Snowballs!

On Saturday we had a mission: we were going to take the bus and go to the library. We may have missed the bus... and we may have taken the scenic route to Arrow... and we found snow!

Snow, even nearly one week old snow, and it was excellent for making snowballs! (And stomping in.)

First snow!

There is nothing like the first snow to break the winter funk (or winter blues) that the short days bring with them.

Yes, the weather does need to be cold for it to snow, but!

Snow illuminates the landscape.

The world seems quieter.

Everyone seems to stay indoors.

But we find snow calls for attention and invites us outside.

Somehow the cold air is not as cold as it is when there is no snow.

The fresh, unmarked snow is beautiful.

Little footprints in snow are my favourite.

Jimmy's footprints are the best.

Falling snow is wonderful too, soft flurries seen from the shelter of our apartment. Sometimes it's fun to be out in it, and sometimes the north wind makes the snow extra icy.

Yesterday morning we woke up to the first snow of the winter and while I am sick (more on that another time), it has lifted my spirits. As Daddy took Jimmy to daycare, I snuck out and took a picture of them as they headed out. The morning was cold but so pleasant, I would have liked to spend more time out there... Next snow right?

More snow!

One week before Christmas we woke up to a snow covered landscape. Michael and I knew it was snowing that night, but we didn't really know how thick it was going to be in the morning: nearly 10 cm (or a 2-3 inches). It was utterly beautiful and the day was nice enough to take Jimmy outside.

The pine trees looked like Christmas trees, and the grass was completely covered, and we could find rabbit and squirrel tracks around the place. One of Michael's coworkers gave him a lift in that morning, which was greatly appreciated. So was the lift to the Asian Market that evening.

But it was one whole week early. As an Australian, as someone who grew up in the southern hemisphere, Christmas time is hot but all Christmas movies come from the northern hemisphere and they all depict the white Christmas as the ideal. And while my sister and I have both been in the northern hemisphere over Christmas and New Years, it was always too warm to snow, which was disappointing.

I was hoping the snow would last. The predictions were initially for some snow on Christmas day, but as the day drew closer the predictions changed, moving further and further away from the possibility of snow to a (relatively) warm day. Oh well. Another time, right? So long as it snowed while Aunty Asha was here, it would be ok.

And snow it did! It was a little lighter, but it was still snow. Only it was so cold and dry that the snow wouldn't compress into balls, so no snowman, no snowball fight... just lots of sparkly, glittery snow being thrown in the air. Yes, it was magical. And because Aunty was with us, we were able to get some family photos! So, here was are, our little family, running around, making snow angels, and enjoying the snow, while it's still novel for us*. The following photos were taken by my little sister, and Michael put together the gif's.

I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't cold. It was. After 20-30 minutes Jimmy was over it and possibly a little cold, even though he was rugged up, and ready to be carried up the stairs.


*Now that the snow has melted and refrozen since Sunday, I am glad that there hasn't been anymore snow because I wouldn't be able to see the ice on the footpath, which is a scary prospect as I still wear Jimmy almost everywhere. Michael is reluctant to ride around more than he has to. It's probably safe to say that we may be over snow by winter's' end. Assuming there actually is more snow this winter.

51/52

"a portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2014"

Jimmy: Exploring the winter wonderland...

Jimmy didn't know it, but it started snowing on Wednesday night, and by morning the snow was a couple of inches thick. He took a little convincing to get out of the apartment, but we did, and it was so much fun.

His new suit was great, and as the day was relatively warm (it was something like -1 C) he didn't need much under it. This meant plenty of free movement for exploring and investigating.

And then the sun came out yesterday, and melted it all.

Oh well. It's bound to snow again as winter progresses. At least the sun will start rising earlier and setting later, as of tomorrow.

Happy Solstice!

On the needles: Possum fur beanie...

Yes. That's right: possum fur. From New Zealand. where Australian possums are a pest, and it's ok to kill them. Not wanting to let the beautifully warm and fuzzy possum fur go to waste, the Kiwi's are mixing it with Merino wool and making lovely, lovely woolly warm things for the cold climate that New Zealand experiences.

My lovely little sister went skiing there a year or so ago, and while she made a point of not buying touristy things for friends and family, she made one exception: me. She saw the wool mixed with possum fur and couldn't leave it behind. She bought me two skeins: one sock weight and one lace weight (I can't remember if this skein actually has possum fur in it or not). I brought the sock weight with me because it gets really, really cold in Kansas.

The skein I brought over was a Touch Yarn skein of Possum Yarn, in C1, and I tell you what, it's not an easy colour combination to photograph - let alone work out what to do with it!

A quick cold snap after our road trip convinced me that I needed a beanie of my own. Michael has a few, Jimmy has a few, but me? Nothing. So, I decided to turn this lovely yarn into a hat...

After posing for some silly selfies, of course... I had to make sure that the colour combination would suit my skin tone, right?

In addition to deciding what to knit, choosing a pattern, and actually knitting said beanie, there was the task of turning the skein into a usable ball of yarn... And I very sensibly started this task outside, with Jimmy, while he was wandering around and while he had a little feed too... yep... I take my multitasking seriously...

I didn't wind it all in the one session and ended up improvising one of these, by turning our laundry basket upside down and slipping the skein over it. (Actually this worked really well, and I would recommend it to any crafter on a budget.)

Yarn wound, all I needed was a pattern... I loved the way the colours dispersed as I wound the yarn, but I knew it would pool a little during the knitting, so any pattern would have to work well with that. After a quick search on Ravelry, I decided that the Wurm would work better with the yarn than the first pattern I liked, that uses the same wool (but in a solid colour) - I'll make in with a different yarn, if I get around to it...

The Wurm is an easy knit, and a little appropriate for this arthropod lover. I added an extra 2 purl sections, for a little more length, but I'm not sure that they were needed. I'm also not sure that I knitted the right size for my head, but that's what you get when you don't do a gauge swatch... ah well, it's a good beanie, and probably just needs a warm (hand) wash or two to get it a little more snug around the ears.

Once all the knitting and tieing off were done, I tried to get Jimmy to model it for me, but he had more fun taking it off before I had time to take a photo. I wore it when it snowed, but am yet to block it. I'll wash it sometime this week, while we're enjoying a warm spell.

Winter is here!

Well... sort of... it depends on what calender you go by: if you're talking months of winter (December, January, & February), then winter is most definitely here; if you go by the Earth's position relative to the sun (solstices and equinoxes), the official start of winter is a few weeks away.

And it seems that Americans do actually chart the seasons by the Earth's position relative to the sun. It's something I hadn't noticed until we were living here and bloggers were talking about the start of summer in late June, the start of fall in October, and no there is almost no mention of winter already being here (except over at Soule Mama).

But for us, it's been winter for a while now... pretty much since it snowed... or the week leading up to the snow, when the north wind was biting and we had ice forming on the inside of our bedroom windows. Big jumpers, boots, socks that that look like boots, and a little boy who actually doesn't really want to go outside are all becoming the norm...

And apparently Christmas is in 23 days... We're not really "into" Christmas, but we still do something, because the day holds many fond memories. I just can't believe that it's that time of year, I mean it's cold, bloody freezing... It's always hot leading up to Christmas... Oh wait... In Australia the days are hot and long in the lead up to Christmas, and when it's not hot, I keep forgetting that it's just around the corner, because it doesn't feel like Christmas. Funny, right.

Winter is here and Christmas is coming, with New Years and birthdays following close behind. It feels weird. Because it's winter, as far as I'm concerned. Christmas and winter are things that happen in other countries, to other people, and yet it's going to happen. And in my mind Christmas (and my birthday) will be coming early this year when my little sister arrives a few days before Christmas.

Winter is here and with it, the last month of 2014. Stay warm, or cool, as required.

Winter came knocking...

As I mentioned yesterday, it's been snowing...

On Saturday we woke up to snow!!!!!!! It was actually snowing!!!!! Light, gentle, slowly falling snow!

There was no way I was staying inside and missing this (Michael initially hid under the covers, but changed his mind).

So, we got rugged up and went out and enjoyed the snow while it's still novel.

Jimmy had a little trouble on the stairs in all his layers, but he did well and made it down without much trouble, thanks to a helping hand from Dadee.

We weren't the first ones out in it, but we were close enough and in some places we were the first (yay!).

The snow wasn't particularly thick, but it was a good introduction for Jimmy. It certainly changed his favourite rock garden.

Naturally there were a few stumbles, but that's normal these days as Jimmy recalibrates how to walk in 3+ layers, with or without snow. Actually, this was the first time Jimmy had gone outside in the Muddlarks a cousin gave us (along with a good selection of clothes that has saved us from buying jumpers, thermals, long sleeve tops, and gloves - and yes, we brought them all with us from Australia), and they were great! Jimmy's legs stayed nice and dry, and presumably warm. We double gloved his little hands too, and his fingers were still warm when we came home.

It was such a quiet morning, even though it was after 9 am. The world seemed to be sleeping, yet it was snowing. It was a little magical.

Michael took this lovely one of Jimmy and me*. It's kinda weird seeing picture of us walking together because he's still so little, yet he's growing so fast.

Our coats caught snowflakes, we crunched the fresh snow with our shoes and in our gloved hands, made a little snow man, and yes, Jimmy decided to eat some too.

I think it's fairly safe to say that Jimmy enjoyed the snow, or at least the excitement and attention of his parents (we kept pointing our cameras in his face because, you know, snow).

We weren't out for long, probably less than an hour, but it was warmer than it has been lately, and it was lovely. We stayed inside for the rest of the day as we had no reason or inclination to go out.

The snow turned to rain, and the sun set.

Sunday morning we woke to even more snow! It had snowed overnight, but the clouds were starting to clear. So, we headed out for our first snowy trip to the shops before the snow turned to mush.

 Michael and I were very excited to see rabbit footprints in the snow just outside out apartment.

Michael was happy with how his bike handled in the conditions.

The snow was thicker on Sunday than on Saturday, but it still wasn't enough to completely cover the grass.

Jimmy was pretty cold by the time we arrived but that's the difference between walking around and being worn (something for me to keep in mind). After helping to push the trolley around he warmed up and was kinda happy to be worn home.

And we did well: somehow I managed to breastfeed Jimmy; and neither Michael nor I slipped on any ice!

According to the forecast we're not going to get much more until Christmas, so I'm glad we made the most of what little there was. And I'm glad it wasn't bitterly cold or super windy for Jimmy's first experience of snow.

*I'll tell you about my hat soon.