Things are coming up!

Yesterday and last night we had a lot of rain and wind with quite warm temperatures, and this morning I saw parts of the garden which have been under snow since December. I was quite shocked to see the snowfall numbers the other day on the Weather Network - they say that accumulations were slightly less than the average (so far). It certainly seemed like more. But I think the key was that it NEVER melted, new snow just piled up on old snow all winter long. But now it is almost all gone, and there are crocus and daffodils peeking up. If it gets warm enough this weekend, I want to spend some time outdoors - I have shrubs which have been beaten down and even broken, that must be dealt with. Part of the trouble is that I never did mulch the roses, for instance, because by the time it should have been done the ground was covered with snow - and it stayed covered! So my pink potentilla is looking sadly flattened, and the spirea in the bed by the driveway is quite battered too. And those are only the ones I can easily see.
On the knitting front I have finished the Zetor shawl - I was worried about running out of yarn so I knit on anxiously, and finally cast off last night with 3.5 grams of yarn left - about 25 metres. Phew! It's not yet blocked in the photo above - it will be larger and the pattern will be better-defined after that happens, probably on the weekend. We have dance tonight, and I have a meeting tomorrow night, so it will have to wait.
Because the next round of Sock Madness hasn't begun yet, I'm trying to pull out old projects and finish them, even though for me the best part of knitting is starting something new. How shallow I am! Anyway, I dug out my bamboo Clapotis, started back in January with yarn I bought in Glasgow (part of the sentimental souvenir series), and I'm finding it pretty easy after fighting with mohair for two weeks. The bamboo is quite slippery, and I have it on Knit Picks interchangeable metal needles, so I might switch to wood if I have the same size. Or, because it is so narrow, I might even dig out some bamboo straights. Many say that bamboo with bamboo is a good combo.

Winter still

So, today we are having wet snow flurries and quite a bit of wind - Fred thinks we can walk outdoors but I am not so certain. I'll have to bundle up *very* well.
Our Mac is back from the shop, with a less-than-ringing endorsement from the fixer. He's not too pleased about how slowly the hard drive is responding - but he re-loaded the OS and the programs, and we'll see how well we do. Fingers crossed. He said to back up daily, so the Time Machine is grinding away as I type.
My Sock Madness team, Minnow, still hasn't reached the cutoff number of 37, so no new pattern until they do. I'm getting lots of other knitting done in the meantime. Finished another pair of Stretch Socks, this time a pattern called Take Five, and now I'm making progress on the Zetor shawl I'm making out of Fleece Artist mohair called "Angel Hair". It *is* a lot like knitting with hair, I suppose - at least, there are plenty of fluffy bits and you can easily knit one of those, rather than the actual teeny tiny core yarn. I've managed to catch all slips so far, but constant vigilance is the watchword. I didn't weigh the ball before I started, but Ravelry seems to indicate that it was 50 grams to begin with. It's down to 30 now, so I'm less than halfway - though of course as with all shawls, it gets bigger and bigger as it goes along, so I'm keeping my scale handy and checking the weight after every chart repeat.
I bought seeds for ground cherries at Vesey's, and I checked today and they are up! And I will have a great crop of cilantro if all goes according to plan. It's almost time to start some tomato plants, I'm thinking. I may have to prick out the cilantro in order to have a flat to start them in. My F1 hybrid strawberries continue very tiny, but they are at least now putting out some true strawberry leaves - so cute!
So, it's officially a year since we arrived in Ireland for our visit. Now that the Mac is back I want to get out the photos and look at them - and re-live the trip!