Although still quite grey and occasionally rainy, we've had a few dry days this week too, hence this beautiful sunrise on one of those mornings ..

On days like that, when the temperatures are nearing 50F, you'd almost think the worst of the winter is over, but we're only halfway through January, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Besides, I like winter and wouldn't mind having some more frosty days and, if possible, a little more snow please!
For now though, that beautiful sunrise changed into a frosty, wintery morning .. our thermometer showed a whopping 26F (-3C). Brrrr ..!

It sure was purty though!

Everything had a little frosty 'edge' to it:

Nevertheless, and despite the cold, the daffodils are already popping up. They're such a hardy bunch!

Around 2pm, with the sun at it's highest and warmest, I ventured out to read in the sun for a while.

How about that? In the middle of January!

                                                            

We even went for a little walk that day. My heel is still hurting like the dickens but every now and than I just have to walk a little!

       

We walked by this little stream, Otter Creek, just up the road from Doug's house, which has a lot more water in it than last spring/summer when I took the picture on the right!

Most of the time though I'm still, grudgingly, staying of that heel and pursue one of my hobbies that don't involve having to walk.
Like weaving for instance!

      

Yes, indeed, I finally set up that loom and started 'dressing' it.

I first wound the warp on my nifty warping board that James made for me all those years ago (those are the pictures at the top in the collage below ..

The warp than was placed on the raddle (left bottom pic) and than sleyed through the haddles (bottom right) ... right .. sounds like Chinese doesn't it?
But I got it done!
Look at that! I'm weaving!

I'm following a sample-pattern out of Ashford's 'weaving on a 4 shaft table loom' book. It guides you through the whole thing and describes a lot of different, but common, patterns and weaves that you might come across most frequently.
So far I'm having a blast! Now when the world-as-we-know-it comes to an end, and in addition to my spinning, I can make my own clothes. Handy!

My birds are still hanging around, and by now I feel of course that I can't let them run out of their feed at all, especially in this cold weather, so I've added 2 more feeders, just in case they run out while I'm not watching ..

They're my substitute for not having any pets anymore I guess. I just love to take care of 'something' ..

OK, time to end this epistle. I'll end similar to how I started, but with a sun-set this time ..