Ah, spring!

I love this time of year! R insists it's his least favorite, because one can never depend on the weather, and granted it is very changeable, but it's also gorgeous! We've had perfect weekends this entire month, sunny and upper 60s, perfect for being outdoors. Sure it can rain over an inch in a day during the week, but that just makes it all the more cozy to hole up in front of the wood stove and knit. Plus the beautiful flowers are beginning to bloom- who doesn't love soft blush-tipped white apple blossoms and lavender native iris, fuchsia salmonberry blooms and pink rhododendrons? Plus the wisteria (a recent transplant) and lilac are blooming simultaneously in our front yard for the first time!

Spring is also great because it brings my birthday! This year brought quite possibly the best birthday ever. It began on Wednesday when Eli drove down for a long weekend, bringing a photo scavenger hunt list with him. We met up with friends downtown and scavenged in 2 competing teams, having loads of fun on the way, and ended up at our favorite local cafe (Shark Bites) for happy hour. Then it continued on Friday, with R taking the day off to join Eli & I in idleness & a fun trip to Whiskey Run Beach. Eli got to fly his fun stunt kite (which the dogs hated, because it was like a giant attack bird), and we watched kite surfers do their thing. Then Friday night culminated in the best birthday party ever for me & birthday twin Dax- a pirate murder mystery party! We had 13 wonderful guests who all played parts and tried to achieve their goals, find the treasure, and figure out who killed the old captain. I must say I did very well, and my costume was fun! I'm most proud of R's though, since I made it from things we had laying around the house and $3 worth of stuff from JoAnn, and knitted the wig in less than a day.
And I actually got birthday presents, which was amazing and happy! (lots of yarn, yay!)

Saturday brought a mini road-trip, we drove up to Newport with Dax & his girlfriend. 3 of our awesome friends from Seattle met us there to visit for the weekend, and we all enjoyed excellent sushi, a visit to the Hatfield Marine Science Center, and Rogue beer. (You get 36 oz of free birthday beer if you are a member of Rogue nation!) Unfortunately they don't have any t-shirts my size that aren't totally boring, so R got my free birthday shirt. Then the free swag continued, as we hit the thai restaurant back in Coos Bay for my free birthday dinner. Yay!

Sunday was Anthony's birthday, so we felt privileged he chose to drive down & spend it with us. We hung out & played board games, and sadly Eli had to leave us to go back home, but then we made homemade pizzas for dinner & had a good, relaxing time drinking R's beer and just talking. I love those guys, I wish we got to see them more. They left Monday morning, R and I both took off work to make them a hearty breakfast for their 8 hour drive back home.

Since that weekend, I've done 2 fun hashes (one a Big Lebowski costumed hash during which we rant through the mall, the other running through the forest, along sea cliffs, & down several beaches on a truly gorgeous day). I've been teaching a lot, for good classes, but can't wait to go back to the parks. I've also joined a new knitting group of very awesome people, and gone out to dinner with 2 of my friends here, so things are going very well.

If you weren't one of the people lucky enough to come down for my birthday, you need to come visit soon! Happy spring!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a good Easter, ours was very mellow. R Dutch oven slow-cooked a leg of lamb (from out friend who runs the 4-H program here) and we had asparagus & roast garlic/rosemary potatoes. Most of the day was spent inside by the woodstove relaxing, with a few hurried trips outside to get things planted.

Our garden is in a transition stage, with the cold weather plants begun. R built a cold frame out of an old window from the Habitat for Humanity center, but strangely the seedlings in it don't seem to be doing as well as the seedlings outside of it. It's also weird to have to water the garden every day when it is pouring down rain.

We've had some lovely weather (I even got sunburned one day because I didn't believe it was possible this early in the year at this latitude), but now we're in to the spring storms- rain, hail, thunder & lightning, with interludes of sunshine. This is perfect knitting weather, though I feel like I'm not getting much done. I hope to be finished with my Vivian (highly cabled hooded cardigan) by my birthday, but we'll see if it can be done in 5 days. I'm up to the armpits with both arms connected, so I've got the longest rows of the whole project ahead of me, then the shoulders and hood. After that I'm doing a vest, a quick project to get me back on track!I need to finish my Luna Dress as well, but I think it will require machine sewing the sides to make the dress smaller before I can do the sleeves & turtleneck.

I actually sewed yesterday though, did a square (aka tablecloth) skirt out of black fabric with skulls & rose vines on it for my pirate costume. It will go with the brown felted pirate hat I knit.

I guess I don't have much news now, winter and early spring are always pretty slow. I'm excited for my birthday though, and Eli is coming to visit!