Blossoms and boats and basil

On Thursday I decided to go into Portland on some errands. Portland is a lovely, small city with beautiful old architecture, and I always love being there, but I find I don't go in much any more. Not to just browse, anyway. A friend and I keep saying we're going to take a day soon and go to Portland to poke around in the shops in the Old Port area. I hope we do just that.

On Thursday I had specific destinations in mind, though, and more shopping to do once I left Portland, so I used my time wisely. My first stop was D Cole Jewelers, in the Old Port. It's a great jewelry shop full of  beautiful items, much of it handmade by D Cole. I was in search of some Pandora beads for birthday gifts, and I promptly found what I wanted. Actually what I really wanted was to linger in the shop for hours and select dozens of beautiful items for myself, but that was not to be.

After I left D Cole, I drove up to Congress Street and headed toward the east end of the city. KnitWit Yarn Shop (http://www.yelp.com/biz/knitwit-yarn-shop-portland) was my destination. I'd heard of this yarn shop awhile ago and had been wanting to check it out. Mainly I wanted to check out their Quince & Co. yarn, (http://quinceandco.com/) which is a Maine yarn spun in nearby Biddeford. KnitWit is a nice little shop brimming with natural fibers, my favorite. I ended up purchasing a rather elegant sock yarn, which I absolutely did not need. Then I headed out to the Maine Mall area for yet more errands.

I stopped first, though, to snap a photo of these beautiful cherry(?) blossoms at Eastern Cemetery.

Then last evening it was back to Portland, this time with our friends, for dinner at DiMillo's. Since DiMillo's is a boat (ferry, rather), converted into a restaurant, the views of Portland Harbor are always interesting. Here we have some of the more modest boats anchored at the marina. On the other side of the restaurant many very luxurious yachts were moored. Hmm. That lifestyle must be glamorous!

I finished the "Easy but Looks Difficult" scarf (http://luisafelice.blogspot.com/2012/01/easy-but-difficult-looking-scarf.html) on Friday. It's a basic feather and fan pattern, and it's free. I used a Cascade Heritage sock yarn (merino wool and nylon) in a deep teal. It looks royal blue in this photo, but it's a deep teal, trust me. The pattern is a four-row repeat with only the third row being slightly, but not very, challenging. The scarf is 60" long, so that was the challenging part.

And the basil! Yes, the basil! It lives! Not only does it live, it's starting to thrive. I transferred a few of the seedlings into 4 1/2" pots last week, to see how they'd do, and they're doing darned well. I now have about 25 pots a-thriving and will prepare more once I find out the total number who've registered to attend the spring convention on April 28.

To be honest, though, I'll be glad to get the basil out of my house. It's taking up precious space, for one. For another, we had a long spell of little sunshine and chilly temps, and that caused me much worry as to what this basil will look like when sitting in party favor gift bags at the big luncheon. I'm beginning to gain a little confidence in it this weekend due to the lovely sunshine and warm temperatures. It's supposed to climb into the 80's tomorrow.

That's the news from here.  Wait! One more thing. I know it's aggravating to have to type in squirrly-looking letters before posting a comment on my comment page. I'd like to remove this requirement, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to do it. I've combed the inner workings of this blog relentlessly but come up with nothing. If someone can tell me, clearly, how to remove the identifying letters, I'd sure appreciate it. Also, suddenly I can't shrink the size of the header photo. The option to shrink it showed up briefly, then disappeared. I think I have gremlins toying with my blog.