The transition seasons are always my favourite. Watching things change. The light. The snow. The way we feel. Maisie, of course, is in a constant state of change. Particularly around bed time routines and what time she’s ready to fall asleep. We had to put a blanket over her window curtains to block out more of the sunlight that is staying up later and later. She seems suddenly taller and older. I should mark her height on the wall again and see how much she’s grown since her birthday. We had so much snow this spring that our bottom porch step only finished melting out last week. Maisie and I had shovelled off the porch earlier in April and it has already hosted a few “picnics” on afternoons that felt warm enough. Maisie has been out on her bike a few times and I’ve started wearing the lightweight hat I knitted last fall and never blogged about. The pattern is the Violet Cap from the first issue of Making and the yarn is Quince and Co.’s tern. It’s soft and slouchy and will be too warm to wear very soon. More details are on my Ravelry page. I also finished and photographed a new shirt. It’s the Linden pattern again but this time used a soft jersey for a lighter weight option. Maisie wanted to help me take my pictures so I put her in charge of the camera remote. It made for a fun photo shoot. This shirt is probably the comfiest thing in my drawer right now and I get compliments whenever I wear it.

We had a chance to go out to the cabin for an afternoon with Maisie’s cousins on Easter Monday. On our drive out we saw a white hare hopping away from the road and Maisie informed us from the back of the car that this was the Easter bunny and she was hopping home. While out at the cabin we got to do some sledding, roast hot dogs and marshmallows and hang out inside by the wood stove. Abby had a wonderful time running all over and rolling in the snow. We had to be a bit carefully following her though. After a few thaws and freezes the snow had a pretty tick crust on it. Abby could run around on top but we if stepped off the trail the snow could be knee deep.

I tried my hand at weaving for the first time. Maisie had a friend coming over one afternoon during spring break and I thought it would be a good activity should they get bored or dress ups and dancing. I made some simple little cardboard looms and pre-warped them so they were ready to go. We grabbed a bunch of random balls of leftovers from the stash for weaving with. I found it a lot of fun. Maisie seems to like helping me choose what to put where but wasn’t overly interested in doing her own piece. When I finished mine I asked her what she thought and she said “not good.” I suggested I hang it up in the sewing room and was informed that she “didn’t want to have to see if every time she went in there, maybe I could take it to my work?” She’s since decided that it’s okay and hasn’t cared that it is still hanging where I’d taped out to the wall to take my picture.

Melting snow means the garden has been slowly emerging and my thoughts have been turning to seeds and plants and what we want to grow and eat this summer. I decided to try and use up as many of my old seeds as possible this year so we’ve got got quite a variety of little plants going. I think there are three kinds of tomatoes and two kinds of squash. I’m planning to try corn again but need to order the seeds for that and I’d love to try quinoa but I’m not sure I’ll have a suitable space for it prepared in time so that might be put off to next year. We’ve been watching birds returning to the back yard and the lake near our house. Dark-eyed junks starting coming to the feeder to compete with the redpolls last weekend. Ollie has been glued to the window watching “bird TV”. Yesterday we spotted our first ducks flying overhead.

We have a four year old in our household. It’s incredible and wonderful. Watching Maisie grow continues to be one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed. To participate in her growing and learning is so exciting (and exhausting). She is constantly reminding me of things I had forgotten and causing me to notice things I didn’t see. We had so much fun celebrating her birthday. At her request I made strawberry cake and she chose colours of icing (I use this recipe) for both the cupcakes, that were the activity for her party, and the cake. I set up her birthday ring over the course of a week; every morning she got up to find a new piece or two in the ring and on her birthday morning we added the number and lit the candles. I made her some dress-ups for her present from us. An owl mask and a fairy skirt. She also got a new number shirt in her current favourite colour (which is mostly pink but could be purple). We had a few friends over for her party and it was just right. Lots of fun and not too exhausting.

A couple of weeks ago we got a lovely spell of warm weather. Often when these spells are short they are accompanied by a strong wind but this one hung around for a few days and that meant not so much wind. Maisie, Abby and I headed out for a walk on the trail. Maisie started out in a wrap on my back but on such a lovely day she was keen to get down and walk. She held Abby’s leash, rearranged some large clumps of snow, gave me a big hug, and made several seats in the pile of snow on the side of the trail. I was a little too interested in trying to capture images of frosty things and my phone battery gave up just as we turned off the trail and onto the lake to give Abby some off leash run time. The snow is very deep in some places and it makes me laugh to see Abby trying to bound her way through snow that comes up to her chest. Sometimes it looks more like she’s swimming. I tried to show Maisie how to make a snow angel and ended up with Abby on top of me smelling my face with a muscle covered in snow. Maisie already knew how to make a snow angel anyway. She showed me as soon as I managed to get up, and she didn’t get jumped on by a snowy dog either. We checked out the beaver’s lodge and his pantry. Both are just mounds of snow right now but the pantry is harder to find now that the snow is so deep. You need to know where to look.

The first taste of spring after the winter is always so delicious. I can’t wait for it to really arrive. We’re half way through March now and I know that by the end of this month we’re going to have some serious melting going on. Not to long after that we’ll be thinking about getting the garden ready.