The Week That Was

 

We finished removing the last of my tree yesterday. I held a tree funeral and cried some more. My neighbor rubbed some salt in the wound when she yelled down that she was surprised how well she could see my house now. Ugh. 

Then it was my broken camellia's turn with the saw. This wasn't as painful because I could save some of her.  I think she will be okay.

This is how cruel Mother Nature can be. All that warm weather brought her almost to bloom. The poor thing was covered in buds.

After another day of clean up we've got piles of brush everywhere and we've only done the front yard. The back was still too covered in snow to get to and there are a lot of downed limbs out there. We also have a tree down on the shed that uprooted. Fun.

We didn't kill ourselves with work so I had some afternoon time to get to this. I started machine quilting it. I am just stitching in the ditch. My brain isn't working up to speed right now so I am taking the easy route with this one. 

One reason I've been overwrought this week is this. I haven't mentioned it because I'm kind of superstitious that way but not only did we get all that destruction during that snowstorm.....we got a new grandson. Yes, Daughter went into labor two weeks early the night of the storm. It was a night to remember for sure and 12 hours of worry I'd rather forget. They are both home now and doing fine-me, not so much. It's going to take a while to recover. It's been one heck of a week. 

Meltdown

 

I'm not talking about this kind of meltdown. The world is melting around me but I'm talking about the other kind. 

I went to bed Tuesday night feeling fine and then I suddenly realized......the tree that was just outside my window every night for almost 30 years was not there anymore. I used to open my curtains and watch it sway in the wind, glisten with rain and collect snow. I cried and cried and cried. 

I planted it to give me some privacy from the neighbors in front of us and now I have none. No open curtains at night for me anymore. They can see me and I can see them.

No more wind chime that tinkled from it's branches in the breeze. It would lull me to sleep. I never realized how much it meant to me until right then and it was awful. I had lost a friend.

It was my sad little Christmas tree that was bent when one of the kid's friends backed into it years and years ago. 

It made a great backdrop for mug shots of woolly things. 

The whole time we were pulling it off the house and cutting it up I never gave it a thought. It didn't hit me until I looked out that window and it wasn't there. It was shocking to be grieving so hard for a tree but there it was and it was terrible. 

Now only this muddy spot remains. Like so many things I've lost along the way, I thought it would be here forever. I could replant in the spring but it won't be tall enough to reach my window in my lifetime-which is a whole other thing that you shouldn't be thinking about in the middle of the night.  

Now that I've bummed everyone out, let me end on a happier note. On New Year's Eve I treated myself to a new pair of Crocs. They arrived yesterday afternoon. I've never had turquoise ones and just unwrapping them made my day a lot better. I'm going to make this a New Year's tradition. Every year a new color. 

Life goes on.

Sandwich Interrupted

 

Before the snow made front page news I was back to working on the little quilt on Sunday. 

We were supposed to start the floor on Monday which meant dragging all the kitchen and dining room furniture into the living room. I needed the big table to lay this out so I thought I better get moving on it. 

I also cleaned out the Juki corner of the sewing room and made some little charm square practice pieces so I could work on the tension. I never get it just right. Maybe one day. That's as far as I got though. I spent yesterday shoveling, dragging brush away and helping The Mister pull a tree off the house. Good times. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

Yeah, we got walloped. This is at noon and we still had a few more hours of snow left but I lost interest in documenting it when the trees started coming down.

We've got a mess to clean up including the big blue spruce in the front yard that uprooted and hit the house. I planted that tree the week we moved here and now we're going to have to figure out how to pull it off the house and cut it up. At least it didn't go through a window. It just missed. 

Everything is wearing a heavy coat of white. The electricity kept flickering but it stayed on thank goodness.

In the "it's always something" category it's yet another giant mess of downed trees and limbs we have to clean up in a week where we should be putting our kitchen floor down.

But it sure is pretty. 

Wait a Minute

 

That's what they say about the weather around here. If you don't like it...wait a minute. Yesterday it was almost 70 degrees and I had all the windows open. It's been warm but very gloomy. It's been raining for four days straight and the place is a muddy mess but look what showed up next to the wood pile yesterday morning. 

Out of the blue we're all of a sudden being warned today could be interesting. 8 inches of snow? You've got to be kidding. 

Our devices have been blowing up all day with warnings. The Mister went into high gear getting ready. He even dug out my old snowman from the shed. It's been so warm we didn't even sit him out for Christmas this year. It seemed wrong.  

This may be a little too optimistic. 

Well, I guess my new winter puzzle showed up just in time. If I'm going to be snowed in for a few days I might as well have something to do. 

The Guilty Party

Well folks, I think I know why last year was such a bust. That's my 2021 bag of lucky beans that I didn't cook. I found it this morning when I was looking for my 2022 bag of lucky beans. 

I did get my 2022 black eyed peas made. We ate them for lunch and they were good. Maybe it's a sign that there are good things in store. I sure hope so.

It was raining cats and dogs all morning so I sat down in front of the Rose Bowl parade and finished those socks. The first FO of 2022. Woo hoo!

Next up are these Uneeks. Also for me. By the looks of them they won't be finished any time soon. That's one long sock.

 

2022!

 

We did nothing. We went nowhere and saw no one but it's all good. Well....except the Betty White part. That wasn't cool.

I know we keep saying that next year HAS to be better than the last but it hasn't exactly been working out. It's like how they talk about snow here in the DC area...a good year? We're due. 

Happy New Year!