What's Happening?

I haven't posted in a while. No good reason for not doing so. I've just had nothing to say. And not been doing much either.

So what is going on with the pictures? Are my neighbors having an outdoor quilt show? Nope. We had some freezing nights a bit ago here in mid-Florida and people covered their plants. The quilt in the first picture looked to me like it really should have stayed on the bed. Very pretty. The one in the second picture is really a woven blanket but is a nice inspiration for a quilt, huh? The third is a tree all covered up and it made it. The last one shows what happened when a plant didn't get covered. It was the hardest freeze here that I have ever seen and it lasted for several nights. I don't have any plants that need covered around my home except a hibiscus and about half if it froze. I tried to cover it one night but the wind was so strong that I give up. The plant is still alive and will come back another year. They water the strawberries and burn smug pots for the citrus and they make it through. The garden crops including tomatoes and green beans aren't unusually so lucky. However, I was able to buy both this weekend at the farmer's market. I feel guilty telling about the "bad" weather here when everyone up north is having such a terrible winter. My DD1 in PA has been without electricity for three days. They have a generator for the refrigerator and freezer and used the fireplace for heat. I'm trying to send sunshine to all of you.

Yesterday, I broke down and bought a small bottle of real vanilla. It is so expensive. I was tempted to buy the imitation kind for a dollar less but decided to just give up $5 for a little bottle of the real stuff. I tried the farmer's market/flea market and discount stores where I have gotten it before, but they have none now. I plan to make some banana bread today. This makes me think about how women used to keep their spices locked up and they kept the only key. The spices were that valuable.

Kipper is doing fine. He got a short hair cut at Christmas time and has been growing his fur back but for some reason it is not growing on his back and upper part of his neck. Their is a row of longer hair between the two areas. Strange. He never did this before and my DD2 says he is having male pattern baldness. :)
Well, he is a handsome older guy anyway. Hard to think that he will be 11 years old in a couple months.

I haven't replaced my broken sewing machine and just haven't had an urge to get any fabric out. Hancock was having a batting sale so I bought some Thermore and have been hand quiting one of the tops that have been waiting so patiently. I have six inch diagonal direction lines finished. I was going to call that done as the Thermore says it only has to be quilted every nine inches so this would have been enough. However, I started doing the other direction. If I would work on it every day, I might get it done. This is only the second quilt I've hand quited and I'm using two strands of embroidery floss. If I would work on it every day, I'd make more progress.

Got to go get that banana bread going now.