Another week flies by

I'm up to 21 squares completed on the counterpane. With the advent of two test knits, a forthcoming traveling project, and travel to Dallas just around the corner, that number may not go up much for a while.  Happily, so long as I knit 3 more squares this year, I've met my goal for the year.

Filia had an outpatient procedure with anesthesia done on Friday.  I took the counterpane along as my project to work on in the waiting room. I've learned that I get very little done in pre-op, and nothing in post-op, so my plan was to start seaming squares.  I did, and also managed to get red popsicle drippings on the counterpane in post-op.  Argh.  At least it's white, and there are such things as bleach pens. 

Spring is around the corner (but snow is in the forecast for tonight)/  I've got little Jiffy Pellet Pots sitting on top of the pellet stove (how appropriate!) with parsley, thyme, tomato, and pepper seeds.  The peppers will take their sweet time in sprouting, but everything else has jumped above-ground.  The parsley was helped by hanging out in a damp paper towel for a week or two before I put it in the ground.  My new garden plant for the year is going to be the humble Turnip.  And Vir discovered that the Calendula I planted last year, and dried petals from, is also called a Marigold, and that he has been buying pills that contain calendula extract .... so I think the bunnies and Vir are going to be competing to eat the flowers this year.  Vir reaches over the fences better.

The end of last week saw as many editing hours as I could squeeze in, and this morning had even more edits calling for my attention.  I think I'm done for a while, until summer comes and it's time to switch hats and start editing curriculum.  Time will tell.

Progress on Vanity Fair is going slowly.  Now that I've two test knits, I expect it will pick up, once I can wrest myself away from the computer and spend some time with them.  With the warmer weather, walks will also be competing for my attention.  I think I saw two Pileated Woodpeckers on yesterday's walk!  Canis loves walks, but his back legs don't always like walking (or holding him up, for that matter).  I'm hoping a wee bit that regular exercise will help, but the truth is he's getting to be an old dog with some neurodegenerative stuff going on, and exercise doesn't reverse the clock.  It sure gives him lots of good smells to check out, though!

The tea kettle is again shedding nice thick flakes of hard water, making it 6 weeks for things to build up to the proper 'shedding' thickness.  One flake this afternoon was shaped rather like Australia -- 3" across by 1.5" tall, until I dropped it in the sink and it cracked, making Queensland, NWS, and Victoria their own island.