Winter

Winter is definitely here, and the pellet stove is roaring. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and Christmas is right around the corner. The tree and decorations are up, and I’m really enjoying the lights on these gray, dreary days.

There’s definitely no gardening going on here unless you consider the Poinsettia Trials which are this weekend or the soil test results I received back for my Master Gardener project, Lydia’s House of Hope.

Because this is a very old boarding house, the lead levels in the area where we want to install raised beds are too high for growing vegetables. I’m going to deliver the results on Thursday along with Cooperative Extension contacts to see how this might be mitigated. All this valuable information can be purchased for less than $20 at your local Cooperative Extension.

Sewing and quilting have been keeping me busy. I finished the third Linus quilted blanket, and I’ll deliver them this week.

I saw a table runner I really liked on Pinterest that looked like presents. It was trial and error to try to copy it, but I’m happy with the results.

If I did the runner again, I think I’d stop at four boxes. I also made a couple of single boxes for table toppers.

I’m always reading, and this past week that included two really good books – John Sanford’s, Escape Clause, with Virgil Flowers, and David Baldacci’s, No Man’s Land, with John Puller. Up next is Sandra Brown’s, Sting.

Now that I have most of my sewing done, I’m moving on to thinking about winter and spending the entire month of January in South Carolina. I’ve been to Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach, but it has been years.

On our trip to Ireland, we met a very nice local couple who spend their winters in SC. They put me in contact with a person, and we rented a condo right on the beach for less money than a week at a nice hotel. I know the weather will only be around 60, but there won’t be snow to shovel, Yaktrax to put on my boots, and a jacket might work instead of a heavy winter coat.

We plan to explore Charleston, Savannah, Fort Sumter, gardens, lighthouses, beaches and golf courses for my husband. There’s even a Satisfy your Thirst tour map of breweries and a SC BBQ trail map – now we are talking getaway.

Have you been to South Carolina to visit or stay? Have any recommendations? Expect postcards. 🙂