Uncovered

 

We've been out in the back planting trees for the past two days but the front yard also needed attention. All the winter debris was choking all the little things trying to pop up. 

I spent quite a long time on my hands and knees in the mud pulling weeds, cutting vines and raking off leaves. There's a lot coming up already.

It looks like the Black-Eyed Susan I transplanted might have survived the brutal winter we had. 

My poor camellias suffered terribly. Look at those frost bitten buds. So sad. 

I'm hoping my continuous blooming azalea will come back to life. It's pretty miserable looking right now as are so many of my other smaller bushes. Right now it's in the 70's. I've even got the windows open so I'm hoping a good warm up might save some of them. What I'm really hoping is that we don't go from that harsh winter to a ridiculously hot, dry summer again. That would just be too cruel. 

Grounded

 

We spent all yesterday out in the woods planting trees. My four baby loblollys are in the ground. We'll be planting the two magnolias today since we ran out of steam after digging those four holes and dragging bags of top soil and garden hoses all over the place.

I read on the Colorado Department of Agriculture page that they protect their young pines by stapling copy paper protectors around the top. They employ lots of volunteers every year to do this out in their forests. The idea is that the deer will eat the bottom branches but leave the covered ones alone and as long as the tops are intact the trees will live. We'll see. Just as we were finishing up, one of the biggest herds of young deer I've ever seen here made its way across the creek and through the woods. I hope they weren't looking for a snack. 

I was so tired that no crafty things were happening here for the rest of the day but I did want to share this starter cozy my sister made for her sourdough starter that she calls Louisa. It's a very deep rabbit hole, people and it doesn't seem to have a bottom. 

Planting Day

 

It didn't take long for Fast growing trees.com to get my new babies here. As I mentioned before, the city is going to fine the heck out of us if we don't get 24 trees planted in the next few weeks. This is just the start. 

This online company has decent prices and a big selection so I wanted to give them a try since I really don't want to be running from nursery to nursery looking for what I want. I was very pleased with the loblollies. We've got four of these and they arrived in perfect condition.

The magnolias, not so much. The box was bent and they were both broken off which was disappointing. They should be fine but no matter what they are going in the ground to tick off two more boxes on that long list of trees that must be planted. 

Friday Fluff: Something New

 

I tried but I couldn't do it. Leave the Ladybug without a project, that is. I went digging in the nearly depleted fiber stash and came up with this superwash Merino/Tencel blend.

The gradient purple is lovely but....it's shiny. Really shiny. I'm not a fan but that's not going to stop me from working with it. I'll adjust. 

I retired two more stitch markers this week from the handspun Pi Shawl. The markers that count off 20 stitch sections were a very good idea because I no longer feel like I'm getting nowhere. I can see progress now. It's all mind games with this stuff, isn't it? 

In The Kitchen with Betty

 

I've made bagels with Zombie Betty but never made bread before so I thought it might be time to give it a try. Zombie Betty is kept in the refrigerator in a kind of suspended animation. You take her out when you need to bake and feed her. That brings her back to life in a few hours and she's ready to be used.

My usual recipe made an unbelievably sticky dough. I fought with her all day. She shaped up a bit during her overnight proofing in the refrigerator. At least she didn't immediately deflate when I transferred her into the oven. Her oven spring was decent and I noticed she had a smoother crust than the other Betty's. 

Her insides-technically known as her crumb were...okay. Nothing to brag about. I'm still looking for those elusive big air holes you get when everything goes right. She tasted fine, not too sour. She joined all the other Bettys in the freezer which is overflowing with sourdough experiments at the moment. 

When you feed your starter you have to throw away at least half of that was in the jar to give it a fresh start. Sometimes  I toss the discard and sometimes I keep it if I have a baking project in mind. I thought I'd make waffles so I've been saving the discard for a few days. When I woke up yesterday morning my formerly half filled discard jar had come alive and overflowed all over the refrigerator shelf. What a mess that was to clean up. It was a sign that waffles needed to be made asap and they were. Lots of them. Blueberry Pumpkin with unsweetened applesauce, oatmeal, wheat germ and wheat bran. They are not exactly yummy but they are good for you.

Wednesday WIP: Sockapalooza

 

Regia

Done.

Static

Done.

Arne and Carlos Socks and More

And cast on.

I don't know what I was thinking with the dark yarn. I nearly lost my mind casting it on in the gloom. They went right into the travel knitting bag. I might be able to see what I'm doing with them in the daylight. The verdict is still out on how much I like this yarn. It reminds me more of Knit Picks sock yarn than Regia and I really like Regia. It's soft and a tiny bit splitty but I suppose if you like your socks on the limp side this yarn's for you. 

TNT: A Return Visit

 

The Swedish Folk Sampler is done for the year. I'm quite impressed at how much I got done in just a few weeks. This usually simmers on the back burner for most of February.

Taking its place is this old chestnut. I've been working on this for years and I think I'm finally going to get serious about getting it finished. I'll give it until Halloween and then all bets are off. 

This is the main reason for its languishing. Have you ever seen a more ridiculous amount of floss for one project? It makes me crazy.

The other tiny needle is working on the next block of the Patchwork quilt. I think this is number six.

Dear Jane has decided to do a bit of fussy cutting with the E6 block. She did it with stripes and it was easier than I thought. It kept my brain and hands busy for the morning because....

...I'm always a wreck when the tree people show up. We never actually finished the job we started because of holidays, babysitting and bad weather. We had five trees out front that needed to go so Pup and I holed up in the sewing room with very loud music while the work was being done.

Out back we had stump grinding going on. The city is breathing down our necks to get the 24 replacement trees planted and we needed some of the stumps out of the way before we could get started. I've got some loblollies and some magnolias on the way and want to order some maples and river birch. 

The work trucks had just packed up and left when it started snowing. That was a surprise. It won't last long. It will be almost 50 today so I enjoyed every bit of it coming down.