A gush of bird-song, a patter of dew, A cloud, and a rainbow’s warning, Suddenly sunshine and perfect blue– An April day in the morning. ― Harriet Prescott Spofford
Oh, April! You were so amazing and full of so many good things: Blue skies, bird-song, bountiful blooms, and even a birthday!
It was a month with the perfect mix of rain and sun. My garden spent the month waking and growing, and blooming! The forsythia provided a riot of yellow flowers, and the lilac seems to have settled in well and was full of blooms! Why, even the “free” Hyacinth had a bloom this year! However, your ending in Michigan was the best!
May brings another finished object… err, make that a pair of finished objects! I caught the obsession with knitting bunnies earlier last month and obsessively knit I did! Susan Anderson’s patterns are wonderfully written – and her method of knitting a bunny is genius.
My mods: Due to leftover yarn amounts, the boy bunny has a slightly shorter shirt because I wanted him to have long sleeves. This worked well because the girl bunny appears to have a slightly longer “frock” however, I only had enough yarn for her to have “short sleeves” which I think worked just fine. I also made much larger tails for each bunny. An aspect I loved (as did Genevieve!!) – Big pompoms FTW!
The bunnies are perfect for using up odds and ends of yarn. The directions are super clear and not at all fiddly! My advice… make some bunnies! SOON!
Vacation knitting has consisted of a sock. I have not even picked up Marsa Alam – although I brought it along.
Vacation reading has also been a bit in the slow lane. I managed to finish A Ladder to the Sky before we left. I am at the point where I want to read all the John Boyne novels available. Yes, they are that good. Better, even! Like The Heart’s Invisible Furries this was a book that I could not stop listening to. Boyne somehow makes me want to listen despite the fact that my dislike for the main character (Maurice Swift) is off the charts. And, the ending… perfect, brilliant, and so fitting. 5-stars and if you have read no John Boyne I highly recommend him!
That is all I have for this week, and as always – if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below!
I am joining with Julianne today and touching base with my word.
You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. – C.S. Lewis
As the fourth month of focus draws to a close, I think I am ready to share some of the frustrations that I have felt with myself as I have explored being more focused.
Honestly, I should have done this word years ago – perhaps decades ago even! All sorts of things have been running through my brain about where I might be today if I had been more focused so long ago. There have been some extremely unpleasant (and highly critical) conversations with myself and lots of “what if’s” have filled my brain and I was spending a good bit of time dwelling on the “would of” rather than letting it go and refocusing on the now and, more importantly, the future.
And then I stumbled upon that quote from C.S. Lewis and a light bulb went off in my brain.
Despite how much I want to I can’t go back and change anything. Beating myself up for my lack of focus does no good but changing my focus today can make all the difference in the world. I have now been gently reminding myself that my start back in January has been very productive and I have learned so much!
This is a year long process of honing my focus – not a miraculous overnight change – and the purpose of this year with this word is to change the ending not the beginning!
The morning greeted me with gentle spring rains and the sounds and smells are wonderful. On Sherman’s very short walk this morning I thought about how much I love the quiet beauty that spring brings – a mix of warm and cool days, more sunshine, and yes – even days of rain are welcome! Overnight more things have begun to green up, it is truly a feast for my eyes. And, I think the birds are as happy as I am about the rain today. In the back yard this morning the robins were busy cocking their heads to listen and finding success over and over and over.
And, this year is the first year that I could cut some blooms from my lilac. They are a treat for my eyes and my nose!
I am taking a bit of a break for the next two weeks and am unsure how much I will be posting, but there will absolutely be Unraveled Wednesday posts. I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and that your weekend is full of the beauty that is spring.
I am joining with Carole and friends to share some things that sparked joy in my week this week! (And yes, I am totally borrowing this idea from Carole!)
Thing One:
My choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus on Sunday was the most joyful thing I did all day. (More joy, the pianist is a freshman in high school) Also, I am in the back row on the left side of the video as you look at it – you do occasionally get a glimpse of me – yes, I sing tenor! There are grandparents singing with their grandchildren, mothers and daughters, and our oldest member is 94 years young – it is the most joyful group of people I know and the joy of singing with them has overflowed to fill much of my week.
Thing Two:
This new video of Pittsburgh is so full of joy! I love living in such a welcoming city.
Thing Three:
Finally, this was in my feedly last week and I thought this could be fun and I would learn so much. But with the busyness of Easter I kind of forgot about it until Tuesday night when I mentioned it at knitting. And, the two knitters who are also quilters also thought that could be fun! The three of us are going to spend the summer working on the Summer Sampler together and that fills me with unbelievable joy. (And, if you want to jump on the Sampler Bandwagon – I would love your companionship!)
Post Easter unraveling means April is waning and I am eager for May! I did not do too much knitting over the weekend, but I did fix the problem in my donation shawl! I am back on track and even making some progress! I have 6 repeats done with about 12-ish more to go but it is not due until the end of June and it will be long done by then.
And Marsa Alam… I have reached the ribbing!! But, holy cow! Those last 3 or so inches seemed to take forever! I expect the body will be done sometime today. I think I will tackle the button bands and the neck band before I begin the sleeves as I am having a bit of a debate with myself on knitting them flat versus knitting them in the round.
After a very long wait, Circe finally was available for me! I enjoyed it however, I don’t think it lived up to the hype or the wait. I did enjoy it but I was hoping for more. I listened to it, and the narrator, Perdita Weeks, was wonderful! 3-stars.
After the Fire – book two of the Fredrik Werlin series. As with Italian Shoes, the writing is really wonderful. Werlin has a bit of a mystery going on – he wakes in the night to find his house on fire. He makes it out alive, but everything in the house is a loss. The story progresses as he figures out how to rebuild – and not just his house. The ending is so poignant and it makes me think that Mankell might have had one more story about dear Fredrik. I highly recommend this book and it got 5-stars.
As I read this post yesterday, I was struck by how much it reminded me of A Place in the Woods, which had been sitting on my bedside table for over a month! I finally picked it up Sunday afternoon and finished it on Monday – It was the perfect book to finish on Earth Day. But, oh boy – while I deeply loved this story I am not about to head off to the wilds of Northern Minnesota. The honesty with which this book is written makes you realize just how hard life without amenities is. The writing is beautiful. 4-stars and I highly recommend. Also, the blog post linked above is 5-stars and I urge you to go read it now!
That is all I have for this week, and as always – if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below!
You are invited to leave your Unraveled Wednesday link
This was the first thing I saw yesterday morning when I out with Sherman in the wee, dark hours. The view stopped me in my tracks and filled me with such wonder. That glowing dogwood will fill my thoughts for many days to come!
I hope that you found things over the weekend that filled you with wonder too!
It’s a holiday weekend and Steve has the day off. I thought today would be the perfect day to share our brief but spectacular bush (Maybe Bridal Veil? I am not sure what it is.) Anyways, it blooms and is over before you can really even appreciate it, sort of like weekends are occasionally!
If you celebrate Easter or Passover – have a wonderful weekend and I will see you all back here next week!
I wept with the world at the tragedy that happened to Notre Dame on Monday. I had been thinking and thinking about what poem I might post for today, and I wondered if there were any poems written to that magnificent cathedral.
There are!
I considered this poem on Monday night. But, the loss of the stained glass – especially that glorious rose window – made Kerrie O’Brien’s words almost painful to read.
Greetings Unravelers! The weather here has been decidedly fickle and we went from warm, breezy days to freezing rains mixed with a sprinkling of snow and back to warm breezy days. It was a great reminder that it is not quite time to put away the woolens. I was thankful to have a warm woolly sweater on Monday because I really did not want to turn the furnace on again – but I lost that battle in the early afternoon, despite my sweater. Thankfully the windows were back open on Tuesday with no need for woolens!
The weather has afforded me some nice bits of knitting time though and I am making good progress on Marsa Alam! Yes, I have been monogamously knitting away on it and am just over the half way point of the body. I should be working on my donation shawl, but I have a mistake and I need to do a bit of ripping back to get it on track and so I have been avoiding it.
The reading this week was really good!
My Sister, the Serial Killer finally came through from the library and it was a quick listen! It is a curious story and the book pulls you in from the beginning and keeps your attention as it draws you into this dark, yet at times humorous story. I enjoyed it and gave it 4-stars.
I was really in need of something on my Kindle to read at night and Henning Mankell came to the rescue with Italian Shoes. How is it possible that this is my first Mankell read?? The writing is wonderful and the unconventional story unfolds in a most lovely way. I fell in love with Fredrik Werlin despite himself, his self-deprecating humor is brilliant, ” I keep a diary of a life that has lost its way.” The story tells about how Fredrik begins to make amends for his lost life, and eventually find his way again. I loved it so much, that I got the second Werlin story immediately and am half way through it! 5-stars and I highly recommend!
This weeks reading rounds out with The Light Between the Oceans. This was such a melancholy story – but it is so beautifully written. It is a tale of love and loss – and through the loss, the duration of that love. I wished it had ended as I was hoping it would, but the ending was still hauntingly beautiful. This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time.
That is all I have for this week, and as always:
If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below!
