It's twenty after seven in the morning and I would rather be blissfully sleeping in but I'm a morning person and the sun is getting up pretty early by this time of year so I find myself getting up early too. Even the furnace won't be awake for another hour. The day has already rewarded me with a bit of wonder though. When I let Abby outside just now I took a deep breath and realized I was smelling the first dewy morning of the year. There is still frost in the shade of course but everywhere the sun has hit is moist and glossy. Environment Canada tells me our over night low was plus one degree Celsius. We didn't drop below zero last night. We will certainly be below zero again many times before the end of May but today I can actually believe that the snow will all disappear, that in a month or so I'll be working earth and putting my garden in, that there will be days where putting on a jacket will be unthinkable, that summer is a real thing and is on it's way.

I've been wanting to post all weekend but just felt uncomfortable whenever I sat down at my computer so I spent my time doing other things instead. Of course, doing instead of writing means I have more I want to write about so I decided I'd just lump it all together in a "here is my weekend" post.

It's been a good weekend. The temperature was +9 and the sun was shining when I walked home on Friday. It put me in such a springtime mood. I ordered seeds for our garden, did some spring cleaning around the house and went for an extra long walk with Abby on Saturday afternoon. Lots of the sidewalks are free of snow and big puddles are forming wherever the roads dip. The snow that is left (and there is still plenty of it) is looking rotten and dingy but there are willows growing out of it and kitten soft pussy willows are emerging on branches.

I spent some of today tidying up my sewing room a bit. It feels so good when everything has a home. A clean table got me working on a long neglected project and I've finally finished the skirt for my crepe dress (cut out last summer). We went out for lunch and then I humoured Abby for the late afternoon and sat in the living room knitting a square for my Barn Raising Quilt. The yarn is some sock club leftovers in "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". This might be my favourite square so far; it's so crazy bright. Fred slept on the couch next to me until Rob came out to join us.

I hope your weekend was just as good.

I used up a teeny bit of vacation time and gave myself a long weekend. I spent about half of it taking care of a few neglected things around the house. I feel so much better about housework when I can do it while the sun is up but I hate to spend all my sunshine time on the weekends cleaning. Giving it a day to itself works much better. The rest of my time was spend on more enjoyable tasks. I copied out some patterns I want to make up, worked on my Dessert of the Month cross stitch, ate greens from our (indoor) garden, read good books, drank tea, watched a couple of movies with Rob, and rediscovered and started working on an old sewing project. The critters followed me around the house almost the whole time. Abby was especially happy if I was out in the living room (in the sun). Ollie insisted on curling up on my lap and this afternoon I managed to use my sewing machine with her there. Fred talked to himself and pounced on passers by. All in all, a productive and relaxing four days and a shortened work week to head into tomorrow morning.