Is It Time?

My seed order came yesterday!  I spent last night planning my vegetable garden arrangement, trying to include a crop rotation from last year.  Now I am antsy to garden.  However, since there was snow as recently as yesterday (sigh) I've been satisfying my urge this morning by garden clean up and prep.  We took a trip to Moscow Building Supply this morning and I bought a bag of compost for each of the raised beds, plus some more pine bark mulch to fill in thin spots along the garden walks.  My husband did some fence repair to keep out the neighborhood cats and bunnies, and both of us spent considerable time this morning cleaning up the part of our property that abuts Paradise Creek.  It was a task that he hates and even I find tiring, as that area needs so much work.  But now that it's getting clearer, I can start thinking about what native plants and ground covers to install. 


Our plan to improve the yard--and simultaneously make it as low maintenance as possible--has been to start closest to the house and move outwards.  We've got the veggie garden tidied and neat, and the back perennial bed is basically on autopilot.  I'm going to spend some time this summer turning the front bed into a xeriscape and native plant showcase, and hopefully we are starting out on the right foot with the creek area.  It's a huge task, but I really do enjoy working in the gardens.  Our goal is to have a yard we can look at without cringing!  I hope we are up to the challenge!

Raised beds, waiting for planting!

Garlic coming up

Rhubarb!

Early Migrants

Before the first bulbs begin to appear, visitors start to arrive at our birdfeeder.  Our winter residents include Chickadees and Juncos, but in the spring we get Pine Siskins, Goldfinch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and House Finch.  Sometimes we get other migrants, like Red Crossbills or, in this case, Evening Grosbeak.  On this particular day, we had about 30 passing through. 

The Yarn Underground

I am a knitter.  Sometimes I knit more, sometimes I knit less.  But my number one hobby is knitting.  It is the one thing (besides reading, I suppose) that I can do almost anywhere.  I've carried my knitting needles into the backcountry.   I've knit while sitting next to a river and while cooling my feet in an alpine lake.  I've knit in tents, hotel rooms, airplanes, cars, backyards, living rooms, coffee shops, and occasionally through an otherwise painful and/or boring meeting.  I've knit to get through times of great grief and times of great joy.  I knit.


So it is with great anticipation I welcomed the opening of Moscow's newest yarn shop, The Yarn Underground.  A tiny shop located in the alley off of 3rd Street between Main and Washington (across from the Wine Company), they have been open since November 2010.  Their bread-and-butter line of yarn is Cascade, and they have a good selection of colors in Cascade 220 and 128.  They are offering a broad range of classes (upcoming classes include intarsia on March 19, raglan sweater construction on March 20, and needle felting on March 27. Or, you could just come by for open knitting on Sunday afternoons (1-4 pm) and Wednesday evenings (4:30-7:00 pm).  Other unique features of this store are its Needle Exchange program where knitters can bring in their gently-used needles for store credit or buy a set of discounted needles that someone else has brought in.  The Yarn Underground also features the de-stash bin with random skeins of consignment yarn at deeply discounted prices.


One area where the Yarn Underground is really excelling, however, is its supply of locally-made (Northwest) yarn.  Everyone month it seems they have a new line.  This lovely yarn is made by a good friend of mine, Kate Painter, and her hard working sheep. The yarn is called Kate's Natural Rambouillet Yarn.

Some of the notions sold at the Yarn Underground are also handmade.  I received a notsepinne in my Christmas stocking, and check out these handmade darning eggs:

 

The Done Roving Yarn (Frolicking Feet sock yarn, 480 yards Superwash wool) is not local but is so beautiful I had to take a picture.

 

The Yarn Underground also stocks Kidding Ewe by Done Roving Yarn.  Kidding Yew is a worsted weight mohair/wool blend in 300 yard skeins.  

The Himalaya Yarn is so beautiful, made of wool and recycled silk.  I think I have to come up with something to make from it!

I did buy this recycled Sari yarn, to use along with mohair in a scarf for a friend.

The Yarn Underground also has a wonderful selection of fiber, much of it local as well.  It could almost turn someone into a spinner (actually I think it has, in a couple cases)!

In Like a Lion

No snow for almost two months and then snow for over a week, culminating in a 8-10 inch dump on the Palouse on the last night of February.  It snowed 22 inches on Schweitzer Mountain.   We found it hard to believe that the Selkirks could get so much in such a short time.  It was definitely the most snow I've seen in a 24 hour period in the "wow that is significantly more snow than was there last night" sense.  We were actually up at Schweitzer it snowed there, having skied the day before.  Conditions before the snowstorm were good, though not epic.  Lots of untracked powder still in the trees, thought it was a bit solid underneath and wind scoured on the top of the ridge.  I did something a bit out of character for myself, which was to head over to the backside of Schweitzer by myself.  I even did my favorite run, Kaniksu, from the top.  It was worth it, as I found powder and few people!