A tree grows in Virginia

 January certainly flew by and February has fully taken hold.  February in central Virginia is a very iffy month.  It's either the end of winter or just the start of it.  This year it seems like it's just the start.  We had snow last week, the forecast is for snow on Sunday and then for it to get cold (well cold for here).  February is also "that" month - even though it's short it's terribly long BUT now we have a bright note. This guy.  Doesn't seem possible but Grady celebrated his first birthday this week.  He began his celebration by starting to walk and topped it off with a delicious mess  .  Hopefully we can get things under control and I can get over to see him in person soon.  I didn't get to visit but I did make him a "card":

When you take off the roof you see:   and in the center another dog - which is a vague approximation of his dog Winston.

With our move into late winter/early spring (maybe) we've had another shift in the birds.  The goldfinches have returned in droves.  I had almost 40 of them on the feeders the other day.  There are also several pairs of cowbirds that came in last week - they are really early as I don't usually see them until late March.  This morning there were two surprise visitors to the feeders They're hard to see, but it is two male Evening Grosbeak(click the name to go to the Audubon Field Guide entry).  They visited the feeders when I lived in New Hampshire but have never seen them here. In looking at various maps, I am in the "nonbreeding scarce" area which explains why my Merlin bird app didn't bring them up as a choice when I tried to enter seeing them. Not sure if these two are just on a road trip or if it's a statement about the weather in southern Canada and the northern US.

I don't suppose you stopped by to read about birds or birthdays or cards did you?  So my post title - Rather than spin the wheel of projects, I decided to start my 2021 Temperature Tree for the last January rotation slot.  There is nothing to show as a start but I did get to here:

I probably could have finished the tree but I had a couple of nights when stitching was not lighting any fires.  I'm very happy with the progress I made and will make this my February rotation project too.  It won't take the entire ten days so will spin the wheel of projects once this is done.  This is done on 18-count Fiddler's Aida in Lite Oatmeal with DMCs.  The fabric is MUCH lighter than shown. I can't wait to get to the leaves and compare them to last year's.

On those nights when stitching didn't call to me, knitting did and I started the baby blanket for the expected addition.

This is the first row of actual pattern (I have done a second set of the bobbles but forgot to take a picture). I made a counting error in this row so the bobbles didn't line up for the second set of bobbles, but I think they will line up after that.  The pattern is Puffed Baby Blanket.  It's a freebie from Plymouth Yarns.  The yarn is Baby Soft DK from Lion Brand in the Twinkle Print colorway.  This is the most stereotypically baby of the baby blankets I've made but I really like it.

After Temperature Tree came off the frame, it was time for Goldie to go back on.  She's gone from here:

to here:

She's done on 28-count Monaco one over one with the called for DMC.  She's on the frame until Wednesday the 10th so I am hoping to finish her head.  

Now that I have figured out the pattern repeats, I have been working on Habitation throw during Teams meetings and webinars. I have used three full 10 gram skeins and a bit of a fourth so far.  

Colors from right to left:

 Smeagol, Real Elvish Rope, Don't Follow the Lights and a little bit of What Do Your Elf Eyes See?

from Bumblebee Acres' 2020 Lord of the Rings Advent Calendar.  All in their squishy sock base.

Those two padlock looking things are holding dropped stitches - of course they're in the border and it's an i-cord border so I will have to do some work to figure out how to fix them - and also marking the front of the throw.

I'm off to do some housework, order groceries and then spend some quality time with Goldie.

Hope you are all doing well.