this grand old house was a mansion owned by a well to do farmer many years ago.  It has since been turned into a multi family dwelling with 32 apartments.  there are many former mansions in Augusta that have been turned into similar multi group dwellings.  My fear would be if someone lit a candle and started a fire.  At the back of this building is a maze of narrow wooden staircases that are supposed to work as fire escapes.  I hope that the time never comes that they have to exit the building in a hurry.

I have brought this quilt project with me. It helps me calm down when the problems of digitizing get to be overwhelming. Only the top 7 motifs are in place permanently - the rest need the deep green background pieces put in.  This quilt only has 750 pieces of English Paper Piecing in it - way less than the 3,600 king sized quilt top I made last year.

Last night Bill was ill and coughing all night.  I got up and went into the living room and tried to sleep on the couch.  I say tried, but it was impossible.  We live in an apartment building with 12 apartments – 3 floors with 4 apartments each.  I think that they are nocturnal – the front door was opening and shutting most of the time I was on the couch.  One would think that people would sleep at night and not be coming or going.  I hope that if we ever move into a condo, that we have the top floor – that way I will never know who is coming or going through the front door.  Last night we got 2 inches of new snow, on top of the 10 inches that fell on Thursday,  so maybe our neighbors were going out to check the snow levels?  It must be warming up because I can see the cars in the next door parking lot and the snow seems to be falling off them of its own accord.  How nice, self cleaning cars!  One of the inhabitants of the condo’s is getting impatient and not waiting for the snow to fall off by itself, she has a large squeegee that she is using.  Looks rather comical but it works.  She is a good soul, she is even cleaning off her neighboring car.  If I lived here permanently, I think I would invest in one of these giant squeegee thingys.  It works good for snow, but I think a more substantial thing is needed for ice that has formed on the windshield etc.  We purchased two ice scrapers but they are not good for much – they miss more ice than they scrape off.

Bill must have been feeling really bad because he called a number of places looking for a physician he could see today.  Finally he found one in the Walmart at Waterville, about 18 miles north of Augusta.   It puts a whole new spin on ‘one stop shopping’ when you can get your eyes tested, and get new glasses, have hearing  tests and get hearing aids, do banking, have your photo taken and also see a physician as a walk in patient.  After you have all these needs taken care of, you can go into the rest of the store and stock your shelves with canned goods, dry foods, meats, poultry, veggies and the like, and you can also buy your clothes, kids toys, sporting goods and automobile needs in the service bay.  They also have a whole gondola filled with magazines but only have a few quilting magazines, therefore incomplete.

On the way home we stopped to eat lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and this restaurant is way better than the one they have in Augusta.  The quality of the food and service tops Augusta for sure.  We drove home on I-95 and saw a sign that said “Moose, next 6 miles”.  I kept my eyes peeled – I want to see a Moose  wandering in one of the fields but all I got to see was a deer Hunters blind (a small hut) that looked for all the world like an Ice fishing shack on stilts on the edge of a field.  Pretty disappointing when they promise you Moose for the next six miles and you see none………….well it was cold and rainy so any self respecting Moose was probably home propping his/her feet up in front of the cozy fire?

I did the laundry today and discovered that the wire cage around the boiler in the boiler room is missing its padlock and other security device.  I do hope that thieves do not enter and cut the copper piping out of the installation.  That would make this apartment block uninhabitable because the heating system is wallboard hot water heat.  We have decided that the thermostat on the wall is just for looks because whether we turn it down, up or off, the heating unit still runs of its own free will.  The system must be regulated someplace else in the complex.

With the temperatures still remaining low, I find myself in despair of ever having enough sun or warmth.  However, the Rieger Begonia that Bill bought me some weeks ago is putting forth new leaves and it looks like new buds are forming.  Maybe spring has not forgotten to come after all.  March came in like a lion, and we hope that it goes out like a lamb.  There has to be some break somewhere from the cold.  When we lived in Pennsylvania, they used to say that March came in like a lion and true to form it came in blustery and cold and snowy but by the time April rolled around, it was much milder.  I hope it is the same here.  Our 10+ inches of snow on Thursday was Lion-ish enough to fit the adage.

I notice that some song birds have returned and Anne told me that her daffodils are well on their way to blooming.  Guess it really is time to break out the White Sandals and spring wardrobe – but I think I will err on the safe side and keep wearing my LLBean bubblegum pink Michelin Man coat and “Ice cream top” furry Alpaca hat until I am sure that it is safe to come out of winter hiding.