Snippets from home...

 Winter has arrived!  Very cold nights and early mornings, but some nice sunny calm days...

a rare foggy morning

Good working in the garden weather...

preparing the raised garden bed Marnie brought over from her garden

Read these recently...

from the Mennonites (Rod and Staff publishers)

And I'm halfway through this one, set in Paraguay...

also from Rod and Staff

And these two from the library...

Recent op shop finds...

the little dish (that actually says 'jam') is for my salt

Working on this sleeveless vest for granddaughter Hazel for her birthday in August...

And a plethora of unfinished projects... (interestingly the word plethora came to mind.  I sort of knew what its meaning was, but I looked it up just to be sure...)

Plethora: a very large amount of something; overabundance; excess; especially a larger amount than you need, want, or can deal with.

Haha!!!  Spot on!

In the meantime, I continue to try and get some things finished before I start something else...

This was a bag of 50 new crocheted squares from the op shop for $5.  I thought I'd sew them together.  Now I know why they were at the op shop!  Not that there is anything wrong with them, except that there are 50 of them, and they are edged in black, which is very hard to see to sew up.  But I'll persevere... 

This is my 'Deloriane blanket' which I work on when I need a break from one of the other projects...

This will also be a lap blanket.  Eventually...

And this one for Wrap with Love charity just needs a few more ends woven in and a border done.  Maybe if winter last for a couple of years, I'll have enough longer winter evenings to work on them all and get them finished...

And I won't even mention the sewing projects on the go!! (sigh)

Looking very wintery down at the river the other day...

I often feel the urge to re-read the Little House books in winter...

"Next day another blizzard came.  Again that low, dark cloud rolled swiftly up from the north-west till it blotted out the sun and covered the whole sky and the wind went, howling and shrieking, whirling snow until nothing could be seen but a blur of whiteness.

Pa followed the rope to the stable and back.  Ma cooked and cleaned and mended and helped Mary and Laura with their lessons.  They did the dishes, made their bed, and swept the floors, kept their hands and faces clean and neatly braided their hair.  They studied their books and played with Carrie and Jack.  They drew pictures on their slate, and taught Carrie to make her A B C's.

Mary was still sewing nine-patch blocks.  Now Laura started a bear's-track quilt.  It was harder than a nine-patch, because there were bias seams, very hard to make smooth.  Every seam must be exactly right before Ma would let her make another, and often Laura worked several days on one short seam..."

(from On the Banks of Plum Creek)

 

And this From the Prairie: A Child's Memories: by Joan Vibert, (unfortunately I can't get the link to work, but it's on Amazon)

January 4, 1883  I hate snow.  I went out with Pa this morning to feed the chickens.  the snow was so deep that Pa had to carry me sometimes.  My scarf blew away and Pa had to run and get it.  I was in the chicken house all by myself and the chickens were pecking at me and flapping their wings.  I ran outside to call Pa.  He was at the food bin and I could not find Him.  The wind was so loud and Pa could not hear me.  I hate chickens too!

(by 8 year-old Sarah Jane)

So much to do and so little time...

I think I need a cup of tea :)

xx