Snow in April and other bizarre occurances

So, this weekend was full of people and less work than normal, and yes, snow in April. Mid April, no less. How can this be? I keep telling people at work that we'd better gear up to get saved from the weather by Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhall.

Mom came up for a visit this weekend, and we had a really lovely time. On Saturday, I awoke to this:

not a lot, but enough to make a cold ride to work

This is the orchard across the street from our house, covered in a light dusting

see the roof behind the trees?

I went to work, and did the first part of my morning shift. Of course, I didn't bring my camera with me, so I don't have any cool pictures of the sudden snow flurry that happened while I was there. Once again, nothing really stuck, but it's pretty surreal to see a bunch of people walking around the corner my shop is on, staring up in amazement at the giant white flakes swirling everywhere. It snowed so furiously for a little while that it was like being in a big snow globe, with big, fat, beautiful flakes.

After work, Mom met me at the shop and we walked to the Farmer's Market. (Once again, I was busy doing something else while the snow was falling, and therefore missed the chance for pictures of Bellinghamsters shopping for fresh produce in the middle of a snow flurry, with little kids hula hooping and catching snowflakes on their tongues!) You'll notice another bizarre thing about these pics... they were taken about 20 minutes after the snow stopped.... the ground isn't even wet! it was like we dreamed the snow, although I can tell you we didn't dream the cold, that's for damn sure.






I especially liked this one of the giant movable owl sculpture. It was built on a wheelchair, for easy mobility. I think it was made for the "Parade of Species" parade, where people dress up like animals and run around downtown. It's a real hoot to watch. The number of dragons last year overwhelmed me a little bit, seeing as how they kind of, well, don't, um, really exist.

He's a bit hard to see, but he's so impressive!

Mom loved the Market, all the artsy people and the close community of like-minded people who try to shop locally and reduce their "planetary footprint". I held my friend Annie's baby (who my mom wanted to steal) and Mom finally got to meet Kate from Spin Cycle, and fondle their yarn. She bought herself some lovely golden brownish wool from a colorway called "Foxy Brown" that I really hope she uses soon, to make herself a fantastic something-or-other. She was enchanted by some enameled metal jewelery my friend Jamie makes at her own company "Laughing Raven Designs" and she bought herself a pendant I have to admit I'm a bit jealous of. It's two sided, one side being a dark tealy green glaze, the other a bright green with a tree and raven etched onto it. Quite lovely, and it looks fabulous on her.

After the Market, we wandered over to Northwest Handspun Yarns, and mom bought me some Misti Alpaca Handpainted yarn, so beautiful, so expensive. Such a luxurious gift. I can't wait to get it on my needles. I'll take some pictures of it and the rest of my haul later. After that, we enjoyed lunch with Jill and some craft book browsing at Barnes and Noble. I got some knitting books that I've been coveting. That night saw us watching the Tudors (I got mom addicted) and knitting while John made us a delicious dinner. My hubby is a winner.


On Sunday, John and I took Mom out to brunch at Bayou. They have, hands down, the best Eggs Benedict I've ever had. I was really glad we got to sit upstairs this time, because it has one of my favorite views in Bellingham.

I love that the bay is just peeking out, like it and the sky are a part of the mural

John was in top form, amusing the lovely miss Katy, who joined us



I caught him in a rare moment of silence, staring out at the Bay. I know I'm biased, but I really love this photo of him. It kind of makes my heart do a little skip thing every time I look at it



I, of course, had coffee with breakfast, and the light on the table was really interesting to me. I tried to capture it, and didn't really do it justice. (Also, for the record, Mom hates having her picture taken. The ends of her fingers are in the top of the shot, and that's the closest I came to getting a picture of my Mother this weekend...)



After breakfast, we came home for us to take some pictures of some of my Mom's knitting crafts. She is starting her own Etsy.com site, and she needed some pictures of the work she's ready to sell on there. She got her small business license, and is just now getting all the stuff together! I'm so excited for her, you can bet I'll be linking to her shop when it's all set up. For now, it's called "Simply Inspired Knits" but I think it may be changed to "Compelling Knits" or "Compelled to Knit" before she sets it up. I dunno. She'll let me know, I'm sure.

Ive been avoiding actually doing my homework, but it's time to pound it out before I head off to school. I hope things are going well for you, peanuts. I'll try to talk to you again, soon. I've started carrying my camera around with me more often, so hopefully there will be more blogging in the near future.