Monday, March 11, 2019

A Surprise!!

Good Morning!

Are you surviving/doing ok with the time change?  I seem to be coping (but yawning a lot - lol).  Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day - warm and sunny.  Then Sunday came and it was extremely foggy all day.  We had a lot of rain overnight and it just looked like Sleepy Hollow outside - even in the middle of the afternoon.

We had friends over on Sunday and made BBQ shrimp and salad for dinner.  I baked Cuban bread in the morning to go with it - crusty on the outside and chewy inside - perfect for sopping up the butter/bacon/garlic/Old Bay "stuff" in the shrimp pan.


And look what our friends brought for dessert - Black Forest Cake!!


Truly decadent and delicious! 

The surprise from my blog post title is this:


I have had this Christmas Cactus for years!  It started from a cutting of the plant my Grandmother had.  Her's was HUGE - an enormous pot that took up an entire side table in her living room.  It always bloomed several times a year and was always covered in blossoms.  Mine bloomed faithfully for a number of years, but it has to be at least 5 or 6 years since it last had a blossom.  I had been thinking it was time to trash it and just replace it with a new one from the garden center.  Saturday morning I spotted this bloom (it's a double!!) and there are three more buds showing color.  I'm so glad I didn't trash this!

There was a bit of knitting over the weekend.  Progress is being made on the first Shell Cottage sock:


I'm still finding this yarn a bit splitty, but I'm loving the colors and the way it is striping.  I also seem to be getting better at the Knot stitch - as long as I remember to keep my stitches fairly loose, I'm able to lift the third stitch over two and off the needle (without losing the first two - ha!).

That's a wrap on my weekend.  How was yours?

13 comments:

  1. I am surviving the time change but my cats aren't. Their tummies are still old the old time which means I am up too early. Ugh.
    That bread and that cake are so yummy looking!
    My mom had a room full of Christmas cactus. She had them in her laundry area and they were spectacular. I could never get one to live.

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  2. Your dinner sounds and looks delicious! And your Christmas cactus must have heard your plans and bloomed to save its life; beautiful surprise blooms are welcome any time of year!

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  3. I lost a Christmas cactus this winter, so I'm enjoying the thriving health of yours! That yarn is beautiful.

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  4. Mmm, warm Cuban bread sounds delicious!
    Nice work on the sock and the Christmas Cactus might be late but it sure is producing some beautiful blossoms!!!!

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  5. It is always so hard with the time change. I don’t seem to have had as much trouble adjusting this time as I usually do though. I woke up to heavy fog this morning and I have to drive up the hill to physical therapy in about 15 minutes. I’m not looking forward to that. Your Christmas cactus is absolutely lovely! I’m so glad you didn’t throw it away. Have a great day today my friend. Blessings, Betsy

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  6. For some reason my body is doing well with the time change. That rarely happens, so I'm embracing it. Beautiful bloom on your cactus, and the striping/stitch texture on your sock is lovely.

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  7. Christmas cactus are so fickle. I'm glad yours is blooming again. It looks so healthy -- gorgeous leaves! I'm so glad you didn't throw it out. :-)

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  8. Socks are looking great!
    My Christmas cactuses didn't bloom at all this year. I have an Easter cactus that should bloom around this time, but it hasn't since I bought it.

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  9. Had a Cuban sandwich, never heard of Cuban bread. Will look it up! I use to love shrimp and crab and shellfish until I stopped taking a chance with the hives.

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  10. I had a pretty good night's sleep last night, after a very good weekend, and I think that's helped today -- plus it's SUNNY and that ALWAYS helps. Tomorrow we get on a plane and fly across several time zones, so it doesn't really matter! ;) My grandma always had Christmas cactus, too. They're so pretty!

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  11. Well, you know . . . some friends had us over to dinner and it was DELICIOUS!!!! ;-) We had a wonderful time, drank some wine and just relaxed. It was PERFECT!

    Now it is Monday and the sun is shining. You can't beat that.

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  12. My mom has promised to help me shop for (AND care for) a christmas cactus. I LOVE the idea that the blooms might surprise me anytime of the year. (of course, tbh, blooms already surprise me ... whenever they happen ;-)

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  13. I love Cuban bread! I just gave my sister the recipe. Your socks are looking awesome

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