Purling Oaks

Leading indicator noted*

Although I see snowflakes drifting down from the skies this morning, I must say that I know spring is coming.  How do I say that with such certainty?  What's my evidence?  Our number one predictor at Chez Purling Oaks......Blue is shedding at his "spring is almost here and I must get rid of this heavy coat" rate.  Any dark clothing must be worn with extreme vigilance and lint rollers close at hand.

My mother, Cousin Kim, and I were inspecting the Jung Seed catalog yesterday and speculating on what seeds and plants we would plant this year.  Mom and Kim are planning on some nice big pumpkins, there's a new cherry tomato from Jung's that has a strawberry shape that Kim wants me to start, and they both requested some longkeepers, although Jung's no longer offers them in their catalog.  Longkeepers will do just that---if you store them on a shelf, you may have home-grown tomatoes into January.  Nice.  Dan's requested some of the mini eggplants for this year.  So, I think I better start hunting for those seeds!

Happy Friday!

*Geek title

Saturday's this and that

To borrow a phrase, "...I'm a bad blogger."   However, I'm here now with some general this and that stuff for this post.

• I realized on Friday that I was actually a walking zombie the previous day.  I'm doing such a good job at ignoring the travails of travel that I didn't recognize I should have pulled the covers over my head and called it a day Thursday morning.  It was a rough travel week.  I think I spent 14 hours traveling including waiting time in airports on Monday (which included two tries at the runway in a lightning storm, obviously one try was successful) and 9 hours on Wednesday.  Mental note:  If this happens again, don't try to "power" through any fatigue, it won't be productive.
• Friday, however, was productive and today is starting out that way.  I watered the new landscaping, washed most of the windows on the south side of the house (not at well as Wilson, but light comes through now), cleaned the bird bath, gazing globe, and statuary; started a load of laundry, and all this before coffee.  I may take a nap this afternoon, though.
• I have two ripe tomatoes as of Thursday afternoon.  Yippee!  BLT salad, here I come.
• Wilson has been Up North for a few days with Tom, the best man at our wedding, fly fishing for muskies and other various fishing.  He'll be home late tonight.
• As mentioned, the front yard is getting a make-over, including a new sidewalk.   
• There are some interesting flowers in the woods.   
• The stream is still flowing although not with the vigor that Spring supplies.  It changes with the seasons, providing a new source of water for the local wildlife, a home for minnows, and more food for the birds and animals that like aquatic snacks.   
• I hope to go gather some more berries. 
• Happy Saturday.  It is Saturday, isnt' it?

Snug Sunday

Yesterday's snowfall was a pretty respectable five inches with sleet and freezing rain at the end. Respectable, as in, respect the weather! The snow was very heavy and wet. There were numerous accidents. Our driveway is so long we have it plowed and our plow-guy couldn't make it here until about 10 AM since the township roads were very slippery and unplowed. Whew. I'm glad both DH and I were home and not out in the storm.

I cast on for fingerless mitts last night with Koigu yarn from Kim. I admired her mitts and, due to her giftiness, I can knit some too. The yarn is shades of olive green. I meant to cast on for Williamsro but the Koigu was calling out for attention. Thank you, Kim!

Today, I spent time on laundry as usual. It is my favorite chore but the key word is chore. I also decorated for Christmas.....including putting up the tree. We have a *fake* tree. It is very convenient and since it is pre-lit, quite handy. Real trees are great but they are more hassle than I want due to our schedule. One of my favorite parts of our Christmas decorations is the train.
It is an N-scale and we just have a little oval track. I only bring it out for Christmas. I love it and it appears the cats love it this year, too. *sigh*

Seasonal loves

Autumn is certainly tapping Summer on the shoulder in an attempt to cut in on our last dance. After the beautiful weekend, also with typical signals of fall....cooler temperatures, open windows, the sound of an occasional chainsaw and the Packer football game on television...Monday was much cooler and rainy. Really, it was an excellent example of *MONDAY* as in I don't want to get out of bed because it is still dark and my bed is so cozy and, well, I'm sure you know the feeling. As I was driving north, I watched the temperature drop degree by degree on the digital display in my Jeep. Fifty-three degrees Farenheit at 9:00 AM. Hmmm, did I forget to pack anything? Shoes, check.....pantyhose, check....nighties, check.....jacket.....jacket.....JACKET? No jacket. How quickly I forget the rapid change of seasons in Wisconsin. This is the time of year when Summer and Autumn flirt with us. We enjoy our old love, Summer, when it comes back but then disappears for days or weeks. Our new love, Autumn, caresses us with cooler breezes but warms us with a now more gentle Sun.

I enjoy the change of seasons that I'm subject to living in Wisconsin. I love the way my thoughts turn from knitting socks to knitting a thick, cozy cardigan. And tomato use turns from BLTs to marinara sauce or vegetable soup.

Knitting-wise, I ripped out the start of the baby kimono that I started in stockinette and started again, also Continental-style, with garter stitch. I'm much happier with the result. I am still not too far along but I'm working on it at lunch time and I should knit for an hour this evening, if I can drag myself away from the computer. I'm on dial-up and, goodness, blog-page loading is S-L-O-W. So if my frustration with the slowness wins out over my curiousity to read blogs, more knitting will be accomplished.

Morning stroll and follow-up photo

Yesterday was damp, weather-wise, at both Kansas City and Milwaukee/Madison. Fortunately, we experienced no travel problems and made it home last night for a very late pizza dinner. Here is the photo I promised: The horse and wagon help the human conduct tours of historic downtown Independence, MO. The yarn shop is just down the block from the Harry S. Truman Visitors Center where you can arrange to vist the Library or tour the Trumans' home.

I took a little stroll outside this morning to see what was new since Sunday. The trees are leafing out more *smile* and the invasive weeds have really shot up. *grimace* We have radishes!
Well, perhaps that is an overstatement. The radishes were the first I expected to see of the seeds I planted last week. I'm betting on lettuce next. I'm sure Black Dot and White Dot will keep an eye out on my "raised" garden.

I've got a lot of other plants coming up but some I'm just not sure what they are since the previous owners planted them and I've yet to look the plants up in a reference book. I know the red shoots are peonies in this photo but I'm not sure what the leaves are that surround the peonies. Peonies are one of my very favorite flowers. I like to cut them and bring them in for arrangements. I usually have a game of hide and seek with the ants before the flowers enter the house but it is worth it.

Today's color is GREEN!

It was a lovely Spring day at Chez Purling Oaks today! The sun was out, it was a bit breezy and I think the tempurature got into the low 60s! Last night's thunderstorms and today's sun have melted a great deal of snow. The only snow hanging on is either in large piles or along the edge of the woods, which is shaded. I found a number of green signs of Spring this afternoon. Here are some daffodils that escaped last Fall's shovel.


Daylilies that didn't escape the shovel and are now showing their greeness to my delight. I did some economical landscaping last October by dividing an overgrown patch of daylilies and, artfully, (I hope) placing them about the yard. The daffodils were supposed to all be relocated to another flower bed but we obviously have some stragglers. We were also gifted with some ferns but those are still dormant (crossing fingers).

The chives are getting off to a very good start.

This will be their second year in the herb garden. Chive's flowers are a favorite of mine and I would love to develop a garden with multitudes of chive plants just to have them all flowering at once. There are also garlic chives in my herb garden but they aren't awake yet.

I also found some crocus that are in the herb bed.
The leaves grew last year but I never saw any flowers. I wonder if they will flower this year? Am I planting them too deeply? Anyone know?

I had the windows open for a few hours this afternoon for a little air exchange. I'm sure our house isn't airtight by any means but new fresh Spring air is very welcome in large quantities.

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I had a dream last night, which is a good thing. However, I dreamed I plagiarized an entire Chappysmom post, pictures and all! Horrors of horrors! I even said that Chappy was my dog! Nightmare! Not about Chappy, of course, but about the stealing. Argh! Perhaps the dream was an offshoot of yesterday's blog discussions at Cara's blog and Steph's blog. The topic of why do we blog is very interesting to me and a number of comments brought up reasons I had not previously considered. I posed the question to Vicki when I was considering a blog of my own and she definitely gave me something to ponder.

I'm still thinking about why I blog. I blog to be part of the knitting blog community, which I see as a very positive community. I blog to improve my creative writing. I review, analyze, and produce reports at work but they are all of a technical nature and certainly contain no whimsy. I blog to record my creative knitting or other crafty endeavors. I blog so my friends can drop in and find out what I've been up to without relying on my lousy correspondence. I blog so I might make more friends and be a friend to others. I blog to ease my heart when it hurts and to share my joys with anyone willing to read. I blog to remember.