In my slow era

Yet another blog post where I'm not sure how to start it. 

Also, I was *so* sure I wrote earlier this week. I just love how I keep thinking I written things out, but not actually doing it.  

I admit it, the month of February has been pretty crazy and I think (I hope) things are finally starting to calm down a bit. 

The new med seems to be helping. Thank goodness. I'm still sort of holding my breath, though. March 1 marks the two year anniversary since the health stuff started up. Two years. ... I'm still marveling over that little bit. 

Today was a quiet day.  I woke up.  Maybe a little testy. ... but that went away (I think) after I got some coffee in me.

I woke up to it snowing. More snow. *sigh* Not a heavy snow, but enough to put a damper on doing anything outside. 

What did I do today. Well, very exciting stuff, I tell you.  I tidied up the kitchen and took a sauna because I thought maybe that was helping me feel better. I still have the dregs of the cold, or whatever it was. That was about the extent of the excitement. 

I did a wee bit of cross stitch this evening, and that's about it. 

Oh, I've been crafting in the evenings.  A little bit of this. A little bit of that. Not with any real intensity, however.  Last night I started cutting fabric for some project bags. 

I started the year with the mindset of crafting whatever I felt like, when I felt like it.  I'm still taking that to heart. I just feel .... "meh" right now. 

Lie to me and tell me it's the weather. Winter, low barometric pressure and being stuck indoors? 

Or, maybe I just have burn out. That's a thing too. Burn out from work. The last few months there's been some work-related stress. I've mentioned the possible changes and that there are different scenarios my work could take this year. 

So I'm thinking about taking a week off from crafting. Kind of a reset, maybe.  Or maybe just put aside what I'm currently working on, and focus on something else? I'm in the homestretch to starting the first batch of seeds for the 2026 garden season. 

Okay, so maybe not expect too much out of me this next week.  Even though I am *way* overdue for a flosstube. 

All right ... so this last week ... well, it's mid-February.  Ash Wednesday and Lent started. False spring ended. We are right back to typical winter temps. Though the end of this coming week is suppose to have some nice temps. 

Remember this photo I shared in my last post? 

This was about the same area yesterday, no fog banks to obscure the bridge. 

What a difference, right? We drove up to Duluth yesterday and I thought to take this photo, to share what the area looks like, typically.  You can see how grey and dreary the weather and sky has been the last several days. 

And just to completely mess with the timeline, let's go back to earlier in the week. 

Nothing much going on.  Some crafting in the evenings.  A bit of crochet in the morning.  

I was informed of snow that would be happening Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, or so. I kept checking the weather, and then the radar after seeing some local news people talking weather on the book of faces.  Then scratching my head because I just wasn't seeing anything on the radar.  I decided we'd just have to wait and see. 

Woke up on Wednesday and not much had happened. 

You can see my car did not get much new snow covering.  It was warm enough and what snow that came down was heavy enough that the solar panels sort of self-cleaned.  This photo was later in the morning. Close to 9 a.m., I think. 

My hubby went to work.  He made it to the edge of town, managed to turn around without getting stuck, and came home.  The closer you got to Lake Superior, the worse the weather was. 

I was supposed to go to the dentist.  I rescheduled my appointment and took a vacation day. 

The snow that did drop on my area was so full of moisture it bent this sled.  I know it doesn't look like much but that is a heavy duty sled we've been using.  I put it in the trailer to keep the tarp from blowing away. 

Looking over to the garden. 

Looking towards the driveway. 

Just heavy, wet stuff that froze solid as soon as the temps dropped. 

This photo is for my friend Ruth.  No pretty snow in the trees. No winter wonderland with this one. 

Thursday, however.  It was a different story. 

I had to go to town for my dentist appointment, so I was cranking along, getting work stuff taken care of, and then had to plow the driveway because the plow had gone by and socked us in. 

These photos are also for Ruth.

My drive to town that day.

The highway was pretty clear.  That bit was nice. 

However, one car slide in to a ditch on Wednesday, it looks like. 

The roads in town were terrible! 

I took a swing by the cemetery, to visit my mother-in-law, completely forgetting that I wouldn't be able to actually walk to the gravesite because of the snow.

You see the shepherd's hook? That's where I would have had to walk to. In kneedeep snow and I was only wearing tennies. 

So, instead of visiting, I stayed in my car and played some Allison Strauss music, on of her favorites.

Dentist went well. And then I was on my way home. 

A little bit of work on my Daily Minder, by Brenda Gervais. 

Friday was work and that was about it. 

Well, a little bit of knitting was done.  I worked a bit on my Armande cardigan. 

And that was pretty much the extent of the week. 

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.