The Sap is Rising
We've had about a week of temperatures above freezing during the day. The snow is retreating and today the first snowdrop is allllmost open!
The tough little snowdrops are about the only flowers that bloom for me this early, but spring is coming.
I can tell smell because at night, the skunks are coming out of their winter dens, phewww!
The bark on the willow trees and red osiers is getting brighter, and it's still light in the evening when I leave for work.
That means it's time to tap the sugar maples.
It's a good sign when you start to drill the hole, and sap leaks out with the sawdust on the drill bit. Now I'm sorry I didn't put my tap in five days ago!
Maple sap runs in the spring when the daytime temperature is above freezing and the nighttime temperature is below freezing.
Once the nighttime temperature also rises above freezing, the sap flow will start to dry up, and then it will be time to pull the taps.
As long as we get enough sap to boil down to a pint or two of syrup, we'll be happy!
On the knitting front, I've been turning a Goodwill sweater (too short and too wide to wear) into cakes of yarn.
The sweater tag says "100% lambswool". It's very very soft. I'm thinking mittens for next winter.
I've been reading the current issue of Piecework (my mom extended my subscription for Christmas: thanks, Mom!) and the special Knitting Traditions issue that I bought with a gift card.
And I've been knitting a third pair of Wool-Ease-footed socks.
I need to get back to knitting on the Stargate before the weather gets so nice I want to spend all my time outdoors ruining my hands in the garden.
So what have I been doing? Looking through my stash of Valdani crochet thread, thinking about this year's Valdani bag.
I've decided not to cast on for that until I'm casting off on the Stargate. I'm hopeful that having that treat waiting for me will keep me moving toward the final rows.
Labels: spring, sugaring off
posted by Alwen | 2:42 PM
8 Comments:
It was very springlike here today, HURRAH!! I haven't seen that issue of Piecework yet. One of our local libraries has a subscription and I borrow them from there, but I bought the Knitting Traditions as a treat.
Ok, now I envy you - the sign of spring I mean. Here is still tons of snow, and it will stay at least until middle of next month. Great socks you are knitting, beautiful colors!
After two weeks of dreich, most of it rain, thank goodness (if it had been snow we'd have been buried), we had a gorgeous weekend with temps in the 50s. I celebrated by drying six loads of laundry outside.
That is one heckuva big maple.
I won't really get a chance to ruin my hands in the garden for about another month. And am I ever looking forward to it!
I love seeing the crocuses (croci?) coming up. They're little heads were peeking up through the snow. I also loved seeing the snow retreating and the brown and abused lawn start to reappear.
That sounds like the perfect inspiration to finish your socks. It's definitely looking like spring there! And I'm loving that particular special issue myself -- I want Turkish socks very badly right about now...
I'm glad you're getting signs of spring coming. We had the start of cooler weather bang on 1 March (official start of Autumn). It's kind of nice, and at the same time kind of a nuisance working out what to wear to work - it's so changeable and can get quite warm in the middle of the day too.
Snowdrops in the Bronx came out last weekend. It was very exciting for all of us.
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