What Happened to Spring?

When I left on our Belize trip, the days were gray and rainy and chilly, with the occasional warm, sunny day tossed in as a teaser. I was looking forward to warm, sunny days on the ocean, and after a few cloudy days on land, that's what I got.

The sailing trip was a stunning success. There were quite a few days when all I did was gaze at the water gliding by, mesmerized by the colors shifting from sapphire blue to turquoise to aquamarine. We did a fair amount of snorkeling (or as Tom put it, we "snorked") and saw a large variety of reef fish and corals. We ate and drank continuously, met interesting people, and returned tanned and relaxed. (Note that I didn't try to get a tan; it just happened, even with 30SPF sunscreen.) As we were flying from Placencia to Belize City to catch a plane back to Miami, the ocean merged seamlessly with the sky.

When we arrived at Dulles (at 12:15 this morning), it was raining and in the 50s. Today has been overcast and in the 50s. Shorts and tank tops and bare feet are but a distant memory. I'm back in jeans, polar fleece, and wool socks. In short, I'm feeling pretty miserable right now and jonesing to be back on a sailboat off the coast of Belize. (Yeah, I know...cry me a river.) Re-entry is tough.

Emma thrived under our friend's care, even though she (Emma, not our friend) remained skittish the entire time we were gone. Emma was hiding in the basement when we came home, but after a few minutes, she came upstairs, meowing like her heart would break. She kept walking on me all night long, reassuring herself that we were home. And at 4:30 this morning, she started touching my face with her paws. So much for the hope that she would have gotten out of the early morning feeding habit.

While on the trip, I managed to get a fair amount of knitting done. The first monkey sock is almost complete, with only the toe left to knit. I've knit the toe, foot, heel, and have started the leg on the second Tibetan sock. And I'm working on the second or third lace repeat on the Sterling Lace shawl. This pattern is a pleasure to knit--challenging enough, but not so much so that you need absolute and total concentration. It's a good introduction to lace knitting.

I'll be updating the trip blog over the next couple of days (or weeks) and will post some choice pictures here as well. That assumes, of course, that I figure out how to get the pictures off the new camera.

That's it for now. I hear a mound of laundry calling me!

Happy knitting!