Welcome to Second Winter!

March is such a cruel month... hopeful with sunshine, gentle temps and daffodils and then wham! Today we have 8 inches of snow. My six foot butterfly bushes are bent to the ground, Emma beagle is gleefully leaping and bounding through the backyard in snow to her belly and Wendy dog, along with the rest of us are quite disgruntled with the whole weather event.

Fortunately, the dogs had a lovely walk yesterday while my daughter and I chatted and laughed about the ridiculous predictions regarding this recent storm. Since we live in the capricious weather land of Missouri, we did make a quick run to the grocery, primarily for chocolate, cooked up a big pot of chicken and rice soup and started new knitting projects. We are consequently snug and content, albeit truly irritated that this snow prediction came true with a vengeance. Spring will obviously be waiting until April for us.

I had been in a bit of a knitting funk having completed the large shawl and a bunch of Christmas hats and mitts. The weather had been delightful, giving hope to gardening opportunities sooner, rather than what now looks like a lot later... I usually switch to smaller knitting projects for spring and summer such as mittens, socks and the occasional lace scarf, since I truly only enjoy knitting with wool. I have tried cotton fibers but miss the scent and springy hand of the wool yarns. Shopping my stash, I have pulled out some lovely Regia self-stripping sock yarn for a fun burst of purples, blues and gray colors making a new sturdy pair of warm socks. Val has been working on her first pair of socks for about a week, using the Patons Kroy sock yarn in gray brown marl. Her pair is coming right a long! And yes, I prefer #2 wood needles, she loves metal ones.

We are also considering cranking up the oven and attempting to bake some croissants with help from a Julia Child recipe. Since our mother/daughter Paris trip last year, there are quite a few weekends I simply crave a croissant and coffee. I know they will be difficult, but we do have the 1-1/2 cups of butter required on hand. Since we no longer have any other plans for today, why not? I will probably do another post a bit sooner than usual featuring the success or failure of the croissant crafting. Perhaps then the snow will be histoire?! Most likely not, but I can dream and probably will open a bottle of French wine as we bake a la Julia.