Impatient for Green

We have had almost two weeks of thaw.  Yesterday the thermometer made it past 60°F.  Today it's more seasonable, but it still melting out there.  I get a little depressed when I'm driving around town.  Downtown, most yards are almost empty of snow.  The light is definitely stronger and longer, and the avian population around my yard is definitely excited.  Yet my yard is still full of stuff that used to be snow.  It's now more of a dingy blanket of  coarse ice crystals.  It's only when I compare then and now pictures that I see progress.

This was my yard 6 weeks ago:

From 2011-02-02

From 2011-02-02

Here it it is today:

From 2011-03-19

From 2011-03-19

From 2011-03-19

There IS a big difference.   I  can see that, when I compare the pictures.

There is hope, however.  I spied this on my way in from getting the mail.

From 2011-03-19

"The Sun is A-Shinin' to Welcome the Day . . . .

And it's Heigh-ho off to the Fair!"

My mom used to wake us up singing this little song to us. Haven't thought of it for many years but today the sunshine is brilliant, and it's supposed to be in the 50°'s - a regular heat wave. The roof is a-drippin' as the snow melts and there are puddles everywhere. Can spring be far behind?

I would normally be heading off to church this morning, but with the time change and the number of tasks still to accomplish before 5 am tomorrow, I've decided to play hooky. I need to get at least the barest minimum of housework accomplished (unpile the table so that we can put our plates on it!), grade a couple of stacks of papers, and plan out my social studies for the week. I also need to get some birthday cards addressed, and some gifts wrapped, and I need to finish laundry. That's what I NEED to do. I also WANT to finish the sleeves on the sweater I'm knitting. I started a tunic sweater in the round on March 1st. The entire body is finished - all I need to do is knit 1 complete sleeve and 4 inches of the other sleeve and then attach and block. For some reason, the first sleeve has been a bear. I can't figure out why either since it's being knit in the round and it's a knit 4 purl 1 pattern. I had about 10 inches knit when I realized that I'd done the increases wrong. I had forgotten to knit into the back of the stitch when I did a make 1 increase and that's why I had this rather lacy eyelet effect going up the underside of my sleeve. It looked terrible! So off to the frog pond and start again. That was Thursday and Friday night's work. Last night I was going along nicely when I realized I'd messed up the pattern, again due to the increases, and now I had a zig zag effect rather than a fanning spread as the sleeve increased. Rip-it, rip-it, rip -it. I started again, and now am happy. I have about 4 inches left on this sleeve and then the other one. I had hoped to finish the sweater this weekend, despite the detours, but then ended up with a ton of school work to do.