what we have here is a failure to communicate

I was just reading back through old blog posts, and found the tale of my epic hike through the snowy woods of Ducktrap, ME. My ringing declaration at the end – with new snowshoes under my arm, BRING IT ON WINTER – chimes rather thinly now. I never bought those snowshoes, and I got sick and then the snow melted and the late winter/early spring blues set in. I ventured into the woods so infrequently throughout March and April that I am almost embarrassed.

However, what with work making a more thorough invasion of my life in the last couple of months, I find that I can’t be bothered to feel too badly about my under-utilized legs (and camera…). My adventures in reading have nearly made up for the lack of adventures in my physical life, and now that the weather has improved significantly I have gotten a couple of hikes in and am pretty eager to play outside more.

Thank goodness it was rainy on Tuesday though, so that I could spend the entire day with an advanced reading copy of Kristin Cashore’s new book Fire – the prequel to Graceling! (While I may not be a book blogger popular enough to regularly receive ARCs, now and then I do have very good connections. You know who you are – thanks!) Fire was totally fabulous, and it was extremely gratifying to find that I can still get through an entire book in the space of a day. Since I do feel a little awkward about ARCs, more on Fire when I reread it in October. 🙂

Besides lacing my hiking boots back on, this week I have pulled out needle and thread and sewn together a couple of teeny tiny quilt blocks. Don’t ask me why (why quilting and why mini) – the inspiration just struck me. After spending 6 1/2 hours at Our New England Country Store and 4 hours at Reel Pizza Cinerama, and even though I greeted the world around 6 o’clock in the morning, two nights in a row now I have stayed up late giving myself eye strain (and avoiding reading Proust). Last night I went so far as to sew said quilt block while watching Spartacus – another 3 hour epic delivered by Kubrick. Over-industriousness has stung me!

Nothing else very exciting to report -oh, except for this super interesting project that a fellow reader, writer, and knitting genius is working on. I discovered The Family Trunk Project through Emily’s book blog, Evening All Afternoon. She is designing garments inspired by members of her family tree, and has collected biographies and stories about them which accompany the projects that she has completed. You have to check it out! I wish that my knitting skills were up to trying several of her patterns. Who knows, once the quilting bee has buzzed away perhaps I’ll pull out bigger needles and got for it!

Crafting, reading, hiking, watching movies, trying to slide a little sleep in there edgewise – life goes merrily on. 🙂