Brrrrrrrrrrr

Welcome to my life today.  It looks beautiful but it's wicked cold.  Here's what I saw when I went out to feed the birds this a.m.  The shadows even look cold!

What a way to begin a new year!  So cold here ... yesterday it didn't get above zero!  Yikes!  This a.m. it was -9 when I got up to make the coffee and it's getting colder as the day progresses.  But we are safe and warm here and still have plenty of bread, milk, chocolate and TP.  So it may be a couple days till we go forth, but then it will probably only be because we're tired of being "stuck" at home.  I hope everyone who reads this is also safe and warm and has electricity!  That has been a potential problem we should prepare for here ...

Thought I'd begin the year by showing you what I've been doing to pass the time cooped up here on top of this hill in Greene County ...

Well, one of the things we enjoy doing to pass the time is work on jigsaw puzzles.  Here's one we finished recently. It was quite challenging.  The one we're working on now looks like Santa's big bag of toys for all the good little girls and boys.

And of course ya gotta eat!  Wendell is the best biscuit maker. The other night he made some to go with a stew I fixed for dinner and I thought these looked as pretty as a picture.  I've been doing lots of comfort food meals these past few days.

I like to pretty much always be occupied with some needlework.  Here's a pillow I just finished.  It's a Maggie Bonanomi design, from one of her books, and done in mostly hand-dyed wools.  Very simple and quick to make. 

We feed the birds and I think it's really important to keep it up, even if it's soooooo cold you don't want to go outside to do it.  But yesterday the gold finches acted like they were starved!  It was about -14 so maybe they were.  Anyway, I know this isn't a very clear picture but I was amazed at how many were hanging on to the old feedbag!  At one time we counted 10!  Today the feeding frenzy has slowed down somewhat.

TA DA!!!  I finally did it; I finished this white-on-white yo-yo quilt top I've been working on for (literally) years.  I remember taking some to Green Valley the first year we went there -- that's how long I've been working on it.  2,444 yo-yos if I did my math correctly.  What can I say -- "thank heaven's it's done!".

We bought a wonderful assortment of fruit from Holden Abrell, representing the FFA at OVHS.  It contained three bags of apples, a bag of oranges, peanuts, some fudge, and a lovely pineapple.  So yesterday I thought, "how can I heat up the house a little and accomplish something, too?"  So I made an apple pie with some of the Granny Smiths from that assortment.  Now my usual MO is to buy the crust (because I am not a good pie crust maker).  But I didn't have any on hand.  Wendell got me this wonderful collection of cookbooks/DVDs from the TV show America's Test Kitchen for Christmas.  And he thought I should/could do it from scratch.  Bottom line, it SEEMED like it would turn out badly but it turned out delicious.  So glad we did this.  Together.  But I must say, it's lookin good in this picture!

This makes me want to cry.  This is the way I often get the main course done all year round -- Wendell cooks it on the grill.  Don't think that's happening any time soon on this grill!  Oh well ...

 

P.S. -- Wanted to post this pix of the way Wendell wrapped my Christmas gift this year; he says he saw this idea in Country Living?!  He made the handle.  What a guy!  I didn't even know he LOOKED at "my" magazines.  It must be love ...