False spring, last blast of winter

The photos I shared on Wednesday were from my walk on Sunday. It was the first time I'd walked outdoors for more than a few minutes, and boy did I feel it in my shins the following day. Sadly, the reasonably decent weather did not last. A blizzard blew through starting Tuesday night, through the following two days. We had approximately 20 cms. (8 in.) of snow over 48 hours, though it was far heavier in other parts of the city and southern Saskatchewan. It was heavy, wet snow and made clearing the driveway not a whole lot of fun.

I should mention, I never tested positive for Covid and my son C tested negative on Monday so was able to return to work the following day (5 day quarantine).  As I feeling a little bit of cabin fever, I did get out on Monday as I had an errand to run for my daughter. Since this took me in the proximity of Value Village, I stopped in for a look around. I found a few clothing items for Eli and some scrapbooking paper for D.  From there I stopped at Salvation Army and found a very pretty dress for myself, and a couple of books to read. I made a stop at Walmart on the way home, where I got bird seed, yarn for the flower afghan edging, and a few fresh vegetables. I did try to stop it at the tailor shop to have the zipper placed in Eli's sweater but the business wasn't open that morning. Then it was home to stay for the rest of the week. 

That meant no stitch and chat this week, nor the planned coffee visit with my travel agent. The snow was enough to keep me home for most of the week. This is another reason I'm grateful to be retired, as there is no need for me to go out, and I can plan around the weather or illness, as the case may be. With time to spend on my creations, I've been blocking the flowers for the afghan and started two more projects. Because...why not? The first is an over-sized sweater for my daughter. I pulled some yarn from the stash - it is being crocheted using four different colors for a color block affect. The second is a sweater for a toddler using some stash yarn. There isn't enough to make an adult sized version, and Eli's sweater is complete. I have no idea what I will do with it at this point but I wanted to knit something. My stitching project has been set aside for the moment but I'll pick it up in a week or two. It's meant to be a Christmas gift for a friend so I have time. 

The birds have been ravenous, and spending lots of time digging in the snow below the feeder where seeds have fallen. Mostly grackles and juncos, with a few sparrows. The robin doesn't eat bird seed, but I've seen it picking something off the trees in back and the evergreen out front. I'm sure they are all wishing they had waited a week or two for their trip north.

This morning, I ran out again to pick up a few more groceries, and to drop the sweater off at the tailor's shop. Phew, this is going to be the most expensive sweater I've ever made for the child. Oh well, he's worth it. It has started to warm up and is already freezing so there is melting happening, hurray! 

There is a baseball game this morning (Go Jays!) so I'll sit and crochet or knit while I watch, and then this afternoon I'm meeting with my niece and nephew, and likely their parents, to get the tax returns completed. We were supposed to do this a week ago, but with C with Covid, we decided to wait a week. 

Have a great week ahead everyone!