I took a photo yesterday as I continued to try and clear the "black" ice off the driveway.
Black ice is ice that is almost invisible. You can't see it, so it is very easy to slip and fall if it is on your porch, driveway, etc. Many car accidents are probably caused by black ice when the driver brakes without realizing he or she is on a patch of invisible ice. We got snow on Tuesday and an ice storm on top of it Wednesday so this has been a loooong process. I think I moved 3156 shovelfuls of snow/slush/ice in shoveling the tire paths as I had to go up and down the driveway twice, once after the snow and once after the ice. I also made a trip down on Thursday to try and remove patches of ice, which is when I took this photo. The problem with ice storms in cold weather that once the ice goes down, you can't remove it. I had to put cat litter on the thick ice in front of the garage to drive out yesterday to go to work. Mother Nature is far more powerful than we are!
She also left behind great beauty as you can see in the photo. Much as I grumbled as I worked, I am grateful to live in such a lovely place.
Now on to needlepoint! I'm still pooped from all that physical activity so last night I simply basketweaved background. However, Summer Louise Truswell (finisher extraordinaire) was busy. She's posted a new blog entry in her A Stitch A Week series. This week she discusses Scotch Stitch and its variations, and tell syou how to manipulate the stitch to get interesting dimensional effects or to make a beautiful corner. All she is doing with each stitch is fascinating and makes you think that taking a second look at stitches you use all the time to come up with ways to manipulate them is very worthwhile.
http://www.summerlouise.com/2009/01/stitch-each-week-scotch-stitch.html
I look forward to next week to see what she comes up with then!
UPDATE: Just remembered that ANG's newest workshop by mail is a Scotch Stitch variation project from Marnie Ritter. If Summer's Scotch Stitch blog entry entranced you, check this out.
http://www.needlepoint.org/byMail/index.php
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
