January 25

Greetings,

I'm freezing. It's 4 degrees now and will be well below zero tonight. Wind chills will bring it even lower. I had to take pictures one bag at a time, then warm up. It's so bitter that as soon as you step outside, all the hairs in your nose freeze...and my fingers don't last too long...painful within minutes. Those of you who live where it's cold know what I mean. Those of you who don't, don't know what you're missing.
But the sun has been bright the past two days, and it's rising higher above our tree tops in the back bringing it deliciously into the house.
Paul and I have been walking, but now we're into our fierce winter ping pong matches. From there we move to cribbage...all great fun.
My special treat of the week., besides the gorgeous purple barkcloth, was a Bard owl sighting near my younger son's school. I had just dropped him off and was taking the long empty road out. It runs between the woods that are full of tall Pines. A large bird flew in front of my car and I thought it was a hawk...so I stopped and look and was thrilled to see the biggest owl I'd ever seen. It had landed on a branch maybe 45 feet from me and was devouring what I think was a mink. It made short work of it. It looked at me for quite a long time, but was ever aware of everything else around it too. Even though I had rolled down the passenger window, I wanted a better look. By the time it took me to step outside of my car and turn around (less than 5 seconds) it was gone. I mean gone. No trace what-so-ever...no sounds, no falling snow...nothing.
Such a treat.

http://www.owlpages.com/image.php?image=species-Strix-varia-1


A very thoughtful customer was nice enough to send me two lovely skeins of alpaca yarn. How sweet is that!? My older son, who walks everywhere, is in need of a scarf....so I'm working on a simple K1, P1 ribbing. Simple is good when the yarn itself is so pretty...and what a shade of red!

I wanted to show you one of the antique greeting cards I found the same day as my latest batch of buttons. It's actually a New Year's card, and is a treasure.


Till next time, stay warm & knit on!!

Martha.