Week 5 - What a wild life I lead, and some wild life

Easter Sunday was just another day around here.  I didn't even cook a special meal, I had leftover chili and my son fixed Ramen noodles for himself. (He likes them with added vegetables).  Saturday was my day to cook.  I made the pot of chili, put together hamburger patties for the freezer, made a potato salad and a quinoa salad.  There was leftover meatloaf from earlier in the week in the fridge as well, along with some taco meat.  With all the leftovers I didn't see the point of cooking anything more, in fact I didn't bother on Monday either.

I did manage to get my sweater started on Sunday but ended up frogging it and winding up the ball of yarn for a new start on Monday.  I didn't like the way the pattern was looking so spent sometime finding another similar pattern.  If I weren't such a skinflint and was willing to pay for a pattern I'd have more choices.  I've finished several inches of it and am happier with the way it's going.  The crocheted tote bag was also partially re-done when I realized I'd messed up about half way in.  

We woke to snow on the ground Monday morning, with a temperature of -11C (12F).  It warmed up a bit through the day and the snow was nearly gone by that evening.  Tuesday and Wednesday mornings were stupidly cold for this time of year.  But both days the sun warmed up the sun room sufficiently for the cats and I to spend a good of the afternoon relaxing.  I've managed to read most of a book, take a few photos of the birds, and I even took a short nap one day.

This isn't a great photo, the blackbird flew away after this shot.  It's the first red-winged blackbird I've seen this spring (and the only one thus far).  It's a good sign that spring is on its way.  Fingers crossed.
Another not great photo, it's taken across the neighbour's yard with robin in the foreground and a Hungarian partridge in the back.

The next photo made me laugh.  I'm not sure what the bird is doing but the squat made me wonder. :)

In the front yard I had another visitor.  

He's actually eating some of the needles off the tree.  I can't imagine that they taste that good, and suspect needles aren't the most comfortable to eat. 

You can just see the tip of the ear in this photo. He's found the bits of celery and apple I put out for the rabbits.  I hope they taste better than the needles!

Back in the back yard I captured a robin in the tree.  It wouldn't give me a profile, but oh my goodness is that not a fat bird?

Wednesday I decided to spend the morning baking.  I had a few apples in the fridge that were beginning to soften; these were baked in an apple crumble.  I also made up a batch of buns, some regular, some hamburger bun size, and a dozen cinnamon buns.  The house smelled so good!  For dinner I'd marinated some chicken breasts in one of my favorite salad dressing, Italian Zesty Lime.  These were grilled up and with some garlic noodles and veg were our dinner.  I'll use the rest of the chicken in wraps for lunch over the next few days.  

While the sun shone Thursday morning, it was still cold.  So it snowed!  I know it doesn't looks like the sun was shining, but it truly was.

The smudge you see in the photo is actually a plastic maple leaf that I have added to some of the windows in the sun room.  They're supposed to reduce bird strikes though I've found one out there so far this year.  It always makes me sad when I have to pick up a dead bird.

It did warm up through the day but was overcast so it never got comfortable in the sun room.  I spent the after crocheting and knitting.  I finished the shopping bag, which frankly isn't a shopping bag.  I followed the pattern to the letter and ended up with more a purse than a shopping bag.  I could have modified the pattern but I decided a new purse for spring would be nice.  I checked and I have a piece of lovely green satin in my stash (picked up at the thrift store for $3.99) that I'll use to line the bag.  I need to check on-line to see what I can do to make the bottom firm - I'm thinking thick cardboard would work.  I've checked my stash of sewing items and while I have a couple of zippers neither of them are an appropriate color or size.  

I'm continuing to work on my sweater (knitting) and I really should finish off the infinity scarf before I start anything new.  I say that now, but Pinterest sends me an e-mail every evening and I keep finding more ideas.  I did have enough yarn left from the bag to start another shopping bag using a different pattern.  It's working up quickly so should be finished in the next couple of days.

Finally, on Friday I actually got off my butt and went for a walk. The temperature was a 6C (-14F) but initially felt a lot cooler.  But by the time I had walked through the little park and over to the nearby pond I felt quite warm.  I'll do a separate post for this as I took numerous photos!  There weren't many people out walking, perhaps a dozen or so but we all managed to be on the opposite side of the street.

Today, was just a lazy day.  The darn cats had me awake at 5:45 a.m. and I felt tired for most of the day.  Beyond feeding the birds, doing dishes, taking out some garbage, I spent much of the day catching up on my television watching, a bit of crocheting, and chatting on the phone.  I lay down for awhile in the afternoon but didn't actually sleep. Instead Saku and I had a good cuddle.  Almost as good as a nap.

Take care everyone and stay well!