Have I said before how much we like our new heater we had installed in March?  Yes, I know everyone is probably tired of hearing that, but check out the thermostat from this morning.  The 32 deg is actually up about 5 degrees from when I got up at 5am.  Ahhhh, so nice and warm in the morning.

We used to get up early, come downstairs and build a fire in the wood stove.  After a couple hours it would be more comfortable, but cold downstairs and too hot upstairs.  Unfortunately the little wood stove was placed just at the bottom of the stairs and all the heat went directly up stairs.  Love this so much more!

 Here's a picture from this morning around 10am.  If the lawn looks a little frosty, it is.  Our driveway heading down to the gate was really frosty but I got outside too late to get a picture before it melted away.  Our maple trees haven't turned any pretty colors, just froze, dried up and are in the process of falling off.  Oh darn.

And the last pic is what I have left of the indigo leaves.  The plants didn't do very well, either in the garden or in the flower beds at the front of the house.  Dexter apparently liked them because he would drag one of the flower pots they were planted in all around the yard until the root ball would fall out.  Then he would chew the stems off, spread any leaves left everywhere and completely destroy the plant.

I have replanted these so many times.  I'm really surprised I had any leaves left.  So rather than using them fresh I dried them and will have to make a paste later to use as a dye.  We'll see if it turns out.  A lot more work than using fresh, but it is the old fashioned way to a gorgeous color.