Sweet Melissa

Happy 23rd Birthday, my sweet Melissa!

 

 

 

 

 

A Springtime Walk

I have been drowning in middle school girl drama and course work this week, but today, after working diligently on my final project for over two hours after I got off work, I rewarded myself with a twenty minute stroll through a lovely neighborhood bursting with spring flowers. What bliss.

These may be crabapple blossoms.

A cardinal.

Azalea, the old fashioned variety.

Wisteria--I adore the smell.

 

Apparently, the people who live in this house adore them too.

Lilacs.

I can't remember if these were flowering cherry trees or not, but I love the red door.

This patio is fantastic!

I love the color combo on this house. I hope no one thought I was creepy, wandering around taking pictures of houses, but it's one of my favorite things to do!

 

I have class all day this Saturday and then the final one on Tuesday, which is when the project worth 50% of my grade is due. See you when it's over.

 

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday was so warm, but a cool front came in and today was foggy and misty. I took these photos about a mile down from where I usually do, which is why there is a jetty in this picture.

Melissa was with me taking her own photo, but her beach outfit was a bit unusual. She's holding her hat because it was so windy!

Steve and I went to a garden center this morning and I couldn't resist buying a couple of hyacinths for the house. They smell wonderful! And can you see the seashells and knitting needles in the background? My kind of decorating.

I took this photo of the tulips yesterday; they are from my stepdaughter's wedding last March. Such a lovely reminder of a beautiful event.

 

I like this shot with the raindrops still on it.

I made an off the cuff dinner last night that turned out great! I roasted some fresh asparagus that Steve grew, sautéed a few mushrooms with a little onion, added a package of sun dried tomatoes, and mixed it all with some orzo. We ate that with some crispy, sliced polenta and a little Parmesan cheese. Oh my, it was delicious.

I heated up some of the leftovers this morning with an egg for another tasty meal. I wish I cooked like this all the time. Guess that's part of what makes weekends so nice. Hope you had a nice one too.

 

 

Spring's First Saturday

I made it a priority to get to the beach this morning, even taking my chair, a book, and some knitting, so I would stay awhile.

 

Still working on the latest Honey Cowl, using one skein of Dragonfly Fibers.

While I was there, I even saw a lone dolphin swimming by me, very close to the shoreline.

 

I also took a daylight photo of the Horizontal Rib Scarf I finished this week. Wow, this baby is long. I could have easily cast on 100 fewer stitches.

 

 

Of course no one will be wearing it any time soon, as the temperatures have in the upper seventies and even hit 88 the other day. In March, for pete's sake!

Happy Saturday!

 

Playing With The Yarn

So I pulled out the yarn stash last night and purged a fair amount of odds and ends. You know those plastic zip bags that sheet sets come in? I filled one of those, plus two gallon-size ziplock bags.

 

 

Mostly I got rid of remainders, but there were quite a few full skeins of unidentified yarn that I couldn't imagine ever using. I put three skeins of Lopi-Lite and one skein of Lopi on my Ravelry page, if anyone is interested in free yarn, but the rest is heading to the thrift store. I was also able to update my stash page, using my iPad, which made it super efficient. The color is off on a lot of the photos, but I can redo them in daylight at any time. As I said in my last post, non-knitters have no idea how much time can be spent on knitting without actually knitting! The thing is, I was doing this to assess what I have so I would know what to buy on my spring break yarn crawl, but now I just feel like only a greedy person or an idiot could possibly believe she needed to buy more yarn! Not the outcome I was hoping to get. But I'm sure I will overcome my common sense once I get in the road; not sure if that makes me greedy or idiotic, but there you have it.

We had rain off and on yesterday, but I managed to take some pictures after work anyway. The red tulips look so pretty, don't they? It'll be even nicer when they fill in after a couple of years.

Pretty sure I've shared this before, but it's one of the shell mobiles I've made and hung in the side yard. Rustic, but I like it.

 

Forsythias are so spring-like, aren't they?

I took a page from barefoot rooster yesterday, and heated up some leftover orzo and asparagus with an egg for breakfast. Delicious. Much better than my microwaved frozen vegetable lasagna that was dinner. Not good at all.

 

 

I have an interview with the principal of the high school I'm hoping to transfer to next year. He has been recruiting me and he said this is just a formality, but I'm still a bit nervous. Mostly about making a change, I'm sure, but still, it meant I only got about five hours of sleep last night. Oh well, I usually run on adrenalin during the day anyway. I can sleep when I get home, to quote a Jimmy Buffett song.

 

The Vernal Equinox

I have always strived to be aware of the natural world and its rhythms; teaching science has really helped me do that. For instance, I never really learned the moon phases until I had to teach it, and ever since, I keep my eyes on the moon and share the phase names with my family, whether they are interested or not. My father has also had a significant impact on me as well. He is very knowledgeable about birds and trees, and I've found that I've retained more of his teaching than I would have thought at the time. I hope it is the same with my daughters.

I'm almost finished with the gifted class I'm taking. It will be over by spring break, which is fantastic, because I won't have anything hanging over my head. I'm so excited about the trip I'm taking to visit my oldest daughter. I'm driving to Connecticut, and while I'm there, she and I are doing a yarn crawl field trip! We are going to visit Knit New Haven, Webs, and Green Mountain Spinnery, which has me over the moon! In preparation, I have decided that I need to do a serious inventory of my yarn stash and either match patterns to yarns, or ruthlessly destash. In addition, I need to select some patterns I want to try that I don't have yarn for, otherwise I will end up buying yarn willy-nilly. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I prefer having a plan in place. Non knitters really don't understand how much time a knitter can spend thinking about yarn, can they?

Speaking of field trips, my eighth graders and I went on one yesterday to visit the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond. The kids were very well behaved and asked terrific questions. The history teacher on our team does a fabulous job of preparing them so that the experience is truly relevant to them. And the museum is amazing at linking the Holocaust to the current world situation, reminding them that genocide is still occurring today and challenging the students to make the connections between the Holocaust, ongoing genocide, and bullying.

 

Some years the trip is a struggle, but this year was one of the best ones, probably because we only have 80 students this year, instead of our usual 100+.

And although I didn't make it down to the beach today, it never hurts to see yesterday's beach photos, does it?

 

 

 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Knitting & Other Randomness

I don't know why, but I am really enjoying my knitting lately. I don't know if it's because of my 2012 Project plans or because I've been listening to the Stash and Burn podcasts, but I feel like my needles are on fire! Of course, I should show some knitting, but I'll save that for another post.

 

Steve and I took a walk on the beach this afternoon. The weather was simply beautiful. Steve carried a piece of driftwood back and we put it in one of the flower beds, right next to a flourishing sage plant.

Our walk was nice and relaxing, more of a stroll really. This is when daylight savings makes sense to me.

 

Love the blue and gold in this photo.

Before I went home, I met Melissa at Panera Bread, where she was hanging out. I snapped this photo of her as she was talking to a friend's parents. Just thought she looked cute!

 

Hope the rest of my week is as nice as today was!

 

Yarn and Other Goodies

It's so much fun to get yarn in the mail! ADD Knitter was doing a destash and I was lucky enough to snag this gorgeous skein of Socks That Rock, (love this color!)

and two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn. Thanks, Heather! You were too generous!

Continuing with the theme of gifts in the mail, I got my first copy of Taproot, the magazine that Amanda Blake Soule is editing. So exciting! I'm looking forward to curling up on the couch with this one.

I finished the Thermis Cowl, found a great button for it, and gave it to my sister for a birthday gift. I really love how this turned out, and hope she will love it too.

I made another Honey cowl, and gave this to a coworker friend. Apparently my teaching partners have been feeling left out of the knitting love, so I am remedying that.

I had to attend a PTA event last night from 6-8 p.m., and rather than hang around and work for two hours, I invited my sweetie to meet me for coffee and conversation. Sort of a mini-date, if you will. I had a lovely, relaxing time, and was able to do a little knitting in the bargain.

This is one of my Project 2012 projects, the Horizontal Rib Scarf, from Leigh Radford's One More Skein. I'm using the third reincarnation of the Madeline Tosh Vintage I bought last year. I tried it as a Saroyon shawl first, but messed it up, then tried it as a Honey cowl, but didn't like it for some reason. But this time it stuck. I'm already on the second skein and I like how it is looking.

Speaking of knitting for others, I picked up a skein of Dragonfly Fibers in the Winter Woods color way for another birthday Honey Cowl, for a close friend whose maiden name was Wendy Woods. I think she'll like the connection.

And just for fun, I've been playing with the Instagram app on my iPad, and snapped this photo of my birthday canisters. I still need to finish the kitchen painting, but I liked the way this looked. Do you realize this is the extent of my counter space? It's very difficult to prevent clutter on a space this small.

 

But for now, I feel like knitting more than I feel like painting, so that's what I'm going to do. Hope you get to do something you want to do this weekend!