woollies and bullies

 Happy New Year!  I like to start my resolutions a few days early in order to get a "running start," so I'm thrilled to have already finished 2 books and 1 quilt this year.  One of my goals is to finish what I start, and this log cabin quilt has been languishing for months and months.

It's an odd one.  I loved the idea of using various yellow scraps...

...and had been inspired by this quilt.

photo courtesy of Felicia's World

I bought a special ruler that enabled me to whip out strips of yellow easily, but what I didn't realize is that those strips were twice the width of the Felicia's World strips, so the overall effect is a bit more blocky and clumsy.  However, I'm thrilled to have it done and learned a lot by making it.  On to the next one!

Other projects...it may be winter, but I already have an eye toward spring gardening.  I've been watching an occasional gardening video in my spare time and have steadily been adding seeds to my already-bursting stash, like this silver sage 'Argentea,' known also as Hobbit's Feet, with its huge, woolly, silvery leaves.

photo courtesy of The Impatient Gardener

Or this odd amaranth ('Coral Bells'), which forms pom poms of dusty pink that look fantastic in bouquets:

photo courtesy of Floret Farms

I'm already looking at my existing garden with a critical eye, waiting for a non-freezing day to dig up some bully plants, like this evening primrose.

Sure, they look beautiful in bloom, but they don't bloom for long.  The rest of the time they look scraggly and weedy.  And, they're huge bullies.  You can see below (in a lousy cell phone pic) what I mean.  The red-enclosed plant is the original planting of evening primrose.  The purple circles show its spread, crowding out other plants.  I'm going to dig up the entire bed here, even if it means having to dig up the other plants and re-plant, just to rid myself of this pest.

Another way of satisfying the winter gardening itch is to play with indoor growing.  I got an Aerogarden for my birthday and it's humming away in my craft room, slowly germinating cherry tomatoes, mint, basil, dill, and oregano.

It's easy to play indoors, because outdoors isn't very inviting.  First came the rain...

Then fog...

...then flurries which led to the usual light dusting of snow that disappeared in a day (that's a pile of gravel, not snow, by the barn!)...

...and ice.

The birds don't seem to mind the cold and are out in force.  I love looking for the red ones, which provide that nice pop of color against our skim of snow:

Claudia, however, isn't too keen on it, and spends most of her time in the little insulated porch house.

Inside, we've taken down our Christmas decorations, then Todd burned our Christmas tree.

After Halloween...boom!...Thanksgiving...boom!...and Christmas...boom!...I'm glad to have a blank, peaceful month.  Now we can work on our winter projects by the fire, catching up on old T.V. shows in our flannel pjs.  Spring will be busy, so this respite is much appreciated.

Have a great week!