The trees in our area all look like this.  It's beautiful.  The ornamental pear trees and the cherry blossoms.  They look like colorful puffballs.

I love them and hate them.  I love the beauty of the blossoms but the pollen, oh the pollen.  I spent most of last weekend trying to fight off a sinus induced migraine.  Ugh.  Spring has only just begun and the pine trees haven't started releasing their lovely yellow/green pollen.  That becomes thick enough to write your name in on all the furniture in my house.

I have worn my 'workhorse' sweater to work this week since the weather has been cool but not freezing.  It fits just like I hoped and it's warm but not overwhelming.  I am thrilled with it and proud of myself.  And I need a new long term project (I seem to be drawn to them).  I made Emily her sweater for after her surgery ("I'd heal quicker if I could wrap myself in handknit love.....") and I made El her Feb Lady Sweater.  Kate has been waiting for HER sweater.  She is more complicated.  She chose handspun yarn.  Actually, she chose roving for her sweater and a pattern.  I have two pounds of roving, one a dark grey alpaca/silk mixture and the other an amethyst colored merino.  She wants a yarn spun out of one ply of each. 

The original plan was for Kate to spin the yarn and for me to knit her a Riding to Avalon.  That was over two years ago.  I asked Kate how the spinning was going and she hasn't started yet so we decided I would spin the yarn and (hopefully) be able to make the sweater she wants.  This weekend I sampled the yarn and decided it will be a difficult spin. Two very different fibers.  It should be fun.

Tuesdays are my least productive days.  Mondays are always very busy so Tuesdays I have to force myself to get things done.  I often do little bits of things (like cleaning things up or organizing things) because I am a bit brain dead from Monday's back to back clinics.

Today, I spent the day checking up on the Starbucks employees who were redecorating our 2nd floor kitchen and making it into a room that the clients can eat lunch in and sit and relax in and just enjoy.  They took a bland, plain room and transformed it into a colorful area with round mosaic topped tables and a mural on the wall.

These kids (and they are kids) are all employees taking part in the company's volunteer program.  They worked all day together and I didn't hear a single word of discord all day.  They worked cheerfully and seemingly with joy to bring some color into our clients' lives.  They painted the walls a pale pale yellow green and the cabinets a beautiful purple and the colorful mural which is a Philadelphia skyline and positive words with a butterfly and a large shade tree. 

I was so impressed with the work they did.  Say what you want about Starbucks, they are involved in our community.  It's not quite finished.  They'll be back tomorrow.  I can't wait to see how the tables look when they're finished.  Our clients helped with the painting and the children in the children's program did some as well.  Even some staff helped so we can all feel proud of the project. 

It was inspiring.