When you get up early in the morning, totter out of bed to throw on clothes to beat the rush to the farmers’ market, and find yourself outside still essentially asleep in the pouring rain, expect that you aren’t going to be making the clearest of fiscal choices.

I admit that after a long winter of eating apples (nearly every day) and beets, I was ready for spring veggies. But my resolve was weakened by the rain and the sleepiness and I totally just ran from stand to stand exchanging my cash for beautiful edibles.

By the time I came home, the market basket contained:

• Morels (mushrooms only found for a month or so this time of year in our area)
• Ramps (ditto)
• Spring garlic
• Spring onions
• Garlic chives
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Grape tomatoes (greenhouse-grown; we aren’t that far ahead of the Northeast!)
• Cheddar
• Milk
• Blueberry scones from Dani and Eric
• A croissant (to sustain myself while I walked around)
• Pea vines
• Green rhubarb
• Asparagus
• Lilacs

(Forgive me; I meant to take a picture, but I was more concerned with getting out of my wet clothing when I got home.)

No, it wasn’t inexpensive. But I’m going to bet that the omelets Rudi makes with the morels, spring garlic, and ramps tonight to be served with a side of asparagus in lemon butter are going to make me grateful for every penny I spent.

Five hours of hoeing and mulching and planting in the garden on a warm, sunny day + four hours of sleeping curled up in weird positions on the couch as the rain dripped down and thunder crashed = a very sore sprite. Plus I have a cold lodged in my sinuses and I can’t imagine that’s helping.

On other fronts, I went to a Ravelry party this evening where I managed to part with two garbage bags’ worth of yarn. Granted, most of it was a very thoughtful find of Rudi’s mom that I’d never intended to add into my stash. I mean, it was fluorescent worsted weight wool. Electric purple, lime green, neon pink. Okay, a little bit was Christmas colored, but still… I didn’t need it and couldn’t imagine what to do with it. It has been collected and will probably go to Girl Scouts who are learning to knit and who will be over the moon to play with the fun colors. I’m glad.

The other wool I gave away was several gigantic balls of bulky weight grey-green yarn that a friend had sent me when I first started knitting. Her friend had knit a sweater, been frustrated by it, and frogged it, leaving the unknit yarn with my friend. My friend hoped I would be able to make a sweater with it, but I just don’t think I’m meant to wear a bulky-weight sweater. I come with my own bulk and I just can’t see that adding to it does a lot for me.

But I do feel a lot better for having given all that yarn away. I’m eager to get into my stash and see what I actually have in there and to get some new projects underway. I have some linen that I’d like to make a summer sweater with and lots of gorgeous sock yarn that is just begging me to pick a pattern and to start carrying them to work with me for lunchtime knitting. Sweetpea is talking about knitting a lot of single socks between now and midsummer and it strikes me that might be a fun way to go about things.

D.C. has a strong legacy as an African-American city, but in some areas of the city you have to go hunting for the remnants of it.

The Charles Sumner School was built in 1872 as one of three public elementary schools for African American children in the city and graduated its first class five years later.

Named for abolitionist Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, the building was designed by noted D.C. architect Adolf Cluss. Noted for his use of brick, Cluss also designed Eastern Market; the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Museum and Arts and Industries Building; Foundry Methodist Church; and, possibly, the Marine Corps Barracks. The Sumner School won a design award at the 1873 Vienna Exposition.

Sumner School, which stands at 17th and M streets in Farragut, was built on the site of another school for African Americans, which itself was constructed only in 1866 by the Freedmen’s Bureau. When it opened, Sumner was the city’s most modern school building.

By the the time it closed in 1978, the school had fallen into disrepair and was slated for demolition. A community effort saved the building, and a $5 million renovation allowed it to become the multi-use space it is today. The Sumner School now houses a museum on public education, the archives of the D.C. Public Schools, and meeting space.

Check out the others playing along: Sweetpea, Ms P, Rudi, and Hillary in D.C. and Mia in Frederick, Maryland.

I’m sniffly and a little grumpy tonight, but thinking about beautiful things always makes me feel better.

Here are three from my last week:

1. Good news for three friends. John’s bid on a condo was accepted and he is going to be a homeowner. The ad copy for his Cap Hill condo described it as “geeked out” with “killer rooftop views.” Elspeth got the new job she’d been hoping for which will take her back to the former Soviet nations. [E, is the job in Ukraine or Azerbaijan?] And Sarah’s boyfriend’s job is almost certainly taking them to Peru for three months at the end of May. Such good news for everyone! (But I will miss you all!)

2. Gramma and I sit. We talk some, but there isn’t a need for it. We’re comfortable in our own skins and with each other. We read, we watch the birds, I knit, she does crossword puzzles. We drink tea and eat cookies. But mostly we’re just together and that’s enough.

3. Karen and I had a late lunch in Sturbridge and ended up at the East Brimfield Dam. We explored the dam and marveled at the lofty black clouds overhead before hurrying back to the car to avoid being caught in a downpour. When I pointed out the neat way the evergreens stood out against the deciduous trees in that light, Karen realized we were getting an even better show — a double rainbow!

(Click to enlarge the shot.)

What’s beautiful in your world?

I decided we hadn’t played the spin up the iPod game in a while, so here are the ten songs my music player thought you’d like to hear:

1. “Splendid Isolation” — Warren Zevon
2. “Whole Wide World” — Wreckless Eric
3. “Lawyers, Guns, and Money” — Warren Zevon (hmmm… I have been in a Warren mood recently, but it seems odd that my iPod picked up on it, don’t you think?) (Also, don’t you think that this would make a (sadly) appropriate tagline for D.C.? Although maybe more in the ’80s than today. Maybe now we’d substitute “Overpriced Condos” for “Money.”)
4. “Rescue” — Lucinda Williams
5. “The Whole World Round” — RedBird
6. “Cowboy Singer” — Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
7. “Cross of Flowers” — Jeffrey Foucault
8. “Wide Open Spaces” — Dixie Chicks
9. “Mary Blaize” — Kate Rusby
10. “Little Earthquakes” — Carrie Newcomer

Can’t you imagine the movie that accompanies this soundtrack?

What does your music player think we’d like to hear?

In case you were wondering, my Christmas knitting is done. (I hope.)

I reknit Gramma’s beret while up in Connecticut and left it blocking on a plate in the kitchen. I hope it fits better than it did the first time, when it was simultaneously too big and too small. (I know!) Since I was fighting the clock (and the cabbie who was waiting patiently in the driveway for five minutes unbeknownst to us), I didn’t put the cute little stem on and I didn’t snap pictures. Hopefully when Mum gets home, she will a) report back as to whether it actually fit and b) snap a picture for me (particularly if it fits this time around).

These pictures are from the first time I knit the hat. As you can see, we suffered a sad loss during the knitting process. Luckily, I learned from the mistake and used a metal size US0 to help me with the K3togs this time. It slowed down my progress, but all my needles are still intact.

Also done are Mum’s Monkeys:

I believe that it’s Posh Yarn Saskia in Serendipity (a cotton/silk/cashmere blend), although the eBay seller I bought it from listed it as Lucia in Highland. A bit splitty, which is no surprise with cotton-based yarn, but otherwise quite nice. It had a particularly nice hand, and the colorway worked well in the Monkey pattern.