Taxes, Shmaxes

It's officially Tax Day and I just right this minute completed our filing. This counts as the latest I have ever filed, and I think very nearly the latest for Shana! E-filing makes things so easy when your taxes are not complicated. I may need to make a few adjustments to the way I am paid because we did owe a bit, but no serious issues. We are now filing everything jointly and it is much easier and cheaper.

I am assuming spring is continuing here. Although there is snow in part of the country today and we are meant to have a freeze tonight I think we are safe. Our low temperature tonight should be no less than 30 and with the rain we're having this evening I think we will be safe. Nothing much is up and we are not foolish enough to buy any super tender annuals so early. I have planted peas, lettuce, kale, parsnips and radishes, but they are all seed and tough enough for these conditions. I have things blooming but they are small enough that you just about have to crawl on the ground to see them: some spring ephemerals whose name I do not know, hyacinth, and pulmonaria. Grape hyacinth is near to blooming, and the forsythia while very late promises to be spectacular.

Our major spring projects are nearly all scheduled and ready to go. We'll have our new privacy shrubs before the end of the week and the house and deck washed shortly after. Next up fencing and house painting and then all the uproar will be done and we will be ready for summer. The dogs have hovered between joy and hysteria with visiting workmen and deliveries of outdoor furniture. UPS put an outdoor rug rolled up on the front porch and Mitzi was ready to lose her mind barking at it until I took it around to the deck where she could not see it. Roxy is not nearly so excitable as she has seen everything. She has just been enjoying seeing new people, and many more men than she usually encounters.


In knitting news I have finished the Clapotis I was knitting from my Christmas yarn, and have already worn it. The yarn did pool as much as I expected, but it is working well with the diagonal nature of Clapotis and I am satisfied with it. There is enough yarn left over for a pair of mitts which will be an easy project. I've got a shawl on the needles right now, and my Lovebird Mittens which at the moment need a lot of concentration. I think if I add a stitch marker where I change from back to front it will make it easier to tell where I am by counting fewer stitches.



Next week I fly out to visit my family. I hope they will be as happy to see me as I am to see them!