nor'easter

 
i woke early to a surprise snowfall . . 

and managed to get out to the courtyard for photos before the paths were shoveled.

at the green market . . 

a delicious blood orange which cricket was interested in . . 

perusing the gaza kitchen cookbook by laila el-haddad while having poppyseed pound cake from the bread alone stand.

after dinner christmas cookies . .

----

while i was traipsing through the courtyard snow, kathy, warren and adam were walking through the palm and lychee orchards of his landlord's backyard . . 

under bougainvilla . . 

jackfruit . . 

bromeliads . .

elk horn fern . . 

kathy captioned this photo: "no snow here!"

----

meanwhile, in london morgan attended a lunar new year celebration:

and a birthday party for their friend merlyn.

snowstorm morning and life in florida

it's a snowy morning . . it was coming down fine at first, but is now fast and furious and thick. it probably won't last long, and the ground isn't cold enough for it to stick . . but it is very pretty.

----

i finished up the last of korrina's christmas cookie dough that was still in the fridge. the vanilla was very flaky and i couldn't get as many cookies from it, but the gingerbread was still quite moist (the added molasses in it helps). 

baked in time to have with a cup of decaf coffee for a facetime call with morgan. we watched an episode of ted lasso (season 3, episode 9) and caught up on news. morgan was making a small fold up sewing kit for harley's mom's birthday which is tomorrow (and still recuperating from a cold visit to madrid which they thought was going to be warm and sunny! but of course madrid was so beautiful it didn't matter . . ) and i watched the last of the snow fall outside my window. sadly, it stopped by 1 pm. 

amazingly enough, i finished my moving forward wrap and blocked it! the yarns are am's (oysters and purls) alpaca/corriedale in indigo and january colors, blue-faced leiscester/merino in indigo; moel view welsh mule in indigo; and humade twist in color homer-at-sea. needle sizes used were 4 and 5.

i spent the rest of the day sorting through old paperwork and then walked home with greg from trader joe's where we met after he got off work. i've been thinking about this article today, the feeling of losing snow.

----

while i was feeling so melancholy because we no longer get such heavy snowfalls, kathy was enjoying the sunshine by adam's landlord's pool . . ah, the florida life!

first day of traveling

coming out of the holland tunnel and entering new jersey, 7:46 am. not too shabby! we were off to a good start.

happy to have my new merriweather mug to keep my green tea hot.

driving through industrial elizabeth, new jersey. when i was a child and traveling with my parents to visit our friends in atlantic city, this part of the trip always smelled terrible. 

passing by woolwich, the philadelphia metropolitan area . .

 

working on the vest for the test knit . .

 

stopping at the virginia welcome center . . 

 

for a picnic lunch (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on ezekiel sprouted grain bread).

we were serenaded by a mockingbird that kept flying around and singing from different places such as the tree behind greg and the garbage can next to it.

 

by 5:30 pm we were at our stop for the night, east fayetteville, north carolina. we went to a nearby crackerbarrel for dinner where we had to wait twenty minutes for a table (they were quite busy). i wandered around the gift shop. i have two of these willow tree statues at home. the girls bought them for me many years ago from a favorite card store near my sister. they're very sweet.

 

i was mesmerized by these glitter globes . . there were all different kinds scattered through the tchotchke section of the store . .

 

very tacky . . 

i was also very tired and punchy from sitting in the car all day . . and was happy to head back to the hotel after eating to rest and sleep.

our very nice cat sitter, vicky, sent this photo of the cats trying to get their food out of the refrigerator.

tales from the keys

the bike path to pigeon key.

chanda and adam went biking on the road to pigeon key which is a national historic district - and also a small island - in the keys off the florida coast (this was on sunday). it has eight buildings which are a remainder of the work camp of the florida east coast railway. currently, they serve as administrative offices and housing for educational groups and one of them is a small museum. you can read more about it here on wikipedia.

this is the florida keys brewing company cat. chanda and adam visited the brewery in islamorada, one of the key islands.

one of the raised wooden paths in the everglades park (look at those beautiful florida clouds!)

saying hi to manatee at the south visitor center and marina.

she arrived home last night and stopped by for dinner after work today. it was fun to hear about her adventures.

 

greg picked up some sausages which i sautéed with green peppers and onions from the green market, including a big bunch of basil for pesto.
 

before flying home yesterday, she enjoyed relaxing by the pool at her cousin's place. she said the water was cooler and felt more refreshing in the heat than the warm florida ocean.

adam's cozy home . . 

and his national park ranger badges (chanda filled out the booklet for one also).

primary day

i passed this construction site this morning and enjoyed watching the workers haul a bucket up and down on their pulley system.

do you wonder what was in the bucket?

i ran a bunch of errands this morning (shoes that did not fit needed to be dropped at fed ex and pants that did not fit needed to be returned to the j. crew store, and the tick that bit me needed to be dropped off at the doctor's office . . and thank goodness they accepted it this time; though the technician did call me to ask if the little speck in the middle of the damp paper towel was the tiny tick that was supposed to be tested. i said, "yes!") and then i met korrina at the elementary school to vote . . 

she came over for a little bit and we put together a nice lunch of leftover beet salad, mozzarella, tomatoes, prosciutto bread and salami . .

which was enjoyed with a lot of talk about knitting projects and knitting backpacks and knitting project bags.

 

after she left i was actually motivated to vacuum and straighten up which i hadn't done in awhile . . probably because i've been running around with a dead tick in my bag, going to eye appointments and shopping for new pants to wear (and knitting on the wave of change jacket which has only one sleeve to go to be finished).

----

chanda sent a nice pic from florida this morning and hopped on a plane home in the afternoon. she's back now and is happy to reunited with pluto.

hmmm, melvin seems to be a bit persnickety, but then pluto is probably used to that from when madeline was alive when he was a kitten. she was always hissing at him. he probably thinks that it's normal cat behavior. povero pluto. we love you pluto!

pluto is a little christmas cat this evening with the streetlight shining in like the star of bethlehem over the couch.

it was a beautiful sunset and rainstorm over new jersey this evening . . 

and there was a crew rowing by. it is such a little boat moving out there on the vast river, but if you go to full screen you might be able to see it.

it's been humid lately, but not too hot. the mornings have been dark! it's also been cloudy in the mornings, but the days are getting shorter, sadly.

sweet dreams everyone . .