What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

How are you...snowed in or sweltering in the summer heat?  The new year has started with wild and horrible weather around the globe. Heartbreaking to see devastation on such a scale in California. It makes us appreciate what is a normal winter so far here in the Ottawa valley. Wind chills of over -20 many days but you can have all the gear to layer up and keep warm on walks while out and about. I notice some folks have very fashionable, and what I would call, even beautiful winter outer wear. Mine tends to be more utilitarian and ...

 I'm feeling pretty good today as I successfully navigated the online Patient Portal at our doctor's website to renew a prescription, a cream I use infrequently but like to have on hand. The Portal has become notorious with having so many glitches it has increased calls to the reception desk, not lessened them as hoped. Now if only I could figure out Blogger.

I keep the binoculars on my kitchen window shelf and my camera handy there too. I took this photo of a small fluffy looking bird that turned out to be a very young Blue Jay ...

A crisp -23 C wind chill out there this morning. I'll bundle up for the morning walk, maybe even break out my balaclava. I'm now filling two bird feeders with black sunflower seeds. These little guys are getting snacks from the ground. 

This is the last sign of the mystery pond animal. Something broke through the ice to make a path right to the hole in the bank.

Well, how are you and are you feeling festive finally? 

 Thank you so much for the comments and emails on my posts. Several of you asked about Tony's lack of appetite. It has been slowly waning. But that does not bother him like I think it should as he always enjoyed being thin. However, it is his lack of strength and feeling tired after only minutes of doing some chore or other that really bothers him. We just had yet another appointment with the doctor who reviewed his recent tests. No, nothing has been discovered; everything is status quo ...

Now comes the hard part, dividing up all of the cookies for several families and getting them into containers.

Now it is time to start making the Chex Mix.

They are predicting light snow twice this week but no white Christmas.

My rain gauge had a half inch of rain in it from Saturday.  Then there was ...

 I have the bird feeders filled and the wood brought in for the day long fire.

This is the leftover block that didn't get used in the layout.  It will go into the orphan block box most likely.

 When walking Ned one day, we spotted a Barred Owl. I say "we" because it was on the fence and Ned stopped and watched it too. I took Ned back home, grabbed my large camera and headed out to where I'd last seen it. It had moved across the driveway and then as I watched, it flew much further into thick bush and I could get only so far. I couldn't find it but there was a very large shape in a tree I assumed to be my owl. I knew it was unlikely any photos would be ...

View out my sewing room window. The deer and the turkeys take turns dropping by.

The beautiful mother tree to the left side of the house...taken at dusk when the leaves had a brilliant orange glow and the blue sky turned an interesting turquoise colour. It reminded me of the strange colours old polaroid photos sometimes had. 

I read this line recently...you are a work in progress because life isn't done with you yet. I definitely mistakenly thought the opposite. That at my seven decades and counting age I'd have everything figured out, things would be settled down to a point where life would be smooth sailing through whatever years are left. The thing that might derail that would be unavoidable illness. But no, there are still people/family worries, messy situations and uncertainty. That last thing is creeping into my thoughts more. I've questioned how I'm handling certain present situations which ...