Has Spring Finally Arrived?

DD#2 and I started our Sunday morning with brunch while I tried to figure out where to stay Sunday night. My choices were to stay just east of the city, get over Snoqualmie Pass and stay somewhere between there and Spokane, or try to get all the way to Spokane. I decided that we would do our shopping, see what time it was when we got back to her apartment, and reassess from there.

No trip to Seattle would be complete without a stop at IKEA. We picked up a few more items for her as well as some things that people here in Kalispell had asked me to get. The nearby mall—Southcenter—also has a Half-Price Books. It was there that I found this:

I had looked at this very book on Friday while shopping with DSIL’s mom and decided not to get it. I commented then that I had no business thinking I could begin a career as a fabric designer at 56, at which point I heard my mother’s voice in my head reminding me that she started her metal stamping plant when she was 55.

My mother and the universe are conspiring against me. I bought the book. Fabric design will be on the back burner as a project for next winter, unless I figure out how to cram 24 more hours into a day.

We finished our shopping and were back at DD#2’s apartment by 2:00 pm. I decided there was plenty of time for me to drive back to Spokane for the night. The weather was lovely and traffic was light. I pulled in to Spokane just after 6:00 pm and was back home in Montana by noon on Monday, rested and refreshed from my travels.

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Some farm updates:

The chicks got moved to the coop Tuesday morning. They were a bit shell-shocked at first, but they settled in and now spend their days running around and peeping at the big chickens. Dave seems unfazed, but then again, he is the most placid rooster I’ve ever had. The chicks are in a separate area, so they’re safe, but everyone can see everyone else.

The greenhouse is full of plants:

Susan brought down eight flats of tomatoes for the plant sale. Hers are farther along than ours. It has been a very cold spring and the seedlings haven’t taken off like they normally do despite being in the greenhouse. I am hoping our plants will catch up by the plant sale on May 21. I’m also trying to catch another mouse that has been wreaking some minor havoc in there. I see the neighbor’s cat prowling around the greenhouse every so often and I’m hoping she’ll help me out.

We had gorgeous weather yesterday. I skipped the craft co-op meeting—we are so far behind in garden prep because of the weather that I couldn’t justify going—and spent four hours working outside. The husband said he would plant potatoes this weekend. I pulled the plastic off that section of the garden and moved it to where I plan to put the tomatoes. The baby peach trees seem to be doing okay. I still have some concerns about this coming gardening season—and I am one of the featured gardens again on the garden tour in mid-July—but we’ll just have to see what happens.

I am sore from the work, but it’s a good kind of sore. I worked on serger class samples yesterday afternoon and tried out a few of the threads I bought on my trip.

I’ll be a student today and tomorrow! I signed up for the Bernina Mystery Make: Overlocker Edition class at the quilt store south of town. I’ve been looking forward to this for two months. We’ll be using the Bernina L850 and L890 sergers, so I’ll get some hands-on experience with those machines.