Meanderings

By the way, although I've not mentioned my paramour of late, the romance is still going strong. We still steal moments together, immerse ourselves in only each other for hours at a time, and--with Linda's gracious acceptance--spend a precious hour or two together most evenings. I'm delighted with the latest knitting project, but alas, can't share any photos because it will be under the tree next December, and I don't want to ruin any surprises. I'm afraid this will be the case for quite some time, as I'm planning numerous hand-knit gifts. Rumor has it that by the end of the month I just might have a spinning wheel to rent, and I'm trying so hard to be patient. I confess though that I've neglected my spindle even though I have some lush rambouillet to practice with. The knitting is so soothing (especially because I'm working with a simple pattern, a farrow rib) that it's what I reach for first, despite the guilt involved in ignoring the spinning. I'm really looking forward to two upcoming classes at Country Wool: session 1 of Beast to Beret, and Percentage Knitting. The former comes one week before the Sheep and Wool Festival in Massachusetts, so will prepare me for buying bags of fleece!

This past weekend we visited two architectural salvage stores, Historic Albany Foundation's Architectural Parts Warehouse, and Habitat for Humanity's Restore. We scored instantly with a sweet, spindle-decorated gem that, even with the added cost of paint and rescreening, came in at about half of what a similar door would have cost new. She's a sweet thing--you can catch a glimpse of her, paint drying, in front of the flowering quince.

It's been a valiant effort getting this straight door to hang and close properly on our anything-but-straight doorframe, but we're getting there (we meaning mostly Linda!). Sunday was a glorious day for mowing and such; Linda worked on prepping the landscape where the bees will be living, and took a couple of other photos for me:

We call her 'the Lady'; she bears a resemblance to Kuan Yin but isn't actually a goddess, although her serenity blesses our yard.








And as mentioned in an earlier post, the sweet cherry is blooming!  Of course, the last few nights we've had to create a makeshift shelter to protect her from freezing.  It's worth the effort to wrap her and the apple trees when anticipating sweet fruit later this year.

A sad update...all that wrapping with blankets and contractor bags doesn't seem to be working; the flowers are browning and falling off.  And on an unrelated note, I just discovered that a mole or vole or some rodent creature has burrowed and furrowed its way through the strawberry bed! Mots caught one on Sunday, but we didn't think too much of it; we attributed the bizarre holes in the yard to serious water/erosion issues...but the strawberries are in a raised bed, and these are clearly freshly dug holes.