The cycle of Wednesday/Saturday/Wednesday storms has been relentless but the winter from hell is almost in the books. And it can't end fast enough for me. The signs of Spring are popping up all over. Here's my list of reasons to rejoice:
1. Happy Easter! Today we celebrate rebirth and resurrection, a perfect analogy for Spring. It is a quiet day in our house but it used to mean Easter Egg hunts, baskets full of candy and a special new outfit. Now the Easter Bunny wears a Postal Service uniform and delivers a basket to UVM a couple of days early. This year it was filled with homemade chocolate cookies from Dad. My contribution was the prerequisite Easter goodies...Marshmallow Peeps, Jellybeans, a chocolate bunny, almond M&M's and some Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I also added some knitted goodies:
Aren't they cute? The peep pattern is here and the eggs pattern is here. (One suggestion: if you knit the eggs, do them in the round with dpns instead of dealing with the seaming nightmare.) I can see myself knitting a lot of these puppies in the future. They are so quick and easy. The basket was a self-designed pattern, one I hope to find the time to write up one of these days.
Here is what Easter looked like for my family in 1967. Aren't we all just the height of fashion? I'm the one on the far left looking totally underwhelmed by the whole experience.
My father was taking the picture. He insisted on a picture EVERY Easter and we always had the same conversation:
DAD: Stop squinting
ME: I can't... the sun is in my eyes
DAD: I can't get a good picture if you are squinting
ME: I can't HELP it. THE SUN IS IN MY EYES!
DAD: Oh, stop...it isn't that bad.
ME: YES IT IS...IT HURTS MY EYES
And then I would start crying and he would tell me to go in the house. Good times.
2. St. Patrick's Day. Despite the fact that it is usually snowing that day (as it was again this year), the wearing o' the green always lifts my spirits. My days of green beer at the pub at 11AM are long behind me and I haven't been to a good St. Paddy's Day parade in many years but my Irish heritage puts a little spring in my step and I always swear I can smell Spring in the air buried in amongst the corned beef and cabbage. This year I made a little something for my cookie to take back to school after her break to celebrate the day:
Meet HarryO'Bear! He was a quick knit and a cutie-patootie to boot. His pattern is here. He has a cousin that I made for my sister to help her through some very tough times (thanks to her trailer-trash tomcat of a husband... I think you can probably figure that situation out without much more detail.) Here he is:
[Digression Alert!... What is it with all of these sorry old men and their sex scandals lately anyway? Why can't they learn to keep it in their pants? Doesn't seem like rocket science to me. And these wives who "stand by their man no matter what" really baffle me. In their shoes I would kick that trash out to the curb where it belongs. It's not as if it's a one time dalliance. In the high profile cases lately this has been a long term behavior pattern. Honey, take him to the cleaners, empty out all of the pockets and run, don't walk as fast as you can as far away as possible! Once you have all the assets my guess is that Mr. Stud won't get a second glance from the chippies. What a shock when he realizes that what they really want is in his back pocket not under the zipper!]
3. March Madness!!!! As I write this the annual "big dance" is underway with its usual upsets and high drama. This year's bracket-busters have been Duke and Georgetown (so far). I can almost hear the groans and cheers as we all watch a David in baggy shorts stick it to Goliath. There is something about the drama and excitement of the tournament that has me glued to the screen (TV and computer) for almost three weeks. GO NORTH CAROLINA TARHEELS!
4. First Day of Spring!!! Yahoo!!! As much as old man winter fights it, he is on the run. The days are getting longer, brighter and warmer. He might throw another snowstorm at us (and he probably will!) but it's only a matter of time before the winter coats get put away for good!
Happy Spring everybody!
3 comments:
love the snow sculpture! a few weeks further on, some of our snow has melted, but c'mon - enough already of winter... we've been equally cursed across the border in new brunswick this year.
(i came via texas and the knitting wildflower. don't you just envy the idea of warmth?!)
that snow sculpture had me sniggering for ages and yes, it's great that it's spring at last!
Awesomest snow sculpture ever.
Post a Comment