The end of January 2014

Another month gone!
January, 2014,  it was another great month.
A quick review:

During the first week,
I had influenza - that decided to stick around and morphed into bronchitis then walking pneumonia.
Don't think I stitched an inch that whole week and more.

About the end of the second week,
I met up with a local friend and we had dinner and exchanged Christmas gifts.
Yes, I know Christmas was the month before...but among other things, foul weather kept interrupting our plans.

About the third week,
I drove south an hour or so and met up with a non-local friend at a quilt shop and then had lunch and exchanged Christmas gifts.  Yes, I still know that Christmas was really the month before... but, oh, you know... if I couldn't get together with the in-town friend before now, how was I supposed to get together with the out-of-town friend?
I did stitch a few more blocks together on my Lucy Boston.  And , I machine-sewed more of my 3 inch Blocks of Fun.

Also, in this 3rd week, in between the snow/polar vortexes/sub zero weather, I hit the grocery to stock up before the next snows blow in.

Then, just for fun this fourth week of the month,
I had a tooth pulled...a first for me.
I didn't know it, but it was cracked AND had abscessed.  
Oh, and have I mentioned before that
I have a 'sensitivity' to the 'caine' family of drugs?  
Yes, that means that I get to 'go to sleep'
 and have dental work done,
 so when I awaken,
I get to feel all the great things that were done to my mouth whilst I slept.
Great fun!
So, I'm still recovering from that fun.

The grand kids came out a couple of evenings and went sledding.  Temps both times were up to the low 30's so it was perfect to sled.  I watched from inside, but would have much preferred to be outside with them.  The two year old grandson was SO excited to sled - of course he doesn't remember sledding last year, so it's great to see winter fun through his eyes and excitement and enthusiasm.    

And, finally, I'll leave you with a couple pictures of nature's January beauty...

There were these great 'snow rollers' this past week!

a photo taken at a family friends' farm:
Below Yarnell's Barn,
Westerville, Ohio
photo used with permission from Gary Gardiner, local photographer
 

Here is a photo that I took on the way to the dentist/fun -

A close-up of a 'snow roller'
that was about a foot and a half tall
(I think this was taken at the family homestead).
 

The conditions have to be just perfect for the formation of snow rollers.... snow, then a thin layer of ice with more snow on top, humidity just right, then winds to push a few crystals of snow to start to roll across the ice layer.  More winds, pushing more snow, to create this little snowball, rolling, wind pushing, gathering more snow crystals along the way, creating these great rolls of snow.   (I hadn't seen these since the the beginning of the blizzard of 1978, and they weren't so abundant then as this past week.)  They are an amazing phenomenon!
And it was a great way to finish out January, 2014!