How Do You Know Spring Is Nearly Here?

1. You start leaning towards the light like a house plant.

2. On the first day that it is sunny and warm enough to open a window or two, you find that there are about fifteen cats in every window. This is in spite of the fact that there are only two cats living with you.

3. You make your weekly batch of soup for lunches the next week, and the recipe does not involve pearl barley.

4. The seeds you ordered arrive...

5. ...you plant them (albeit indoors and under lights), and they sprout! This is always miraculous.

6. Your daffodils start getting themselves organised.

7. You read that the best time to plant peas is when the lilac buds are as big as a mouse's ear. You check the lilacs at your office, and the buds are as big as a mouse's ear! You make plans for Sunday, and a mental note to buy a lilac bush.

8. Your crocuses bloom! This is a very definite sign that spring is almost here.

9. You decide "Bugger housework, I'm going outside to get dirty!". Oh, wait, that actually isn't a seasonal thing for me, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

10. You seriously consider trading in the telly for a clothesline.

11. Life is good.

Special Scarves

In 2009 Idaho hosted the Special Olympics, and as part of their efforts the organizing committee asked for volunteers to knit or crochet enough blue and white scarves so that every participant could have one. The idea was so popular and so successful that the Idaho folks decided to do the same for this year's Idaho Special Winter Games. I heard about it through the Crafty Folks Underground Network (that's not really what it is, it's a word of mouth thing, but it amuses me to think there's a network of subversive crocheters and knitters out there).

Since I had finished a project and I like to have something to keep out of trouble on these still chilly evenings, I decided to participate. We were given a wool brand, colours, and dimensions, but other than that it was up to us whether we crocheted or knitted and what pattern we did.

Here's what I came up with:

I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and it was fun to do, too. I got the patterns from here: http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/scarves.php. They have all sorts of links to all sorts of scarves. I fiddled with the patterns a bit, of course. There are a lot of nifty ideas out there. I never knew that you could do a ribbed pattern using crochet, although it seems fabulously obvious now. It chews up the wool, though!

The scarves are now sitting in the kitchen sink soaking, and I will drop them off as soon as they're dry.

Oh, I forgot to mention that our friend Karen was the mascot for the 2009 Special Olympics. Here she is in all her Olympic glory:

How to Evict A Raccoon in Three Easy Steps

Step One: Determine that there is a raccoon living in the ductwork under your office building. It helps if your office building used to be a house.

Step Two: Empty an entire box of mothballs into said ductwork under the building as raccoons can't stand the smell and will voluntarily leave.

Step Three: Evict humans for the rest of the day as they also can't stand the smell.

Really, it's that simple!

Our Honorary Aussie Turns One

My how time flies... our honorary Australian, Wyatt, who was born on Australia Day last year, has turned one! He's a very happy chappy - and who wouldn't be with such a great honour bestowed upon them?

The Problem With Flea Markets

As I think I mentioned to several of you, I recently toddled off to the local flea market in search of gifts. The problem with this is that I didn't find any gifts, BUT I did find something for me... two 1960's vases in Art Deco style that I just KNEW would look wonderful on my mantlepiece. And they do! Given that they were half price, I just couldn't resist.
Another problem with flea markets is that they tend to lead a person to searching out other places with old stuff. All research for gift buying, of course...

I discovered an antique mall, and unfortunately for my bank balance it had a few things that I simply had to have. In my defense, I did wait a week before I bought them. And the first one is actually something I needed - a bedside table. No more cardboard cylinder with a sarong thrown over it for me! As you can see it needs some work, but since it was only $35 and it has all its original handles, I thought it was worth it.

Of course, once one has a 1940's bedside table one's 1990's digital alarm clock just doesn't look right. How lucky I was to find this little gem - a 1940's Westclox Moonbeam electric alarm clock.

It had a ridiculously bright bulb in it, which made the lucite case get way too hot (and would probably keep us both awake at night), so I replaced it with a much lower wattage one. The alarm works, too, and is actually a little less annoying than the one I had before. I didn't know they even made electric clocks back then.

All in all, a productive bit of flea marketing, I would say. And I did find the gifts I was looking for, I just need to mail them now...

A Spiky Start to the Day

What an unusual frost we had this morning. I just took these photos (it's about 10.30am), and thought you might like to see some of the nifty stuff Nature brings us here in Boise.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is not a tradition in the US. In fact, a lot of people go back to work the day after Christmas. Daniel was no exception, but he did not go back to work in the way you might think. He worked at home, to make me one of my Christmas gifts.

I am now the proud owner of a garden bench! It even has a dry sink, complete with cover, for putting potting mix in. Since I am planning to raise my own seeds for the vegie patch this year, it could not have been more timely. Here's Daniel hard at work... mostly... Please bear in mind that our garage isn't heated, and it was below freezing when he was working out there, hence the heavy overalls.

I think he totally earned that beer!

I won't be starting to grow seeds until late February, early April (our average last frost date is in early May), but now I have all the incentive in the world to get myself organised and grow everything from scratch. What a lucky person I am!