Let the leg shaving commence!!!

I think it must be official by now - we've had lovely sunshine all week, I've seen my first butterfly (one of the pretty red multicoloured ones too) and several large bumbling bees careering into plants and windows as they get used to flying.

SPRING IS HERE!!!!!

And about bleedin' time too.

Talking of bleeding, I decided that last night was going to be The First Leg Shave Of The Year, in recognition of the fact that, once the temperature starts to creep up over 12 degrees centigrade, I ditch the fleecy-lined joggers and fetch my creased cropped trousers out from the back of the cupboard, and wave goodbye to socks for several months.

I tend to leave the old leg hair to do what it wants over the winter period - I look on it as providing additional warmth (very welcome this past winter too).  I wear trousers all the time and TLH doesn't look at my legs anyway so no-one is going to notice that my lower half resembles a goat, until it starts to get warmer and I have to shed some layers. This means some serious depilation.  And usually blood.

This year I didn't do too badly, look:

Just a bit of mild grazing to one side of my shin - a bit sore but nothing I can't deal with. (God, I really should have photoshopped that so it all looks less ham-like....)

Today was also The Ceremonial Opening Of The Bridge Door.

When the weather allows, the bridge door is tied open to the handrail from morning till night. It makes access and egress so much easier for the cats and means we no longer have to act as their unpaid doormen.  Which gets more than a little tiresome.  So with the door open, everybody's happy!

The sharp-eyed among you might have noticed the crocheting on the table in the picture above.  This is the blanket that I'm making for our bed.  Kella - I remember you wanted a picture so this is the work-in-progress:

This is one of the, um, bits of it, sewn together but not blocked yet ('blocking' is where you pin out your work to the size you want - I use an ironing board - then steam it with an iron and let it dry while still pinned out.  When it dries it will be flat and the size you want.  You just use the steam and don't actually press down with the iron at all.  I use a hairdryer then on mine to dry it quicker, works a treat!)

This is the other section that I have blocked, you can see the difference in the size.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with how it's going so far, although I do tend to like chucking all the colours I have at it.  I'd like to experiment with using a more restrained palette at some point.

So, all in all, I'm quite a cheery bunny at the moment - I'm starting to make headway planting seeds for the allotment, and yesterday I took along 10 examples of my stuff (jewellery and suncatchers) to the Cranleigh Art & Crafts Society Spring Exhibition.  Hopefully I'll sell a few things and I can put it towards my handbag fund!

Anyway, I'll leave you with this picture of a very serious Sylvester enjoying the shed (while we still have one).

Hope the day is being kind to you too.....