Macungie Spring

Spring is finally coming to East Central Pennsylvania. Macungie is a little area just south of Allentown, PA. And we have had a very long winter. A very, very long winter.

But this morning the daffodils in front of my house began to bloom. The daffodils in front of several other houses did as well. The willow trees are turning that funny yellow green they turn just before the leaves come out. The trees with the red buds are all blooming (and giving me a bad allergy attack, but that is a different post). There are tiny little leaf buds on the lilacs in front of the computer room window.

Spring! Finally.

Two weeks ago it snowed. Tomorrow it will be in the middle 70s here and in the 80s in Philadelphia.

Macungie Spring

We got hit with snow last night. It is sort of melting this morning. I say sort of because I think all of the two inches we got was still in the street and the driveway when I first got up. But it is beginning to get warmer and it is melting. There is some slush in the street right now. The driveway is still a sheet of ice. My intention is to stay inside and just let it melt. I'm not in any position to shovel it anyway. They aren't great pictures, because I took them through the window and the screen in my computer room. But you can see that the bulbs are trying very hard to come up. This time last year they were in full bloom and the tulips were too.


This year, not so much. I am so hungry for Spring, but they say that we have at least two more weeks of this stuff coming before it starts getting warmer.

Meanwhile I've been keeping myself busy. Google announced that it was closing down Reader in a couple of months. I'm trying Feedly out. Reader was very stark. Feedly, except in one of the views is rather pretty to look at. So far I haven't located one of the functions of Reader that I really liked. I would group blogs, but I could chose to read all of the blogs in a group together in date order, or I could choose to read them one at a time. So far, I haven't located that function. It doesn't mean that function doesn't exist. Just that I haven't found one that works that way for me, so far.

I've been knitting. The scarf is getting longer. It is a bit darker than this photo shows. One thing that I've found very odd about the yarn (Amazing by Lion Brand) is that so far none of the colors in the first ball showed up in the second ball. The bright pink was almost the same, but not quite. And I'm pretty sure that the dark blue color that I've finally come to is going to be more teal than purple. The two balls were bought in the same store on the same day. They are the same colorway number and the same dye lot.

I did manage to get out of the house on Sunday and I went to Dollar Tree. I like that dollar store the best of all the ones I've ever gone to. I had purchased one plastic basket to use as a project basket for small knitting and sewing projects and liked it so much I wanted more of them. They still had some in three different colors and I bought two of each. I also got two baskets that are bigger. I can see myself needing something bigger.

I have also finally gotten to the sewing machine. It needed to have the free motion foot put away and a regular foot put on. It needed a new needle BADLY. I did all of that. Yesterday I went to The Quilt Show and watched a binding video from their classroom area. Today I sewed the binding strips for the table runner I've been making.

The method taught by Margo Clabo was so easy I could not believe it. Getting those 45 degree seams has always been a problem for me, and I get jogs in the joins. Not today. I have never seen anything that easy. I'm going to be trying some of the other tricks she taught. I don't know if a free membership will get you into the Classroom area or not. But I've found the paid membership worth every penny. They tend to give away a bunch of stuff over the year, physical give aways but also access to shows you don't "own" as well, they do two excellent TV style shows a month, and there are always at least one, and sometimes two short classroom series going. A paid membership gives you access to the current shows and to the entire classroom area. I think it is worth the money.

 Take care all.

Daily Life, the Weather, Pain, and All of That

I've basically been stuck in the house all week. On Tuesday I pulled the car out of my garage thinking that it was raining, but it wasn't. It was snow.

Yes, that looks like rain, but it is actually snow. That isn't my house. It is the neighbor's across the street. I took the photo from my doorway.

Very little of it stuck. And all of it melted as the temperatures increased and the snow turned to rain.

I don't drive in questionable conditions, so I didn't go out.

It did not help that I've been in pain all week as well. I developed upper back pain on Sunday night. I'd picked up something too heavy for me. That is very easy to do. Almost everything is too heavy for me. This time it was the water bottle for the Humidifier which was heavier than usual because it was completely full.

My chiropractor helped a lot with that. It is now down to a very low grade discomfort, but only some of the time if I move just so.

On Wednesday morning it was my left leg. I have arthritis in both knees, but also in the left hip joint. I had another chiropractor's visit. He advised heat on the joint. I hadn't though about heat. It was great advice. It isn't totally better, but it is better.

I use a pedometer. And I've been forcing a few more steps than my regular number. Normal people can do 6000 steps in a day without even thinking about it. 5000 steps is pushing it. I'm pulling back on that as well.

I can knit. I can work on the hexagons, and I have. But no free motion quilting because of the back. I'm letting that get all better.

I can't wait for Spring. They say it will start getting a little warmer in a couple of days. It was a lot warmer last year during the first week in March. That isn't a given around here, but generally it becomes Spring in March.

Take care all.

Macungie Winter

We are having an ice storm. There was a bit of snow at some point and a lot of rain, but there has been ice on and off. And this is what the small trees in my area look like. This tree was just outside my door, so I went out and took a close up of it.

Merry Christmas All

Pretty obviously I have not been blogging. I also have not been sewing at all this month. I took a vacation from both for a little while.

I have never been big on making presents. I'm not sure why. I've made sweaters and the occasional scarf, but not much else. It is something to really think about before next year.

But I want to wish anyone who regularly comes past this blog a very merry holiday season. I'm planning on enjoying the days to come with family, and I hope all of you do as well.

Christmas at my house

I've put up the door wreath and I've put up the tree, and I have a few other things decorated.

I put the wreath together with some bulbs that were shiny and some that were not and a big red bow. I got a wreath box to keep it in and it came out of the box looking pretty amazing and brand new.  The door is a dark, dull red, so I picked silver tinsel for the wreath so it would show up. Works pretty well I think.


The tree wasn't quite finished when I took this picture. I've found a way to get the star higher up on the top branch. It is too weak to take the tree top angel that I made years ago.

This is just a little 4 foot tree sitting on top of a box. I can't manage one of the big trees on my own anymore.

 I've got the mantle dressed up with some things that no longer fit on the tree, and some things that never were put on it in the first place. I bought the Santa head in Las Vegas in the 90s. The tree top angel was made when I lived in Rochester. It was the only time I did punch needle embroidery. I'm not sure when I got the salt shakers, but the ceramic gift box was a gift I received when we lived in California.

Take care all.

Weather

Yesterday was cold. It was wonderful. It was cold this morning too, but it is warming up now. Too bad really. It is supposed to be nice for about a week or so. And it is Summer. ...[sigh]...

I'm not sure if I dislike Summer or Winter more. Mostly I love Spring when everything is new. Green and flowers everywhere. And we get Glorious Fall weather here. Temps in the 60s into November; beautiful sunshine. Trees a riot of color and the Fall flowers to match. Not every day, but often enough to really enjoy it.

As for this week. I enjoyed the cold rain yesterday and I think the living green things did too. We could use some more of it.

Heat Wave and Quilting

In the Allentown, PA area the heat wave was partially relieved on Saturday. The temperature came down but the humidity was still high until Sunday afternoon. On Monday it was way better. But my air conditioner has still be on continually for about two weeks now, maybe longer. I've had summers here when the air conditioner was on continually for 6 weeks, and others where it was on every day, but it cooled down enough at night that I turned it off and was able to open windows and doors to air out the house. It looks like this Summer is going to be one of the hot ones.

I've been quilting. I'm making a small quilt without a pattern of any kind. There was a picture in a book, but I'm not really even using the "recipe" in that book. It is all improvisational. I've got one of the two panels finished. The second one should be easier than the first was because most of the pieces are already put together. But I need to do some thinking before I do anything else. So I'm here, blogging. No pictures yet. I have to get just a bit further along before I can do that.

Heat Wave

It has been hot. It has been hot for over a week. And it is supposed to be hot for another week. And I'm tired of it being hot and I'm tired of staying home because it is hot.

I'm lucky. The bad storm that downed power lines from Ohio to Delaware didn't come here. It was all south of Philadelphia. Even the New Jersey damage was south of Philadelphia. So I have fans and I have air conditioning and over all I'm pretty comfortable.

What I've got is cabin fever. I've got places to go and people to see tomorrow. But today. It is hot and I am staying home.

The Rain

It rained last night. It rained very hard. Allentown got lucky. If there was lightening and thunder, it happened after I went to bed. And the threatened tornado did not happen anywhere near me, and possibly not at all in Pennsylvania. When I woke up this morning, the rain had stopped. Everything was wet and shiny. It was early so the sun hadn't actually begun to shine, but about half an hour later is was shining, and it is now as well.

Just a beautiful late spring day with an expected high in the seventies. I'm planning on going out to enjoy it.

Summer Flowers - Summer Color

My friend and neighbor Marilyn helped me put my flowers into the ground yesterday. The yard doesn't look as good as it will once the leaves from the Spring Garden die back, but the pictures I took yesterday look pretty good.

This is an overall shot. Not too bad. The plants in the front are day lilies and they will begin to bloom in a week or two. There are a lot of buds on two of the three plants in this area.

There are a bunch of geraniums in three colors, and some begonias near the front door. 

The azaleas are on the other side of the door.

The azaleas are the only bushes put in by the builder that survived. Not sure what was different about these. We weren't able to do what needed to be done to the yard as Joe got sicker and sicker and I was left with a bunch of dead stuff until my daughter began to dig that stuff out and put in what she had available.

You can just see a hint of the geraniums that got planted in the corner.

This is the peony we put in this year. Good thing I took a picture of its flower yesterday because that is already gone.

I'm not sure what the three white bulb things are. They were another of my daughter's choices. Stuff she brought when I wasn't thinking straight. All of the rest of it just died out, but this plant is thriving.


Take care all.

How Does My Garden Grow

Spring is the time that the little garden in my mulch looks best. I live in a community where the grass and common areas are taken care of by the community, but each of us has a small area near the house where we can plant if we want to. Some people have done very professionally planted gardens. Others are simpler.

 My garden was planted by my daughter over several years. The Spring bulbs have now gotten old enough that they look amazing.

At this point multiple kinds of daffodils are out along with snow drops. The hyacinths are actually just past their prime, and the tulips have just started to show.

The mulch has been refreshed by the crew that also does the lawns. They do a Spring and a Fall cleanup, so I really don't have to do much gardening myself.

The lilacs at the corner near the garage have leafed out. I'm going to have flowers this year, but I don't yet know how many. The crab apple tree looks like it just might decided to bloom pretty soon as well.
 
I finally got a chair out front so I can enjoy my plantings when the weather is nice. It hasn't been warm enough so far this week for me to sit outside. But it should be soon.

The day lilies have greened up and at least some of the Summer perennials we planted last Fall made it through the Winter. There will be quite a bit of color in the Fall, but except for the day lilies I don't currently have anything in the garden that blooms in the Summer. I'm thinking some annuals this year so I can have some flowers and some color in July and August.

We bought two chairs and a small table this Sunday too, but those are in the back, and that is another post.

Take care all.

Spring

I was going to write this post yesterday but my Internet was down for several hours and I didn't get to it. But the pictures were yesterday's pictures. Spring is just starting here in semi-rural Pennsylvania. We had a very mild Winter, and we are getting an early Spring.

 The crocus are out and they are blooming. My daffodils are starting to show buds, but I've seen some already in bloom in other people's yards in Macungie Borough.

But these daffodils are just beginning to get their buds. Pretty soon my front yard will be full of blooming bulbs. It doesn't look like much the rest of the year, but it is very pretty in the Spring.

We planted a bunch of stuff last fall, and depending on what comes up, I might actually have a garden all Summer. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.