Home again, again

A week of astonishing weather -- it must have frightened the Groundhog, because it's deteriorating now. Not only was the air temperature vernal, but the ground was unfrozen and more or less workable. I turned the first spadefuls of earth of 2005, and pulled up some noxious weeds. (Creeping buttercup is my worst enemy.) The joy of working in February is that it'll stay done for a while -- unlike May, when it all has to be done again the following week.

We had a jolly visit from Alexander and Ketki and their sons, but I didn't take any pictures. Thomas the Younger is nearly three months old, and at the most enchanting stage of babyhood, smiling and gurgling and joining fully in the conversation, but immobile. I made a good start on the grown-up striped Koigu I am knitting for daughter Rachel. The tedious initial ribbing, three inches,  is nearly finished -- a picture was taken of that, which will follow soon.

We hope to visit the Alexander Mileses at their new house in the west, later this month. I'll take pictures then.

Today's pictures are (a) snowdrops, on what we grandly call the West Lawn. We've got lots more, but these particular ones were put in by me last spring. (Snowdrops, unlike other bulbs, are best transplanted with their leaves when they are active.) I'm pleased with the result. We don't have any drifts of snowdrops, however, such as we saw everywhere by the roadside as we drove home yesterday. Maybe, in time.

And (b) my vegetable garden, as viewed from the house. The flowerpot-thing is there to force some rhubarb. I had hoped that the first shoots might be making some progress, in this mild winter, but there's no sign of them yet. More pictures of this happy scene will follow, insh'Allah, as the year unfolds.

I am free of the Knitlist, and, at the moment, not even reading it. So there's no excuse for not getting to grips with HTML and improving the Blog out of recognition. And bringing my poor neglected website up to date. Last year on Ash Wednesday (which looms again) I deleted Freecell from my computer. The time thereby free'd up vanished almost at once, and I fear the same thing will happen again.

The Fair Isle jacket is now virtually at the armpits. It looks, indeed, rather long -- I'll do some calculating today. A picture of that, too, will follow soon.