The path I scraped out on our sidewalk has enlarged, so it’s slowly warming up.
It really does help things to melt when sidewalks are shoveled. Something Portlanders don’t do because “the snow will be gone tomorrow.” Perhaps that feeling is ready for a climate change update.
The car is covered in ice, though it isn’t as thick as it was earlier in the week. Driving out of that ice slick is also keeping us from using the car.
Rain and light freezing rain? That means more ice.
It was at this point in our multi-day storm that I felt trapped and went and shoveled the ice away from the sidewalk and the front step. I slipped and fell on that front step, so both that and cabin fever motivated me. Ice is still covering the car and the garbage can. We only have trash pickup every 4 weeks, so we were willing to wait for them to catch back up.
Meanwhile, in Southwest Portland…
My mom’s very tall oak tree quietly set itself down in the back yard.
Southwest Portland had a ton of trees go down, and this was one.
It did a pretty good job not hitting things, though. The gray shed took the brunt of it.
All family members living in Southwest Portland were without power for varying amounts of time. I felt very snug and warm in my North Portland home.
Snow is one thing, but ice? Ice shuts everything DOWN.
If you look on the step, you can see we got a fairly substantial amount of ice and temperatures hovered near freezing.
It’s very pretty, but very hard to navigate the landscape when the ice covers everything.
This is why we sometimes shut down for a good week in the winter. You can see the road has been plowed and is passable. Not passable? Getting into the car, which was covered in ice.
Matt has ordered a new fold-a-day calendar. I will report back in 2036 when he finishes this one.
18° is a rare Portland forecast. Winter in Oregon is being in the 40s for months on end.
And! We have a Winter Storm Warning! I’m not a fan of “Today’s temperature will be 20° lower than yesterday.”
I made it about a year with my new electric kettle. Though to be honest, the last seven months were full of hate for it.
I kept thinking I would go to the store and get a new one, but the months continued to pass and I didn’t, so I eventually ordered one from Breville. It’s a fancier version of my previous setup, and I like it much better.
Photo fail. Tilt your head to the side to see what I completed with the final 2023 YOS sampler.
There are some things that went very well with this sampler, but I didn’t love the color of that bird and gave up on the whole thing. The bird is done in raised chain. The branches are in twisted chain. The flower that is filled in is done with reverse fly and square palestina.
What slowed me down was this twisted chain. I liked the effect, but I think my usual MO of stacking thread closer than it needs to be made this take forever.
I also thought the herringbone ladder filling went well aside from that point where they join.
Here’s the back view for those who are interested. It’s also oriented in the proper direction.
While cleaning out the liquor cabinet at 7611, I brought home this mini that promised me an Old Fashioned with minimal effort.
The effort was minimal, but the taste had faded somewhat in the 60(?) intervening years.
Back in 2011, my mom gave Matt a page-a-day origami calendar. Matt added it to his rotation.
It is now 2024. You can see how quickly his rotation rotates.
It only took him 12 years to fold all of the pages.
It was a long-lasting present for sure.
I wrote my usual yearly letters to myself and took this photo to include with them. I had a cold, and I can tell by my expression in the photo.
On my week off from work, I went to soak at Common Ground and really liked this Turkish towel, so I bought it. First order of business: monogramming. My favorite chain stitch with a variegated embroidery floss.
Doesn’t it look great?
