firesplace

The bad: Had to wash the car and take pics of a scratch that seems to have happened while the valets at the Portland hotel had charge of my precious car. Been in touch with the hotel, we're starting the paperwork. Bleahhhhhhh.
The good: Since I was out in the front yard with the camera anyway, I got some quick snaps of the lovely flowers we've got blooming here...plus a brand-new dragon statue! I've wanted a good garden-dragon for a while. =)

Click for full-size pics:

	Columbine
	Columbine 2
	Columbine 3
	Dahlia
	Dragon Statue

	Graffiti "I LOVE YOU >= BOOKS That's a pretty fucking big deal." A side note added, "Hell yes it is!"
	Best Shop Manual Ever I was SORELY tempted to pick this one up...
	The Haul! Five sf/fantasy novels, three pop science books, and a book on the Watson computer for Kiefer. =)

After getting snow just the other morning, yesterday finally turned into a warm and dry day - perfect for starting the garden. My boss generously had me head home after a mid-day meeting so I could skip traffic finish work from home.
When I was finally done a bit before 6, there was still enough daylight left for me to get some serious work done in the garden.
I got one bed turned and planted all of our onion sets, shallots, and garlic. There's a lot more work to do out there, but it feels good to at least have a start.

Have some spring pics!

	Wednesday Sunset View from my art studio window. We get the best sunsets here sometimes!
	First Bee First bee I've seen this season, happily running through our white heather.
	Purple Crocus First sign of spring! Love the way this photo turned out, too.
	Purple and White Crocus All the rest are yellow or purple, so this fellow stands out in the front yard

Yep, we got snow. Then we got sleet. Then an inch of freezing rain. More sleet. And then another couple inches of snow, for good measure. And now? Freezing rain again.

Trees here, which were already drooping mightily from all the wet snow, are being overwhelmed by the heavy ice. We've been listening to them crack and fall all day now, and you hear another branch go at least every 5mins or so. The 'CRACK-snap-WHOOSH' sound of the limb letting go and the resulting cascade of snow and ice has become super familiar.

Several branches have hit the house, tho we haven't found any real damage from it. The worst was this morning, around 6:30. The power was out, so I was standing in the dark kitchen with just a candle as I heated water on the (gas) stove to use for washing the cat dishes. A branch broke off, hit the roof, and dislodged all the snow and ice over the skylight. The noise was tremendous - imagine if someone threw a big stick into a china shop and broke everything all at once. It's a little startling, especially that early in the morning. ;)

The power's been out off and on since yesterday evening, tho the crews have obviously been working like mad to restore it. Frankly, I'm amazed they're bothering at all, when the constant falling trees are so likely to take it out once more. But I'm super grateful for the hours of heat we've had, especially as we rushed to take hot showers when it was back on this afternoon, and just finished before the lights flicked off again. XD

We checked in with our neighbors earlier and everyone seems fine. Friends and family are doing good too, I'm just worried about one up in Duvall who had been without power since yesterday - gonna try and get a hold of him again tonight and see what's up.

Anyway, on to the pics!

	Front Lawn Before the ice - all the lovely, fluffy snow!
	Overburdened Tree Poor thing, I hope it perks back up when everything thaws!
	Snow Then Ice Branches of the lilac tree by the front window in the snow yesterday...and then the ice late this morning.
	Icy Branches 1
	Icy Branches 2 Our grapevines...Is this where they get ice wine? ;)
	Icy Branches 3 The lilac tree this afternoon, after the snow resumed. Look how much thicker the ice is!
	Icy Branches 4
	Icy Branches 5 Each ice-covered branch has a hundred little icicles on it.
	Icy Branches With Flash It's a lousy photo, but I wanted to see what it looked like if you hit all that ice up with the camera's flash. Kinda cool!
	Ice Detail The top of a tree in our front yard
	Rhodiesicle One of the rhododendrons, which I'd cleared of heavy snow the night before. I love the way the ice has neatly coated the bud as well as every inch of every leaf.

The sunset here was just gorgeous the other day. Here's a couple pics taken right from my home office window.

	Northwest Sunset 1
	Northwest Sunset 2

	Red Stripe Scarf Alternating rows of yarn in contrasting gradients. Both the red and the tan shade from brighter ro grayer, and having them next to each other really brings out the red!
	Red Stripe Scarf 2 Ferns are doing well in our yard this year!
	Red Stripe Scarf 3 Topiary bushes make pretty good models.

	Collaboration Yarn Grey alpaca drop-spindled by me, white Falkland wool wheel-spun and plied by Kiefer!
	Kiefer's Blue Plied Alpaca I got Kiefer a lovely little braid of blue and gray alpaca off of Etsy the other day, and he said it was a lot of fun to spin up.
	Kiefer's First 3-Ply Two strands of blue alpaca, one of white Falkland
	Alpaca 2-Ply
	Alpaca 3-Ply
	Alpaca 3-Ply Again
	Kiefer's Wool Blends BFL and Falkland
	Kiefer's Wool Blend 2

Yesterday afternoon was full of lovely sunshine. I got a few pics of kitties being cute in the warm light!

	Darcy Eyes
	Pet me!
	Little Darcy Pic
	The Most Perfect Pink Nose
	Serious Trevor
	Black Cats Turn Brown In Sunlight

Zen Master Nicholas

After several little test bits of yarn, Kiefer's starting to get the hang of spinning on his new wheel. He's improving FAST - I'm highly impressed!

He finally got enough yarn ready to try plying* it. It came out GORGEOUS. I love it, and took it into the garden tonight to get some pics.

	Kiefer's First Plied Yarn Strands of two different undyed sheep wool make one pretty, stripey yarn!
	Beginning of a Cowl Since we don't have much of this yarn, we're keeping it simple - I'm going to knit up a little K2P2 cowl for Kiefer to wear this fall. How cool is it to be ble to go from cleaned fiber to an actual piece of clothing??
	Yarn Detail Apparently all new handspinners start out with somewhat uneven yarn, learn how to control that and produce smooth yarn....and then spend the rest of their spinning careers figuring out how to spin lumpy again so they can produce novelty yarn.

*For those who have not yet succumbed to a yarn addiction yet, the vast majority of yarn is plied. Two or more strangs of yarn are twisted against each other to form a thicker and stronger yarn. Single-ply yarn is used in some knitting, but it's pretty unusual. So learning to ply yarn is a big step in making a genuinely usable material.