COUNTING THE DAYS TO SPRING

Yep, that's what I'm doing, counting the days to spring. I googled and it tells me that there are 37 days, 11 hours and so many minutes and seconds to spring 2018.

I've been rather lazy this winter and neglected my house plants and since we use wood heat in the basement and first floor, the air dries out my plants as I've neglected to care for them like I used to and the soil dried out several times or maybe more than several times... It seems that I'd rather nap than water plants but they are tough and despite the neglect, they are rewarding me with late blooms this year. It could be that they are confused with the weather extremes.

This was a Poinsettia Christine gave me at Christmas in 2016, It was huge but I lost 2 plants in that pot because I let the soil dry, bad me... but it's still put on a show the best it could.

The Christmas Cacti also were neglected but despite their hardship, they survived with a little bit of attention.


The Poinsettias and Christmas Cacti used to bloom on time for Christmas but this year they were late and are blooming now and are not in the best shape but I'll take any blooms at this gloomy time of year.  The Christmas Cacti are almost finished blooming right now. We've had snow storms and rain repeatedly and it will be a long time before the outdoor plants give blooms... Somehow seeing real blooms on my houseplants kinds of gladens the heart.

I did a bit of hooking and I finished one mitten. I have the wrong size knitting needle for the pattern but the woolen mitten fits me perfectly. Now to start the other one.

I hope that you take heart if cold winter isn't your favorite season.
Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.
Hugs, Julia

MR GROUNDHOG SAYS, "EARLY SPRING". DO YOU BELIEVE HIM?

February 2nd is Groundhog Day and Mr. Groundhog certainly didn't see his shadow today. That means we'll get an early spring...  It's been gloomy, snowy and overcast. The weather is rather mild and it's a good thing. We attended a funeral service for a dear family friend who was 99 years young. Adele would have been 100 in May but she certainly didn't look her age. She died two weeks after a fall. After her fall, she decided that maybe it was time to move to an assisted senior complex... Our large church was packed even though it was snowing heavily at the time.

 It stopped snowing for a short time and it's now snowing again...

What to do when Spring is not far away, but it's still wintering outside? I dream of tending my flower gardens of course. If everything goes as plan, I'll be retiring from dairy farming in the spring. I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed. I'm not afraid to get bored as I have more hobbies than I can do even if I lived to be 100.

I've been looking at my seeds catalogs and writing down what seeds I want to buy.

 It's unbelievable how expensive the seeds have gotten since I started gardening many years ago. I only had a few gardens then and with no money to buy plants, I bought little packets of seeds. They were very cheap then.  I remember my first little makeshift greenhouse was a large picnic table turned upside down and I draped it with a large sheet of heavy plastic. I would pull back the plastic in the morning and put it back on in the evening, somewhat like a cold frame and I had great results.
 I'm hoping that I will have more time to do some weed prevention this spring but I'm only dreaming.

I started this little rug April 2017, since the backing was too small for my frame, I basted some wool strips to stretch over the frame.I'll be weeding that grass and try to hook the grass differently. THat baby is sleeping with one eye open, lol...

I've also pulled out my not so great Rock-A-Bye Baby rug and I've resumed hooking the sky. I've been using leftover wool worms for everything but the sky as it was a challenge rug but since our daughter, Nicole passed away, I kind of lost interest and just put it away for a while. It's rather smallish for me as I was using a small leftover piece of linen burlap backing that I had hanging around.

I design all my own rugs and just can't be bothered to buy a ready made pattern. Someday, I may do a portfolio of my hooked rugs, just for fun.

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comments. I really appreciate it when you take the time to let me know that you came to say "Hi"
Hugs, Julia