A Taste of Spring in February

What an amazing weekend we had at the cottage - soon to be house.

Saturday and Sunday were picture perfect with clear blue skies and warm sun that really made you believe that spring is right around the corner. We skiied to the end of the lake yesterday and took another walk today.

I tried to take a few pictures with my blackberry to show how amazing it was, but the one that I like best is this one - our shadows on the snow with the tracks of countless snowmobiles showing through. Quite textural really - I'm thinking there's a rug in here somewhere.

Speaking of which, I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours in the early morning of each day to spend some time on the Max rug. More logs - more on Max's incredibly long legs, and by Saturday afternoon, I was ready for something else. I had been thinking of adding a chipmunk to the scene and it seemed like the perfect time.  I figured he could be poking out of a big knot hole and would look perfectly at home here. He was drawn and hooked in just over an hour, and he was definitely a welcome break from the large areas of directional hooking that this project needs.

Here he is. He's really kind of cute and it's amazing how tiny he is in comparison to his larger friends - just the way he is in the real world.

I am probably only two feet from the bottom of this rug now - which means 4 feet are already hooked. I was really hoping to have this piece finished by the time we moved up, but if the work begins on the basement next weekend, I'll be moving my frame upstairs to a temporary location. And probably getting less hooking done than usual.

Next week is the beginning of March, which will also be the beginning of some serious preparation for the move. Not only do we need to purge and pack here in the city, but we really need to do the same at the cottage, too, to try to make as much room for incoming stuff as possible.

Twenty-six years in the house and twenty at the cottage means two places with pretty much everything we need. And that's at least one too many of just about everything.

Except hooked pieces that is......