Oh, the rain

It seems as if the rain will not end.  I know, I know...spring rain and all that.  I just don't know why it can't rain and be sunny at the same time...  I much prefer sun after all the winter gloom.  It is, however, supposed to reach 70 degrees today!

My sister thinks that we can get the plants to sprout faster if we place a saran wrap tent over them to make a greenhouse.  I think I will give that a try.  Anything to get the tomatoes and peppers sprouted faster...

All the little radishes are wiggling their sprouts into the ground.  I had to move the pot to the garage to save them from being drowned in all this rain...

Lazy reading

I think my brain is atrophied.  I have taken to using audio books to supply my craving for literature (or what passes for it).  That way I can listen to the book while doing other things...like grading papers or surfing the web or knitting.  I could pretend that I was multi-tasking, but that really isn't it.  I'm just lazy.

Currently I am listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.  I couldn't wade through the book in written form--I didn't have the patience and my mind kept wandering.  However, I like listening to it on CD.  I can easily follow the story.  I can't do much for "multi-tasking" while listening because it is not unlike reading Dickens or Melville.  The most I can do is knit...but maybe my shawl will be done by the time I finish the book--26 discs!

The next books in my audio cue are The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk.

I am working on a variation of the Eye of Partridge Shawl.  I am working it in a worsted weight yarn because, let's face it, I want something snuggly when I curl up.  The yarn is nothing fancy--a blue/cream/browns variegated acrylic called Retro-Modern Ombre from I Love This Yarn! [Hobby Lobby].  The stitch really helps avoid pooling and makes a wonderful texture.

Because the original pattern is a really tight V shape, I decided to modify the pattern to widen the V.  I didn't want a shawl to end up dragging around like Morticia Addams' dress just to make the width as long as I like it.  So I am adding additional yarn overs--I keep changing my mind about the pattern so I have ripped everything out four times at last count...

Ok, as I am writing this, the system snow promised to us started to fall.  We're supposed to get 2-4 inches of system snow before the lake effect snow starts to kick in.  But right now, although it is coming down steadily, it is that wispy micro snow that just seems to make the roads slick and icy.  It will have to get thicker and heavier if it wants to do more than annoy people...

Moon Report:  48% of full.  Just shy of the quarter moon.

Outside the Window:  Snow.  About 24 degrees (coldish).  Overcast.

Spring?

Moon Report: 7% of full. waxing crescent.

Oh, glorious spring! Well, not quite. Mostly it is still windy raw and cold, but the snow has gone and the puddles have not frozen over.

I swear I saw a robin yesterday morning! However I didn't have my glasses on--and let's face it, I wouldn't make a great bird of prey. So, by squinting a bit and moving to get a better view, it really looked like a robin in the tree. Maybe that was the first sign...

I am very sure that there will be more snow on the way before long, but we're getting there. I can almost smell it.

Blizzard!

Moon Report: 3% of full. waning crescent.


Today is the anniversary of the 1978 blizzard that still holds the snow record here. It started late in the evening of Jan. 24 and continued until Jan. 29. The snow was recorded at 41". The snow itself probably wouldn't have been as ghastly (other than just clearing the roads) if all that snow hadn't come with tons of wind. Some drifts were 15 feet high!

I remember my dad dug a tunnel from our door to the neighbor's across the street so we could share supplies if anyone needed anything.
I remember my dad picked me up and swung me around and let me go sailing into soft snowdrifts.
I remember some houses had drifts up to the roof and the older kids would climb to the roofs with their plastic sheet sleds and slide down.
I remember my dad being home because he couldn't get to work for several days.
I remember a lot of wet mittens and soaked snowsuits and hot cocoa and soup.

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp

if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.

--Doug Larson

I don't chuck snowballs since I got hit and had a nasty bruise on my forehead--I was about ten. I do however love snow angels--which I still make on occasion.

Vocab lesson on "cold"

To say it is "cold" is a mistake. Cold is somewhere near 32 degrees. Ass-cold is something near 0. However, we're in the range of -18 at almost 9am. We're also under a windchill warning because those winds rushing upon us (as a light breeze) are between -40 to -45. So when I ammended the weather yesterday to say we were approaching the 9th Circle of Hell, I came close.

But, damn, the view is picture perfect! Imagine a clear morning sky with pink yellow light hitting the trees and casting blue shadows over the snow...

According to my thesaurus (Roget's International Thesaurus, 5th ed.), the listing for non-formal epithets for "cold":

cold as a welldigger's ass

cold as a witch's tit (or kiss)

cold enough to freeze the tail/balls off a brass monkey

cold as a bastard/bitch

colder than hell (or the deuce/devil)

These are common around here during the winter. I'm sure there are more colorful ones as well. However, the regular use of "cold" as an adjective produced little in the way of good description. They were usual, commonplace. I didn't like them (as I hear them daily on the news). A few: sharp, bitter, keen, frigid, icy, nasty, chilly, cutting. Sometimes I wonder if the English language is limiting or we are just too lazy to explain ourselves properly.

*****

God bless all the poor trash collectors who have to be out today as it is trash day for many in our neighborhood. All the schools in the area are closed today--buses don't run and they don't want kids outside waiting for buses or walking to school. Heck, even my dog won't go out. [I've been on the computer about an hour this morning and I haven't even seen one car drive past.]

I know the weather is terrible when I have to bundle myself up in the same manner my mother did when I was five. It almost makes me wish I had snowpants. However, I must make due with thermal leggings under my jeans and two pairs of mittens and scarves and two hoods (one a hoodie sweatshirt and one on my coat). Then the shivering commences as I step out to shovel half the driveway before I come in to have hot cocoa and warm up. But today, I say bugger the driveway. It can stay snowy and I'm going to sit inside in a blanket and be lazy.

The romance and practicality of winter

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

--Christina Rossetti

Sometimes I forget how much I adore Christina Rossetti poems. Originally I stumbled across her in a Lit Survey book--one of the works was a poem entitled Goblin Market. Not long after that I found a Dover Thrift Edition ($1.00) of an unabridged version of Goblin Market and Other Poems on a clearance table at the local bookstore.

Her work always makes me feel as if I should be curled in some hidden nook watching the world from behind leaded glass and reading. Although I have no leaded glass windows, I do have a very snowy winter Saturday before me. Knitting and listening to an audio book sounds like a great way to spend the day.

*******************

Well, at 8 am, light has finally come across to illuminate the overcast and very snowy morning. I shoveled the driveway around 7 am for the second time in 12 hours. Luckily it wasn't soooo bad this morning (meaning I had about three inches instead of six). However, since the snow continues I think it won't be another twelve hours before I must again shovel. The best news: it is a light dry snow and very easily removed.

Moon Report: 99% of full. full moon.

Merry Christmas

Moon Report: 3% of full. waning crescent.

I'm looking over a road filled by an ice sheet and a white yard. It is even snowing very gently (and sparsely). Ahh, Christmas...

What I am immensely greatful for is that daylight is coming through the overcast...and it isn't pitch black until noon.

Ok. Off to make my Christmas pork roast. Yes, not Christmas-y, but I've had my fill of turkey and I don't like ham. Everyone have a lovely and special Christmas. Enjoy your family and friends. Drink and be merry and eat until you have to unbutton your pants!

flaming freezing!

Moon Report: 25% of full. waning crescent.


Man, oh man, is it buggardly cold! We have been hovering close to 0 degrees all day--the upside: it was sunny. But now that it is dark we are sitting somewhere around -4 degrees at about seven. Don't believe me, have a gander: http://www.wsbt.com/weather

The SW Michigan counties are even under blizzard warnings and have been asked to stay off the roads. Luckily for us we haven't seen any snow although the local meteorologists keep swearing we'll be landed with 3-7" by morning. I think it is far too cold to get snow at this point.

So what is to be done on such a terrible day? Why watch all the Brit mystery shows I can, of course! I'm sucked into Poirot and Midsomer Murders while knitting my sweater. However, I do have to point out that being absorbed by the murder mysteries is not so good for following a knitting pattern. I have a forty stitch goof in the ribbing on the bottom of my sweater! Oh well, I guess that really makes it handmade.