One good thing about switching over to Daylight Savings Time is that it's still light after work now, which totally makes up for the lost hour and dark mornings.  Today Emma and I took off on a quick geology hike.

She's been all about rocks lately, and I thoroughly encourage her interest in anything science-y.  Her class is doing a unit on geology in school, she went to a two-hour free workshop at the library last weekend, and she's still going strong, so I bought her a real field guide to rocks and minerals yesterday.  She inhaled almost the entire book last night, and packed her "field kit" in her geocaching backpack.  Check: field guide, notebook, 3 pencils, collecting bags, hammer and chisel (both wooden and fairly useless, but she likes them), and safety goggles. 



We walked down the river road at Hilgard Junction State Park.  We've been here before, and we revisited the geocache just for fun.  While we didn't see any orchids today, we did get to stomp on the remaining snow and check out the lichens and moss and ROCKS!  We also saw a very cold and sluggish rubber boa, the first snake I've seen so far this year.

Emma had a grand old time looking at the rocks.



It was a lovely day today, with a temperature of 68 degrees!  No coats necessary!



And she successfully identified basalt.  Mission accomplished!

Spring...



Is...

 

STARTING!

Today was an extremely frustrating day as a single parent, but I'm trying to keep from snapping at her.  Deep down in the part of me that's so tired of being a grownup, I feel as whiny and stubborn as she does.

What I really want to do is ignore the housework, pack us both up, and go dabble my feet in the ocean.  Write our names in the sand. Look for shells.  Feel the weight of the sun on my (well-sunscreened) back as I listen to the waves and doze on my towel.

I finished spinning the Woolgatherings top yesterday.  Such a lovely spin, still loving the Schacht Reeves wheel!



After I finished that, I pulled out the green pencil roving that has been hibernating on the Matchless for a while and continued on with that.



Together, these look like blue skies over green fields!

Today I feel happy. It's a strange feeling and I've missed it.

Yesterday, Emma and I did our housecleaning and I finally took down the Christmas tree. (I know it's March.  So what.  It was pretty and the lights were cheerful.  Leave me alone.)  Since the tree was gone, my Schacht Reeves wheel could come back to its place in the living room.

Today, I had a lovely slothful Sunday while Emma played with the neighbor kids.



This is a 4 ounce braid of Woolgatherings hand painted top, 85% Polwarth 15% silk.  This is the first time I've spun Polwarth, and it's lovely stuff - about as fine as Merino, but a longer staple, and the addition of silk gives it a little shine.