Still Springing...

Today the guys started digging at the roots with the goal of excavating for the next section of the path. This picture shows a 4 foot long section of root they managed to extract. It's about 5 or 6 inches in diameter. First they loosened up the soil around it as well as they could and removed what they could. Then, they went at it with an ax and a saw. I think the ax was a more effective weapon.

Below, is the picture of the Root Canal (so to speak), showing the rest of it in situ.


This is the biggest of the roots in the way of the path, but the hundreds of smaller ones might be more annoying in some ways.

This morning I cut the steeks for the Baby James Cardigan. I've got a couple inches of hood done now, which this picture doesn't show.

I need to find some standards for the depth of a hood for a 12 month size. I don't recall ever seeing that on the CYC Standards page. Or I could go see what measurement Debbie Bliss uses for hoods in her patterns and multiply by 60%...

I'm mulling over making the edgings along the front in dark navy or the bright blue main color. These will be very narrow, really just a pick up and a cast off, and be sewn to the zipper. If I go with navy and get a navy zipper, and put a narrow navy edging around the hood, it might look pretty spiffy. Opinions?

Spring Has Sprung

Today we had the kind of spring day that people all across the northern parts of the country wait all winter to experience. The birds are singing, the early flowers are blooming, the air was warm and the sky bright and clear. I hung out laundry on the line, turned a little dirt for a new flower bed, and sat on the porch and enjoyed the weather. I made the first iced tea of the season.

Here are a couple of flowers from the yard:




We're starting to plan the next big phase of the brick walk. This gets more challenging, because we have a giant silver maple in our front yard and it has put an extensive network of gnarly roots near the surface of our lawn. I need to ask some of my friends who know about this stuff if there's a tool that makes cutting through big roots any easier. Anyhow, in this photo, I've outlined the next phase of the path, which will bring it around to the existing front walk, such as it is.

After the walk is in, we can put a big planting between the walk and the porch.

The existing concrete walk is cracked and buckled and we'll eventually find someone with a mini-hoe to come and pull it up so we can replace that section with bricks, too. Our front steps are cracked and pulling away from the house a bit, too, which is another phase of the plan we'll need to consider. Have I mentioned before that this house was a great deal because of about 30 years of deferred maintenance? Even though we've been here 10 years and have done a lot, there's still a big list of things I would do before I'd call it done. All in good time.

And finally, the progress on the Baby James sweater.

I need to go and machine stitch the steeks next. Then cut. Then pick up stitches for the hood and finish off the front. If I didn't have kids, I could have been done by now. Alas.