Saturday shopping and Sunday spring

Yesterday, we went to Sioux Falls (185 miles one way) to look for a Mother of the Beach Groom dress. The Hub deserves a medal for waiting, mostly patiently, while we visited a dozen stores, and I looked at and rejected 12 bazillion dresses (not so much for style, as color- it's a wedding and I'm the mother of the groom, color coordination matters), and tried on at least 40 before finding one, at the very last store, that will do, though I'll need a different jacket since there is just a tad too much black in the outfit for a joyous wedding (and it'll be a joyous celebration). Here's a rant for another day when I have the ambition to tackle it: every single dress that I tried on was theoretically the same size. Some were so small that I could not get them zipped, some could have doubled as a tent, others were cut so weirdly that I cannot imagine the figure that would be flattered. And here's the biggest puzzle: the number size was the same, but in some stores that was a Medium, and in others, it was a Plus. Gah!

 On the drive down, I finished one sock. I bought this yarn at Great Yarns in Everett, WA. It's lovely stuff, but I only got two balls. I had to use some stash leftover yarn for the toe. Are you surprised that I had leftover yarn that matches? You shouldn't be. This is a basic mitered-square sock: worsted weight yarn, size 5 needles, 3 rows of 5 squares, the rest worked on 48 sts.

 I worked a little more this morning, but I did finish the heel of the mate on the way home yesterday. These will not be identical socks, but they'll match closely enough.

 We drove through some interesting weather on the way home- hail, and ominous clouds. The clouds followed us, and I snapped this shot of a downdraft from our back deck.

 We decided that 6 hours of being on our feet yesterday qualified as exercise, and so we skipped the walk this morning (the iffy weather made that decision a little easier). Instead, we drove around and snapped a few flower pics. Last year,  this crab apple tree had about four blossoms. It may be overcompensating this season.

 Beautiful, beautiful overcompensation.

The lilacs are beginning to bloom

also the flowering crabs.

Such beauty. 

Maybe next week, we'll have some blooming irises.

 The water level in Turtle Creek has dropped (the high water mark is the green line on the peninsula), but it's still very high (it's still at least 15' above the normal level). Turtle Creek flows into the James River, which flows into the Missouri, which joins the Mississippi, along with every swollen creek and river in the entire Midwest. I am not surprised that they're readying for flooding down south. I put on my lawn-mowing shoes and braved the mosquitoes and wet grass to get that last shot for you this morning...

...unfortunately, I forgot to put on my lawn-mowing pants.