Visitors

Recently we have had some rare visitors. Two weeks ago a trail of new tracks came from the forest to our yard, something bigger than the usual hares.

 

In the front garden it looked almost like little children had been skiing there, spoiling the virgin snow cover.

Then we had a better look, measured the marks and checked with a book "Tracks on Snow": Not a deer but an elk! We know they live in the forest but this was a first visit so close to the house.

A week later another new visitor came: Melanie came to celebrate our birthdays. I'm five days and some  many years older than she, so Friday was just fine for our birthday cake. It was wonderful to finally meet her in person after five years of blog friendship. I was so happy to notice she was exactly as I imagined her.

On Saturday we took the train to Järvenpää and started our tour with the number one on her wish list, Villa Cooper. As you can see, we had beautiful weather for our walk.

Just some Easter pictures from the inside. Decorated twigs like the ones children would bring you on Palm Sunday with their blessings in exchange for some chocolate eggs.

Lovely white feather wreath.

I think I will leave the rest of my tour pictures until Melanie has shown hers on her blog so I don't spoil her surprise. This is what I knitted her for her birthday, to make sure she will survive our cold March days during her visit. I'm slowly learning the toe to top method of knitting socks, but I'm still having difficulties with determining the distance from toe to beginning of the heel.

 

With these yellow tulips from my sister I wish you all a Happy Easter!

 

Tracks on snow, and finally a finish

It has been so long since I last posted, there just haven't been any new finishes to show. I have been knitting squares for a blanket using leftover yarns and some unexpected finds from my stash, but on cloudy days taking photos is a nightmare. A couple of days ago this leftover piece of the moon was still on the sky when the sun was rising.

 

 

The nights are cold here, around -20C/-4F, when the sky is clear. Cold weather means the birds need nourishing food, so the woodpecker had some fat with seeds to keep warm.

 

 

Yesterday we had a snow shower that covered all the old tracks. Look how many hares, squirrels and birds have been running and jumping in our yard after that:

 

A hare's footprints closer, the smaller prints are from the front legs.

 

 

Here is finally my Helping Hands quilt with binding and label. The striped fabrics are all pieces of Egyptian scarves from Melanie, who made a quilt with her friends' hands in applique almost two years ago. I finished this top last summer but somehow it just became a WIP.

 

I used my scarf pieces to make this quilt. It will end up warming somebody, who needs a helping hand. I remember that Simone used her pieces for a scarf.  - Yes, we have this much snow left, it is still very much winter.

 

One last snow picture from some time ago. Can you guess what has been going on here?

 

 

Two hares (or one, making two rounds) have come running from the left and sliding down the steep slope. I have heard of otters playing like this down the riverbank, but not hares. I hope they had fun!