New England, November 2014

I got a good start on my new compost piles today. I was eventually driven back by rain. Now indoors and making hermits. Yum!

Hey, we are awaiting the storm and expecting around 2" of the white stuff.   Oh, its terribly early for our winter to be starting.  I don't usually get my snow tires on til around the 10th of Nov and I'm usually early at that.
No tires swapped out yet so if it snows, I'll be hibernating til I can get my tires switched up.
My garden looks pretty bare, in both flower and veggie beds.  I'm going to hibernate now til spring when I'll be at it again.
Til then, I'll be quilting.  Have a great winter everyone.

Okay, I give up.  What the heck are hermits (or have I already asked this in past years and can't remember).  Is this a northern thing (food?).

yolos wrote:Okay, I give up.  What the heck are hermits (or have I already asked this in past years and can't remember).  Is this a northern thing (food?).

I thought they were cookies til I saw that photo of what looks like loaves of bread...?

Compost station envy here!  So perfectly functional!

To be specific I made hermit bars. These long loaf looking cookies got iced and cut into bars. Yum Yum!!!

What are hermits?

Cool history, and they sound really good (minus the raisins  ).

Geez...sleeting here now and the wind gusts are insanely strong.  Something is vibrating out there and has been making fog horn noises since last night.  BUT, we still have power.. ..albeit with occasional flickering.  Firewood is at the ready.

Did the rest of you get snow?
CC

Wicked winds here CC, but no snow as of this writing. Due to the whistling I am finding all the windows that have not been fully shut . Feels like snow...

We were supposed to get 3-6 inches, then it was supposed to be a rain-snow mix. What we actuality got was a brief rain shower early in the afternoon. Good thing, too because there's still alot of cleanup I have to get done outside.

Thankfully, the little rain shower came just as DH and I finished planting the garlic for next year. We put in a whole 4X8 with 5 varieties of hardneck and one of softneck. I haven't had much success with garlic so I'm hoping next year will be the summer I get it right. I seem to leave it in the ground too long and the cloves split OR disease gets to the plant before it can even produce. I've planted garlic three times now and each year I've moved them to a new bed. Let's hope this one's the charm.

For us up here winter's actually a bit late in settling in. We've had a number of hard, hard freezes, one brief snow flurry, lots of frosts, but that's about it. Some of the trees actually still have leaves on them. The temps have been all over the place, too. One good thing though: we had a spectacular foliage season with some really bright colors this year. Who knows? Maybe it will me a mild winter (HA!)...

Its  snowing here right now and in the 30sF.  A blustery kind of day.  A day to stay indoors.  Maybe tomorrow as well since they tell us probably 3" of the white stuff for us and I don't have my snow tires on yet.

Still raining, sleeting and windy.  Heading down to freezing tonight so I bundled up and grabbed these just now: 

The smaller cukes & peppers, as well as the green tomatoes, are still out there.

Yup, I've been spending a lot of time mulching, mainly the in-between areas for weed suppression. Raking it up from the wooded areas, dumping it in the aisle areas, trying to get a 4" base. It will take a lot longer than just one season, but I really want an organized, weedless, and healthy garden. Still mowing leaves. Seems like you could spend eternity finding mulch materials for the garden. It's like making mudpies.  

Fedco Trees has their catalog out!

I bought a bale of straw today for the garden. $9!!! I think from now on I'll just use leaves.

Garlic was planted Nov. 3. In a rain/snow drizzle.

We've been having some below freezing nites here pretty regularly now but even for us in Maine, this cold weather is a little too much too early.  I like to see Nov feeling fall-ish for a lot longer.  Time to stay hidden in my quilt studio and sewing up a storm while outdoors it storms in another fashion.
Looking forward to the new seed catalogs so I can dream of next spring.

QB, Have you ever post pics of your quilts? Hint, hint

sanderson......No, I don't think I've posted any quilt pictures here.  Unfortunately I recently upgraded to a new Win8.1 and all my photos are stored elsewhere and aren't on my puter yet.  Except for the quilt top I made for a quilter buddy who's had lots of medical issues this year and is still a young woman, for whom I asked friends to send me some snowman blocks and I put it all together for a quilt for her.  Its at another quilter's home right now because she has a pro quilt machine and offered to quilt it.

Well, I just tried to upload the picture but it didn't work.  After I choose the picture, and its only 640 pixels, another window opened with 3 lines; thumbnail with a line of letters and numbers, image with a line and image URL with a line.  No matter which I  hilited and clicked 'upload', it just brought me back to the earlier window asking me to 'Browse' for my picture.  
My Win8.1 makes me crazy.  It does it differently from my XP I used to have.
Sorry, can't upload it.  I'm just not techy enuf to understand how to post a pic.

quiltbea wrote:
Well, I just tried to upload the picture but it didn't work.  After I choose the picture, and its only 640 pixels, another window opened with 3 lines; thumbnail with a line of letters and numbers, image with a line and image URL with a line.  No matter which I  hilited and clicked 'upload', it just brought me back to the earlier window asking me to 'Browse' for my picture.  
My Win8.1 makes me crazy.  It does it differently from my XP I used to have.
Sorry, can't upload it.  I'm just not techy enuf to understand how to post a pic.

You are almost there.
After you get to the screen with the three lines. 
Put your curser on the middle line "Image" and left click.  That will highlight the line.
DO NOT CLICK ON UPLOAD !!!!!
Then right click on the line.
Click on copy.
Click on preview.
Scroll down to the place where you want to insert your picture.
Right click.
Click on paste.
Hit enter to go to the next line.

I love your pictures so you gotta try one more time.  There is probably a better way to do this, but it is the only way I can remember.

Thanks Yolos.  I'm trying it.


Yippee!  Thank you yolos.  I wrote that all down.
This is the snowman quilt top I made for an ailing quilt buddy.  Its off to the pro quilter in our bunch of buddies right now because with my bad thumbs and wrists, I can no longer manhandle a bed-size quilt under the arm of my sewing machine.  The blocks are from many of our quilt buddies who wanted to participate.  I just added to them, sashed the blocks and added the borders.

This is what I do all winter long now.

Very nice!!!QB!

The only growing I'm doing right now is my house plants and my African Violets are in full bloom and have been for months now.  I've got to get myself more of these so it can brighten my home during the long, cold, white, winter months.

I'm practicing a bit but I wanted you to see my violets as well.

Lovely African violets. I need to get one of those.

Beautiful QB!!!!! I absolutely love that quilt.

And the African violets! What a great way to keep connection with the outdoors during the winter. I have on my list to get under-cabinet fluorescent lights (I heard about these at a gardening workshop, I believe they're the stick-on type) and grow some spices. Eventually. First, I got seaweed yesterday and spread it around (always need more) and today I need to focus on mowing leaves.

NHGardener wrote:... today I need to focus on mowing leaves.

Yup, snow's a coming!

NHGardener.....I have an under-cabinet light over my sink.  They can stick up or you can use the screws to screw them in.  Mine is screwed in since its permanent.

I have a 2-ft grow light on legs on my antique sewing machine in the entry way so I can keep a few indoor plants.  The African violets love it.

Love your African Violets.