Spring - has it sprung?

Is it winter again?

Yesterday I managed a bit of pottering in the garden - all the pots were looking very sorry for themselves, so I wrapped up and tidied and planted until my back decided enough was enough.

It makes me so happy to see all those green shoots peering through, asking if it's time to wake up or can they have a bit more sleep.

Lovely!
There's a real old mixture in each pot, obviously daffs and tulips, I think some crocus, lots of pansies that have survived the winter and goodness knows what else. Mum brought me several packs of bulbs months ago, and I am ashamed to admit they were planted yesterday. Bunged in, in my usual manner.

I have LOADS of bulbs still to plant, I intend to fill every single plant pot out there with pretties.
I also bought a tree.
Smallest garden in the world.
Tree.
Oh yes.
A Japanese Acer, which I hope will add a splash of colour - it's going in a black pot with bulbs around the edges.

But hopefully not this big.
Unless I get the house too ....

Ever such a slight difference today -

from this:

to this:

It's that thin sort of snow, not the big fat floofy flakes, but it's coming down quite heavily. Thankfully I nipped out yesterday so can sit and watch it rather than walk in it today. Or go to bed, which is my plan in a minute. I love my bed.

I finished seaming a jumper the other evening, this was fun and easy knitting, and grew quickly. I didn't expect it to be flattering (chunkyish wool, grey) but didn't QUITE expect it to be as lardylooking as it is, but it's warm. That will do!

It's from this. Nice book, but I am a little disappointed if I am honest, maybe I hoped the lardremoving fairy would magic away my dumpiness and make the jumper look better than it does.

It's supposed to be festooned with buttons, but I don't think there is any point as I only plan to wear this for slobbing in.

Ah yes, It's also meant to be a dress.

Maybe if I make it from a nicer wool, the correct length, it might be worth wearing in public, with buttons... in it's favour, the sleeves are a good fit, especially around the set in sleeves:

and I like the flared cuffs. I also like the neckline, although if I do reknit it one day I would do a few k2togethers in the middle front to stop it gaping.

At least it is something finished.

My hands are pretty dire at the moment, the new drug RoActemra doesn't seem to be doing much yet. Reassuringly, the lady who goes at the same time as me for the same treatment is also having very little improvement. Obviously I hope she DOES improve as I wouldn't wish this pain on anyone, but I think you know what I mean. If she had been running around the ward doing handstands I would be worrying about my lack of progress!

So far, I have seen the following:
angry red spots on my shoulders
lesser but equally annoying spots on my chin and side of face
exhaustion
weight gain
a tooth fell out (absolutely nothing wrong with it when I went for a ccheckup recently)

So at this rate I am going to be totally round, with a face full of spots and no teeth. Nice.

My RA nurses are fabulous, but blimey the consultant who was there last week was a plonker. He looked drunk / doped up / half asleep / all three, and very scruffy.
After spending 40 minutes wondering if I was having a bad reaction and should I be allowed the drug, wandering about, sitting down etc, (him not me) he finally gave it the go ahead and recommended I take anti-histamines each day. Gee, I hadn't thought of that ...

Handies, particularly my fingers, are too sore for much today - typing is ok, gripping anything is not, so not much knitty etc going on. I have chosen my colours for the throw we are knitting over on Ravelry:

Luuurvely.
Cascade220, the pale pink in particular is so pretty.

Thassit for now, Mr Postie has just brought me all sorts of delights (or bills).

Keep warm.

What the!

Most bizarre. My tinternet hasn't worked for a while now, thank you BT you total munters, and I just gave it a try -

lo and indeed behold, I seem to be able to get various blogs to load but nothing else!

What's all that about then??

edited:
I seem to be able to connect to google, and Google based blog and nothing else - they try to load but fail. I also - most frustratingly - cannot get into my email. This seems to be a common problem, the irony being I can Google 'can only access Google sites' -

BUT CANNOT READ THE FLIPPIN' ADVICE!

Ha.
Any help very gratefully received!

PS - the February square is knitted and awaiting typing up; will aim to get it on here during this coming week (Thursday is hospital / drip day, so ideally I will do it before then).