Monday, 1.10.2021 Winter Has Arrived

 Hi Everyone!  I hope you are all staying warm and cozy on this cold, cloudy day!  Atleast that is how the weather here in SC is.  Yesterday it was 71 degrees and today it is 43 degrees!  The weather here has been so weird lately.  One day it even was 80 and 2 days later it was in the 30's!  Oh well, it could be worse.

I have really been knitting alot lately.  After I took all my Christmas down, I just felt like knitting.  I am working on a shawl called Boneyard by Stephen West.  When I'm done with this shawl, I'll be starting another one with a group of friends of mine.  We will be knitting at our homes all over the USA but we will be posting on a special group post of our progress.  We will also be knitting in all different colors from each other.  It should be really fun!

This is the Boneyard Shawl I'm working on now.  It is still on the needles and not opened up all the way.  When I'm done I'll post a better photo, but this is it for now.

I got all the Christmas things down about a week after Christmas and then I took the tree down a week after that.  Everything looked so bare, but it is getting back to normal now.

This is where my tree was in my living room.  It is so nice to knit or read here.  The light is great here!  I missed that when the tree was up.  The tree was really nice in the front and side window though.  It looked so pretty from outside!  I love the Christmas tree lights at night.  I even put them on sometimes during the day!

We had a warm spell here in SC.  One day it was in the 80's!  My parsley and broccoli started growing again and the broccoli was producing heads.  I cut all the heads off (left the side ones so more comes on).  The broccoli was so good!  Nice, tender and delicious.  I always steam my veggies and this was so tasty this way.  

Broccoli in the strainer and parsley on the paper towel.  I dried the parsley and I will be using it soon.

I now have an orchid and an amaryllis getting ready to bloom.  The amaryllis is blooming now and the orchid maybe in a little less than a week or a week!  So excited!

This is the orchid.  It is huge!  This is the second time since I've had it that I got it to rebloom.  

The amaryllis is open almost all the way.  There are 4 buds on there right now and it looks like more are coming.  Only 2 are opening right now.  I love these plants!  I am going to put this in the ground for the summer months.  I never have done that before, but I'm going to try it this year.

My youngest daughter, Jenny has been working on a hexagon Halloween quilt for probably 3 years.  She cut out all the fabric and sewed strips together.  Her sewing machine broke.  I sewed the strips she had done all together for her this past week and it came out really nice.  So proud of her for sticking to this.  It isn't easy working with hexagons.  She also made a smaller shaped hexagon quilt (not Halloween themed).  She completed that last week with the help of her sister, Megan also.  They will be warm in that house this winter!!

The skies at night and sunset have been so pretty here lately.  Here are 2 shots I got within 2 days of each other.

This Fall I had a chimney sweep come out and clean both fireplaces.  I have been enjoying the living room fireplace so much starting around Thanksgiving.  Today I decided to start up the other one in the family room/den.  That one is much bigger.  I will probably have to call the man that delivered the wood before Thanksgiving and ask him to drop off another load soon.  It makes the house so cozy and warm!

This is the Living Room fireplace.  It is small but it throws out the heat like crazy.  Nice and cozy!

This is the family room/den fireplace.  It is much bigger and although it was a little hard getting it started, there is so much heat in this room now.  The dogs went in the other room, I guess they were too hot!

Last but not least is a photo of my 2 lazy, sleepy Goldens.  Emma is on the left.  She is a Golden/Yellow Lab Mix ( looks just like a Golden though) and Ginger is on the right.  She is an English Cream Golden.  She is huge and weighs 92 lbs.!  She is a gentle giant though.  Emma is a bit on the high strung side.  Ever since John passed away she is so nervous and keeps following me from room to room.  I think she thinks I won't come back.  She was so in love with John and keeps looking around for him at times.  Even though he passed away 2 years ago, she still remembers him.  I'm sure she is wondering what happened to him and why he left her.  It has gotten so bad at times I have to give her a sedative from the vet.  They say she is still grieving just like the rest of us for John.  Poor thing!

Emma on the left and Ginger on the right.

Well I haven't been posting alot lately and I hope I didn't overwhelm you all!  I was sick for about a month.  I didn't have COVID.  I was tested for that.  I did, however, have bronchitis, sinus infection and ear infection.  I'm doing better now but I am still resting more than I was before I got this nasty stuff!

Everyone have a wonderful day!  Take it easy and enjoy life!

Sherri