Snow day and stitching

The snow is still falling, no paths dug yet, only one pass of the plow.

This is the town adjoining mine, same conditions apply.

Home is warm and snowbound, and the birds are out in force at the feeder. Yesterday there were male and female red bellied woodpeckers, always separately, a fierce little goldfinch fighting off juncoes twice his size, Carolina wrens, bluejays and various little brown birds.

And the endlessly talented embroiderer who writes the Fils et Aiguilles blog just showed her blackwork, here stitched in red thread. Go check her blog. She doesn't post often but it's worth waiting for.

This is really virtuoso stitching, both sides look the same.

It was introduced to England from Spain by Katherine of Aragon. The reason it's two sided is that it was used on collars and cuffs, both sides showing. I've done this kind of work and it's not easy! Usually in Elizabethan times it was in black thread, like this

You'll see motifs like this in portraits of the period. 

Meanwhile it's about keeping warm here. I still haven't started a jigsaw puzzle. January seems to have gone by so fast, hardly had time.