Brr!
Talk about how chilly a 50 degree plus day can feel. It would not surprise me if we had snow on the ground tomorrow morning. I didn’t stop to take in any landscape viewing this morning during my walk. I can tell how much less traffic there is out and about. Worker bees in our small businesses are sitting in their homes wondering if and when the next shoe will fall with the virus.
We . . . on the other hand, always seem to find something to burn up the day. Today, Dennis has the sump pump out and he has begun draining his very own swamp, aka: the Koi pond. I know as the water level lowers there will be all sorts of leaves, branches and even garbage that managed to find its way into the pond. As it is downright raw outside, he is keeping an eye on things through the slider patio doors. All three cats were standing vigilant at the door taking in the project. It’s too cold for them to trot out into the yard, but they love sitting in front of an open doorway.
Yesterday I whiled away the day working with sizing an embroidery design. I did get it reduced from a 10″ square to 8½” project to fit into the hoop for embroidery. That reduction reduced the number of stitches from 98,200 to 76,000 stitches. I was curious as to how things would play out. It played out to the tune of taking the full six hours. In between swapping out thread colors, I actually got quite a few thing taken care of around the house. It all stitched out without a hitch. 
No needle breaking, no bunching up of threads or thread breaking. I had a terry towel to work with, with this experiment. I applied a square of cotton fabric to the towel and all the stitches were stitched onto the cotton, then through to the terry towel and then onto the stabilizer on the back of the towel. The photo of the towel is as it is drying, after being dunked into warm water to take the stabilizer off of the back of the towel. With such dense stitching I am pleased that it isn’t all puckered and scrunched. After it is dry, I will take an iron to it for a final pressing. It will be an experiment that I most likely will not commit to again in the near future. It was time consuming considering it will most likely hang as a decoration in the bathroom. Nothing ventured, nothing known. Curiosity needs to be fed periodically.
Dennis picked up on the news last night that even the CPAP machines such as he uses each night could be considered a respirator for people in need of hospital care when tested positive. Desperate times bring innovation to the fore front.
Take it easy on the remaining days of this week. I have it on good authority that spring is just around the corner . . . so says all the song birds that accompanied me on my walk this morning.