knitting and gardens and baby chicks oh my...

yep, it is time for colliding interests here at the ranch. I have ordered the baby chicks which means the man must hurry and fix the wooden boat and get it painted so we can get the workshop ready to take them. Everything else is ready enough for their arrival. They'll be in the house for probably 8 weeks before they have enough feathering to stand the spring temperatures. So soon!

It is time to think of getting all the garden seedlings started - the tomatoes, and basil and oh if only I could grow bocconcini then I'd the mixings for a great summer salad but alas alack the man puts his big ole foot down when it comes to getting goats. damn.

Both baby chicks and seed trays involve a fair amount of uhmmmm....dirt and confusion in the house. And we are putting the house on the market so kind of crazy but I do not wish to stop my life. If we sell the house quickly - I'll put the seedlings in up the hill at the old house.

Just the thought of getting the house ready to sell is enough to make me unbelievably anxious. And please understand that although some of that anxiety is about losing this wonderful place - it is a very small part. I'm good with moving out of here and camping in the old spot for a couple of years before selling it and building a small perfectly great home near the water (and with a big enough FLAT bit for garden and chickens). Really.

It is more the thought of people coming in to look at the place and wrinkling their noses in the hopes that you then lower the price. But then...if we have an agent we'll only have to put up with their nose wrinkling and I am ready for that. We don't HAVE to sell the house and it is a good time to sell a reasonably gorgeous place with a very low heating bill. Yep.

And then there is the knitting.
Usually I'm starting to be done thinking about knitting by now but this year I'm barely getting going. I've taken up teaching myself how to make knit lace and it is way fun if far too picky to just knit and watch tv at the same time. I found a pattern in the book knitting little luxuries by Louisa Harding that is excellent. It's called the Juliet scarf and it is way gorgeous.

As well, I have about ...hmmmm....24 rectangles that I knit last year in a multitude of colours and only using the knit stitch but on double pointed needles so I got some interesting ribbing etc... I started knitting this during the winter olympics that were in Vancouver so A LONG TIME AGO. They were part of an effort for the knit olympics that the Yarn Harlot hosts. I was going to yarn bomb maple trees but frankly - they just look too good to wrap around trees that were going to get all wet and snowy and then rainy and muddy and on and on. So I didn't. Now I'm crocheting dark (black or plum) edges on them and crocheting them together to make a weird and wondrous afghan. But I'm only just begun and like the chicks and the seed trays it is messy business.

Am I mad with this? Completely barking mad?
And not to put too fine a point on it but there is more. I'm just finishing the next to last polish on TWO novels and will then have to write query letters and synopsises with them that are in fact harder than writing the damn novels in the first place and then find possible likely agents and or publishers and start that all up. Not messy entirely but vexing in its own way.
And I do work and I'm sitting every day and trying to swim three times at least a week and walk the dog and then there is WORK - you know, that I get paid for or not if I don't drum up a bit more there too.
And I like to hang with the guy and go to the market with the gal and see the grand-kids and tomorrow I'm going to the simulcast of the Met. Opera. And a dinner on Sunday for a dear pal turning 60 and photos to figure out and oh...
Bye for now...
Just thought I'd catch you all up.
Because...