Hello everyone! Welcome to another addition of ... my blog!
I thought that I would begin with a few more pictures of my
garden in an attempt to convince you, if not myself, that Spring
is most definitely here, temperatures and frigid precipitation
not withstanding. The crocuses are done, and we're in the
midst of daffodil season at the moment, with tulips due to
take over in a matter of weeks.

The flowers in the first picture and the ones in the picture
above are in our backyard. They are small in size but there
are clumps of them growing together so they make a pretty
carpet of color in their part of the garden.

*******************************************************

Had another problem develop with my computer. The CD/
DVD slot wouldn't pull discs in to play them. After my
experience last summer when I was without my computer
for over three months while an Apple representative/repair
guy tried to effect repairs I was understandably reluctant to
entrust my computer to them again and kept putting it off.
But the warranty expires next month so I finally bit the
bullet and called Apple.

Phil drove me and my computer to Square One mall a week
ago Saturday to take it in to the Apple store for repair as per
instructions of very nice Apple person on telephone. Twenty
minutes to find a parking spot in the bucketing rain. Phil was
not impressed. It seemed that every single citizen of Mississauga,
Etobicoke, Port Credit and parts of North Bay were at Square One
on that Saturday afternoon!! Two thirds of those people were in
the Apple store!!!! Dropped off computer at Genius Bar and ran
for our lives!

Got a phone call on Sunday morning around 9:45 to say computer
was fixed and ready for pick up. Wow!!! To say the least. Since
weather on Sunday was a tad crappy, which foiled Phil's plans to
spend the afternoon working in the garden, we drove back to Square
One to fetch the infernal machine. Place was a bit calmer on that
day. Which means that most people were smarter then us and
didn't bother trying to venture out into that incredible dogs breakfast
of a weather system that invited itself into the province for a visit
and definitely overstayed it's welcome. We passed through five
different stages of weather on our trip back to Georgetown. Ugh!
There should be a law against snow squalls occurring after the
middle of April!!

Computer is now playing CD's. Let's hope that's the end of
any problems with this machine. Forever!!!

**********************************************************

Remember in previous post when I said that I'd gone to a
Needleworker's Marketplace event put on by Gitta's?? I
went with Alisa and with my friend Linda. Well, the week
after the show Linda got a phone call from Gitta's store.
There were door prizes at the event and she'd won second
prize!!

Here is Linda at the restaurant where we had lunch
the day of the market.

And here is what Linda won! A skein of every solid
color thread that DMC makes!! Have you ever seen
a pile of DMC thread ~ every color that they make ~
all together like that??? Beautiful, aren't they??

Need something to offer you perspective of just how
big that bag is??

Behold my charming assistant Vanna .... er Rupert ...
gallantly offering his services so you can see just
how big that bag is.

Because Linda doesn't live in Toronto Alisa and I
volunteered to travel all the way down to Gitta's
store to pick up her prize for her. Yes, we really
are thoughtful and self sacrificing that way .... uh
huh.

The lure of an opportunity to poke around in a
fabulous cross stitch store ... again ... never even
crossed our minds. Really.

So guess what followed me home from Gitta's.
Yes, I was a baaaad girl!

Well, I've been thinking about investing in a
floor stand for quite some time, and dithering
back and forth about it as is my wont in such
circumstances. Saw this stand set up in Gitta's
window and after careful (five minutes) consideration
decided ... what the h*** ... and bought one.

Here's a picture of the box the stand came in so you can
get a proper look at it. I've been using it for my SAL
project and after two weeks have decided that I really,
really love it. Now I can sit on the couch and stitch
instead of being confined to my computer desk or
dining room table.

So let's see .... what else is new??? Hmmmmm .....
Oh, yes ....

TA DAAAAA ...

I have another finish to show you!!!! Yes, unbelievable
as it may seem I have finish number FOUR for the year
to brag about. The Book Store is done!!

Glamor shot!

I'm telling you guys, I've never had so many
fair sized finishes so close together in years!!
And now I can do some stash diving and
consider one or two small starts to stitch on
when I'm not working on my SAL.

And speaking of my SAL ... Drawn Thread's
Game Board Sampler .... week three. Those
little house squares are so much fun to stitch
and I can't get over how different they all are.

Close up of my first house square and the first motif.
I'm stitching my motifs right side up, like the houses,
instead of upside down as charted. Let's see how
long it'll take me before I get confused and mess up
a motif because I either forgot to stitch it right side
up or I miscalculated my starting point.

Back last November Phil celebrated his 35th anniversary
with the company that he works for. To mark the
occasion he was given a catalog of items to choose a
"gift" from. The company also offered to take Phil
and a few of his co-workers (his choice of who to take)
to a really nice restaurant for lunch. Phil asked if pizza
or something could be brought in for the entire staff
instead so everyone could share in the food and celebration,
and the company agreed.

The gift that Phil ended up choosing was a bench for
our back garden. This week he is on vacation so he
spent part of the day Tuesday putting the newly
arrived bench together and setting it in it's new spot.
I haven't had a chance to get a close look at it yet,
never mind sit in it, but from a distance (the dining
room window) it looks pretty nifty.

Note the grass. Last week was the week that the
lawn turned green ... seemingly overnight. You
know how it goes. One day the grass is brown and
withered from Winter's callous abuse ... and the next
day you would swear that you can see it turning green
before your eyes. One more step forward to real
Spring.

Had a nice long Easter weekend, which included lots of
stitching time and allowed for my The Book Store finish
plus progress on Game Board Sampler. I also made a
small start on a new project while visiting Alisa at her
house Friday afternoon for a stitch together. I'll
post debut pictures of that piece when I've had time to
put a few more stitches into it. I had literally just put
the final stitches into The Book Store when Alisa arrived
to pick me up that afternoon so I only had time to grab
an already kitted up project which is a tad bigger then
I ought to be tackling considering how big Game Board
Sampler is. Oh well.

Re: The picture of Phil in the previous post .... it has
been pointed out to us ... and we noticed it too ... that
it looks like Phil is resting his head on the bird bath
stand ... rather like someone going to the block in the
time of Henry VIII. And yes, that photo does feature
Phil's "good side". :)

Finished reading the Kathy Reichs book "2006 Bones"
that is featured in the pile of books in my previous
post and I finished "A Discovery of Witches" as well.
Judy: Reich's book is not her most recent. I think it
may well be two years old which is why I was able to
buy the hardcover for a ridiculously low price.

Well, I've run on long enough here and ought to
finish things off. Hope you all had a wonderful
Easter with great food, friends and family to
celebrate with. It's hard to believe that May is just
a week away!!

Thanks for visiting. Cheers!

Hello everyone. I've been sorting through my photos
and deciding what to blog about this time around and
have come up with a few things that I hope will be of
interest to you all. If not feel free to skim through the
boring bits until you (hopefully) find something that
does interest you.

Let's begin with the long awaited arrival of Spring. Oh yes!
After waiting through a long, drawn out Winter that seemed
even more long and drawn out then it usually does Spring
finally arrived, bringing with it the hope that we'd soon see
the last of the cold weather and the interminable snow falls
that we've had and welcome the return of the glorious
sunny, warm weather.

Hurray for Spring!!!!

Pictured above .... the second day of Spring. Heaviest snow
storm of the season .... at least around here. Hurray for
Spring??? Phooey!!!

But that's all in the past now (Fingers crossed). The above
picture was taken in our back garden yesterday. After a
weekend of gorgeous sunshine, heavy rain and thunder,
and strong winds plus some very decent temperatures,
the crocuses are bursting out in bloom, with the daffodils
not far behind.

Note the busy little bee in the center of the picture with
his head stuck in a blossom and his butt in the air. If
you click on the picture it'll give you a close up and you
will see his wings clearly, including the segments or veins
or whatever it is that divide each delicate wing.

The grass still needs to green up and we've still got a long
way to go before it's properly Spring like outside, but at
least we're on our way.

*****************************************************

And now for my first report on the SAL that I'm doing
with Maggie. My very first SAL. April 1st was the
start of our SAL and I was so excited!! Do you want
to see my progress from that first weekend??? Do you??

Well, here it is!

Note the simplicity of the design. See how the delicate
shades of color in the threads enhance the background
color of the fabric. Gaze in wonder at the fine texture of the
25 count Mushroom Lugana. Marvel at the dexterity and
uniformity of my needle work.

Consider the possibility that I'm loosing my marbles.

Okaaayyyy. So the first weekend of my first SAL wasn't
quite the roaring success that I'd hoped for. I'd eagerly
placed my fabric on my Q-snaps, set out my threads and
got to stitching. Five letters and a bit of the inner border
later I came up for air, contemplated my progress so far
and realized that something wasn't ... quite .... right.

I got out my trusty measuring tape and removed the
fabric from the Q-snaps. Ah ha! A word to the wise.
When you have it in your head that the fabric you'd
had cut a month or more previously for a project has
allowed for a border of three inches you should
(if you're me) double check that fact before you begin
to stitch.

Two inch border.

Yup. I really must write this stuff down on the info
paper attached to the fabric so I don't have to rely on
my defective brain cells. I really, really should know
better. Soooo ... I ripped out all my stitching and
once that was done I'd run out of time to stitch any
more that weekend.

Weekend number two. Okay, this is a bit more like it. Now
remember, I'm not the worlds fastest stitcher by any stretch
of the imagination. This is three hours of stitching done on
Friday night while watch episodes of "Location, Location,
Location" on my computer compliments of H&G TV.ca. If
you want to see real progress on this project and find out
what the pattern is that we're stitching then I suggest that
you check out Maggie's blog.

Meanwhile, there's another weekend heading this way and
I'll be plugging away at this once again. Wish me luck!

The first Saturday in April there was a stitcher's Marketplace
put on at a hotel by Gitta's needlework store and of course
I was eager to go. You may have read about this little event
on Dani's blog or on Alisa's blog. Above is a picture of Alisa
and myself taken at the restaurant/pub where we went for
lunch after exhausting ourselves, and our credit cards, at the
market. After lunch we went to Gitta's store proper and did
a bit more shopping. Hmmm.... I didn't take any pictures
of what I bought. How did that happen??

Actually, I really didn't buy a lot of stuff that day. Just some
lavender and some crushed walnut shells, some fabric, a
chart that's been haunting me for awhile since my last visit
to Gitta's and some fabric to stitch it on. But it was a fun
day and the best part was meeting Dani there plus running
into another stitcher from down Kathy's way in eastern
Ontario named Fran, who I'd met during a stitcher's
gathering at Kathy's nearly two years ago. Hello to Fran
from "the other Judy".

Stash of another sort. I've been naughty. It's been a while
since I've had a mad burst of clicky finger on the Indigo
bookstore site and my wish list of books there has been
growing like Alice. Finally I just had to do something about
it and these pictures show you the results of my mad shopping
spree. Everything from historical fiction to murder mystery
to supernatural romance plus one memoir.

Half of these books are by authors that I've read before and
the rest are books that I've either read reviews for in magazines
or on Bookbrowse. See anything you like??

I finished reading Angelology a few days ago and enjoyed
it immensely. This is actually the cover for the Audio
book but it's almost the same as the book's cover so I'll
just leave it as is.

Click on the link to read a synopsis of the story from
Bookbrowse.

An interesting, well imagined tale that I really enjoyed.
But there had better be a second book in the works, given
how this one ends.

And then we have my current obsession. I read a review
in Entertainment Weekly for this book a few weeks ago
and as soon as I read the description of the story I had
to add it to my wish list and order it as soon as possible.
When it arrived, along with the rest of my order as
pictured above, I couldn't resist opening it and taking a
peek inside. From then on I was hooked!! This is the
sort of book (for me, anyways) that has me nearly
missing my bus stop, makes me forget to eat my dinner
as I read a few more paragraphs at the table (now that's
a recommendation for a riveting good read if ever there
was one ... it made me forget food!!) and keeps me up
at night when I should be in bed.

Here's the synopsis of this book also on Bookbrowse.

Now that the good weather is finally here I can pretty
much say good bye to Phil for the next six months or
so. He'll be in the garden from dawn to dusk and
the most I'll see of him will be as pictured above.

And that brings us to the close of this little post.
Thanks for visiting. I'll be back with progress
reports on my SAL and what ever else catches
my fancy soon. Take care.

Cheers!

Greetings all!! Look who's actually updating her blog just
three short weeks after her last blog posting. Yes, it's only been
three weeks since I last posted here and I'm back again. Can
you stand it??

To begin the festivities I've put an artsy shot from back in the Fall
when my SIL, a friend and I were wandering the shops in St.
Jacobs and I was playing with my camera in one of those shops.
It's kind of a cool, abstract look don't you think?

Remember in my last post how excited I was to actually have
not just one stitching finish to show you but two? A rare
event for me aka the worlds slowest stitcher and I was quite
thrilled about it. Well, guess what?

There's another one!!!!!!!

Presenting Halloween Quaker fresh off of the Q-snaps and
submitted for your pleasure and approval. Yes, it would
seem the prospect of starting that SAL with Maggie plus
sharing stitching get togethers with Alisa has inspired
me something fierce and my needles have been smoking!
Little tiny puffs of smoke perhaps, but smoking nonetheless.
I am very happy with this one.

Alisa and I went to Michaels on Sunday and I picked up
four picture frames, including a black one that will suit
this project quite nicely. I hope to frame it myself as soon
as I have an afternoon free to concentrate on it. So that's
two Halloween projects stitched and ready for final
finishing. Kind of strange how that worked out.

There was another reason why Alisa and I went to Michaels
on Sunday though. They had a 60 % off the regular price
discount on framing a few weeks back and I decided I'd
take advantage of that sale.

I dug Cottage Garden by Country Cottage Needleworks out
of my pile of finished projects and took it to Michaels for
framing and here is the result!! Isn't it pretty?? I'm so
pleased to have this project framed at last. As you can
see by the date on it I finished this project back in 2008.

A close up of the frame showing the detail along the inner
and outer edges. Michaels framing costs are still pretty
steep even with the extra discount and I hate to imagine
how much this would have cost to frame at full price, and
that's without the added cost of a matte around the stitched
piece.

Spring officially arrived on Sunday night and that's
welcome news for those of us who are sick to death
of Winter and all it's quirks and eccentricities. We
have had some nice temperatures here in the past
few weeks and even some sunshine (gasp!!) which
has melted most of our snow.

The Robins are back from wherever they spend their
Winter vacations and we have little clumps of yellow
crocuses opening their flowers in the front garden.
Both are sure signs that Spring is truly here.

So why more pictures from the Allan Gardens conservatory
you may be wondering. Well, because they're pretty. And
because they are soon going to be the only signs of Spring
that we'll have around here for a few days.

We're getting snow tonight while we sleep! Snow and colder
temperatures which will continue on into tomorrow and
might give us around 10 cm of snow before it's done. Oh joy!
So to those of you who are lucky enough to be sharing this
final blast (or so we hope) of Winter with me ... keep looking
at the pretty pictures of the pretty flowers and think happy
thoughts.

I finished reading An Echo in the Bone a week ago and
decided to read something completely different from
the historical romance theme. I try to avoid reading
several books in the same genre, one right after the
other, unless they are a series by the same author. I
chose Kelly Armstrong's Frostbitten which features
her werewolf characters Elena and Clay that was
published a year ago or so.

Another fun romp which also allows Elena and Clay's
relationship to grow and develop and become even
stronger, which is something I really like about K.
Armstrong's stories. Her couples are always evolving
and strengthening their bonds with each other,
even when they have been together for many years.

It was Phil's birthday on March 6th so we had a nice
little celebration for him, which is just the way he prefers
it. His sister came for dinner and brought a cake that
she'd made for him while I prepared the dinner that he'd
asked for this year. Macaroni and Cheese served with
sliced ham and biscuits. Pretty yum, if I do say so myself.

For his birthday this year I got us tickets to the Stratford
production of Jesus Christ Superstar. As soon as I heard
that they would be putting on a production of JC Superstar
at Stratford this year I knew that I would have to get us
tickets because the youth choir that Phil use to belong
to (called the Chancellors) performed the music from this
wonderful show many times. We're going in August
during our summer vacation and we're really looking
forward to it. It's been years since I'd last been to

Stratford for any reason so I'm happy for this excuse

to go. And I love musicals anyways.

In two weeks Gitta's Stitching Marketplace is happening
and I'm really looking forward to going with Alisa and
my dear friend Linda. Am trying to save my pennies in
case there's one or two (okay who am I kidding here ...
lots and lots) things that I might want to get. I'll take
my camera of course and provide a full report once it's
over.

Meanwhile, thanks for visiting and hope you've
enjoyed your stay. Come again soon.

Cheers!

Hello. The wayward blogger has returned. It's been a
month since my last post but I do assure you that I have
been using that time wisely and well and have a huge
surprise (or two) for all of you.

I can't remember the last time that I had a finish of
any consequence to share with all of you. And I have
to admit that it's kind of discouraging not to have a
happy dance or two every few months to celebrate
the completion of a project that's been the focus of
my limited stitching time for weeks or months (or
longer ... Gulp!).

I've been exchanging emails with Maggie in the
past few weeks and she mentioned a couple of
projects that she hoped to begin stitching in the
not too distant future. I remarked that I had
one of those charts on my to-do list as well and
she came back with the idea of the two of us
doing a SAL together for this project.

I've never participated in a SAL before and was
quite intrigued by the idea. And a bit hesitant
as well. You see I've got two projects on the go
right now, plus I've had a couple of more that
have been ... well .... lets just say they'd been
temporarily put aside when something else
shiny and new came along and distracted me.

I was reluctant to begin a new project, and a
BIG one at that, with those others still unfinished.
So I got to thinking (as I sometimes do) and
decided that perhaps it was time to pick up a
couple of those lost and forlorn projects and
just get 'em done already!!!

Ahem!

So I did.

Remember Prairie Schooler's Winter??? Everything was
completed on this one except for that darn header at the
top. Lots of brown. I'm not a brown person. I left this
project propped up against the wall at the side of my work
desk and tried to ignore it. It's been there since last
summer, emitting accusatory guilt vibes whenever I sit
here. I finally picked it up a few weeks ago and gave it a
couple of hours of effort.

And voila!! It's done. No more brown stitching. No more
guilty vibes. It looks pretty good and it's DONE!!!

I love the alphabet section at the bottom of the design.
The thread colours look so pretty against the white
background.

At this point I was feeling pumped and decided to
keep the momentum going by picking up another
long abandoned project and finishing it off as well.

May I present Waxing Moon Designs Halloween Short
Stack. This pretty piece has been sitting in my craft
cupboard for two years!! Don't ask me why I've
never finished it until now. I don't really know why.
It was a fun project start to ... belated ... finish and I
love it so much.

Artistic shot.

Faced with the prospect of having to make a couple of
those dreaded french knots (Ugh! Yick!! Phewy!!!)
I remembered some sage advice received from Dani a
couple of years ago and made Colonial Knots instead.
I'm quite proud of the results and just had to show
them off to you with this close up photo of the little
mouse.

So, two finishes in one month ... two projects to
remove from my "in progress" list and two
deterrents to my participating in my first SAL
that are no longer there. So Maggie and I are
going to be starting our SAL at the beginning
of April and I'm so excited!

*********************************************

So, hands up all of you nice people out there in blogland who
are fed up to the back teeth with Winter. There's snow on the
ground and the wind feels like it took a detour through the
wastelands of Siberia before visiting your neighbourhood
and there's nary a Robin or a crocus or a pussy willow in
sight to offer encouragement and hope.

Well, I can't do anything about making Winter go away
any faster (or slower, as the case may be) then it already
is (or isn't, as the case may be). But I can offer a bit of
Spring like visual therapy to help clear your mind and
perhaps go a little ways to restoring your faith in the
eventual return of Spring.

My friend Elaine, her daughter Katherine and I took a
stroll through the Allan Gardens conservatory during
a cold Winters day a few weeks ago and of course I had
my trusty camera with me to record the event for
posterity ... and my blog. So here are a few of those
photos for you to ... hopefully ... enjoy.

Just follow the pathways that curve and wind their
way through the conservatory and take in the sights
and the scents of all the beautiful plants growing
there.

There's even a bit of desert landscaping to admire
with cacti of every shape and size and texture to
gaze at and admire.

And admire the Spring bulbs that are in full bloom
right this very minute. Crocus, daffodils, tulips and
Hyacinth in every colour imaginable.

Now see how that nasty Winter seems to just disappear
from your memory as you take in all the bounteous
beauty that is Spring.

Deep breaths ... in and out ... that's good. Now hold
those thoughts of Spring in your mind as you go
through your day .... and whatever you do don't
look out the window!!!

Thought you might enjoy seeing what the cat's got
for Christmas this year from their favourite Aunt.
A water fountain. Yes, the cats now have their
very own drinking fountain to enjoy. No more
letting Phoebe into the bathroom whenever she
orders me to and turning on the tap in the bathtub
only enough to allow a few dribbles of water to fall
at a time.

She loves this thing!! She doesn't bother drinking out
of the bowl but instead goes right to the stream of
water falling from the spout and laps from that. And
when she's not drinking the water she's batting at the
stream with her paw showering the floor and the wall
with water. Oh joy! We've even seen Rupert take a
few sips from this which is the first time I've ever
seen him drinking! Honest.

This little contraption sits in the kitchen next to the
table which is a bit of a problem for us since the
sound of the constantly running water kind of
makes us want to ... er ... well ... you know.
Skip to the loo, so to speak.

I'm in the final quarter reading of Diana Gabaldon's
most recent addition to the Outlander series and as
always am enjoying it immensely!! I do love
me a nice big and juicy book to loose myself in.

I've browsed through all the postings for the
new stuff released from Nashville last week,
as have all of you I know, and have found
just a couple of must haves and one really,
really must have.

Aury TM Designs: A Sampler for My Mother

Ink Circles: Just Rosey - this is the really
really must have.

La D Da: Flowery Alphabet

Lizzie Kate: all three designs are lovely

And that's it from me for now. Thanks for
visiting. Hope to have more stitching type
news for you soon. Take care.

Cheers!

As we all know winter officially arrives on December 21st.
However here in our little section of southern Ontario
winter played coy and didn't make much of a fuss and
bother for several weeks after the official date. Long
enough to lull us into believing that we were in for another
relatively mild, almost snow free winter such as we'd had
last year. Which was fine by us.

But we weren't going to be allowed off the hook that
easily after all. We've had many scatterings of little
snow falls since mid January with most depositing
either a few centimeters to around five centimeters
at a time. Not a lot compared to what a great many
of you have been receiving this winter. But those
little snow falls began to add up to a decent pile of
snow on the ground.

Then we had a fair dollop of snow last Wednesday
(which was touted as being the "storm of the
century" ---- but wasn't so much) which added about
15 cm to the snow that we already had. And then on
Saturday we were surprised with a good five cm of
snow when we were only suppose to receive a "dusting".
So we have a bit of a winter wonderland going on at
the moment and depending on our moods it's either
very pretty or pretty annoying.

Makes for nice pictures though.

I left The Book Store after the progress that I showed you
in my previous post and picked up Halloween Quaker
again. I've been adding to it in spurts when time and
inclination allows and it's looking pretty darn cute if
I may say so. At this point I'm not sure if I'll keep working
on this project, go back to The Book Store, or maybe
start something new. Depends on my mood I guess.

This little fellow visits us regularly and takes advantage
of the suet cakes that DH puts out every Saturday. He's
a Downy Woodpecker and he's a regular in our backyard,
usually pecking away at the peanut feeder down at the
back of the garden. We only put the suet cakes out in
the winter and probably two thirds of those are eaten by
the squirrels who also adore them.

We mainly have black squirrels and grey squirrels visiting
our yard but we also have a few red squirrels which are
half the size of the other kind but are twice as fierce.
And pretty darn cute, don't you think??

DH has another winter feeding project that has been
keeping him occupied since October. In the industrial
area where he works there are three feral cats hanging
around and in October one of those cats got into the
building where he works. It happened to be the
Thanksgiving long weekend actually.

Now it's nice to think of the poor cat being indoors
on a cool Fall weekend but in reality DH's workplace
isn't a safe environment for an animal to be in, with
chemicals, heavy equipment and machinery. And
the bosses wanted the little fella outta there sooner
rather then later.

DH tried calling a feral cat society but they
didn't return his calls before the weekend began.
So he worried and fretted all day Saturday and
Sunday about how to handle this situation. He had
taken some cat food in to work and left it for the
cat for the weekend so it wouldn't go hungry but
he wanted to get it out of there before it got hurt.

So he ended up renting a humane animal trap
and on the holiday Monday he drove into work
(one hour trip ... one way) and set up the trap,
baiting it with cat food. Then he went into his
office to read some emails. It wasn't five
minutes later that he heard the trap being
set off and went out to find the cat huddled
inside. He took it outside and set it free to
rejoin it's family and then made his way
back home again (one hour trip ... one way).

The feral cat society was in touch with DH
and let him know that in winter they don't
trap the cats for spaying or neutering because
when the cats are in the vets for a week or so
recovering from their surgeries they start
shedding their winter fur and then don't
have a proper coat of warm fur for the rest
of the winter.

Since the events in October DH has been
busy caring for the little feral colony. There
are three cats making up the family including
the mother and her two nearly grown off-
spring. DH has his co-workers keeping an
eye out for the cats when they're outside
working in the yard or having a smoking
break. They think he's a little nuts but
they do let him know when they spot one
of the trio out and about.

And DH has built a deluxe apartment for
the cats to use if they are in need of shelter.

Raised off the ground, plastic sheeting below and above
to keep the inside dry and warm, and with a door cut to
allow only a small cat to enter. Inside it's stuffed with
straw for comfort and warmth and the entrance is facing
away from the direction that the wind normally blows
in from and is protected by stuff that is stored in the yard.
DH puts food out in little Styrofoam cups all around the
yard a couple of times a week as well.

It's sad that these lovely cats are not lucky enough to
have a warm and loving home, with humans to love
and care for them and see that they're well fed and
happy. They are too wild to allow anyone near them
and they don't trust humans anyways.

DH said that the feral cat society told him that there is
another colony of feral cats living not too far away
from where he works. That colony has about 50 cats!!

******************************************************

I'd like to thank everyone who was kind enough to go and
visit my friend Alisa's new blog, leave a comment there and
gave her such a warm welcome to our stitching community.
I know that she's having a lot of fun with her new blog and
with exploring all the stitching blogs that are out there, not
to mention all the online LNS and the designer's sites.

She and I had a fabulous day last Saturday. We joined forces
to hit the craft stores - namely: Michaels for general craft
supplies, Gitta's for cross stitch supplies, and the Hobby Horse
for finishing fabrics and batting. I guess we were in Michaels
for an hour and a half, wandering up and down the aisles looking
at everything, and then we headed down to Gitta's (with a brief
break for a pizza lunch to fortify ourselves for the shopping
ahead) where I'm sure we spent at least an hour and a half as
well. Then we checked out the Hobby Horse which is a fabulous
quilting store not too far from where we live. Alisa dropped me
off at home around 3:30 and not twenty minutes later it
began to snow like the dickens. I'm glad we were home safe
and sound by that time and not driving around in it.

Gitta's is sponsoring a Cross Stitcher's gathering during
the first weekend in April with a market place, classes
with various designers and a stitcher's retreat. For more
information about it all check out Gitta's home page:
http://www.gittas.com/

If you are planning to attend this event leave me a
comment so we can keep an eye out for each other.
Hopefully Jennifer, Alisa and I will be there although
we're not planning to stay at the hotel overnight for
the retreat this year. Maybe next year.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers!