Sunday, May 13, 2012

Gorgeous spring day

Sunset with virga 

 This first picture was actually a few days ago. The sun was setting off to the left, shining on the clouds and their virga over the valley.
Birch just starting to leaf out

Zoom in to see leaves and flowers

One remaining snow patch below the driveway

Another snow patch
 The third patch is by the house and is looking more "snirty" (dirty snow).
Bulbs are sprouting - what did I plant there?

Monday, May 7, 2012

Cat and hat

We are now taking care of a cat. We first heard about this cat maybe ten years ago, when there were two sisters, Lola and Cola, staying with a grad student. That student went on to defend and leave town, leaving the cats behind. During their first winter, Lola got outside and came back missing some bits - a tail and the right hind leg.

 Both cats have been living with our friends Jenny and Pat, but now the sisters don't get along as well as they used to. They divide the house upstairs and downstairs, meaning that Lola doesn't get enough attention. So we're giving her a trial run, with the option to take her back if it doesn't work out or to keep her if it does. She's been super friendly and purry, wanting attention. So far, so good!

In hat news, I finally got my hat pattern up for sale on Ravelry: Baltic hat
My best picture of them is here:
The story is that I made the red hat first and made the mistake of wearing it into the yarn store where I got the main color. Someone there asked me how to do the Estonian braids and would I teach it. OK, fine. The yarn store policy is that I make a shop model from yarn currently available in the shop - which the Lopi Lite is not. So I picked some Cascade 220 in colors which aren't quite as exciting and made a shop model. In thinking about it, that's a lot of knitting for a class that meets twice, so then I made the small bag to be the in-class swatch. I taught two people, not including the one who bugged me to teach it in the first place - she wants another chance, so I said I'll teach it again in the fall.