The sunny days of January are here, flirtatiously swinging between cool spring-like days and winter chills. We had the first serious frost last night, the temperatures dipping down below freezing enough that the greens in the garden were stiff and spangled with icy crystals in the morning. The spinach and Swiss Chard may recover if they survive tonight's expected frost, but I may have lost the gamble with the few remaining mustard plants.

The cause was a cold front that swept away the cloud cover that had protected the garden the previous night, leaving the plants only slightly wilted but largely recovered by the afternoon. Without that insulating blanket of clouds, the heat radiated out into space and temperatures plunged considerably lower than they had so far. It was quite a change from the near 60 degree weather that had let me get some more leaves raked and mulched onto the beds a few days earlier.

Most of the trees are quite bare now, but the oak tree is still dawdling along shedding a few leaves at a time. It will have one last hurrah when the new leaves push out and seize the spots along the branches still stubbornly held by the old leaves. For now, the old tree still sports the tattered remnants of its tan crown like a poorly made toupee, lording it over the evergreens with their thick green needles.

The cold has swept much of the moisture from the air, giving the days a new clarity that accentuates the chill. It is the season for shocking the cats when scratching their necks. Even with added humidity indoors, they still have to tolerate the occasional small spark with the flick of a surprised ear and a sniff of reproof at the offending hand. I tell them that their fur is the source of the sparks, and their look tells me that they aren't buying it.

It is supposed to be time to plant spinach in a week, but I'm still looking for the possibility of snow. It is about time for the few snowfalls that we might have but that won't faze spinach. My first cabbage seedlings are nearly ready to transplant into separate containers so it was fortunate that the first seed order arrived with the new plastic flats. I try to recycle suitable containers where possible, but little seed pots don't last forever and most grocery products don't come in such small sizes.

The knitting class is over and went fairly well. There was even a request for an encore on further topics. I'm leaving the class notes up and trying to decide what else might go up in that section. I had several projects in mind, but it is going to be the usual scramble to get them into my schedule. I did reward myself with another order from fabric.com as you might have suspected, and it is supposed to arrive today.

The insistent beeping of the organizer keeps reminding me that I'm overscheduled, but I'm also getting things done a bit better because it won't let me forget them. I finished one child's sweater and started the next one, a nice way to start the day while I'm trying to gather my wits and strength to start the housework. After the cats yowl me out of bed for their breakfast and I get a snack for myself, I can settle back into bed and knit or read until Mom and Steve show enough signs of life to start breakfast.

The rest of the day turns into chaos as usual tasks vie with the organizer's list of projects. I just can't bear typing in everything I do because I roll over enough items as it is. Laundry pops up every day now while I wonder how the loads keep multiplying like this. The answer dawned on me that I keep forgetting to visit the washer and dryer and thus leave loads waiting for the next step for quite a long time. I may have to put several laundry reminders each day to nudge me along. It was nice back when I had a memory.

The fabric.com order just arrived and I am alternating between a happy cackle and kicking myself for not ordering more of the quilting cottons. This set is silky smooth and absolutely gorgeous. I don't know how fabric.com manages to send fabrics even more beautiful than their pictures, but they are still batting a thousand with me. Now I have to punch in more reminders of things to do in the organizer. Beep, beep, beep . . .