Brrrr, winter came to s.e. FL

 

Good morning Folks ~ I know you’ll laugh when I tell you what our winter temps are compared to all of you up north, but for us this is cold, and I’ve decided to just stay home today, errands can wait.   It is 48 degrees and feels like it is 39, at 8:33 a.m. EST. The heater is in the attic.  I should have had my brother-in-law get it down the other day, but hadn’t checked the weather.  If I don’t go in and out much, and do some cooking and get a loaf of bread going in the bread machine, it will be nice and comfy in here.  It is cloudy and rain is expected throughout the day.  It’s a good day to stay indoors. The high is supposed to get up around 63, by the end of the week it is predicted to be in the low 80’s again.

Sunday a big bad rainstorm blew in and the rains were heavy and the dry ground quickly became flooded.  I was hoping it didn’t keep up and it didn’t, but gave us a really good thorough soaking. We only had a couple of claps of thunder and for that I was very thankful.

Rainy photos ~ driveway flooding

Flowers the next morning

Alamanda and Blue Flax Lily leaves

Clock vine

Cape Coral Honeysuckle

‘Granada’

‘Mr. Lincoln’

Unknown rose.

A ‘Knockout’ rose

Here is my dear brother-in-law ready to crawl under the house.  Look at that smile on his face. He still had the smile on his face when he came back up about 15 minutes later, as he saw no water leaks. He think what I am hearing might be the reverse osmosis water system as water is always going through that.  My mind will be totally relieved when I get the next water bill. I’ll let you know.

He bought this suit so he wouldn’t get so much sand in his clothing while crawling around under the house.

We were both so relieved that there was no leak under the house. He worked on finishing the shower plumbing, changing the faucet to the toilet, then we had to go to HD to exchange the faucet we got the other day as it wasn’t the right size. We got the little hoses too, and faucets for them under the sink, and I got the new sink faucet I’d found on their website and that was put in too, except for the drain part.  That will be for another day.

We also got a couple of sheets of the beadboard paneling and got that up before he left, and got the huge cabinet piece back into place.  Yesterday I got the doors back on, then unloaded the bags I’d put everything in to empty cabinet and put it all back where it should be.  It made me thankful for so much.  I’ve got more cleaning up to do, paintings to rehang on the wall.  I asked him to put up a new section of the paneling behind the computer area as I had messed up and had two outlet holes one above the other. We then used the messed up piece, and cut off the boo boo, and used that piece behind the cabinet.  Another piece was cut from another sheet, to go beside the cabinet.

We were both exhausted when he left. We had worked from 8-5:30, with time off to go to HD and about a 30 minute lunch break and a 10 min. afternoon coffee break. I think I was in bed by 7:30 and slept like a log.  Sunday I went to early service at church, ate a tad of lunch and laid down at 11:30 and slept for a good couple of hours.

I took a break from ‘working’ around here yesterday for some needleworking. I cannot help myself when it comes to hearts. I cut the material from a bolt of upholstery fabric from my boss, added a flower I had crocheted, then started adding beads and thread. I used a mother of pearl button, and faux pearls in the crocheted flower, the flower center of daisy like blooms are fresh water pearls, and the centers of leaves at the bottom are abalone shell beads.

I’ve been following a blog called ‘A DAY IN THE LIFE’ by Gary who lives in the UK with his dear wife Amanda. They are professional gardeners taking care of several properties, plus their own home’s gardens and an allotment too. They also follow my blog, and yesterday in the mail came a lovely book from them.  They had air-mailed it on the 16th of Dec. hoping it would get here before Christmas, but alas, it didn’t.  It’s not like I live in the boonies, far from it, so who knows what the delay was.  At least it made it and in good shape too.  It is right up my ally and a gem of a book to add to my collection of books.

I love the inscription.

Well, I’m thinking of making some kind of soup, so I better get a move on before the day gets any further along.

Have a good day wherever you are ~ Hugs ~ FlowerLady