Ever have one of those days that is just perfect? That was yesterday. It was super warm (50 during the day, up to 60 at night) so the snow melted and we had lots of fog. While I'm not a huge fan of driving in fog, it is beautiful for those of us who don't need to brave the roads.
That's the fog burning off on the railroad tracks. I didn't take the train; I drove. The kids had a scheduled day off from school, so we did some fun stuff. We stayed fairly local, but didn't stay in our town, so we didn't see lots of other kids and we did get lots of questions from adults who wanted to know why the kids weren't in school.
We went to our favorite local independent bookstore. I've been going there since I was a kid. I've always loved it there, and my kids seem to feel the same way, especially my son. He found the books he wanted and took a seat by the fire to read while his sister and I shopped. In the photo on the left, he reminds me of Alistair Cook on the old Masterpiece Theater.
The photo on the right was taken at lunch. We went to an old fashioned lunch counter. There were booths available, but the kids wanted to sit at the counter. They were thrilled that breakfast was still available, and the little man ordered his favorite breakfast, bacon, with a side of toast. The cook/owner came out and chatted with him about his bacon.
After lunch, we had to visit Starbucks to get El Esposo his Guatemala Antigua coffee beans and that led to two wonderful discoveries. First, they have a new Special Reserve coffee from Guatemala, Finca Medina. El Esposo is super picky about his coffee and when he moved in, I bought all sorts of Guatemalan coffee to make him feel at home, and the regular Guatemala Antigua made him very happy. (There is also a Guatemalan blend available in the winter called Casi Cielo, but he does *not* like that.) I bought him some of the Finca Medina. I was going to give it to him right away, but I decided to wait until Valentine's Day. I think he's going to love it. He may even know Finca Medina, as his brother worked for a long time for a company that supplied equipment to coffee plantations, and he travelled all over Guatemala visiting coffee growers.
Our second surprise on the Starbucks walk was Girl Scout cookies. They are here!!! There's a new flavor this year in our area, Mango Creme. We bought a box for El Esposo to try now and one to keep in reserve (probably for Valentine's Day). We got other cookies, too, but I find it difficult to talk about Girl Scout cookies because they have different names in different regions. Even here, girls in different troops sell the same cookies with different names. It's confusing but delicious.
Finally, we ended our adventure with a quick trip to an art museum, where the little guy was excited by Roy Lichenstein's work. He wasn't so much interested in the comic book/pop art aspect of it as he was by the techniques used to make many colors out of four tints using benday dots. We had a fabulous time looking at works of art from close up and then far away to see how they looked different. Then we had to go home because the kids had time with their dad.
I took advantage of my afternoon alone to tackle the knitting technique that I have avoided forever - steeks. I cut the steeks to my Sheep Carousel tea cosy. And the world did not end. The temperature got 10 degrees higher than it was during the day, and we had high wind advisories, but the world did not actually end.
There is the crocheted reinforcement. I have no idea why I avoided this for so long, because it's not nearly as nervewracking as I thought it would be. Live and learn.
There's my little sheep mascot poking his head out of the opening for the handle of the teapot. The tea cosy is done, just need to obtain an appropriate sized teapot for blocking. I have two that are too big and one that is too small.
Television was crap last night, so I snuggled in bed with Loco and my book until El Esposo got home from work. He brought me an iced tea from Dunkin Donuts and he also gave me a croissant with Nutella. We also got some good news about a family member who has been hospitalized for most of the month. It was a fabulous end to a wonderful day.
It certainly was a day for the gratitude jar.
Love those days!
Posted by: Rose | 01/31/2013 at 07:28 PM
Sounds awesome :)
Posted by: Nancy | 01/31/2013 at 11:31 PM
Your day sounds fantastic!
Posted by: Karen | 02/01/2013 at 08:23 AM
What a lovely day. I can't think of anything better than to spend a day with my children. Love that tea cosy. One of these days I must muster up the courage to cut my knitting as well. I know intellectually that steeks make life easier, but I still haven't the guts to actually try them.
Posted by: Teri | 02/05/2013 at 01:22 PM
THAT sounded like a perfect day!
Posted by: PJ | 02/17/2013 at 03:03 PM