Waiting on Spring

Well this post has been moldering away in the 'under construction' section for too many days, so since I made the effort to load the pictures, I might as well finish.  

We have had a winter to remember, although most of us would rather forget it.  Snow started at the beginning of December, we had a few clear weeks, or days that added up to a few weeks, in the last three months, but to summarize, we have just had TOO MUCH snow.

Last Saturday, it felt very springlike.  We has some sun and puffy clouds and a breeze, and it wasn't particularly warm, but it felt like Spring.  I cleaned out two chicken coops, Larry did some pruning, it was a nice day to be outside.  I was on my own with Jake and Luna as we took our late afternoon/early evening walk, and I heard my first frog croak from one of the ditches. 

Ah Spring!

And then the next morning, Sunday. there was snow on the ground.  Some places not far from us got snow on Saturday as well, but not us, we were enjoying Spring!

It wasn't a lot of snow, and it mostly melted as the day went on, but it was enough to make everything wet, and it wasn't very warm of course, so not pleasant to be doing many things outside.

And guess what, we have woken up four more mornings. to snow on the ground, including this morning.

It's getting to be such a drag.  The weather forecast is now just for rain in the next week. Not sure if that is an improvement though.  So much clean up etc to do outside.  Then all of a sudden we really will be in Spring, and the weeds will be going wild and there won't be enough energy in a day to keep up.

What would we do if we didn't have the weather to complain about!

When we were in Oliver a couple of weeks ago, I did make a visit to their thrift store.  I got myself a pair of Sorel snow boots for $3, and this little book for 50 cents.  It's kind of fun to look through, although I'll probably never make any of the recipes.  This is the second edition from 1945, so it's 72 years old.

There were a couple of clippings in it, this one was dated from 1962 on the back.  I make a ginger pear jam almost exactly the same as that clipping.

The writing on this clipping makes me think of Larry's mother  and some of the recipes she had written on a scrap of paper.  She had lovely hand writing, a bit similar to this, but nicer.  Larry has nice hand writing too,  the best I've seen from any man, and much nicer than mine.  I usually try to get him to write in any cards we send.

I got a kick out of this chapter, all one page of it!

And this one, on the preparation of your poultry

Since it's not been nice weather to work outside in, I have managed to get a bit done in the sewing room.  These are baby bibs, made out of flannelette.  They are double layered and two sided, and mothers have told me they like them because they pull over the head and the babies can't get them off.

As requested by a reader, here are some of the aprons I make.  A simple design, some with pockets, some without.  These two have pockets.  The pocket is a bit hard to see on the top one, as with the bottom one, I was able to match the fabric exactly.  Always fun when I am able to do that, but most of  the time it doesn't work out that way.

The children's aprons are a smaller version of the adults, with no pocket, and fun, kid appealing patterns I hope.

And speaking of kids, my grand puppy is growing up!  32 lbs and just over 5 months old now.  He's a smart cookie, and I've been having fun teaching him a few tricks.  One of these days I'll video some of them.

He's been on a few Land Rover adventures already. No, he doesn't ride in the back, he travels safely in the cab, where he can puke on the seat.  Yes, unfortunately he gets a bit carsick, but does seem to be getting better.