Knitting Again - and dancing too.

A wonderful thing happened when I snuck out of set dance on Saturday at lunchtime - I went to LK Yarns in the Hydrostone and they had the Balmoral yarn I'd used for K's hat and mittens - and they had it in the purple I used! Glory! So I finished off her mittens. The missing one can show up now if it wants to. The mittens and hat turned out to be useful, as it snowed! in Halifax on Saturday night, so we got up on Easter Sunday to a snow-covered world.
   We went to Sage (Saege, if I knew how to make a dipthong) for Easter Brunch and it was lovely! One of those all-you-care-to-eat things with literally everything you would ever want to try.  The only bad thing I had was a slice of ham that was a bit grisle-y. I had a egg Benedict and skipped the English muffin on the bottom to save room for more interesting things, and I must say that the hollandaise sauce was something I really didn't enjoy. It's amazing that they can do them and hold them at just the right consistency. The egg was perfect. There was also lot of fresh fruit and a really nice bread with apples inside and mini Easter eggs on top, which I had twice. Delicious.
    But there was salmon - smoked and baked - leg of lamb, a veggie pasta - luckily Katie eats fish so she was fine. And the dessert buffet was grand too - I had a slice of lemon cake and some homemade gelato - vanilla and raspberry. Delicious! We may need to try making this at home.
By the time we were finished eating, the sidewalks were clear of snow and by the end of the day it was mostly gone. We found a bit of blowing snow on the Cobequid Pass but after that there was a lot more snow on the ground but none in the air, thankfully. There was quite a bit on the Island, though!
    The new car - we are calling her Brigid - has cruise control, and that made the drive much more enjoyable. It's amazing how much work is involved, accelerating and decelerating all the time. It's meant to be good for mileage too. I found it a bit stressful on the divided highway, if you got up behind someone going slowly and the passing lane was occupied. And left-hand descending turns (especially in the hills) were a bit white-knuckle - I must usually slow down going into them, because my brain was saying "too fast! too fast!" all the time. But I learned to hang grimly on and I was fine.
    We were 12 Islanders at the event, and I think it would have been a pretty small gathering if we hadn't been there! Of course the locals can drop in and out as other priorities take over, while we are all there to go to the event exclusively. Pat is talking to Elizabeth about coming at another time of year - possibly the Labour Day weekend, as he is free for the first couple of weeks of September, and then he could tour around in some better weather than most Easters in the Maritimes can provide. It sounds like a good idea, as we never have anything special to do then. We will have to come up with something else to do at Easter! Now that Pat is retired, he doesn't have the Easter holiday to save up, and I am sure he could spend time with his family too! He may be thinking that there will be more people around then as well. I wonder if they are thinking of starting this year?

Easter in Halifax again

We're off with quite a big group of our set dancers to see Pat Murphy in Halifax http://www.setdancingns.com/easterweekend.htm for the Easter weekend. I must remember to google Pat and see if we can guess which dances are "hot" at the workshops he's given recently - I promised I would do that in time for class tonight.
I was quite right about the plants in the cold frame - dead as door-nails. Ah, well -plenty of time to start again. I bought Burpee seeds for peppers yesterday - two kinds of hot (Jalapeno and mixed) and sweet, mixed colours. I hope *they* survive.
I've begun to fix up the greenhouse again - bought two pieces of conduit to replace the broken one and the one that's bent the worst - and I have strapping to brace them more thoroughly this time. I may be back in the greenhouse business again! But the weather is *not* conducive to being out - we are having the "March" winds in April this year - the horrible cold northerly ones that keep the temperature just above freezing. Brrr.  It's not fit to be out!
In the bathroom I have finished the seam-filling in the closet and put up the shelf supports - carefully measured and level as I can make them. I bought the 1x3 oak to make the frame for the doors, and decided to build it into a face frame - cutting carefully first and then drilling and screwing it together before fastening it to the shelf supports and the shelves. This should take care of the problem of there being nothing to nail the frame to at the top. I think the table in the garage will be big enough to assemble and screw it together - I could even glue it! I'm just paranoid that I'll make it and it won't fit ;-(.
But I'll go slowly and carefully and perhaps the worst won't happen!!

Easter in Halifax!

Just back from Easter with Pat Murphy in Halifax - what a wonderful time! Great dancing and a bit of knitting - I worked a bit on my Tokena socks from SM III but didn't manage to finish - when I got home and could check the web there were 18 finished in my division, and 20 by the morning. Had I been TRULY dedicated, I would have sat up all night finishing, but I was very tired after dancing all weekend. I knit quite successfully in the car on the way over, and on the way home, at least until it got too dark to follow the pattern any more.

We had snow again on the journey. It started at the Cobequid Pass as before. I'm beginning to think that snow will not be out of the question for June - perhaps even July this year! And the ground was covered this morning again. However, from the glimpse I had last night, it looked as though some of the last January stuff had gone over the weekend. It's chilly all week, however, according to prognostications.

The dancing and socializing was grand! We learned a new set called The Boyne set, as well as a couple of others, including one from Inis Oirr. We bought the new book (Apples in Winter) so I am sure that they are in there, and I could look up the names if I had the time. Painting is calling to me - I have to paint K's bedroom. I started before Christmas but got distracted by painting the living room.

While in Halifax, H. and I had a flying visit to LK Yarns - I got some Fleece Artist sock yarn, as well as some Sisu ( recommended by Colleen at the dance workshop, she was making some lovely picot-edged socks in mauve). Fondled lots of other stuff. Forgot to ask about the First Book of Modern Lace Knitting, which I've been seeking. Oh well, I got the owner's card, so I could email her and ask about it. The library has the second one, and I've reserved it. I got a note that it's in, so I must go pick it up. The First has a GORGEOUS lace curtain pattern that I must make. It's very Arts & Crafts - looking, and is called the Rose Leaf design.

Off to get into grubbies and assemble the painting kit! Who cares if it's not gardening weather yet!