April sunshine

Startling in its intensity is April sunshine.  I'm beginning to feel like spring has arrived and with it, today, a warbler in one of the maple trees.  Not a leaf in sight yet, but the wee warbler was singing his heart out.  I wish I knew more about birds so I could identify this earnest little critter by his song.  I sat in a lawn chair, in sunshine, drinking a coffee and listening to him. Eventually found where he was perched and could see the swelling tiny breast as it prepared to give voice again and again.  Is this courting behaviour I wonder? Would it work for me?  What would I have to sing?

I'm knitting a pair of socks with a 3/3 cable pattern and moss stitch between the cables.  This pattern is fun, though not precisely fast.  

Still no word on how I'm going to recharge my digital camera battery or even how soon I might know about that.  And of course there's suddenly so much to photograph--buds on the cherry, peach and pear trees and the magnolia.  The daphne is in full bloom.  The roses are waking up. We had a good soaking rain on Friday and so the grass is greening rapidly.  Today I saw the rhubarb budding through the soil and the first fronds of lovage.  I need time to do some pruning and digging, but had to work today to prepare for a meeting tomorrow, so that didn't happen.  Soon though, soon.

Last night I went to C's house to drink wine, nibble cheese and work.  It has been rather a work focused weekend.  I didn't get home until after midnight, which is late enough for me, but will have been tough for her with a 6ish wake up call from her toddlers.  Neither of us noticed how late it was getting, we just kept plugging away at what we had to do.

As I was leaving C said, watch out for wildlife because in the past I've encountered deer on her road.  Last night I sighted something much more terrifying--a rubber chicken.  Now I don't know any more than you, what a rubber chicken is doing on the road at midnight in this town.  I can only imagine it was tossed out of a party and didn't have the wherewithal to umm, cross the road.  Trust yours truly to find the only post-partying rubber chicken in the country.  And, because I know you're all thinking it--I did NOT have that much wine, for between us we did not drink half the bottle in three hours.

I think I will go knit on my cable sock and meditate on the meaning of rubber chickens flaked out on the road at midnight.  There must be something important to glean from this, eh what?

And there she goes...

The days have been surprisingly sunny the last week or so and this is such a shock to the system that I feel like a mole just out of hibernation but not convinced at all that winter is over. I'm looking over my shoulder, perhaps even somewhat hunched over in the expectation of some major snow wallop. Perhaps the cold nights and brisk frosty mornings account for this fatalism, or perhaps just a relentless winter which I was strangely certain would NEVER end.

But there are crocus blossoms sprinkled about the house foundation near the kitchen door. The snowdrops are done for another year, blooming in the snow beginning early March. I don't know how many times they were covered by snow and just kept on going. A nice lesson here in resilience.

There was a meeting at work yesterday which in the space of a few minutes removed 90% of the stress I expected to have to wade through over the next month. I don't have to do 6 road trips in the first two weeks of May and have everything ready for the designer by THIS Friday. The fact that this is pretty much impossible didn't stop me from expecting to pull it off as I could see no alternative. The contract ends on the 15th of May, period. Everything must be done by that date as no money can be spent (according to contract requirements) after that date. Hence I believed I needed to go into overdrive to get all the commitments done.

Now the situation is this: a few more days at the editing end; later deadline if necessary to get everything to the designer; a bigger block of time to get things to and back from the printer and the CD burning folks. Then two trips the week of the 19th of May, one to Truro and one to Sydney. The other four will be done by and colleagues early in June. So, you know what? I feel so much better and I can breathe! Still have lots of work to do of course but without the added pressure of an impossible schedule.

Saturday the 26th I'm going to a Lace workshop in the valley at Gaspereau Valley Fibres.
I am looking forward to this, since I'm very new to lace knitting and would appreciate learning anything useful and meeting others with a similar interest.  The cost is $25 so it won't break the bank.  I'd hoped to have company for this jaunt but my friend isn't feeling well, so I'll go by myself.

Today I find out what my tax situation is--will I have to cough up more or will I get something back? Will what comes back (if it does) be of any real use in the travel fund?  I have to make a decision about the Knitaly tour in the next week to hold a seat.  Even with all my number crunching I'm still at least $3K short of what I need to do this.  And I'm going on pogie in a month, so my income will be less than half of what it has been for most of the winter.

In early June I will have a two week writing retreat, aka house-sitting gig.  I'm looking forward to being away from home with laptop, pens and notebooks and plan to make a concerted effort to whack away at the Boomer book project.  Between that and playing with the kitties it should be a very pleasant break.  Let's hope it will be a productive one as well.  I will be staying in Lunenburg

Lunenburg has many lovely cafes and is about 10 minutes closer to my absolutely favourite haunt The Biscuit Eater.  This is the best local haunt for writers, artists and interesting folk--you'll see everyone there, enjoy great coffee, delectable sweets, and monumental biscuits--of course I go at every opportunity!

I've saved the best news for last.  On June 14th we will celebrate the 2nd Annual Mahone Bay Knit in Public Day at the Biscuit Eater.  We meet at 11:oo and can knit through the afternoon if we like.  Last year there were some fascinating sock projects and wonderful company.  The B.E. provided a number of surprise draws, think books and cake and Have a Yarn offered a lovely discount to participants.  Great fun--join us if you can.

April glowers

Yes, I know that should be showers in the title but we don't have those today, just those glowering darkish skies that might portend rain but probably only mean that the day hasn't found the energy for sunshine yet.

There is glowering elsewhere in Dreamin Diva's life today, she (as in I, but I need some distance here) has lost the battery charger to the digital camera. Since the battery and charger are both proprietary, there's no possibility she can go to the local mall and just pick up something to resolve this situation. Therefore she's seriously pissed at herself for being such a doofus as to let the charger become separated from the camera. What's the camera case for if not to keep everything together, eh?

So all four pair of the marvellous socks I've so painstakingly knit in the last month can't be photographed because SHE can't keep her life organized enough to keep said charger where it can be found when needed.

Sigh...why can't we (she & I) get it together, eh? What's with this muddle in the life? Oh, yeah, it might have something to do with all the time I spend working, spinning, knitting or reading, which leaves little time for the routine tasks of cleaning, sorting and umm, putting things in their proper places.

On the desk today: taxes and the passport application.

On the needles: two shawls, one complex and very interesting, in a Faroese style, the other simple and endless but pretty so we continue; a pair of cabled socks in some plum coloured alpaca blend that's very lovely. Enroute to me: more sock yarn and a spectacular shawl yarn in sufficient quantity to keep me out of other mischief.

On the work front: the last or nearly last run through of the changes to the Age Advantage program that I've written; a phone meeting with the designer to see what format/form she needs the files in; bookings for the six road show venues for early May (and how gruelling will that be???); preparation for the first session of the first of ten Portfolio Development sessions to be facilitated in the next ten weeks (two groups so actually 20 sessions); and miscellaneous other bits and bobs to complete the work contract by May 15th. The Portfolio contract which I'm doing at the same time as my work contract by taking vacation 1/2 days, continues until June 19th. And this is in aid of building my travel to Italy fund. We'll see how that goes.