Snow and Wool

First and foremost, I owe many thanks to many people. Thank you for your kind words about Auntie. B was able to attend the funeral in Tulsa and said it was a lovely service. I also wanted to thank those of you who provided some very helpful information towards our coming Southern Utah vacation. This weekend has been set aside for making arrangements and reservations. And finally, thank you for the nice comments on my last couple of projects. Blogging has been relatively hard for me lately. I'm not really sure why. I have lots to say and I even take photos and think of things I want to blog about, but then when it comes to sitting down and doing it, I just don't. Consequently, when I do finally blog, I usually brain dump on the page and am not mindful of the last thing I posted or the courtesy factor that is part of this online community. I think a lot of it is from being overworked (but that's easing off again) and the emotional ups and downs as of late. Anyhoo, I do hope to be a little more active in the future.

As for what I've been up to...B and I were fortunate to have been able to take advantage of the end of his spring break to head to the mountains. This trip had taken on many incarnations during the planning processes, but in the end it was just the two of us. It was definitely spring and the valley you drive through to get to the mountains was actually hot. You can see where the snow is starting to thin on the mountain range leading up to Mammoth Lakes and the ski area:

But, the snow conditions in Mammoth were amazing. It was warm (actually a little too hot when you don't have a decent spring jacket) and the snow was still soft. It didn't get icy until late afternoon when the shade started to reclaim the runs.

B and I boarded again and had a great time. I wish I had more action shots this year, but we were really busy with our lesson. B was the class star and I, well, um, I needed some extra assistance. We learned how to transfer from our heel to our toe edges and then back again. Then we put everything into linking turns. It felt really great when I got it right but there were times I just couldn't get my legs to do what they needed to do. I discovered later that it had a lot to do with how cluttered my brain was with other concerns. Too close to the trees, too steep, or too icy and my brain just couldn't add all the turning movements into the mix. But when we got to big open easy spaces, I could actually do it! Lucky for me B got the boarding bug and he is already excited to go back next year. Yay!

As for knitting, I had really hoped to finish Aftur in time for our Mammoth trip, but given my work load at the office, I didn't want to push my luck in the hand injury department. But I did get a chance to work on the colorwork in the evenings a bit and a little in the traffic on the way home. Here's a little preview:

Aftur is now finished and blocked and I hope to be able to take some photos this weekend. We are expecting a little modest weather here in the next day or so, so I may take the opportunity to try it out while I still can!