The February spring fake out

 I meant to write on Friday. Really, I did.  Swearsies. I had the day off from work, since I had put in so much extra time in for the special issue we were working on. I also planned to record a flosstube. I had written notes and everything. 

Then I woke up on Friday feeling terrible. My last blog post I mentioned my hubby picked up a bug from work.  I was unsuccessful in evading this one. I still feel slightly rotten. 

Since I didn't feel up to making a video I decided to do two things and call it a day. 

The first thing was to go haul out my seed collection. 

Have I gone through it yet? No.  I've decided it is still a bit early. 

I picked up the tip to keep a paper calendar like this from a homesteading youtube channel a few years ago.  I marked the weeks leading up to my last frost day. 

I even grabbed my three ring binder. 

And the seeds I already purchased. 

Then I sort of just stared at everything for a minute, contemplating which seeds I'm going to start first. 

I already know I'm not going to repeat what I did for the garden last year, which was focusing on tomatoes and peppers.  I'm going to scale back a bit and add variety back in. 

The other thing I did was spend some time out in the she shed. Things got a little messy out there post-holidays and new year.  I was moving things out there and just setting things down, willy-nilly, and things got a bit out of control. 

So much better! 

I also filed in some floss that needed to be put away. Floss that was picked up for future projects and left over floss from recently completed projects. 

This is my DMC collection. 

The bag of floss? That is floss for every Mudpuppy Stitchery chart I owned, as of last year. I took the time to go through each chart and figure out how much floss I'd need. When I say I'm set, I'm set! 

Friday was the start of some really nice weather. The temperature hit a high in the mid-40s F. It was nice. 

Saturday was more nice weather.  Oh! Such nice weather! 

But let me tell you, the early day weather was a bit ... unusual. The sky was clear out where I live. Then we drove up over to Duluth to do some shopping.  As soon as we hit the outskirts of Superior there was a fog bank. 

As we were coming down the hill I noticed the top of the high bridge was poking out of the top of the fog, and I tried to take a quick photo. 

Never, ever have I seen the bridge like this. The other structure is some sort of elevator, down by the docks. 

When I was moving photos around I had to stop and really look at this photo, because I didn't recognize it.  Then I saw the high bridge and it all started clicking. You can't tell in the photo, but that street is going downhill. 

We made it back home at a decent time in the a.m. and my hubby decided to run the tractor and move some snow around. 

The tractor is so nice to have.  

While he was playing in the snow, I decided to go out to the greenhouse and look for my soil blockers. 

Yes, still buried in snow.  I was able to slide open the door and get in. 

First thing I looked at was the thermometer. I did NOT feel like 110 F. 

It did feel good in there, though.  I stood in there for a few movements, enjoying the solar heat and sun rays. 

*sigh* I'm already picturing those benches full of 1020 trays and starts. 

When I stepped back out of the greenhouse I turned to the garden and was trying to gauge how much snow was left in the garden when I noticed a hole in the snow. 

Very odd. ... what could it be, making that mess and eating acorns? 

The rest of Saturday I rested and cross stitched.  I completed my February Cat piece on Valentine's Day.  I "woo-hooed!" and sent a picture to Patty, who I'm doing the stitch-along with. 

Oh, and before I forget, we did remember it was Valentine's Day.  With both of us sick with The Plague, we didn't pay much attention to it. Not to mention, we've been together for 101 years and we do nice things for each other all the time. 

Sunday did not disappoint, weather-wise.  When the sun hit a certain point in the sky we sat out and basked in it. 

The girls LOVED the sun and the warmer temperatures. They demanded to be let out as soon as it was light out. 

They enjoyed some sunbathing, too. 

Today I woke up still feeling crummy, sneezy, runny, and all the other dwarfs that would be appropriate in describing cold symptoms. Work was quiet.  We have a good start on the next issue. 

I spent some time this evening working on my "A Daily Reminder" by Brenda Gervais before writing this blog post. I hear we are supposed to get some snow last this week. Bah! 

I strongly suspect I'm going to take it easy this week, after two weeks of a decent amount of work stress, and now whatever bug I have. I'm really hoping to be over this bug by the end of the week. 

Sun!

 

Just look at the noon day sun. It was marvelous to be out in.  I took this photo when I went out at lunch time to take care of chicken chores and let the girls out. 

The temperature hit a high in the lower 30s F today. Which, I think is about 0 degrees C.  Am I right? 

The girls enjoyed it. 

I tossed a bit of corn out there and they were all over it. 

That blue sky ... 

Okay, enough marveling about the blue sky and sunshine.  

The week that I thought was going to be busy is starting to slow down. I'm very thankful. 

Monday was publishing day and it was *crazy*. And long. I haven't put a day in like that since I don't know when. Tuesday was a full day, playing catch up, and then some.  Today I had a work meeting in the a.m.  Nothing pressing the rest of the week.  Hooray! 

I've spent the last few evenings working on my February Cat by Happiness is Heartmade. This is a cross stitch I'm stitching along with my friend Patty for her birthday stitch-along.  I started this back on Feb. 3. 

This is my progress so far. 

Patty is already done with her piece and it looks fantastic.  

As she reminded me, it's not a race. Even so, I'm hoping to get it completed by this weekend, and maybe finished in to a pillow. Just in time for Valentine's Day. 

Oh, look. It's a Maeve granny square.  I'm about halfway done with my fourth one. Just a share to show I'm not hyper focusing on the cross stitch. 

I'm also slowly plodding along with my Battenberg squares. No photo update.  I'm still using the same yarn I've shown before.  Until I get something new to share, I will do so. 

Let's see, what else have I got going.  Nothing. 

I'm hoping for some spare time so I can start making a game plan for seed starting.  I'd say maybe this weekend, but I remembered it's Valentine's Day this weekend.  Which I forgot about until I was chatting with my hubby and son and my son made a comment about where he was going to be this coming weekend, and I was like "Why?" and he said "Valentine's day," among other things. ... I was like "Oh, yeah." I have no idea what our weekend plans will include. My poor hubby is sick. So maybe not a terribly romantic weekend.  

That's okay.  I still love him, and he still loves me. 😊 We tell each other that every day of the year.  

That's all I got for now. 

Light at 5:30 p.m.

 Earlier this week I bopped out the back door to go take care of some outside chore when I realized it was way past 5 p.m. and it was still light out. 

I had to stop and admire the still-lit sky for a few moments, before running in to the house and grabbing my phone so I could take photos. 

For so long, it felt, that the darkness at 5 p.m. was going to last forever. 

In the busyness of January I did not notice that the days were slowly getting longer. 

It felt wonderful when I realized the days were indeed getting longer. 

Then I walked up to the back door and noticed foot prints in the snow.

At some point the ladies, aka the chickens, decided to come up on the deck and check things out. 

Their foot prints always look so much bigger than their feet are. 

This past week was indeed a busy week. When I wrote on Monday I said the day didn't go quite the way I thought it would, and that I felt the entire week would be busy.  

I sort of nailed it. It was a busy week and by the time it was done I was *so* tired. 

Tuesday I had a doctor appointment. The waiting room at the clinic has an amazing view of Lake Superior. 

I took three photos to show the view.  It's really amazing. 

When I looked down at the lake, and saw all those chunks of ice, I swear I could see them swaying in the water, and I felt a little motion sick. 

On my way back to the skywalk I was admiring the art pieces along the way. This one in particular caught my eye. 

Yes I took the skywalk to and from the parking ramp. Normally I just go down to street level and cross the street to the clinic. It was cold out and I decided I didn't want to be in it, so I took the skywalk and it probably added at least three-fourths of a mile to the trip each way. 

A quick shot of downtown Duluth. 

I wouldn't say I ended up wasting a day on the doctor appointment, but waiting around for prescriptions to be sent to the pharmacy sure wasted a lot of time. 

By the time I got home it was time to start supper. 

I turned on Youtube and started watching Corrina, and was tickled to see that we were both making pizza. How funny is that? 

My pizza turned out good. 

After I was ready to settle down in for the evening I started a new project. I'm doing a stitch along with my friend Patty, for her birthday. 

I got a respectable start going. 

Thursday and Friday are a bit of a blur.  I was knee deep in work during the day, and I did some crafting at night. I was so tired in the evenings, though, I didn't get much done. 

When I signed off for work on Friday I was almost giddy. 

This weekend has been nice.  Quiet. I think I caught up on sleep. 

The sky Saturday morning. It was beautiful. 

Saturday I decided to do something I haven't really done for a while, despite what I may have done last weekend.  I spent the morning baking.  I was trying out new-to-me keto "bread" recipes. 

I'm not going to bother sharing this recipe.  It flopped. 

This recipe is one a friend shared with me. It's like biscuits.  Good, but not quit hitting the spot. 

The best recipe of the day? It's a recipe I've made before and it's SO easy. 

I think it's called 90-second bread. It's the round piece below the bread knife. An egg, almond flour and butter. Oh, and some sort of leavening agent. Best bread texture out of everything I've made so far for a bread replacement. 

Today was a pleasant one. Ran to town early in the a.m. and got that all out of the way.  Took care of some stuff when I got home, and then sat down and stitched. 

When I finished stitching "Portrait of a Snapping Turtle," (Yes, you read that right -- it's done!) I did some stitching on my February cat stitch.  And watched some Fr. Brown.  It's been ages since I've watched Fr. Brown. 

After Fr. Brown was done I decided to throw on an episode of Supernatural. 

Okay, a few blog posts ago I mentioned Supernatural and one of their cases being in Hibbing, Minnesota.  Since then I've noticed the Winchester Brothers spend a LOT of time in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  The episode that was playing decided to have them in Duluth, Minnesota. 

That hit close to home, literally and figuratively. ... 

In the episode I was watching, Dean was trying to get the GPS on Sam's phone turned on, and saw he was in Duluth, I guess. 

This is a photo I took of the tv screen. I been in or through all the towns shown on the screen. 

I guess that was the high points of the last week. This next week is looking to be a busy one, too, but hopefully not as busy and I'll have time to record a flosstube and some things in order. 

I did no crafting today

 I know.  Crazy talk. It happens once in a while. 

My whole day went not the way I was hoping it would.  I thought I'd record a flosstube during my lunch hour.  I ended up working through my lunch hour instead. 

The next issue will be a special issue and I wound up knee deep in paperwork for ads. Which is great -- we need ads. It was getting a little confusing and I had to think of a system that helped ensure I didn't lose anyone. I was sending emails back and forth all the way up til almost 5 today. 

And then I had a mess of things to take care of after work. So, no crafting.  It's probably good to give my hands a rest anyways.  I suppose I did enough crafting last week. 

Speaking of last week ... When I sat down to start writing (which seems really weird to say "write" when I'm typing) I realized I didn't do a mid-week update last week. I must have just thought the update. 

A few photos because I can't remember the daily-doings ... 

Bright sun mid-morning. It was still pretty chilly out there. Probably still down around zero degrees Fahrenheit. 

I'm still cranking out the crochet squares for my Battenberg blanket. I was cozied up under one of my blankets. 

Saturday I decided homemade french baguettes sounded *really* good.  So I made some, with the help of a breadmaker. 

They turned out so good, and were delish!

Earlier in the week I was working on bowl cozies. My sister-in-law reached out to me, asking if I'd make her some.  I said sure! I'm going to keep the fabric a secret for now, just in case she reads the blog. I want her to be surprised. 

Kitting up a cross stitch project using my new handy-dandy floss winder.  I also made up some floss drops. I'm going to be doing a Farmyard Friends cross stitch start-along with Alison, over at MrsAZFamilyZoo.  We are still deciding on a date to start. The Fat Quarter Shop is doing a stitch-along for this chart, but not until April. When April comes along, I'll probably be busy with gardening stuff. 

I broke down and purchased an external hard drive for the Macbook. It has made ripping audiobooks to our iphones SO much easier.  Why didn't I do this sooner? 

And yes, I'm still cruising along on my "Portrait of a Snapping Turtle," by Mudpuppy Stitchery.  

 If I'm a very good girl and spend all my time stitching it, I may be done with it by Sunday.  Or, 200 stitches a day, at the very least. 

I'm trying to be more frequent in my writing.  It hasn't been easy when I've been so in my own head lately, thanks to the cold weather and lack of outdoor chores. 

It will soon change, though. ... garden season is soon upon us. 

I follow a Canadian gardener/influencer because she's basically in the same growing zone I am. 

Last month she put this out on her socials:

I am happy to say that I got a few things checked off that list. I purchased my first seeds of the garden season.  My seed starting station is set up and I'm reading up on some how-tos for starting some new-to-me seeds.  

Over the weekend she popped up a new task list. 

I still need to go through the seed collection and see if there is anything else I need to purchase.  For the most part I think I'm ready to do. 

Looking ahead to the rest of the week and I suspect it is going to be a busy one. And then maybe because I said that, it will be very quiet. 

One can never know. Especially when the universe laughs when you attempt to make plans. Am I right? Or am I left? Ha!