The first wave of the long-awaited bad weather has arrived at last. So far we have had enough rain to at least make a dent in the dryness. Heck, this morning the mist was so heavy that the screened porch had water dripping down the screens. Here’s where we were earlier today.
5:13 pm
That’s all rain. I guess tomorrow or later tonight the snow comes. Or not. Who knows? In any case we parked the motorhome in front of the garage, so it will be out of the north wind. And the generator is working!
Red is bad. Freezing rain or sleet. Yuck!
If you don’t get a blog for a couple of days understand I’m just conserving energy. We and our animals will be fine. I’ll keep knitting my red hat and temperature blanket.
Some ribbing. I remember how to knit.
Stay safe everyone! Except certain people who escaped to the beach (and you know who you are). Nah, I want everyone safe. And warm.
I can’t say I’m doing all that well these days. Anxiety attacks are getting in the way of trying to live a reasonable life. One woke me up this morning! Geez! Everyone has times like this in their lives, to give them something to compare to when good times come along, right? Sure!
I write like a third grade student, sigh.
Today I found myself painting rocks while trying to organize a complicated piece of writing. I now see they were all messages to myself. That gave me a chuckle. They are still drying, so I’ll give you other recent messages.
This one will sit on my desk. This is the other side. I hug much more now than I used to.
It was too cold and cloudy to do much birding today, which didn’t help my mood. Tomorrow should be okay, so I’ll get out more and make Apache do things for no real reason. Maybe I’ll try to do some liberty work with him, or something.
My other new hobby seems to be painting things without enough contrast.
Honestly, today wasn’t all bad. Work was good and we finally started watching Star Fleet Academy, which is very Star Trek. In it, they’ve recovered from a huge disaster, and that positive outlook was nice to see.
Oh look, I colored, too.
By the way, thanks for your positive comments on my recent writings. It feels good to think I give people food for thought. I assure you that many of you inspire me!
Of the blanket kind, though it’s rather warm to use one today (and yes, it’s January). And there’s good news in the temperature blanket department: 2025 is done. Yay!
Sitting on the couch in bad light.
I’m pleased with how it came out and I like the border. It looks too big I think because I need to wash and block the blanket to stretch the squares out. Or I could have been mistaken and the border yarn is not sport weight. Well, I thought I checked.
It actually looks like a calendar!
It will get used, since it’s the perfect lap blanket size for sitting and reading or watching television. Or birding.
I climbed on the brown box in the back of the birding station to get higher for the fill-size photo. Art.
I have all the rainfall data to add that in later once I figure out how I want to do it. I want to use beads but am not sure which ones. I may do something softer. Hmm. While I ponder, enjoy a couple of closer views of the squares.
A hot month! Many shades of red. End of the year. Only a few really cold days (blue is cold)
Oh, I should explain for anyone new that the inner part of flower is the low temperature for the day and the outer part is the high temperature. The border was just a color I thought would be fun. I made the pattern up using these flower squares I found online only I used half-double crochet (US) in the first round. It could be just as easily done in any granny square variant.
That’s not much of an explanation. I’m obviously not one of those craft bloggers with the real long introductions and stretched out instructions so more ads can be placed. But more power to them! It all takes time and skill! And I’m too tired to write up instructions. I’d rather be working on my 2026 one.
Do as I say, not as I do.
I was getting snarky for a bit. It’s just because I’m so unhappy with current events that I can’t stay chipper for long. But hey! I did register a Black Phoebe here multiple times on Merlin today. I’d never had one here. I’d love to also see it!
Cutie.
I just have to keep finding these happy things! I started crying today when talking about the news with my son. Not a good sign. Bring on the uplifting thoughts!
I looked up from my phone this morning in the birding station and realized I was surrounded by meadowlarks. Here are just a few.
Meadowlark territory
I cut my nails way short (for me) but they still look festive with snowflakes on them.
I had a good, calm lesson on Apache. Neither Tarrin nor I were feeling well, but we made progress, and, as always, it was a joy to spend time with my horse buddy. When we got home, he shook himself as I was unlocking the gate, and a big cloud of dust flew out from him. He only looked sparkly clean.
Apache and I both wish we looked this good. At least I look kind of like me and he looks kind of like him.
I made some progress on my crocheting. The blanket is getting a cluster border. It’s probably going to be at least three town. It will be good thing to have it slightly larger. Certainly it will be cheerful.
Temperature blanket 2025
I made a delicious frittata for dinner using Connie’s eggs, leftover broccoli, cheese, garlic and a little milk. Both Lee and I loved it.
I had another post about birds planned, but I’ll get to it tomorrow. I stayed up late watching The Residence, the show about the birder detective, which I saw on one of my solo trips, but am enjoying sharing with Lee. What happy elders we are so far this year.
I cooked all day, but it was fine. Every year I enjoy making our traditional family meal and watching the kids eat it. Having young adults who like collard greens and black-eyed peas brings me joy.
I also appreciate that my son made these sconces for me and hung them up. I’ll get a closer photo.
My accomplishment I wanted to mention is that I got the 2025 temperature blanket assembled into one piece on New Year’s Day, 2026. I’m so proud of myself. And it even looks good! Best of all, it’s functional. I can use it as a lap blanket.
Nice look with me holding it up with my mouth, huh.
It looks like a calendar and you can tell it’s hotter in the summer. I’ve added another row of blue on the outside to even it up, then comes an exciting rainbow border while I wait for my new border color, which I’ve already told you is tan. The blue outlines will be red—hoping there’s one not exactly like the reds that are for high temperatures.
I also painted more rocks today. These are the ones I finished yesterday.
All in all, a fun day, of which I will share more tomorrow.
There have been two new avian visitors to the Hermits’ Rest in the last few days. I exaggerated when I called it an invasion, but these two aren’t usually seen this far east. I don’t recall ever seeing one, and my bird book confirms I had no previous longspur sightings, here or elsewhere. Perhaps that extra-windy cold front blew this week some this way.
Most recent new lifers. I rarely get them at home anymore.
The first one is the Thick-billed. I was very confused because it wasn’t in my guidebook, which is only a few years old.
This one really tried to hide
It turns out the McCown’s Longspur has been renamed in the process of removing human names from species names. If I’d looked at the Latin name I’d have figured it out sooner. As it is, I needed Merlin to find it, because non-breeding males and females look like all the sparrows from a distance.
It’s brown. Yep.
The second one showed up today, which makes me feel more confident that some are a little out of their usual range. The Chestnut-sided Longspur would be just as hard to spot in winter, though it is striking in breeding plumage.
Both birds winter in prairies and fields with short grass, which we have plenty of here. I’ll be very interested to see if any more are detected in the next few weeks. I’m not sure where the spurs are. None of the pictures show the feet well enough, if that’s where they are.
Their ranges are similar. Images borrowed from Merlin Bird ID.
In addition to interesting birds, today was also very pleasant, with clear skies and pleasantly cool temperatures.
No leaves are left on the willows.
I was able to go for a walk, play with the fowl and horses, and enjoy the patio rather than cowering to avoid wind. Of course it warmed up—I finally have blankets for three of the horses. Dusty’s is covered in jelly beans. I wonder if they will need them again?
Thanks for feeding and petting us.
I even managed to complete December in my temperature blanket on the last day of the month! I’d managed to make the last row of black ahead of time. Ahh, I’ll never have to make solid black squares again!
Last week was way warmer than usual for December.
Now all I have left is to join all the blocks and to the border, which is going to be rainbow colors! Why not? That should give me something to do while my peas and collards are cooking tomorrow.
Congratulations to all of you who made it to another year. I have more thoughts on that for tomorrow!
If you live in the part of the world where I do, your head is probably still spinning from the rapid weather change from yesterday to today (hoping you didn’t spin out on any ice). You know it got cold fast when the day’s high temperature was yesterday’s low, all occurring just before and after midnight.
This picture depicts sleet on our windshield, which looks like rain.
And of course, the blustery wind also returned, merrily tossing things around. We just missed snow, which visited Waco. All animals seem unperturbed—the horses went into their nice shelter until the wind settled a bit, and the fowl went into their nice and out of their coop, which has a heat lamp. I rushed out to toss food at them all. Brr.
This is from yesterday. I was trying to capture the green sheen on the Cochins.
Since I can’t work again this week, I luxuriated in activities I usually don’t have time for. I put together my bullet journal so it will be ready for Thursday (I saved the fun of adding washi stickers for tomorrow. I came up with color themes for each month’s journal entries and color/pattern themes for my nails, which I may or may not adhere to, since I won’t berate myself for changing my mind. (Dang, I come across as Susie Housewife here, but I’m just artsy, that’s all.)
I even went to the Big City with Lee and did some in-person book shopping at Barnes & Noble. I bought myself my own dang Christmas gifts, a fiction book, a feminism book, and three fun bird items. Also on-sale coloring books. I felt like a kid with new toys when I got home and could play with my new things.
A very funny bird guide that makes a good gift for a birder with a sense of humorThis deck had 50 sweet illustrations and “messages” from the birds. I may draw a card a day. We’ll see. This is a rather scatalogical bird-a-day calendar. Each weekend is a mad libs kind of dealThis is the reverse side. My two books.
I got all the New Year’s meal ingredients at the grocery store (fresh collards) and stuff to cook for dinner. I don’t mind cooking so much when I am not tired from working. Susie Housewife is not Super-woman.
But I do glow (photo from Saturday, when it was warm yet breezy)
By the way, I cooked our belated Christmas dinner last night for Anita and “the kids,” and was very happy with a turkey breast cooked in my Pampered Chef clay pot thing. I gave everyone their painted rocks, which seemed to go over ok. My son made me lovely candle stands for the wall. I’ll share a photo tomorrow. I do love handmade gifts.
This is Lee’s stoic rock.
Tomorrow should be fun. Closet clean-out day with my son’s partner for help.
What’s nice about having a needlework project that lasts all year is that you don’t have to figure out what to make next or buy a lot of yarn (I have bought a little, but mostly from friends). And what’s nice about my Temperature Blanket projects is that every week and month is different, so I get to see new patterns emerge. But it’s relaxing at the same time—I can do it and watch television, etc.
November
As you can see, I finished November tonight. At the end of each month you have to make a lot of black squares and do the border. Then you have to join blocks together.
October and November
You can see October had some hot days, but cooled down towards the end, while November had much cooler days, as indicated by greens and even blues in the center. That last day, with the green outside didn’t get out of the 40s, which is cold for here.
It’s still chilly and damp, as evidenced by how the mama and baby cattle were huddled up by the trees this morning.
I keep thinking I’ll be tired of temperature blankets. This is my third using the same colors for the temperatures. I like the size of this year’s. It actually makes a good lap blanket already. I guess we will see what I come up with.
And I can see what I’m working on with my newly functional quirky old lady glasses
Maybe tomorrow will be fascinating! Or sunny. Until then, knit on through your individual crises!
It was extra chilly this morning, so I couldn’t sit out and watch birds as long as I wanted to. The wind was really strong and I was not having a good time so I left my phone outside to listen to birds while I came inside and painted a rock yellow. That’s my idea of a good time.
This guy was so chilly it didn’t hop away. Ponderous spur-throat grasshopper.
When I went back outside to check on my phone, I heard a very loud noise that sounded like an extra loud Red-tailed Hawk. When I got to the phone, I looked down at my Merlin record to find out that I had actually missed seeing a Bald Eagle flying over our house. It was heard again later in the morning, so I guess there really was a non-Mexican eagle around, which is rather rare for here.
AI interpretation of a Bald Eagle flying over our house. We seem to have many corgi mix dogs.
Later in the morning, I took all my new glasses back to the glasses place and said I can’t see out of them. So they are having all three pairs remade, so maybe I can see the eagle next time it flies by. It was very disappointing that no matter how hard I tried, I really couldn’t see very well out of the new prescription. I couldn’t read street signs and in the evenings everything was very, very blurry. My guess is that an error was made somewhere in the process.
Looking at glasses I didn’t get to take home.
The two biggest excitements of the rest of the day we’re having lunch with Pamela and only Pamela (because there were no other friends to hang out with today) and then going to the bakery and getting day old sticky buns. I do love the sticky buns. I believe I’ve mentioned how much I like Shirley Mae’s bakery before.
Back at home I finished painting the rock. It’s going to be a Thanksgiving rock for my one piece of table decor. I can’t make my life any more interesting than it is. Sigh. One more day of no work down.
The AI thingy did a much better rendition of my rock.
Excitement starts tomorrow because it’s Thanksgiving and I get to cook oyster dressing. And that’s enough of a blog for today.
Yes, there was fun to be had on this chilly, blustery day. Did I say chilly? Well, the high didn’t get above 70°F, which is welcome. However, the wind made it feel colder, prompting a friend to ask if it was too soon to ask for summer back. Um, yes, I’m afraid it is. Tomorrow will be fairly cold, so I’m hoping the wind will die down.
It ruffled my feathers.
As for fun today, discovering the horses in the driveway again wasn’t part of it. I had to brave the gales to go shut the main gate, all the while wondering how in the HECK the gate got open, since I strongly remember fastening it. No photos. They looked just like last time.
Yep. They looked just like this.
Verifiable fun occurred during my birding time, when I plopped my chair on my unfinished birding station and watched a parade of geese, ducks, and cranes fly over, followed by a cat creeping to the pond and making the Kingfisher and Great Blue Heron upset. (Kingfisher seems to have moved in for a while).
The cat, fleeing when Carlton barked. Kingfisher and friends. Even though it’s blurry, you can ID this guy!Cardinal doesn’t want to be a cat meal. Grr feral cats.
Plus, I finally saw some migrating Monarchs. None of my better flowers are blooming, so I’m not seeing as many as Austin friends are. I hope the wind didn’t mess them up.
That’s the only one that stopped!
I also had fun at work, because I like both projects I’m working on, one writing and one helping folks. I enjoy the conversation.
The real fun, though, came when I opened the huge collection of acrylic markers I just bought. A whole new world of things I can doodle on has opened up, along with the possibility of ruining many things. So far I put flowers on a pair of glasses that needed some rejuvenation. They look better than I feared, thought not “fine art.”
This tones down the silver in the frames. Or at least that’s my claim So many colors
I sat there wondering if I could decorate my ugly plastic headband. Yes, I could. It ended up looking nice with my blue hair.
Just plopped on colorsLooks good on. I used a hair masque and wow my hair is shiny.
I also put identification in a subtle silver on my new binoculars and their bag, hoping not to have these wander away.
The decorations were fun to do. I just have to resist the urge not to decorate every object in my home. I’ll try to just decorate rocks or something. Many people paint rocks.
Dogs would prefer to remain unpainted.
My final fun was crocheting away while watching Elspeth so far this season. I will next watch Matlock. I like shows with quirky older protagonists. I feel okay not boycotting CBS, since Colbert was on Elspeth. So there.
Speaking of crochet, I finally have my temperature blanket through September. I look forward to months with more green and yellow…maybe even blue?
More thoughts on why I’m encouraged will be shared tomorrow. Ooh, passive voice! Reminds me to go finish reading The Language Puzzle, my current book.
The Hermits' Rest 