What We Did in January

We finished off the Christmas season with a trip to see a festival of lights at the Richmond Botanical Garden.  We invited our friends the Jeos and the Andrews to join us.  The Andrews live in southern Virginia and the Jeos live about 20 miles north of us, so Richmond is a central location for all of us to meet.

I'd read about the festival of lights at the Botanical garden in previous years, but never made it before this year.  I was glad that they kept the gardens open into the month of January, since we were too busy to go in December.  Another added bonus was that the gardens weren't at all crowded.

Here are some shots from throughout the park

Kent especially liked these flowers made from recycled water bottles and large bulb Christmas lights on sticks, and was inspired to make some for our light display at home next Christmas. Now he keeps his eye out for water bottles with a good shape to make into flowers.

I couldn't resist this pose in front of a butterfly.

The tree we're standing in front of was amazing, full of decorations with the theme of the birds and the bees.

These glasses were available to try on, and made the lights on the trees look like stars or snowflakes.  As you can tell, these guys are a fun-loving group, who served together in the Bishopric in Germany.

Another weekend Kent and I met up with the Jeos again to go on a 5K volksmarch at a state park very near their house.   This park was the location of a skirmish during the Civil War.

  As you can see by our light jackets, it was a very mild day for the middle of January.  The very next day it snowed about 6 inches, so we were glad we went when we did.

We took this picture because it shows Kent and I on a dock going out into the Potomac River.  The sign below Kent's arm shows the Maryland state line, which is only 20 or so yards from the edge of the Potomac River.  In this picture I'm standing in Virginia and Kent is in Maryland.  Kinda unique.

 Here's one of the cannons left over from the Civil War battle.  You can see that the cannon is pointing out towards the river.

 The remains of a house built in 1825, with Kent and the Jeos in the background.

One other thing I did in January was to sew some Valentine wall quilts for my daughters-in-law and for a friend.  (I finally got around to making one for me in February.)  I'd made Valentine wall quilts for my daughters and mother a few years ago before the boys were married, so didn't make these for my girls.

 I didn't have a pattern, but had seen a picture of something similar on the internet.  It was fun to figure out the design and to use up some Valentine's day fabric I had leftover from the wall quilts I made before.