February 27

It does look and feel like winter. We may have gotten the predicted 6 inches of snow. It is hard to tell because the temperature was just at the freezing point and the pavement was warm enough that we have a layer of slush (ice with the overnight low temps) under the surface of snow. It won't last long because the forecast predicts temperatures in the 40s and 50s (F) over the next week starting Saturday.

What ever the weather it is now time to plan the seed starting schedule. I have a pot of cat grass planted already and will start catnip today. Next week I plan to start indigo, woad, madder and woodruff. I will probably also start second pots of cat grass and catnip. Then I have a two week break before I have to plant the next six varieties of seeds.

I transplanted my second miniature rose into a slightly larger pot. I would love to be able to grow miniature roses as houseplants and so far the one I got last year has come back from several "near death" experiences. I put it outside on my potting table last year but the Japanese beetles attack and heat on the patio nearly killed it. I brought it inside where it began to recover but nearly fell victim to my cats who found it tasty and my own ignorance. Through all that it has come back yet again.

I have finished some of my needlework projects and started a couple of new ones. I finished one placemat in a crochet pattern I found in the latest issue of a magazine. I changed it a bit because the original was worked as a baby blanket in a medium worsted weight yarn with a fancy border. I used a fingering weight yarn and went with a simple double row of single crochet for the border. It was an interesting corner-to-corner design and I am always intrigued by c2c patterns. I finished my Bavarian stitch shawl which turned out rather nice. I saw a picture of a piece done in a reversible Tunisian stitch. I like Tunisian crochet but had never seen a reversible piece of work. I had to wait for the double ended hooks to arrive but they did a bit over a week ago so I put a new project on the hook. Yesterday I finished the cross-stitch table scarf project and started on the four napkins to match.

We watched about 20 minutes of the Democratic debate in S. Carolina before I turned it off. It was giving me a headache. The volume and the stridency were painful. And it was repetitive. The first, short lived, attack was Warren on Bernie Sanders then she switched to Bloomberg. Problem: it was so predictable: NDAs followed by "stop and frisk" with nothing new said. Warren had a good commentary on Bloomberg's defense of his record concerning women in the Iowa debate: "Notice what he did here. He said he has been nice to SOME women." She should have hit him with something similar on "stop and frisk": "Notice what he did here. He apologized for how the program went out of control but not FOR THE PROGRAM." In my (not) so humble opinion spiraling out of control was a feature not a bug. It also shows a weakness in Bloomberg who pundits describe as a "data guy." He accepted the data which indicated certain areas were hotbeds of crime, especially murder, and then he attacked the symptom without considering the causes. The worst part of the mess: Mom said, after I turned it off, "Trump's going to win." I hope not. But I am saving some of my resentment for the press which failed totally in all of these debates as both moderators and as reporters. They focused on the gotcha moments, baited the candidates into mudslinging exchanges, and failed, for the most part, to address policy issues. And when they did--it was superficial.