Sometimes Monday ...

... looks a bit better than I originally thought. I started the day with problems with my phone, problems with my laptop, issues with a delivery from Lowe's, the first of three different shots of snow and winter weather, and a headache. I went outside to shovel the sidewalk and spied these very early snowdrops. I can hopefully go to Verizon after Lowe's hopefully delivers my freezer, and I'm happy to know I have snowdrops (even if they do end up buried under more snow and ice).

Amaryllis Watch

Some of my amaryllis are done blooming, some are still slowly growing towards that stage. Here are some shots of what's currently growing and blooming at my house.

It's a grey, rainy day today, heading towards a cold and snowy week ahead, so I'm glad to have a profusion of bright blossoms. Here's hoping there are bright spots in your world, too.

Three on Thursday

Joining Carole and friends for Three on Thursday, today with more food in and around Elkton.

I had the car again yesterday and decided to head to what I had heard was the best taco place around. I had been told that it didn't look like much, but the food was so good that people traveled 30 miles for tacos from this stand. I was excited and all ready for some delicious tacos al pastor but was greeted by this sad sight. Closed and for sale, so no tacos for me.

A little searching brought me to the only other taco place in Elkton. This is really the building where they prepare food for catering and their food truck, but they're open for take-out with a limited menu. I say "they" because I still don't know what the name of the place is, but since the big green flag says TACOS backwards, I figured I was in the right place.

And I was. No al pastor, but they did have grilled shrimp tacos. Messy, but delicious. 

It wasn't quite whiskey and a cheeseburger, but pretty good all the same. Head on over to Carole's for more Three on Thursday.

Unraveled Wednesday

Joining Kat and the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday. Last week I was working on two Sockhead Cowls, but I decided that I would rather work on one faster than two slowly. Now that I'm past the ribbing, it's just stockinette. I can see to knit stockinette, even at night, so I chose the purple Monkshood* one. I really love this color and would like to wear it while there is still some winter left.

I finished a couple of three-star books (The Gown and The Library Book), am still reading The Gift of the Deer, and started Golden Child. The latter is off to a good start, but it's disturbing so I can't read it before bed. It's not gory, but the book opens with the disappearance of a teenage son and his father has spent all night searching the brush in Trinidad looking for him. I'm a little concerned about what lies ahead in the book. I had awful dreams and spent Monday night tossing and turning, so maybe I'm a bit sensitive to stories about sons. This hasn't happened before (actually, I've just remembered that it did when I read Cujo years ago), but now I put Golden Child down by mid-afternoon.

What are you making and reading this week?

*I know Monkshood is a plant, but I did not know that it is the same thing as aconite or wolfsbane, has beautiful purple flowers, and all parts of the plant are extremely poisonous. Oral administration is the usual route (in wine in Greek mythology or fettucine in Midsomer Murders), but poisoning can occur simply by picking the leaves without wearing gloves; the aconitine toxin is absorbed easily through the skin. Yikes!

Hi, Ho, Hitchhiker!

Today's hitchhiker is probably the one I wear most often. I bought the yarn for Happy Times With Ryan with Ryan at The Loopy Ewe during one of my first visits there. I loved the yarn, the colorway name (Happy Times!), and knew it was going to become a hitchhiker as soon as I bought it.

I wound the yarn in the Denver airport while sitting next to a cowboy who was fascinated by the process, cast on, and knit all the way home on the plane. I knit this one with 54 teeth and an 80" wingspan, yet another reason that it's one of my favorites.

When I was done knitting and taking photos for ravelry, I was on my way outside for some more natural light and walked past a bowl of Skittles. It dawned on me that the Skittles matched really well, so I grabbed a handful and used them in the photos. The dyer (Rhichard Devrieze) liked the Skittles photo and messaged me, so I was glad I got a chance to tell him how much I loved this amazing colorway.

The colors go with much of what I wear, so I've worn it at least four times in the past two weeks - to two funerals, dinner with John's boss, and a prospective book club meeting. That last one didn't go well, but that was because of a mismatch in reading taste, and probably not my hitchhiker.

Weekending

Last weekend had some of the usual things - a little grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and laundry, but I also did something new and fun. Justin took me stump hunting. He brought his recurve bow home and instead of target shooting, we went out for a walk in the woods and hunted wild stumps. Sometimes it was clumps of grass, leaves, icicles, or even actual stumps.

There was also plenty of enjoyable walking through the woods, down by the creek, trying not to slip down the steep side of the hollow and then climbing back up the other side which felt even steeper, and then an easy walk across the fields.

It was a bit cold, but we quickly warmed up during our afternoon of walking. Target shooting with my bow is fun, but stump hunting with Justin is even better.

Put a Nickel In

I went through my jewelry box last weekend and was very happy to find this gift from my father that I had completely forgotten about.
My father was an impatient driver, and I clearly remember him yelling at drivers to go faster throughout much of my childhood. He had a special saying for this: "Put a nickel in and let the buffalo push it!" Like I mentioned on Monday, he's been gone for a year, so it was especially nice to find this.

I did smile and think of him, and that's a special gift in itself.

P.S. There is a buffalo on the other side of this nickel; I was just a little teary-eyed and took a picture of the wrong side!