We’ve had a lot of rain, but no ice. However, my webhost is in Montreal and they were clobbered by a massive ice storm last week. Apparently everything at Crosswinds was in working order, but about 75% of the city was without power for a couple of days, including all the Crosswinds servers. As a result, I had no website for a couple of days and no e-mail.

I discovered this when I wanted to post here. Not to be deterred, I started my post on OpenLiveWriter. I think I got two paragraphs before I was interrupted or distracted. I don’t know what happened, but that’s gone now.

I don’t know what I’ve been doing for the past month. I seem to be always busy, but have little to show for it. I was sure I’d done more than one dot, but one is all I find (plus a different one I just started and haven’t finished).

I really enjoyed doing this one. This flannel is so soft. The picture makes it look huge, but it’s only 1½ inches in diameter. Normally I don’t much care for stitching with fuzzy thread, but my sister gave me a ball of this yarn. I like the colors, so I figured I’d use it. It’s Classic Elite Yarns Silky Alpaca Lace (70% baby alpaca, 30% silk) and it was lovely to work with. It doesn’t give a thread size, but it’s a wee bit smaller than perle 8.

The stitch is closed herringbone, inspired by Liz‘s stitching on her My Heart’s Compass quilt.

Spring!

It was (still is) raining so I didn’t go to the back yard. There might be a clearing in the sky tomorrow. If so, I’ll get out then. The bergenia has been blooming since February and is almost done. I don’t know when the camelia started to bloom, but the rain pounds the blooms enough to make them fall more quickly than sunny days.

My pear tree is in bud. It looks like we may have more than a couple of pears this year. Of course, that’ll also depend on weather and the bees. Also, the neighbor’s big, beautiful cedar is half covering my little pear tree. I’ll get pictures of that, too. Gosh! In another few years it’ll be touching our house if it keeps growing as it has since we moved here. Time to call the tree guy.

My crepe myrtle looks like it didn’t make it through winter, but my sister said to wait as hers isn’t budded yet either. I will wait, but hers may not have survived either.

I think I see buds on the lilacs. They normally bloom here mid-late April.

My lawn guys need a lesson in bush trimming. Actually, I’d prefer they ask me before cutting anything not lawn. Sometime between mid fall and bloom time they cut back my forsythia! The fairy roses need to be cut back and I’m glad they did those, but now I know why my forsythia never bloom. They also need to stop giving my weeping Chinese maple a bowl cut. It looks awful. Really, all these guys know is hedge trimming in round or square shapes and no regard for blooms. Natural shapes are so much lovelier.

Our lawn always turns brown in summer. I water flowers, bushes and trees, but not lawn. I have been considering a clover lawn. I’ve heard they stay green with less water. But every time I think about it, I picture the lawn guys pouring on the weed killer, since “perfect” lawns don’t have clover in them. I don’t want them using weed killers or chemical fertilizers, anyway. I think Iqbal told them that when he hired them. Better check.

Where does the time go?!?