Daffidils, daffodils everywhere

In the side yard.

Under the walnut tree.

By the garden hose.

Down the driveway. These are actually my neighbor's - we share the driveway. The daffodils are on his side.

And along the roadsides. They had me smiling all the way into Mayfield this morning. How can one not smile at that bright, cheery yellow color. They were in small clumps of a dozen or so, large patches of a hundred or more, and one huge swath of a thousand (I may be exaggerating here, but not by much) The fields of winter wheat are now large expanses of a wonderful shade of green, like well-groomed golf courses. Some of the trees are showing shadowy bits of color as their flower and leaf buds prepare to open.

And I think the birds are coming back early as well. On Sunday, when Lexi and I returned home, we entered the house by the door into my bedroom, because I had left the outside light on there. As I was unlocking the door, she exclaimed, "Oh!" I asked what was wrong. "A bird just flew out of your wreath." I think it's a little wren that has had her nest there for a few years. I never see her except when I startle her and she zooms away.

Knitting:

I recently had Lexi model two of the shawls I've completed.

This is just a rectangle in pale gray cotton, done in an easy lacy stitch pattern.

 This one is called Citron (I actually used someone else's pattern, which I got from Ravelry!) I really like the semi-circular shape, accomplished by increasing 24 stitches every ten rows or so, and also the ruched sections. The ruching is done by doubling the stitch-count, working a few rows, and then knitting two together across the row. I think it has a rather dainty appearance.

I've traveled every day this week again. Sunday afternoon, I met Alyssa, Stephen, Lexi and Devin in Paducah for supper, and brought Lexi home with me. Monday was a school holiday. Lexi spent several hours around the corner playing with her friend Michelle. I took her home in the late afternoon. Tuesday I had lunch at the Mayfield Senior Center and then went to Big Lots. Big Lots usually has preserves that have more fruit than sweetener - mostly made in Europe. Why do the American companies use so much sweeteners (mostly from corn) and preservatives? Why not just fruit, sugar and pectin, in that order?

 Wednesday, I did my normal church and knitting. Since it was Ash Wednesday, there were more people and the service was longer. As I was leaving, I met one of the secretaries coming down the hall. She said, "Y'all can do some heavy sinnin' now - that was a looong service."

When I got to the coffee shop, there was a sign on the door, saying that, due to plumbing problems, it was closed. I went in anyway, and Val told me that some of the group had gone to the yarn shop. I went there and sat with the others for a couple of hours.

Yesterday was the 'Vintage Grace' group luncheon meeting. This group is for those of us in the church who are over sixty. There were about two dozen of us. Good food. Good conversations. And then the rector presented some meditation/prayer aids for Lent. I stopped at Kroger on the way home. I wound up buying about twenty servings of fish - I swear I wasn't thinking at that point about it being Lent!

At the beginning of the week, I got an email from Evelyn asking if I could help her with a knitting problem. (I'm really not the knitting expert some people think I am!) I went to her house this morning. I think I got her project back on track, and I know I enjoyed visiting with her for a couple of hours. After that I went to the Senior Center for lunch - made it just in time before they stopped serving. I sat with Marcia and three other women whom I recognize, but don't know well. When they started talking about bridge, I was completely lost. One of them is just learning the game. She had her 'crib sheets' she'd been studying and was asking a lot of questions.

Now I think I want to spend two or three days at home, knitting and weaving, and reading. I returned two books to the Paducah library yesterday and will probably finish the third one I checked out last week after I crawl in bed tonight. I stopped at the Mayfield library this afternoon and checked out two more: Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope and Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler, I haven't read anything by either of them for a few years, although I think I've read most everything else they've written.

Oh my! It's been a week!

Actually nine days since my last post. I haven't done anything unusual - mainly knitting and weaving. And fighting with my sewing machine while trying to zig-zag stitch across the ends of 58 mugrugs. I finally got that done, but two of them got messed up. I took them apart, and used the 'filler' from them on another warp. The current warp is only 8 yards long - don't know how many mugrugs I'll get out of it. It's blue; the next one will be red.

Of course I've been knitting, too. In fact I now have a case of knitting start-itis. Friday morning, I started a hunter green watchcap for the Seaman's Church Institute. Yesterday I started a variation on a Citron shawl (I think there's a picture of Citron a few posts back). Both of those projects are using yarn from the supply donated to Grace church some time ago. While I was on Ravelry yesterday, I came across a scarf/shawl pattern called Wingspan that I like, so this afternoon, when I needed a change in project, I started one. I have three or four other projects on the needles as well; I will get them all done eventually.

 Tuesday, I spent time with Jo and Mary (and Mary's daughter Ashley) at the Art Guild in Mayfield. I hadn't seen Jo for months, and during tax season, when she's working for H & R Block, I don't see much of Mary. It was really nice to talk to all of them.

Wednesday, I did my normal noon Eucharist service at Grace Church, followed by knitting at the Downtown Coffee Bar. The group wasn't as large as it was last week, but it really doesn't matter how many are there, it's always a good time.

Friday, I met Mary and Ashley in Mayfield, and we went up to Paducah. Mary is considering opening a yarn and tea shop in Wingo (about ten miles south of Mayfield) and wanted to visit With Ewe in Mind in Paducah. I hadn't been there since it moved. I introduced Mary to Maureen, who owns the shop, and she was able to get some useful information from her. Then we went to the Downtown Coffee Bar for a cup of coffee. I wanted her to see Valerie's set-up there. We also stopped at the Habitat for Humanity shops in both Paducah and Mayfield.

7 days of traveling

But only locally.

About noon on Saturday, Alyssa called and asked if I would meet her in Paducah in a couple of hours and bring Lexi home with me to spend the night. Sure. So we arranged time and place, and I had the company of my favorite ten-year-old for a few hours.

On Sunday, Lexi and I went to church in Paducah and then I took her home to Metropolis. I had not much more than arrived home (I was still changing clothes) than Sara called and asked if I could come over and watch Rose while she and Reggie went to a Super Bowl party at Alyssa and Stephen's. Sure. So I spent a few hours with my favorite six-year-old. I got home about midnight.

Monday morning I got up at 6 am (I'm not used to that since I retired) and drove to Metropolis. I stayed with Lexi because she wasn't feeling well, while Alyssa took my car to Marion IL for an obstetrics appointment.

On Tuesday I had an appointment with the oral surgeon in Lone Oak, which is now part of Paducah. My mouth has healed well. I can stop using the Peridex rinse when I finish the bottle I have on hand and just continue with warm salt water rinses. I'll go back in three months.

On Wednesday I went to Paducah for the noon Eucharist service at Grace Church and then to the coffee shop to knit and visit with my knitting friends.

I was going to stay home for the rest of the week, but yesterday morning I decided that I wanted to have lunch at the senior center in Mayfield. I'm glad I went, because I had a chance to talk to one of the center's board members. I think he's still the vice-chair. He's been spending more time there recently, since the director is ill.

And than this morning, I got a comment on my last entry here from Christa, who mentioned the lace guild meeting today. I don't do bobbin lace, but I did belong to the guild for a couple of years. I thought, "Sure, why not make it a whole week." It was nice to see that group of women again. I got several inches knitted on the scarf (for the Seaman's Church Institute) that I started on Wednesday.

The lace guild meets at Grace Church, so while I was there I took four or five skeins of yarn from the supply that was donated for prayer shawls and other charity knitting. It's not that I don't have a lot of yarn, but there are a couple of things I have in mind to make that I don't have the right yarn for here.

I'm continuing to weave about half as much as I knit. I now have a loooong (14 yards), narrow (32 threads) warp on the loom. I'm making mugrugs - I expect to get about 80 of them from this warp and then repeat that a couple of times. I'll donate them to be 'sold' in the rug stall at the Walk through Bethlehem in December. That should use up some of the 'stuff' I have here.