Before and During the Ice Storm

 We've had cold, snowy and generally icky weather this spring.   Until yesterday, it had snowed every day in April here.    Slowly the spring bulbs started to push forth into the inhospitable environment.   You can see the red tips of the frost bitten tulip leaves.   Finally we had a day where while it dropped a few snow flakes in the morning, by mid afternoon, it was mild and sunny.   After stacking a bit of the split wood, I grabbed my camera to document this momentous occasion.  The crocus flowers were perfect and such a welcome burst of colour outside, giving hope that maybe spring would actually come and that I could put away my parka.

I'm thankful for my digital camera so I no longer have to worry about how many pictures I've snapped, whether or not I have spare film and just generally being able to snap photos whenever I feel like it, without planning absolutely everything.   It allows me to capture all these glorious memories and floral delights, even if the ground was so soggy and wet that I couldn't get down to the ground without being covered in mud.

After I took all the photos that I could, I grabbed my banjo and practiced outside on the deck.  Yes, it was warm enough and nice enough outside to do that!
The next morning it started to rain.  That rain quickly turned to ice pellets, which was the only saving grace of this storm.   Instead of inches of freezing rain, we got inches of ice  pellets.   The poor crocuses were buried under the ice pellets when the freezing rain actually came.   There is nothing left of them now, making me more thankful that I got to enjoy them and photograph them for the few hours that we had them in bloom.

I'd wound off a warp and had mainly dressed the loom before the ice storm caused our power to go out.  I used the hours without hydro to play, both on the banjo and the loom.  

I wasn't sure I'd like this pattern, so I only set up for 2 scarves, both only about 5 inches wide but one at 75 inches long and the other is just about finished at about 82 inches long.   I've enough warp to tie on a second project, but I've been dithering about it.  DH says then I probably don't like it enough to bother with.   This is the silk/wool blend from the now closed carpet factory.  I do wonder how it would look in 100% wool.