A Bird, a Movie, Pain, the Arrival of Spring, Knitting, and Crochet

On Saturday, John & I went outside in the bright, sunshiny 65-degree weather (ugh) to replenish the bird feeders.  I hung up this little seed bell & before too long one of the many black-capped chickadees who visit us decided to check it out.  He really seemed to enjoy it!

  

That last picture turned out cute.  It's like he's saying "Hey!  Who told you that you could take my picture?"

Yesterday it was a bright, sunshiny 67 degrees (ugh again).  I went out & did some cleaning up of the garage while John installed a new car battery.  We then went out for dinner.  When we came home, my feet were hurting a lot & I had trouble walking.  I think I really did a number on myself with all that walking we did in NYC.  I've also noticed that my left leg is swollen more than usual since we've been back.  This leg is always swollen a bit & I always have some degree of pain there thanks to 3 blood clots trying to do me in over the years.  Sometimes the pain gets really bad.  My dad once joked with me & said I should just have the doctors cut off the leg & give me a wooden one ... then I'd only have to worry about woodpeckers.  That is how I describe the worst pain ... cut it off & give me a wooden one.  Well, that's what it's like this morning. Quite swollen, horribly painful.  No clot though.  After having 3 of them, I know the signs.  I'm also taking preventative medication.  I think I need to see someone about this increase in discomfort.  Every time I have a bad pain somewhere, I think of a made for TV Christmas movie I first saw many years ago.  It's called The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story. 

This is one of the best movies ever!  As you can see, it stars Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, & Polly Holliday.  If you haven't seen it, it really is worth checking out.  I don't want to give away the story, but at one point, Angela Lansbury utters the line "It hurts like a holy curse."  I have no idea what that means.  I've looked on Google & there is no reference for it.  It does, however, seem to indicate a lot of pain.

What was I talking about?  Oh yes, my left leg.  My left leg, my feet, my left arm.  Yep, gotta see someone.  The pain bothered me all night despite medication & I finally got out of bed at about 3 a.m. & tried sleeping on the couch.  No luck, so here I am, writing a blog post.  I had plans to do some cleaning upstairs today.  I hope I'll be able to do that.

This past weekend I did do a bit of spring decorating.  This basically involved taking down the Let It Snow snowman sign hanging in the kitchen, the Warm Winter Wishes sign near the thermostat, & the winter themed cutting board, sewing drawer, & pinkeep in the diningroom, & replacing them with the usual farm themed kitchen sign, a spring paddle, & the spring themed cutting board, sewing drawer, & pinkeep.  It also meant changing the dishes. I have Fiesta dishes.  I've sorted them into spring colors, summer colors, & fall/winter colors.  With the change of these seasons, the old season dishes are pushed to the back of the cabinet & the new season to the front.

The spring dishes are of course the pastels. Some of the colors are missing.  I'm hoping they were put into a moving box with Christmas decor or something because I couldn't have missed them & tossed them out by mistake when we moved here.  Yes, you see some paper plates there.  We use those a lot.  Saves me washing dishes.  

I'm still knitting that pair of socks I started last month.  No new photo to show you on this front.  However, I'm a bit skeptical as to whether or not I'm going to be able to finish this second sock based on the yarn I have left.  I'm ready to start the gusset now & then work my way down the foot.  Who knows, I might be surprised.  I think I will also be surprised if these socks fit me (see previous increased leg swelling reference).  I used a loose cast on for the cuff of the socks but I am afraid it's not going to be stretchy enough.  When I tried the first one on, it was just a very wee bit tight on my good leg.  Ah well, I've enjoyed knitting them & will figure out a different course of action for the next pair if need be.  

And speaking of crochet ...   : )   ... some of you know that for the past I don't know how many months, I've been seeing some wonderful crocheted items on your blogs (Hazel's & Tina's blogs in particular) & it has been calling to me.  Strongly calling.  I went so far as to buy a Learn to Crochet kit at Walmart sometime last year but I've never opened it.  I, of course, have enough to do with cross stitch & knitting &, on the odd occasion, quilting.  Although I bought the kit, I constantly told myself I didn't need to do anything with it.  Well, this didn't stop Hazel or Tina from tempting me with their crocheted creations.  Then in NYC I saw many, many locals wearing beautiful scarves. It seems to be a fashion statement there. Men, women, & children were arrayed in beautiful scarves, both knitted & crocheted. However, it was the crocheted ones that really caught my eye.  I read once that knitting can be done by machine, but crochet can only be done by hand.  At one of the knitting shops I went to, there was a display of various scarves.  The two that caught my eye were ... you guessed it ... crochet.  Recently Tina did a blog post about a granny stripe blanket she is crocheting for her husband.  I fell in love. This is a photo of the blanket from samples given on Ravelry.

Isn't it gorgeous?  I wouldn't make mine in those pastel colors but I think more like the colors on the designer's pattern.

Well, I've probably rambled on long enough for one blog post   : )   I think I'll go make myself another cup of tea, maybe a couple slices of toast, & then cuddle up in the recliner, read a bit, & maybe work on my socks.  I'm still hoping to do a bit of cleaning upstairs today.  Wish me luck   : )