many layers I do not move easily. I always have a lot of wool and many under-layers. Today I saw that if I’d chosen the purple hat I knit, I would have been wearing at least 8 items I’d knit at least partially, myself. It would have been, from top down, hat, mini-sock earrings (photos tomorrow), “Turkish sock sweater” which I altered heavily, wristwarmers, legwarmers, socks, purse/bag and stole. I chose a commercial beret instead so I was merely wearing 7 things I knit upon.

I look like a commercial for handknitted items (many of which are cool in mainstream culture at least this week). I think I’m hopelessly uncool for wearing so many at once. I’ve been uncool all my life, it’s no problem to me now… but I’m really happy to have that warmth.

Warm is so much better than hip and edgy, in my 49-year-old opinion. I’m so happy to not be young anymore, it was so hard to try and fit what I could not fit. Now is better, I’m just myself and most times it’s exactly what I’d choose if I had a choice. Very nice when life works that way!

So to celebrate the sunshine which we did have today at any rate… I present you a photo I took less than a week ago. We have tomatoes we grew ourselves, ripening on the south windowsill. You see, I had one bush in a pot on our steps. When it got chilly around Halloween, I brought the pot in to the mud room to avoid frost. However, it got so cold in there that a few weeks later Brian took it into the basement.

I watered the plant dutifully but it was so cold even in the basement that it did not drink. I let the fruits stay on the plant until the leaves started drying up. Then not a whole week ago I plucked these fruits and put them on the sill.

Yesterday I realized that there were two more tomatoes still on the plant. I brought them up and put them with their buddies but they have not caught up yet.

When they get red enough, I’ll cook them with greens, or pasta and a little protein of some sort. It will be a celebration. And that will happen on a day when the sun stays up longer than it did today. I’m delighted about that part. I’m ready to give up the wool sweaters and start wearing my African and Indian clothing, and embrace 80F and above. Not today, but I’m already heading there in my mind.

Meanwhile, I still am in love with my hot water bottle. That old fashioned idea keeps my feet warm every night when I’m home after work. I take it around the house with me and rest my feet on it all night long. The best.

Happy sunshine comeback, my friends. We have passed the shortest nights of this year. I wish to toast the coming sun and warmth… and the optimism which accompanies them.

Does anyone else have a way of celebrating the passing of the darkness and moving into light? I wish I had a fireplace. Alda in Iceland writes of huge municipal bonfires on New Year’s Eve there. Norwegians(?) banged on pots and pans to wake up the sun and bring it back.

Me? A cup of tea and the hope of a nice long walk with my beloved if the sun comes out and says hello, would be the best choice. And a few kind words to the tomatoes on the ledge.

I will be quite occupied Monday so I am blogging photos today. Brian and I took a walk on Thanksgiving day, last Thursday. It snowed the night before, for the first time (at least the first where it stuck).

The neighborhood was almost like a ghost town, no cars driving around at all. With the snow on the ground, sounds were muffled. We could hear the swishing of cars on the main roads on the west and east of our neighborhood, but things were very silent in our corner of the world.

This tree is in our side yard. I think it is interesting how we can see the actual colors of a tree trunk when the snow makes the green grass unimportant, and the wet bark intensifies what colors are there. Lichen and moss are really beautiful colors of green.

The larger-view neighborhood photo is one block from our house. When all the maple trees turn color, they are blazing orange and the yellow trees seem less than interesting. However, at this time of year, the few remaining red and yellow leaves (and those on the ground, which finally fell when it finally froze hard overnight) become very interesting on their own merits. They are particularly nice if both in the same view.

Thanksgiving need not be a single day. Tell someone you love them today, OK?

A week or two ago, I taught in Charlotte, Michigan, which is a small town with heart and soul. So many small towns are suffering these days, but Charlotte is quite alive, thank you very much!

I love taking photos of this town in the fall, I’ve done it before. This time I headed toward the library and the park where Brian and I performed last June.

Charlotte has two important streets which intersect near the old courthouse. This is the one which seems a bit shorter, and which heads out of town toward the fairgrounds (where the bluegrass festival happens each June). I caught it just as the sun was setting and the light really was nice.

Also, I enjoy taking photos of older homes in this town. They tend to be well-kept or well-restored. I drove past this house, pulled over to the parking lane and was taking photos backward out of my window. I’ve taken photos of the house right behind it in previous posts.

Well, I noticed a guy walking down the street who looked like a musician I know, who lives in Charlotte. I called out his name and sure enough, I had the right guy. So guess what? This is his house, since right around when Brian and I sang at the park.

Isn’t life interesting? The longer I stay in Michigan the more people I know are connected to other people I know. And to be in a town 30 minutes from where I live, and to know the one person walking down the street? Whose house was exactly the one I was trying to quietly photograph?

Actually, I got photos of two houses next door to one another. Both are beautiful and I think I’ve got the one, but I may be one lot off. Forgive my 2-week memory which has lost a tiny bit of information.

I sort of like it when things happen this way! The leaves don’t look particularly colorful in these two photos, but the relationship part of life was fully functional. Cool!

I had a plan for today. It all changed very quickly and that meant I did not work at home today. I dropped my plans to help a friend, totally worthwhile. I did teach two computer classes, too, later in the day.

Since I did not spend lots of time on my computer, I don’t have recent photos for you. However, here are a few random photos I developed in the last few months but never posted.

The squirrel who had been so hot this summer… found a nut and made enough noise eating it that I went out to investigate. Same exact spot. This was maybe a month ago, actually, when the leaves were still green:

The parking ramp at Lansing Community College, where I had my class this weekend. I think this view of the exit ramp is quite striking, if unreal in a city-sort-of-way:

A view of the lakeshore (the west shore of Lake Michigan) in Chicago, from the viewing deck of the Sears Tower. I usually get dizzy up there (not on the Hancock building, oddly) but this day it was not windy (we could not feel the building sway as usually happens). It was misty and cloudy which may also have helped, perhaps being able to see too far is also dizzying. We got up there in the 15 minute timeframe that whole day when people could actually see something through the clouds.

This was in late August, I went with Altu and a young Ethiopian friend who had never been to a city of this sort…. and who was enthralled to be there.

You know, I adore Chicago from many angles. At this height, the horizon looks a little bit curved. So cool!

I took an Adobe InDesign workshop today (it continues tomorrow). All I can tell is that yes, it’s a great program, and yes, I’ll be learning it forever.

With word processing I know there are things I don’t understand, but that does not bother me since everything I need/want to know, I have figured out down pat.

But page layout has always been hard for me. After all, I spent how long as a secretary? And how much longer as a word processing instructor? I still teach word processing one day a week part of the year. It seems word processing and page layout have significantly different ways of thinking about text.

I have no problem that typing more stuff makes things pop to an extra page. That is just fine with me. But Word flips out when you place too many photos… all of a sudden your 6 page document is 15 pages and corrupted. Or the third photo you place on page one somehow lands on page 7. Ugh.

I must get with the program. Except I know so many hints and tips and tricks and work-arounds in Word… and I know almost nothing about Adobe InDesign.

I have done PageMaker (never made sense even after classes), and Publisher (the interface was Microsoft but it’s far too simple a program), even CorelDraw 4, for one single project (the CD art for our In The Garden CD, which Brian planned/designed and I put into the program acceptable to the CD manufacturing company).

InDesign is clearly better than all of the above for laying out knitting patterns. I can only hope that I will learn enough to start using it immediately when class is complete.

The leaves are still beautiful, and they have not all fallen yet. Even with all this rain, they are hanging on. One hard frost and we will be bleak and colorless, but for now it is a fiery sky on every street. Really, really beautiful!

Enjoy your fall weekend, whatever it brings you. Mine is bringing me learning and color. That’s a pretty good weekend, I’d say.

Photos: more of the trees in the few blocks behind our house. The city is full of beauty but these trees often are some of the best. This year, it is doubly true. So beautiful! So ColorJoy!

It occurs to me looking at these photos just now, that they are every bit as majestic as some of my favorite photos that I took in Africa.