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Friday, January 26, 2007

It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood....

O Frabjous Day! Callooh, Callay! It's SUNNY out today! Suddenly, leaving the house to walk down to the "neighbourhood" doesn't seem like a tedious chore; it's a joy-full compulsion. Something happens out here on a sunny day in winter. After weeks of gloom and grey and grumpiness, the collective moods of the better part of 2.2 million people simultaneously lift, and this becomes the friendliest place in the world. It's marvelous. And MUCH needed!
I had planned to spend my day off nesting in bed with a stack of library books...but waking up to the SUNSHINE tossed that plan out the window. Instead, I took pen and paper and headed down to the local coffee shop to catch up on some letters. En route, I saw this:

Crocuses, which will probably bloom in the next week or so....and the daffodils shoots are starting to peek out, too. Hooray! And, as I was walking by a neighbour's house, I heard an odd bird call...looking up, I saw these:

Not the greatest picture, they were much more impressive in real life, but a pair of bald eagles nonetheless. Just enjoying the view, I suppose. Very cool!

I spent a pleasant hour or more (too nice a day to watch the clock) sipping a mocha and writing letters. Ran errands while I was in the Neighbourhood - which is how we refer to the 5-block stretch of the Hastings Sunrise area that contains our favourite coffee shop, local branches of the public library and the credit union, grocers, bakeries, small hardware store, drugstore, post office and video store. And new eatery, the Roundel Cafe, where I had a delicious date-feta-walnut salad with maple dressing for lunch. It's a pretty convenient, pedestrian-friendly area to live. And the 20-25 minute walk each way is a delight in this weather. A hint of brine in the air, the mountains clear and crisp in the sunlight....mmmmm! Life be good today.

Though one odd - yet humorous - event occurred. This sock-knitting thing, while fabulous, has finally caused me to cut through a certain measure of denial and admit an uncomfortable truth. Those stitches are tiny. TEENY-tiny. As much as I hate to admit it, I would be helped greatly by the use of reading glasses. I found a cheap set of magnifying-glasses at the dollar store. I bought them. It was very odd. I'm sure the lady at the counter thought so, too, as I pulled out my knitting and looked at it through various pairs of glasses.

Since the socks have been mentioned, I suppose an update is in order. I give you Sock the First, heel turned and gusset halfway through the decreases....relatively painless, after some extraordinary tutoring from Francesca at Three Bags Full:

And because I'm an overachiever (or a geek with a yarn compulsion, but I'm OK with that...) I give you the progress already accomplished on Sock the Second:

I can't wait to finish. I can't wait to wear them. I am bribing myself with a reward. I can't wait to wear those, either!

2 comments:

Anie said...

you are way too funny...what a fun day indeed!

Anie said...

hey, how do you do that tracking who is hitting your blog thing? tell me tell me?