A Snowy Weekend

We had a snowy and very cold weekend, with snow showers or steady snow off and on, leaving us with a grand total of about seven inches, we're told by the news channels.  Seemed like more since it went on so long and was so frigid.  It sure was pretty.

This is the back of Crowley, our neighbors dog, who we met while out walking.

Cute, isn't he? 

 It was a good weekend for cooking, eating, watching Netflix movies, and quilting.

I renewed my acquaintance with a old favorite author of mine, Rosamunde Pilcher, re-reading her famous novel, The Shell Seekers, and starting to re-read Coming Home. 

The main characters in both books are women whose lives unfold in Britain during WWII.  A big step above "Chick Lit," they not only describe the home front during the war in England but pack alot of wisdom into the stories.  Here's two lines I particularly responded to: 

“The greatest gift a parent can leave a child is that parent's own independence.” 
― Rosamunde Pilcher, The Shell Seekers

“Living, now, had become not simple existence that one took for granted, but a bonus, a gift, with every day that lay ahead an experience to be savoured. Time did not last forever. I shall not waste a single moment, she promised herself. She had never felt so strong, so optimistic. As though she was young once more, starting out, and something marvellous was just about to happen.” 
― Rosamunde Pilcher, The Shell Seekers

Ben and I watched The Day of the Jackal, a thriller released in 1973 which we had seen before and really enjoyed.  Then Ben found that there had been a remake in 1997, so we watched that and had fun comparing the two versions.   In our humble opinions, the first was by far the better.  I especially appreciated how quietly the ending of the earlier version unfolded compared to the bombastic and one-on-one violence of the climatic scenes of the latter.

Ben made several journeys out to walk, shovel, and shop, but I spent most of my time inside, taking advantage of the freezing weather to make quite a bit of progress on the outreach quilt I'm finishing up.  The pin basting I had done a few days ago had left a number of puckers on the back, so I re-basted it, this time using an adhesive spray and lots of pressing, which left things in much better shape.

It took me a while to decide how to quilt it but I finally choose to make one line of a long, soft S curve diagonally across the front and then echo it.  I'm about 2/3rds done now and really like how it's turning out.  Very easy to stitch while watching (even more) old Grey's Anatomy episodes.  I read that there are so many it would take eight weeks to finish them all if you watched them 40 hours a week! (Didn't do the math myself!) 

Well, it's now Monday and the sun is shining like crazy and there's good weather ahead.  Ben walked That Handsome Dog Gus early this morning and took this lovely photo of the Flatirons.

Paula reports that the walk did the trick, tiring out Gus and setting the stage for a good morning's nap!  As for us, we will soon head out to do our Monday Meals on Wheels route.  It will be interesting to see how the neighborhood roads fared in the snow.