January Is Oh So Cold!

 Yes I know I live in Canada & the winters are cold but this week is oh so cold with temps dipping to -24C at night. I worry about the chickens & their first Canadian winter, this is my 67th winter & I am still not used to the freezing cold!

I picked up yarn for my evening entertainment with the firebox blazing its radiant heat & the thoughts of spring to make the porch goose a new spring outfit!

I joined the Porch Goose Club on Facebook & saw this pattern & purchased it! It was so sweet & made me laugh out loud.

I had some yellow Red Heart acrylic yarn left over from their bumble bee outfits some years back & the green was left over from the baby Yoda's I had made. Using up my craft stash, this outfit came together beautifully, right down to just 24 inches of yarn left!

The Bumble Bee Outfits

Looking at the red chair pads that they are standing on, I will make them green ones to compliment the green grass around their feet. A new idea from an old photo!

I'm so glad Bill is going to refresh them this summer with cement patching & new paint, a day at the spa is booked for them! lol

January was the Owl for The 100 Acre Wood quilt,  I am making for Liam's big bed.

Month four is done! There will be nine months of character blocks. I also signed up to do Art East Quilt SAL with The Farm Fresh Sampler & if that's not crazy enough I plan on doing Piecing the Past Quilts SAL of Sweet Little Baltimore. I'm planning to stay busy this winter with the piecing & creating of these quilts. 

I made Liam a Piglet to go with his quilt. I had remnants of fabric left over from making Gordo's pig costume & there were just enough larger scrap pieces left to make Piglet.

Gordo in his Halloween costume two years ago now, sweetest Bulldog I have ever known. RIP Gordo.

His costume was made from a thrifted child's costume of a unicorn that Don brought home & I remade it into a pig costume for Gordo, then with the scraps into a Piglet for Liam. I love making something from nothing! All were done as a labour of love, that is my sewing for others.

The price of the fabric is atrocious in this country & if the tax tariffs go on the imports from the USA, a lot of people, myself included, will not be ordering again. 

Hence, I am using my stash this year & using my creativity to do so.

Bill & I had fun doing puzzles this year!

A Christmas gift from our Chatham kids Nick & Leslie, a 1000-piece tartan puzzle & it was a challenging puzzle!

It was one that I thought to be easy but boy, was I wrong!

It sure was satisfying to finally complete this beautiful puzzle!

And also gave Bill an idea for the next one, since this was so much fun!

Two summers ago, my girlfriend Sandy came for a visit & gifted me this 1000-piece puzzle, it finally got taken out of the box and bag! I was ready to look at a glimpse of summer if only through the pieces coming together.

Our Chatham kids had this gizmo for putting their puzzles together & Bill ordered it for us to do ours.

There are four pullouts, and removable drawers & the tabletop itself rotates like a lazy Susan!

There is also a rubber mat the size of the tabletop to place on top when not in use, it's really needed if you have a playful cat.

We placed it on Fran's old breakfast table, Fran was my next-door neighbour in London ON & she moved away, selling/gifting many of her items, so we added two of the dining chairs to it & voila, a puzzle center was made. We do this in the great room & have the firebox on to keep us cozy & busy in our evening hours.

It's also done next to the sunporch plants adding to the feel of warmth & life on these dark cold days of winter. The days are getting longer but winter is now upon us & the Miramichi Bay is frozen over & busy with the smelt fishermen once more.

Thank you Sandy for such a beautiful puzzle, I'm going to have this one framed & place it in the potting shed to admire all the goodness of having bees!

It was a fun puzzle to put together & we named the flowering bushes & bulbs that we will see this spring & summer in the coming seasons.

With the cold outside, my thoughts are of the chickens' first winter so I made them lined drapes for the vintage windows that were installed & did not have storm windows.

Inside their coop above the nesting boxes, the first pair were installed, this window faced the outside.

Then in their run area, the second pair were installed. I hope this helps keep them warm through the cold bitter days of winter, I think I'm more fretful than them but it's so cold.

Sorry for not posting sooner but we had a death in the family, Bill's 88-year-old father, Ernie passed away on January 3rd, and he was hospitalized for the second & last time on December 24th.

RPI Ernest William Richardson 1937-2025.

Several years ago Ernie gave Bill his Harley Davidson bike, they did do a bike ride together when Bill was much younger, before he met me in 1985. That was their only father-and-son outing together maybe that's why Ernie wanted Bill to have his bike, memories for Bill now.

He did live long enough to know that a new baby Richardson has joined the family tree, wee Liam, born September 5th, two days after his 88th birthday on September 3rd, and two days before my 67th birthday on September 7th. September was a special month, a joyous month!

As the beautiful Rankin Family song goes... Rise Again.

Liam is four months old now & has started rolling over, he is such a joy to see in photos. I can't wait to meet him in April, he is so familiar to me. I see his mom & dad when I look at him, so precious, so loved.

Thank you for visiting today, I am trying to stay busy & positive through these cold frigid days with the saying that goes with everything...this too will pass. This is not one of my favourite seasons but it too holds a silent beauty that no other season has, making living in the country of Canada wonderful!

Thank you again for reading to the end. 

Have a wonderful week!

Wishing you health & happiness in this New Year of 2025!

Cynthia xXx