Good Sunday morning.  Frosty again but the temperature should go into the high 30s like yesterday.  I got another small motif on the table cloth finished yesterday and started the last before Kuma insisted I put it away and let him have his lap time.  After that I have only the last large corner motif and the stitching will be done.  I will still have to hem it and I have been thinking about a pattern for a crochet edging.  I also got some more straightening done in the sewing room.  I have a pile of things--embroidered pillow cases and old clothes--that need to be de-constructed.  I have been thinking of using the embroidered panels in new items.  The clothes provide nice pieces of cloth that can still be used.  I didn't do anything in the gardens but then everything is still frozen so I can't work the soil.  I have to sit down with my lists and make up the seed starting schedule.  Some of that should start in the first two weeks of March.

It is indeed amazing how quickly some technologies become 'necessities,' Nicola.  For most of my childhood we got along with one car.  Families now seem to need one for each family member over the age of 16.  I didn't learn to drive till I was 27.  I have seen stories indicating many young people are figuring out how to do without a car because they find the associated costs (monthly car payment, insurance, licensing, and maintenance) daunting.  We have yet to get on the smart phone bandwagon and probably won't until we have to replace ours and find the only phones available are smart phones.  We don't surf, or play games, or text on our phones.  We just need one that will allow us to talk to someone we want to talk to.  My sister was amazed when we told her that.  She texts to everyone (except us) and often checks driving directions or shops using her phone.  We check directions before we leave and do our online shopping with our computers.  I often think that Mom and I are a marketer's worst nightmare.

I found this article by way of Chris Martensen's blog this morning.  I, of course, am in no position to know whether there is truth in it but it rather reflects my gut feeling cynicism concerning the whole Greek mess.  I have felt for some time now that the powers that be were trying to set up an 'un-reconcilleable differences' divorce between Greece and the Eurozone.  Every time the Greek government agreed to one set of onerous terms some new conditions were demanded that seemed to test exactly how much pain and humiliation Greeks would take before they flipped 'Merkozy' et al. the bird and left.  But they have stretched the process out long enough that the biggest banks may be able to soften their part of the pain.

Another example of how breathtakingly fast economic and social changes can sweep over us comes in this article.  I can remember the pre-mall and pre-big box store days.  Thanks to the internet we aren't going back to those days entirely although our own shopping patterns have split between on line and the local specialty shops or specialty chains.  I bought most of my seeds online but others and my plants will come from our local all year farmer's market or Home Depot and Menards.  We get our meat from a local butcher shop not the supermarket.  Putting all that empty mall space to other uses sounds like a good idea.


I found this illustration at Undernews.  It assesses the situation perfectly.