Duck a la Brrrrrr!

Brr! We are having an awful December! It's been more like February here lately. Luckily, we did not get hit by the blizzard that buried the Mid-Atlantic States over Christmas weekend. We had high winds and about a quarter inch of snow, but the snow blew away before it landed. So nothing much stuck. I can't describe my relief.

I wouldn't mind snow so much if the local government would spend some of our hard-earned tax dollars on proper snow equipment. Baltimore's solution to snowfall, no matter how much or how little, is to dump enormous loads of salt on everything. Sometimes they scatter it, but often, you just see piles of salt at the head of the road. It's a very illogical way to deal with the snow, I think. An acquaintance of mine spent a year in Canada, and she said they didn't close anything no matter how much it snowed. Wish we could do something like that.

Anyway ... in the face of what is to us unreasonable cold (25 - 30F, wind chill in the teens), Georgie Girl and I bundle up and head out for the duck pond.

I'm very pleased with the way the jacket turned out. Georgie Girl gets compliments for being stylish. I'm usually out in sweatpants and sneakers, so I don't get compliments.

 I ran out of red yarn, so the collar is black. Isn't she smart-looking?

 Not sure what is happening here ... I think some local high schoolers (high school in the back ground) were trying to sled across the pond. There are also footprints crossing the lake.The graduating class is going to be a few short if they don't wise up. The ice was barely a half inch thick, at most.

My latest fascination is using up the yarn I just handspun. This is a Multnomah shawl. I have abandoned all WIPs to work on this! I hope it turns out like the picture, but it is hard to tell with handspun.

And in closing, a candle safety lesson. When cheap candles burn down too far, the wick falls over sideways and burns through the side of the candle. This causes melted wax to pour over whatever surface is closest ... and the cats will not warn you that this is happening. No nice Lassie-like warning barking. Just a cat (visible on the left) staring with fascination at the dripping wax.

There was another cat present, but apparently she got too close to the wax ;-) because she suddenly ran out of the room, flinching and wiggling her nose.

Purple runner woven by my mother, many years ago. I know I can use an iron and paper bag to get to wax out, so I'm not too worried. I learned that trick after Tropical Storm Isabel.

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas!