Ready for Green

 

No, not those greens kitteh....

And even though your eyes are a pretty intense green, I don't mean that green either.

I'm desperately in need of outside, growing-things, green.

I know that Nod can have freak April blizzards that drop a foot of snow or more, but this spring has been like a slow, tedious, cold and windy, torture.

I see photos on some of your blogs of green leaves, green grass, and good grief...even blooming things!....and I am, well, "green."

Yesterday we made it almost to 70° but it was cloudy, and windy...and today we are back to freezing...and gale force winds.  (60 mph gusts...seriously???)

Yeah, yeah...I know "no winter lasts forever, no spring skips it turn," but the guy who wrote that (and yes, it was a "guy"), never lived in Nod.

Anyhow...

Like I said, it's been windy.... Incredibly windy. Like almost-every-day windy.

And wind makes me edgy edgier than usual.

Cabin fever and wind are a foul combination I tell ya.

There's a reason (probably more than one) that I'm called the Cranky Crow.

{Buttons stitched by my sweet SIL...}

Nothing is really blogworthy here...one day blends into the next unnoticed.  

I am slowly putting the bunnies of Easter back into their dark hiding spots until next season and filling the empty places they left with more "generic" signs of spring.

{"Set Free" pinkeep by Scattered Seed Samplers}

It's not helping...in case you were wondering.

I've made only negative progress on my hooking.  

In my defense, it isn't easy when a 20# cat decides your rug hooking frame is his new bff.

And, yes, that's Snowdog on the other side.

And, yes, that's a drop cloth on my floor.

On a happy news note, on one of my trips "down there," I opened a box I had not noticed before sitting on a shelf and peeked inside... And there was my collection of stone fruit.

I have been looking for these since WWR ended.

I'll take my victories where I can get them.

*******

My recent read was "Anxious People" by Fredrik Backman.

Completely out of my typical genres and, had it not been given to me to read, I likely never would have chosen to read it, and that would have been my loss.

Yes, it was that good.

It's a poignant, comical, novel about a crime that never took place, a wanna-be bank robber who disappears, and eight extremely "anxious" strangers who are held hostage by said wanna-be bank robber.

I typically don't like comedy...not in television shows, not in movies, not in books... (Perhaps there is more than one reason I am cranky?), 

but this author's humor is wry and witty...a rare combination that I found completely charming.  

Whimsical, yes...but also a dive into the study of society and the workings of people's minds.

*******

Be well...stay sane.

On second thought, just be well.

Nary a Hare Anywhere

 ...well, almost.

{Vintage/Antique Rabbit Candy Containers}

Here we are...four days (plus or give a smidge depending on when I actually finish this post) before Easter, and my bunnies and other other Easter accoutrements are, for the most part, still staring at the inside of their dark totes and boxes.

Blame the tax man...and any other man you can find.

So, before I run out of time completely, here are a (pathetic) few that managed to be liberated for the season.

{Spun Cotton Bunny Child}

{Folk For All Seasons Sculpted Rabbit}

{Saltglaze Bunnies}

(Ok, ok...I cheated on that last one...those bunnies live there all year long.)

  

And that's it.  C'est ça!

As far as my pastime endeavors go, I have even less to share.

 I don't know what made me look this up, but it cracked me up....until I realized that what I have to show for my "pastime" really fits the definition of "past time" more aptly:  Something that should have happened or been done by now. 

I have stitched some, but it's too wrinkled at this point to share...and, no, I'm not pressing it.  

I have hooked some too, but you really probably can't tell.  (And there's even less hooked now since I did a bit of reverse hooking after this photo was taken.)

And, yes, it...and my stitching project...should have been done by now.

*******

Last, but not least in the pastime department, my book report for those of you interested:

"The Woman Who Smashed Codes" is quite a ways out of my typical "lane" but it was fascinating.  It is the, until now, untold story of a remarkable woman who played an integral part in our country's history.  Elizebeth Smith Friedman was a young Quaker poet with a true enthusiasm for Shakespeare.  She was lured to the extraordinary and sometimes magical estate of an eccentric tycoon to assist in deciphering codes he (and actually many others) believed were hidden within the texts of Shakespeare by Francis Bacon, the "true" author of the texts.  (Ok....)

When World War I broke out, Elizabeth's language skills were put to use by the government and, ultimately, she, and her husband, developed the modern science of cryptology (code breaking).  

These skills were honed over time and she assisted not only in apprehending smugglers during Prohibition but breaking the leading Nazi spy ring and shaping the course of the second world war.

{Elizebeth Smith Friedman and her husband, William Friedman}

While the book is filled with a great deal of history and technical background to the art and science of codebreaking, Elizebeth's fascinating life and the author's adept skill at non-fictional narrative made for an enjoyable read.

Again, not for everyone, but a nice "break" if you find yourself in a reading rut.

*******

Now back to taxes...and macaroons.