Hard to believe since there is still so much snow on the ground, but the local TV station is reporting the current temp as 44 degrees and climbing. If you can’t wait to see buds blooming, (and there’s a woman in Western Washington – you know who you are – who can’t!) you can click here to follow a map showing the progression of tulip blooms from south to north. Oh, I wonder if our 2nd and 3rd year tulips will bloom again? Will the bulbs we planted much too late last year do anything at all? Either way, I can barely wait to find out.
What kind of flower are you?
My friend Fran over at Redondowriter posted a link on her blog that caught my interest. We are all ready for spring, if not downright anxious to see winter leave. Yesterday, H and I took off with his mom and sister after church to pay a visit to the Como Conservatory. It was a glorious day to soak up the humidity and the color, to let green imprint itself on our souls again after four months of snow on the ground. In the spirit of the season, follow the link below to find out what kinf of flower you are.
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I am canna lily. I can’t seem to find anything about their meaning. OK, I haven’t looked all that much. But I do love the flower and have often thought about planting them, just haven’t gotten around to it. What kind of flower are you?
You know you’re a real Minnesotan when ….
It’s sometimes hard for me to believe my own self, given that I famously complained after leaving San Francisco to move back to South Florida that I would never live in a cold climate again, but I am as much of a Minnesotan as any boy from Florida could ever be and my experience this morning confirms it.
You know you’re a real Minnesota when …. you take the dog out for the last piddle of the morning before heading off to work and while standing out in the yard waiting for her to do her business you find yourself thinking …
Well, it is 9 below out, and I suppose I should be lamenting how cold it is like so many others are, but the sun is out and the wind is calm and it’s really quite a nice winter morning, don-chya-no!
So, thereyago. We will leave for another day my favorite Minnestoa-ism which is “fer cute!” (And if you are from Minnesota, you know exactly what that means and how to use it.
Socks done!
Here is my finished first pair of socks! I stayed up late putting the toes in and kitchener stitching them shut, but I just couldn’t stop where I was! Anyway, I am wearing them this morning, because they are warm, they are cool, they are mine, and I made them!
Christmas Present
I woke up this morning and stepped outside with Beulah only to find the most marvelous snow falling – big, sticky snowflakes that clung to everything like buttercream frosting. I thought I would share with you some pictures from our lovely morning.
Scene from our front door.
An eight point buck in the back yard!
Beulah Mae with her gorgeous self posing in front of the fire.
Cletus us obsessed with both the Christmas trees – this is the simple one with only lights and non-breakable ornaments we have upstairs. If it makes it through the season, it will be a miracle, what with Beulah and Cletus both chewing on it every chance they get.
A bit of parting beauty.
Where have I been?
Several of you have wondered, and rightly so, just exactly where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to. I’d love to tell you that I was visiting some exotic locale, or involved in some enthralling project that had so captured my imagination and energy that I was creatively consumed. Alas, that is not the case. Us Leos don’t get “down” very often, so when we do it can sometimes take us a while to recover. (Thank goodness our naturally sunny disposition brings with it strong powers of recuperation.) In my case, November was just a icky, distracting, stressful month – Thanksgiving being the one true exception. I wasn’t blogging because I was using all my energy to maintain some semblance of balance and not keel over due to my lack of equilibrium. A rare confluence of stressors combined to create the “perfect storm” of psychological distress and it has taken me awhile to get everything sorted and back to where it belongs. I dare say I’ve turned a corner now though, so that is the very good news. Christmas is such a cheerful time of year, despite its demands. And my birthmother arrives tomorrow for a three day visit, which has brightened my mood considerably and giving me something to look forward to with joy. So stay tuned, as the days pass I hope to be back to blogging more regularly, and for those of you who have expressed your concern, I thank you from the bottom of my truly grateful heart.
Winter Beauty
If I could explain to you how wondrous the hoar frost looked this morning, I would try to tell you how it looked like a silent hand had passed over the landscape through the night, flocking each bare tree with delicate flakes of diamond-like crystals, so that when the sun rose their brown bones were transformed into twinkling winter magic, ice reflecting the radiance but not containing it. It is a very small thing, to be awestruck into silence by the simple beauty of the rare hoar frost. But it was enough to encourage my soul’s pilot-light of hope into a stronger flame.
That is what I would tell you if I could.
Country Threads, Garner, Iowa
(Click on the photo to see the slideshow of our trip!) On Saturday I headed down to Iowa with three of my quilt buddies, Joan, Karen and Dawn. It was a perfect fall day for a car trip. We were off for Garner, Iowa, about 145 miles from my house, and a fabulous quilt store on a little town west of Clear Lake. On our way back, we stopped in Northfield. We were going to go to a yarn store called Cottage Industry, which we discovered had closed over a year ago. So we went to Digs instead. They took over the yarn stock of the place that closed. What a fun little store. Actually, all of downtown Northfield is fun – great little shops along Division Street. If you haven’t been, you should make a day trip of it. Just don’t show up at the Indian restaurant expecting to eat between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm. They won’t be waiting on you.
WOW 2007 Quilt Show
Several weeks ago now I attended a quilt show given by a local guild to which several of my friends belong. The name of the guild is “Women of the West”, or WOW as they are known to many. I’ve been terribly tardy in getting the pictures off my camera and onto my site, but I offer these two links for you to peruse. The first link contains some of my favorite quilts that were on display. There were dozens and dozens more, but I couldn’t shoot them all: http://www.fiberguy.com/slideshow/slideshow.html#id=wow2007 The second slide show is from a “bed turning” they did at the show. The folded back each old quilt over the bed, and told it’s story, where it was from, how it was made, what people remember about it, etc. It was most fascinating. Almost a “quilts as journals” type of thing. http://www.fiberguy.com/slideshow/slideshow.html#id=bedturning Enjoy!
Blackberry Hills Farm Open Studio
A couple of weekends ago, I traveled to Wisconsin to visit the Blackberry Hills Farm open studio event. I had never been but I had come across a flyer for it at the Minnesota State Fair when I visited the booth for the Minnesota Lamb and Wool Producers Association.
Karin and Helen petting the farm’s friendlier llamas.
The cream colored llama was not a happy camper!
A stunning vista from the hill at the top of the farm, where the house and studio are located. Isn’t it beautiful?
These are the hand-dyed yarns I bought from their studio. They are, from left to right, (1) a fingering weight sheep’s wool/mohair blend for a pair of socks; (2) an alpaca I’ll probably use to make a hat; and (3) a llama that I will definitely use to make a hat to match the socks!
