Warmth

One of the season's most popular accents -- quilting -- provides a welcome warm touch to all sorts of outfits, from everyday to evening wear.The warm, snug, protective feeling that's part of the charm of quilting -- most of us cuddled up in quilts as children -- is emphasized by the materials that are being quilted. Rayon, silk and even the soft, soft calfskin of Chanel's classic quilted handbags add to the tactile, just-reach-out-and-touch-it quality of the stitch.Beverly Matthai, owner of Femme, believes the Chanel influence has much to do with quilting's new popularity.

No one is saying that winter is over. But with the official start of spring a month away, temperatures are expected to climb into the 50s over the next few days - so it might begin to feel that way. We could see some snow showers, forecasters say, but the warming trend is supposed to last for at least the next week or so, bringing above-average temperatures to replace the frigid weather of the past month. "Is it going to give us false hope? It might. But the fact is that there's no cold weather expected in the immediate future," said Marisa Ferger, a meteorologist with Penn State Weather Communications Group in State College, Pa. We can expect normal temperatures - that's a high of 45 degrees this time of year - and even some above-normal temperatures for at least the next week, forecasters say. Beyond that, "It's really hard to say how long it's going to last," said Alan Reppert, a meteorologist with Accuweather in State College, Pa. Forecasters blame the cold snap on - and credit this week's warming to - a shift in the jet stream that has kept frigid arctic air in Maryland since mid-January.

I love potluck suppers, so when good friends called recently to invite my husband and me to one I was delighted. I asked the hostess what she would like me to contribute, and she replied, without hesitation, that a main-course casserole to serve at least six was needed. I have many such recipes in my culinary files, but for this occasion I decided to create a dish. My inspiration came from a trip to a local market where I spotted bins of beautiful winter mushrooms. The creation was a success, as there were no leftovers at the supper.

FOR THE PAST three weeks I've been wandering all over town, from the most proper addresses to the old downtown streets at hours when the drunks are being thrown out of the bars. Along the way I've observed what Baltimore has done to itself over the past year. I've gained weight from all the parties, sometimes I've been weary, but I still delight in an invitation to an open door and a place to talk. The extended holiday season is my idea of a good time; when friends told me they were leaving Baltimore to celebrate New Year's at Rehoboth Beach, I thought to myself, you've got to be kidding.

Venezuela ran a heart-warming full-page color ad in major newspapers last week titled "Venezuela is keeping the home fires burning in Massachusetts." Alas, it's not the home fires Venezuela is stoking; it's the fires of anti-Americanism. And some prominent Americans are helping. According to the Venezuelan Embassy, the state oil company will deliver to Massachusetts consumers this winter as "humanitarian aid" 12 million gallons of heating oil at a discount of 60 cents to 80 cents per gallon.

I need to get this out. My cousins, Vinnie and Eddie Voci, will close on the sale of Uncle Gene's cottage on Cape Cod tomorrow, and I'm pretty bummed out about the whole thing -- accepting it, but still bummed -- and I hope you won't mind the use of this space for a kind of elegy. I admit to being a baby boomer tossed into the mosh pit of middle age. Some guys drown in the melancholy. I get to write my way out of it, at least for a day or so. What I tell my kids: Savor every stupid and silly thing that happens; savor family and savor friends.

Like kids bursting out the schoolhouse doors for recess, when the Maryland Zoo's 11 chimpanzees were allowed outside Saturday for a rare bit of winter sunshine, they couldn't help, well, monkeying around. They climbed to the very top of the mesh enclosure surrounding Chimpanzee Forrest, hung by one arm and gawked at the goings-on in a nearby construction site. They banged thunderously on the glass window separating them from human visitors, tickled themselves with tufts of grass, and chased one another around the compound as the thermometer rose to a balmy 57 degrees.

I have a 6-year-old son in good health who has an interesting problem.For the last year or so, one of his outer ears sometimes becomes very hot to the touch and bright red. This can happen when he is resting, bouncing around or even eating. It doesn't seem to have any pattern, except that it is only one ear at a time. He doesn't have a cold or an ear infection when this happens.Someone said it is blood pressure, so I am concerned. I have asked doctors in the past who brush it off. Please let me know what you think.

A return to seasonal temperatures is forecast by Wednesday night, but it turns out it will be short-lived. Highs are expected to bounce back to the 60s by Monday with more above-normal warmth ahead. Lows should reach the mid-30s for the next two nights, just a few degrees above normal. A daytime high of 45 Thursday would be about five degrees colder than average this time of year. But by Saturday, highs could reach the upper 50s and break into the 60s by Monday and Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service's Baltimore/Washington forecast office.

Frederick Rasmussen's article on Maryland straight rye whiskey ("Rye whiskey was once synonymous with Maryland," Feb. 27) evoked powerful but conflicting emotions in this transplanted Southern bourbon drinker (and, alas, now long time teetotaler.) For a moment I could almost taste the acrid shot of Pikesville and feel its warm glow as it travelled down the old alimentary canal, to be followed, at a decent interval, by a cool, contrasting and modest sip or two of National Bohemian. But my warm reminiscences are tinged with vague feelings of guilt.