Hibernating

We're headed in to our third night of freezing temperatures. Around here, that's an event. An annual event, but an event nonetheless. Typically, when we say 'its freezing out there,' we don't actually mean its freezing.   But, right now we do, and it means covering large swaths of my plants with sheets, a call from the landscaper to make sure that I had covered them, and enlisting the help of the neighbor to pick all the grapefruit off the tree.  Well, all the grapefruit except those in the highest branches I consider the squirrels' share.    (Seriously good haul for all of us this year, about two dozen already.) Yard secured, vegetable stew cooked, fire built - we are officially hibernating.

You know, I vaguely remember a time when my yard was always covered with ice and snow by late January, where I watched for blizzard warnings, and had an ice scraper handy in my car. The dog even went for walks in the snow and knew that it was possible to potty before the temperatures rose above 40. Neither that girl nor that dog live around here these days. We consider this very cold, and the fact that the heat is (still) broken gives us license to curl up on the couch with the down comforter and refuse to move.  Fortunately, the boy still harbors a love for the cold weather and is willing to indulge us.

You'd think, then, that this would be prime crafting time.  Not much sewing would be getting done, what with that whole refusing to move off the couch thing, but definitely knitting, right?  Yeah, not so much.  Instead, I'm all about a lazy novel and a glass of wine.  And since you can't hold a book or a glass of wine while knitting, well not much knitting is getting done.  The sweater sleeve crawls along at a snails pace, though, and I'm okay with it.  Right now, reading a trashy novel with my cuddly dog, warm comforter and cool glass of wine is working for me.  We're hibernating.  See you when the weather warms up. (You know, like 24 hours from now.)