Tallulah Takes a ... Walk

I very nearly wrote "nap", because that's what Tallulah's been doing for about two months now....

Sleeping in the arms of Millie the Measuring Tape

Not that I blame her. I'd nap all winter long if I could. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get paid to sleep?

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Sunday afternoon is sunny, with temps in the 20s and a brisk wind blowing. I wake Tallulah from her long winter's nap, pop her new winter hat on her head, and out we go into the wintry chill.

"Where should we stop first, Tallulah?"

"How about down by the lake? I can pose on a piling while you take a picture of me in my new hat," says T.

Tallulah's new hat sports braided ties and a tufty adornment on the crown, giving her a kind of Beaker-meets-Pippi Longstocking look:

"I thought I asked for a pompom," says T.

"So you did," I reply. "But have you ever tried making a 5mm pompom? From sock-weight yarn? My fingers just aren't small enough. This is the best I could do."

"And I appreciate it very much," she says graciously. Our walk continues in amicable silence.

Down the trail the trees are hung with rustling clusters of champagne-coloured samaras:

We find a rare patch of green under some sheltering fir trees:

Farther on, a clump of oaks (northern pin oaks, I think) still retain their leaves - a phenomenon called marcescence:

The weather has been just warm enough this week to melt off much of the snow. What remains is patchy and, in some areas, softening from the ground up. We walk over a long stretch dotted with tiny holes where the snow has melted around each blade of grass:

Here also are the remains of knapweed, dreaming of lost summer:

At the side of the trail white birch reach up with shining arms to the blue sky:

Looking down another avenue of trees:

The thaw gives a deceptively spring-like appearance, but I'm sure that come February we'll see the ground snow-covered once more.

On our way back, we pass dried clumps of what I think is water hemlock, and I snap a series of andamento-inspired photos (somehow managing to obtrude my head into almost every shot). Here's the best of the bunch, with Mrs. M cropped out:

Hi, Anne! :)

Then it's back to the house for a quick dinner followed by a visit to the Aged P, where I will sit and knit while he watches football. (And what he'll do when the season is over I don't know.)

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Knitting has been much on my mind lately. Last week I caught a cold, which robbed me of my voice and gave me a killer sinus headache. While sitting home resting the vocal chords and waiting for the headache to subside, I taught myself to knit back backwards, and also worked out how to use MMABO on ribbing. Tutorial coming soon (for the ribbing, I mean).

It was almost worth getting mildly sick just to get the crafting time in....

How do you pass the time when you're under the weather?

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