Today is my birthday . . .

and oh, what a large and terrible number it is!!!

Ugh! Do not know how I got here! I couldn't possibly be this old!

Ok, don't think about it! Just don't think about it! Just keep going!

That's it! Denial, denial, denial!

Not much going on around here today. It is very, very cold here today, and windy too. Looks nice out, but way to cold to be out for any length of time.

I have gone back to working on Love is Enough. It is a difficult stitch, and frustrating with back stitching at odd angles, and color changes every 2 or 3 stitches. It is quite a slow-go. I will be glad when it is finally finished.

Here is a picture of what I have so far:

The colors in the photo came out a little off. The blues and the greens are ok, but the pinks came out too coral looking. What is hard to see, is that there are actually three shades of green, three shades of blue, and three shades of pink. The pink colors are too subtle,
and unless you look really closely, it looks like one color. That is a bit of a disappointment.

Oh well that's all I have for today.

Guess I have to go back to face my grim reality!

A Bit about the Bees . . .

Good news!

The two remaining hives survived the winter!

Last week, the weather was unusually warm so Keith opened the hives up to take a peek. He has been fretting about these bees all winter!

Both hives are very healthy, and very active!

Keith took a video of the bees returning with some pollen, but after trying for 2 days to get it to load onto my blog, I have given up!

As is tradition to name the hives, Keith named his after his mom Martha, and her two sisters, Connie and Ethel.

Unfortunately Ethel died off very suddenly last fall.

Martha was the hive that was attacked by the neighborhood kids last summer. Keith really babied this one, constantly feeding it, and fussing with it. I guess it paid off because she is thriving now!

Last year due to the rotten weather we had, we didn't get any honey. I am looking forward to getting that first jar this year!

To replace the lost hive, Keith ordered 2 new sets of bees. Now here is the weird part -
He has made arrangements to pick up the bees at the Palisades Mall, which is very close by our house. The guy is driving a truck up from Georgia. On his way to Connecticut, he is stopping at the mall. There have been many people who wanted to get these bees, but he has announced that he is sold out for the mall run!

Who are these people?

I don't know anyone else who has bees! Apparently there are quite a few of them around here! Very strange! They are all going to rendez-vous at the mall about midnight or so on April 9th!
Should be interesting!

Country Garden part 3 is completed!

I meant to post this last week when I finished it, but here it is:

I know. It looks just like the last panel!

This is the outer panel on the left side, so now I have the center panel and the left side of the quilt finished. Of course I still have to stitch them together and stitch the motifs where they are joined.
3 panels finished, 2 to go!

I was very anxious to finish up this last panel because I have decided to take a little break from Country Garden, It has gotten pretty monotonous, and I need a change.

It has been bothering me that I left Love is Enough unfinished, so I think I will try to finish that one up. The reason I left it, is that it is pretty difficult and takes a lot of concentration.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the kitties! Willie is recovering nicely from his operation, although we are still having problems adjusting his insulin dose.

Max has been holding his own, and has not had another attack, seizure? whatever, but he is still not gaining any weight. The vet wants to see a little weight gain when he goes back next week. He remains very weak. I don't know why, but no one seems to be able to diagnose what is wrong with him. This all started over 6 years ago, although clearly he has gotten much worse lately.

I will post again with a picture of Love is Enough shortly.

Happy Spring everyone!

Febuary was not a good month!

It is bad enough to have one sick pet, but two is just unbelievable!

First our 15 year old Willie became blocked. those of you who have male cats may be aware of this condition. Some cats are just prone to it. To complicate matters, Willie is also diabetic. Anyway, he became blocked so we took him to our local animal emergency hospital. They inserted a catheter and successfully unblocked him.

We took him home only to have him reblock about 12 hours later!

Back to the hospital! This time they kept him for several days.

Our regular vet was not available and we were receiving varying updates from several doctors.

The last night he was there the doctor seemed optimistic that he was doing ok. The next morning another doctor called saying that they had to remove the catheter and they weren't sure if he would unblock or not. She felt that he needed to have surgery (PERINEAL URETHROSTOMY "pu" - basically, the penis is removed and a new urinary opening is made - your basic sex change operation - poor Willie!). Unfortunately their surgeon was on vacation and she didn't have any othe on call. She asked me what I wanted to do.

I found it unbelievable that an animal hospital would not have a surgeon on standby. That is afterall, why I brought him there because of their facilities.

Well, to complicate things further, this was also the day of the giant blizzard! I had to go get him and transport him with the catheter inserted, to an animal hospital in New Jersey!

Thank God for 4-wheel drive! We could hardly see the road in front of us on the Thruway!

They took Willie in right away and did the surgery. He was back home the next day.

He is still recovering, but he is coming along well.

Well, while this was happening, my cat Max, had some sort of attack. He lost the use of his hind legs. I saw him favoring one of his back legs. The next thing I knew he fell head over heels all the way down a flight of stairs. He could not get up on his own.

Back to the hospital!

After blood tests and x-rays, they still don't know what is wrong with him. Yes, he has the very beginnings of what is probably kidney disease, but they say his numbers are not very bad, and that had nothing to do with it.

We now have to take him back to see a specialist for more tests. He has made a little improvement. He is now able to get around a little better, but he is still weak.

We are just reeling from the astronomical costs associated with all of this, and we are not through yet!

My nerves are shot!

Anyway, I don't have a lot of stitching to show here. I am still working on the 3rd of the 5 panels of the Country Garden quilt.

My only picture is the Febuary edition of my Totally Useless Stitch-along (TUSAL). Still only 2 shades of pink in there. I am longing to see some other colors! This is one of these projects that seems to take forever!