The birds

This has been a swampy sort of week so it was really, really nice to be treated to a special swap present courtesy of a friend from Knitting and Tea and Cookies:


These birds (in cuddly, foodie, drawer-openy, and book form) are so perfect for the spring theme of this swap and I'm so thrilled with them... thank you so much Kathy!

Particular excitement: the pie bird. I have always wanted one. I love pie and have accumulated all the pie baking essentials you might need, including a special pie cutting and serving tool which I used for yesterday's quiche - but no pie bird! and now I do.

Maybe at the end of the month I will have time to bake a pie to celebrate. Or maybe to cry into: my driving test is a week from today.

Wondering how that is going?

Well, I still have not figured out how to knit and drive at the same time, but I have learned how to drive without panic and even to change lanes that way. I can get on and off the highway without indulging in my usual sound effects of ACK or gah! or eep, and seem not to have sprouted any new gray hairs as a result.

All of this puts me in good stead but what doesn't is the new discovery that I will almost certainly be asked at some point during the test to back into a parking space - uphill. Either in a parallel parky situation, or a between-two-cars-with-another-behind kind.

This of course means that just taking your foot off the brake is insufficient to move the car. One must also press the gas pedal, which in my otherwise lovely vehicle results in this:

nothing
nothing
nothing
nothing
JOLT

So far, the jolt has not resulted in collision, but it did once put me up over the curb which is an instant fail if it happens during the test. So I have my work cut out for me, and that means a lot more of not knitting, just when I need it most.