Olio

Waiting to be washed and blocked

I finished little Willow's sweater.  I think it is a great pattern and will have to remember it for the next baby that comes my way.  Now that I am familiar with the construction of the pattern I can fiddle with the design bits when I knit it again.  The buttons for the sweater came from a ninety nine year old woman.  She had watched me knit it with great interest and when it came time for the buttons volunteered her button box as a source for them.   I was very pleased as one never knows what can be found in old button boxes!  There were a lot of lovely things that had to be rejected as not fit for a baby.  However, knowing I wanted them to be all different,  I was able to find these which I think are just perfect.

Green growing things

The plants for the garden are coming.  It is so hard not to put them out into the greenhouse yet as the days have been feeling warm enough with some sun from time to time.  It is the reality check of 29 and 30 degree mornings that help to keep them in the warm cellar.  Just need to be patient!  It has been proven to me time and again that patience is the key to hearty plants.

All purpose cage--guinea pigs, chicks or plants!

This is the setup I have.  The problem is that I run out of room when one group starts to out pace the others in the growing department.  Eventually the things that will tolerate the dip in temperature at night will go out to the greenhouse first, giving more room for the warmer veggies, like the peppers and tomatoes. They are last out, always.  There are chains that I can hang the lights on as the plants get taller.  The closer the light source the less leggy the plants get so it would be really great if the light could get right inside the cage.  This works tolerably well.  It is just a regular shop light and the little one is the kind that go under the cabinets in the kitchen.  I try to use what we have, as you might have noticed.  Reuse and re purpose!

The awakening woods

On Tuesday I played hooky from all my obligations and spent the day with a friend.  We took a long, long walk in the woods looking for wildflowers and birds.  It was the perfect time to find blooming things.  The weather was very cold and windy, the terrain steep and treacherous.  The road was a logging road so it was full of ruts and puddles.   The best part of the walk--so cold there were no bugs!

Trillium (Wake Robin) and bellwort

Longspur violets

When we returned to her house we warmed ourselves with hot chocolate and spent the rest of the day identifying the plants.  Also we worked on our summer programs as she is the other half of "Taradiddle".  We offer stories and songs in a program geared to the Vermont Department of Libraries' summer reading theme.  It is so much fun.  Having done programs together as librarians for many, many years we found that once we were not doing it for our own library we missed it terribly.  So for the last two years we have been taking ourselves on the road.  It is so much fun.  Hopefully we will get a website up this summer.
It was a lovely day.