March turned out to be an extremely exciting month.
Jameson (or rather his T-shirt) told us that he is going to be a big brother later this year. Grandbaby #2 is coming in October. Trisha and Craig are going to wait until the birth to find out the sex. I wouldn't mind a girl, but either way I'm going to love that little one to the moon and back.
The Saturday before my birthday, Ed and the kids threw a surprise birthday party for me. Ed told me on Thursday evening that he made dinner reservations for the two of us, but couldn't get in any earlier than 8:45. I didn't think anything of it because Ed tends to wait to the last minute for things and the time sounded reasonable. I decided I'd go to Mass before dinner so that I could sleep in on Sunday. I usually try to make the Saturday Mass anyway. Friday evening, Trisha called to ask if we wanted to meet her and Craig at a local brewery for a beer in between Mass and dinner. When we showed up at the brewery, we found them in the back room along with Blake, Kristin, Kristin's boyfriend Michael, and several of my friends. I was totally surprised!! I did not expect Kristin and Blake to be in town, let alone see my friends at the brewery. It was a great way to celebrate my 60th birthday that was coming up on Tuesday.
The following Friday Ed and I went to see Mamma Mia! It was wonderful. I tried not to sing along too loudly. I loved it and am still singing some of the songs in my head.
Our back pond has had a few visitors that are new sightings for me. This snipe spent an evening hunting in the mud.
A couple days later a pair of Mergansers paddled around the pond.
Ed started his fishing season on March 24. While I had the house to myself, I tried tincture dyeing on my own. The skeins turned out pretty well. The dark blue didn't totally exhaust so I tossed in a skein of something I dyed years ago that was just too tropical for my taste. The resulting yarn is more muted/moody and more to my liking.
After about 3 1/2 years of crocheting, I finally completed the 324 flowers for the Astri blanket I started in the flal of 2020. These were made out of Knit Picks Pallette that I've had in the stash for over 10 years. I pulled out a couple shades of green to use for connecting the flowers. I have the first of 23 rows done. By my estimates this blanket will be 6 feet wide by 8 feet long. Not sure if or how I'm going to block it. Stay tuned.
My knitting enabler friend (one of the ladies in the picture above) told me how she spent the day with some friends and made many loaves of babka. That reminded me that I've made babka in the past but not in over 10 years. I decided Ed and I needed a loaf for our Easter breakfast. This turned out nice, but I should have doubled or maybe tripled the cinnamon filling recipe.
Trisha, Craig, and Jameson came over for Easter dinner. Before dinner we had a little egg hunt for Jameson in the front yard. He loved finding the eggs. Fortunately he didn't realize that it was candy inside the eggs.
I've been slowly progressing on my Wildflower Tee. I have the body almost done. I opted to not do the colorwork on the body but I will at the hem. The next decision is the sleeves. I think once I get the body done, I'll do the collar and try it on. Then I'll decide how much of my arms I want exposed. I'm planning on wearing this to my niece's bridal shower in a few weeks so I have to get it done.
I have this weekend to myself. Ed and Blake are going to visit Kristin in North Carolina to have some dental work done. We'll see how much knitting and sewing I get done.
