Spring is definitely here,  it's a warm and beautiful day. I can only manage a short post as my online connection keeps disconnecting, the phone company just can't seem to be able to fix my telephone line. Furgus is letting me take his photo while being scratched all without biting, he still has his watch it crazy eyes.  My new book arrived! I usually buy second hand but it was cheaper to buy new how odd.  I've just watched  "Julie and Julia"  the film about the blogger Julie Powell and the cook Julia Child,  I didn't read the book about the blog but her blog is still there to read.  The bottom photo is the boned, stuffed and encased duck that was part of the last dinner in the film. I'll add the link to Julie Powell's old blog when my computers feeling more co-operative.

APPLE GREEN

My first mitten has been languishing in my knitting basket for quite awhile now.  I've been unable to knit due to the extreme Furgus scratch and bites on my right hand, payback for the teeth cleaning vet visit (that cost $288.00 by the way). He managed to cut right through the skin and I had to have two tiny stitches, my hand is still stiff and a bit numb but has healed perfectly. There have been heaps of leeks in the vegetable garden and my garlic is growing well. I planted small patches all over the garden rather than one large plot as it can get mildew, I'm hoping that this will reduce the size of the loss if I have any problems. I think I must have been channeling  cindy2paws  when I chose some new kitchen bits and pieces, love apple green in the kitchen.

VIVA LE TOUR! WITH HANSA MITTENS

It's been almost  two months without blogging, here's just a sample of the hectic last month.  Family member in intensive care after operation then goes home then back in hospital again,  phone line down for over a week! can you believe it, all calls redirected to mobile then internet connection down, that was fixed pretty quickly thanks to netspace. This month I decided to join the ravelry  Tour de France 2011  knitting kal, my project would be one pair of mittens using two colours Scandinavian style.  Colour selection was tricky the fingering balls I liked were just too expensive for a first project as there was going to be some frogging going on. On the second trip to my yarn shop and armed with at least ten different patterns all I came away with was another set of needles and several balls of black. I had some green DK that had four strands of yarn so I spent the evening unplying and rewinding to make a ball of fingering in a nice easy to see green.  All of my procrastination took up the first week of the tour, mitten on needles actually being knitted was on the first of the mountain stages. I chose the Hansa Mittens by Tuulia Salmela because of the nice pointy top and the gusset thumb, the colour pattern isn't  too  hard for a beginner. The bottom photo shows the gusset, Tuulia Salmela can be found on ravelry as Tuulia and her blog is   Knitlob's Lair-Louhittaren Luola . Will I get both mittens done by the end of the tour?  I don't think so but I'm sure I'll have one done. We had to take Furgus to the vet today he's having his teeth cleaned it's the first time I've had to leave him there. His meowing was so sad but the nice vet after hearing his cat home story let me leave my mohair scarf in his cage. There's always a risk with anesthetic so I'm waiting for the O.K. call.