Is the Winter Past?

For, lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
Song of Solomon 2:11-12

our master bedroom late in the afternoon

It may be possible that the worst of winter is now behind us, here in northeast Florida. One of the local weathermen has said something to that effect. He was telling us we had two more nights of a hard frost and he suspected we would see no more of that from here on out. That was late this past week.

We hope so. When we chose to live in Jacksonville, we truly had no idea we would be needing to wear thick socks, undershirts, and coats with scarves. And I didn't plan on needing an extra blanket on the bed at night, either. 

Some of our outdoor plants look worse for the freezing nights, but since the flora and fauna of Florida are new to me, I'm thinking maybe they'll snap out of it as the temperatures warm up. We shall see.

lamp table beside my recliner

When 'the weather outside is frightful', as the song goes on Pandora (which is still playing Christmas music!!), I am more inclined to work on sewing projects. Last week I completed two mats for the lamp tables in our family room. 

lamp table beside Beloved's recliner

They are both just alike. That 'scrappy' look is a favorite with me, so I bought eleven different fat quarters all in browns, beiges, tans, and white, cut them into 2  1/2-inch squares with my rotary cutter and cutting mat, sewed them together, used a very thin Warm 'n Natural batting, muslin for the backing, and black-and-beige Homespun fabric for the binding. It was all done on the sewing machine. 

chair in family room

In our last house I had made a table mat like that using pretty much the same colors, but including more black, since we had black cabinets throughout the house.  I took that single mat and pinned it to a wood chair in our family room. The chair has a rough chip on the top that needed some remedy. My solution was to use the table mat as a soft backing for the area where the chip is, covering the rough spot and making the chair more comfy and 'country'.

How to Cook Like a Southerner by Johnnie Gabriel

And while I'm on the topic of homey things, I've now made quite a few of the recipes in the book Beloved gave to me at Christmas. Most of them have been pretty good, although this way of cooking is a departure from my habit of more raw and vegan meals. And of course, this book makes no mention of avoiding gluten, dairy, or eggs. 

I have gotten a little 'edgy' with my menu plans (straying away from my foodie restrictions), and most especially this past weekend when we had eleven house guests spend two nights with us. I cooked what I thought they would enjoy and because it was just easier, I ate what I cooked. 

Hmmm. I am paying for it now. I was able to get away with it for several days, but now I'll just say that the 'grace period' appears to be over. I'm back to eating what I should and avoiding what I should not. It's good to test the waters from time to time to see to what extent my tolerances are. 

the Snow People

As I close out this post, it's time to bid the Snow People a hasty farewell. With the news of our 'harsh' winter weather leaving us, the late afternoon sunshine on my good friends is a little more intense. They need to be hustled off to the freezer storage boxes till next January. 

I'm hopeful I might be able to resume wearing my glitzy flip flops one day this week!

Oh, and please forgive me, those of my readers who are knee-deep in snow! It is not my intention to be insensitive, but we all make our choices as to where we want to live.  Yours is to live in snow country, and mine is to be in sunshine and palm trees. 😎