Melting Snow, Naked Dogs, and a New Project

It’s not spring yet, but the temperatures have been staying above freezing and as a result, the snow is melting. The streets melt and clear first, so people start shoveling the snow from their yards into the streets to melt. Why would they bother? Ten feet of snow in one's front yard takes a long time to melt, so people help it along by shoveling it into the street. 

Yesterday, I saw a dog with no clothes on.  You might think that is not an unusual thing to see, but in Hokkaido, dogs have more clothes than I do.  The pet store has an entire aisle of the cutest little clothes for cute little dogs to wear when they go out for a walk in the winter and even in the summer. The little dog I saw yesterday was brave to be without clothes so early in the year.

I started a new project.  I bought this pattern at a seminar merchandise night some years back.  I think it was in Richmond. The designer is Barbara L. Rakosnik of Periwinkle Promises.  The cover of this little toolie book is something like a band sampler with each band a different stitch: palestrina knots, rice stitch, Montenegrin stitch, Smyrna cross stitch, long and short stitch, wrapped back stitch, mosaic stitch, cross stitch, and padded Rhodes stitch. I have chosen different colors than the pattern and am using DMC floss on 28 count white linen. This is what I have done so far.