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.