Seasons change and so do I

When I was a kid, there were two seasons of cleaning:   Spring Cleaning and Fall Cleaning. Now, don't ask me if I still adhere to such fanciful thinking, but I have been doing a little more than just dusting and vacuuming in the sewing room this past week. You see, we are having the windows replaced in that room, and all my sewing stuff is right up against the window.

In order to have access to the window, we have to move my sewing cabinet and all the lovely things I had stashed behind it, (and under it) ...bags of scraps, bits of batting, leftover items from my garment sewing days, cross-stitch patterns, embroidery floss, and a few linens given to me for safe keeping when my parents downsized.

Of course, a good cleaning means sorting and cleaning out everything else in the room, right? So this week I have been going through the heaps of fabrics that needed to be put away, the books and magazines that needed filing, the gizmos and gadgets that cluttered up my cutting area and the assorted stuff that ends up in the sewing room.




Also being cleaned up and sorted was the tree that fell outside our house during the storm last week. We had to have a crew come with a crane to take down what was left of the tree. It's not often you look out your second story window and see this:

Of course, Toby wanted to see what was going on too:

But Shorty couldn't get up high enough to get a good view.

Not to worry! There's always an alternative:

We are nothing if not resourceful around here.

Mother Nature's Trick or Treat

I had this cute photo of Toby in his pumpkin costume all set to display on my blog on Halloween, and then Mother Nature sent a freakish snowstorm our way and knocked out my access to the computer.  So here he is, better late than never...

Trick or Treat!

We were very fortunate that we did not lose electricity like so many did in our town and the neighboring towns.  However, we did lose a large tree which fell down next to our house and took along our Internet, cable and telephone service wire with it.  No fun to look up and see this:

At least the sky was blue!  In fact, the day after the storm was a gorgeous clear sunny day.  Looking around at the snow on the foliage was odd, but also quite pretty.

We went to church on Sunday and learned that they had lost their electricity.  We had Mass just the same in the cold, dim church lit only by candles and whatever light came in through the stained glass windows.  With the sun and the snow outside, the colors in the windows were practically glowing.   I snapped this pic quickly with my cell phone as we were leaving just to remember how lovely the stained glass was.  It's quite overexposed, but it gives you an idea.

We also found that the grocery store had no electricity.  We stopped in to get a few things and were surprised it was still open.  A store clerk told us that they had generators for the most important things:  the lighting, the refrigeration, the cash registers and .... the time clock!  No sneaking out in the dark for those employees!

Speaking of employees, I'm very grateful to all the state, city and utility workers who put in so many hours to help get the power restored.  The majority of things are back to normal, except for the sound of chainsaws as people all over clean up after the storm.  Lots of wood for the fireplace!