in which our plucky heroine notices signs of spring…
I’ve been out riding my bike, which I do every day when the weather allows. There were English daisies in the grass at one of the city parks I rode past. Here and there are early bulbs blooming, people have planted crocus, or hyacinths or daffodils. I have seen at least one forsythia all aglow, though the one here at Acorn Cottage is still barely tinged with yellow. The ornamental plums here have a vaguely pink tint that promises blossoms before too long, and the quinceling has the tiniest of green leaves thinking about unfolding. My one hellebore is covered with pink flowers, and the last of the snowdrops, hidden under the venerable sage still have a few blooms… I would love to have one or two more hellebores, as nothing eats them and their flowers are amazing. I would really like one black hellebore, and one of the white ones with the red freckles… will keep my eyes open in the future.
time in the tinyworld:
Almandine here in my first attempt at a Viking Age style cloak. The challenge is getting fabric that has a good drape at a very small scale. This very thin herringbone wool is very finely woven indeed, so drapes nicely, but is sort of impossible to hem. Hence the blanket stitched edge, which even for me is a bit too large scale, but I wanted to try it out. Her brooch is one of the little ones I formerly made to sell at SCA events, and it also is rather too large. I’ll have to try making something smaller for a brooch, which will definitely be possible*, and try again with a smaller and narrower edge stitching.
Thinking about slowly and carefully getting back to doing a wee bit of garden work. I still need to keep filling the giant raised bed, but I also need to NOT set my tetchy lower back off. Maybe one wheelbarrow load would be possible? I also want to start some peas, and it is time to get my seed order together. Past time actually!
well yay, I managed to get at least one hard thing done today… Rode my bike to the library, because I need the federal and state and city tax forms. We don’t all get an extension this year, so taxes are due in April once again. This was the first time I had been in the library in almost two years (I’ve been reading their e-books and listening to audiobooks) The librarian was very helpful in tracking down all the myriad forms I need, printed them all out, and it only took about 15 minutes of being in a public space with other people, whew! I don’t think I will be back there again until I feel safer, but at least they still had full precautions in place, so it was fairly low risk. I miss having places, and being able to freely enjoy them.
| # | THINGS MADE | THINGS FIXED | THINGS GONE |
| 1 | tiny tulips | more compost liners | yard waste bin |
| 2 | tiny crocus | mended gloves | recycle bin |
| 3 | yet moar tiny books | more apple pruning | – |
| 4 | – | tiny bucket handle | – |
| 5 | – | acquired 2021 tax forms | – |
| 6 | x | – | – |
| 7 | x | x | – |
| 8 | x | x | – |
| 9 | x | x | x |
| 10 | x | x | x |
| 11 | x | x | x |
| 12 | x | x | x |
| 13 | x | x | x |
| 14 | x | x | x |
| 15 | x | x | x |
today’s gratitude – The public library is still requiring everyone to be masked. And they had at least two enormous industrial HEPA filters going to help keep the air less dangerous. This made me feel less fraught about the necessary visit.
*back in 2008 I made a number of very tiny 3" tall "witch-girls" using the tutorials from Salley Mavor, this one had a very wee pennannular brooch:
