Long time no see!

I have been completely occupied by social-type stuff, quilty and non-quilty, for the past couple of weeks. It seems like that takes a lot of my time, but oh well -- it's fun, right? At Bunko 2 weeks ago, I won this huge glass candy jar, stands about 18 inches high and might hold a whole gallon of liquid. Everyone was offering suggestions about what I might want to put in it, but I only saw one thing: thread!

I think it's perfectly appropriate for my house and besides - I have to get all my thread off the hangers on the wall because it's getting dusty. This took about a third of it, and the rest will go into drawers - but how pretty!!!

In more pretties, I planted this very unusual perennial salvia this past June, and it's actually beginning to bloom. I think it's called Black Magic? Anyway, it has the most striking and true dark blue blooms I've ever seen. For a plant that came out of a 4 inch pot just a couple of months ago. it's doing fantastic. The tiny blooms will really be breathtaking when they cover the whole plant!!


DH Jerry had a birthday last week, and wanted no fanfare whatsoever. In the past, I've managed to surprise him every year with a big party at some restaurant. This year, he didn't feel well and just said no, and in fact refused to even tell me where he wanted to go for dinner on his day. At least I got to pull one surprise on him: I was able to buy him the gas bar-b-que he's always wanted. By a fortunate twist, I received an unexpected bonus at work that easily covered the expense, and left me a little to play with. (Roll of Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 for me!) Jerry was shocked, and we had a great time yesterday putting it together - man, this thing is heavy!! In fact - it's nicer than the stove in my kitchen!

A huge downside to being busy is I haven't seen Madeline for awhile, and she is feeling the separation acutely. She's been crying and whining "I want my Gramma" and generally acting out for her Mom. They live 70 miles from me, so I can't exactly pop over any old time I want. But they called the other day, and she talked her little head off very happily and told me everything that was happening in her world. She ended by saying, "I love you, but I no come see you cos you too busy" Aarrrgghhhh!!! Knife to the heart!! With all the innocence of little children. I immediately told my daughter that next weekend is on us, and cancelled all other plans. That sweet baby should never have to think I'm too busy for her. Next weekend, Labor Day, will be a big birthday blow-out for all 3 of us. Mine and Madelines on the same day, the 14th, and my daughter Cory on the 11th. I'll be away at quilt retreat that week, (there I go again) so we're going to have our party early. I asked Madeline what she wants to do with Gramma and she giggled -- "Gramma eat my toes!" Life is good if you have someone to eat your toes.

It's a QUILT!!!

Incredibly, finally it's a real quilt. The Log Cabin from Grief is all quilted, and I'll have the binding on tonight. Even more amazing, it's square and flat and drapes nicely despite the very heavy quilting in the background areas. The logs are quilted an inch apart so I guess that was enough to save it from being a real log -- LOL!
So now, still on my goal of finishing 3 quilts to put in the show -- I'm drawing a bead on the Ice Mountains.....remember that one from a couple months ago?

Again, set aside while I hemmed and hawed over borders. I took it to mini-group for opinions, and those wonderful talented ladies unanimously agreed, just plain borders, maybe with prairie points. Hmmmm....never done those......

Fair Days

A Day at the fair -- this is the booth where Leslie and I spent 4 hours people watching, sweltering and selling tickets. Even tho it was VERY hot, we had a good time, sold quite a few tickets and had a nice long visit. The banner was whipped up in a couple weeks by one of our guild members, Dottie, and it is fabulous!! All appliqued, it's terrific. Our show is called Falling Leaves, and it's in October; thus the autumn motif. The CAR:

A few years ago, guild members pooled their UFO and orphan blocks and pieced a car cover - can you believe this? It's goal is to draw attention to the guild and it's activities and it certainly does. It's fully drivable, there's see-thru mesh over the windows, and it drives along in parades, etc. How fun is that?

After a pretty long day at the fair, I had enough time when I got home to change my sweaty clothes and jump into the truck to go to the races with DH. He's feeling a little better today and the races were great - we had a blast. Long long day in the heat for me, cold lover that I am, but today I have all day to stay inside, stay cool and work on my quilt. Wonder if I can get the quilting all done today? Laundry is almost done - last load in the dryer, I still have to go in and do my staffs' timeclock entries and corrections, but gee -- chores are about over. I need to shut this down and get to work!!

I'm a Chicken

OK - fry me up, serve with potato salad. I didn't do the feathers. I put on RickyTimmsDVD for inspiration, and drew a hundred or so feathers. I made copies, and did mirror images, and fit them to the spaces on the quilt, and practiced/practiced/practiced and then - I decided on a loopy design Ricky Timms calls "Ricky Doodles". I have another top coming up next that will lend itself to feathers better than this one - in the end, I just didn't like the way it filled the space, and didn't want to do tight little stippling around it.

Here's what I ended up with. I'm very confident with this one, I can do this at mach 3 with my hair on fire. Stitching in the ditch of the logs is another story - a scary story. HATE it!! Susan - thank you for your advise, I did put on some nice classy music while I practiced, and it really does help get that flowing feeling.

Off today to the fair, see what my friends are up to and sit with my sew buddy Leslie and sell tickets for our guild opportunity quilt, that will be a nice fun afternoon. Immediately after that tho, it's off to the races with DH who is feeling really really punky, but hey, it's Saturday night! Off now to quilt a little and gather something to do this afternoon.

Frustration!

Oh man, this is awful. The Log Cabin I'm having such a love/hate relationship with has a lot to teach me, and I am suffering with it. I want to do feathers in the white areas, and simply stitch the ditches of the dark areas. I've never done feathers outside of some playing around freehand, and it's SO hard!! They need to gently follow the non-existent curves, but how do you do the corners? And why won't the feathers follow the curves smoothly; they keep kind of changing shapes. All this on paper so far, of course, as I try to form a stencil or pattern to follow.


I really want to do it, and I'm really afraid. Clearly, if this one comes out OK I'll be walking on air, and if it doesn't, well......
(big sigh)
OK -- I'm big, I'm tough and I am determined. I created this thing, right? So it can't have more power than I, right? And I'm the one with 20 different feather patterns and a copier that enlarges/reduces. So why do I want my mommy???? lol -- as if she could help me now.

This is my Mom -- not a great picture, but it was 16 below that day and she was bundled up to her eyeballs. Mom is 72 years old, lives on a ranch in a remote part of Utah and spends most of her days on horseback, herding sheep in 12,000 ft mountains. When she is bundled up like this, soaking wet and with all 6 feet of her hair wet too, (yes, 6 feet of hair!) AND with boots/chaps on, she might weigh 110. Yes, my Mom's a cowboy. She's not exactly sure quilting is a viable pastime, but since I broke my neck in a horse wreck I looked for a more sedate hobby. Oh, the horse is her new little Islandic mare Brita, newly arrived that day from Newfoundland. As round as she is tall. If I were to ride that horse, all 5'10 inches of me, I could drag my toes to make her stop! So, as you can see, Mama is no help to me whatsoever. I can call her and whimper, and she'll say all the right things and cheerfully admit she has no idea what I'm talking about.

I love my Mom!! She sure has helped out tonight! LOL!!

I did it!! The Beast has borders! Oh what a feeling - a 4 year old UFO is about to be off my back - YAAAH!!!! I'm so relieved I can hardly stand it. That was a real effort - on the edge of being not fun. Hopefully I'll like this one more when it's all quilted. Didn't get to start that, because Dh decided we have to go out to dinner, but that's a piece of cake compared to getting the borders on. Now I can sleep......

Where I sew

I saw someone elses blog showing where she sews, and I like the idea of sharing where we do our creative things. Quilters really share ideas and inspire each other, and sure enough; I was inspired to clean up my space a little (sheepshish grin) and get to work:

To the immediate right of my chair is a large window, with computer underneath so I can swivel and do either. I can also use that computer table for extra sewing room. Now, this is what I'm working on: My design wall is nearly the whole wall, it's 2 full sheets of that foam insulation covered with cotton batting. The quilt in progress is for our guild show. Ahem. I was roundly chastised at our guild meeting that I hadn't entered a single thing for our upcoming show in October, and I offered the excuse of not having anything finished. NO excuse - sign it in and get 'er done! LOL -- OK, that should do it! So I have a few tops that need borders and quilting, and this is #1 . My goal today is get the borders on and maybe even start quilting, or at the very least marking. I have my little egg timer with me, so I'm setting it for snatches of time between loads of laundry & miscellanous Sunday type chores. I've been so reluctant to finish this one supposedly because I couldn't decide on borders, but really because I don't like Log Cabins. Wait, I should be specific - I don't like to MAKE Log Cabins. It was tedious, like washing dishes. So while I do still really like the colors and design, I'll never do that again!
I'll post again tonight with my progress......

The Saddest thing ever

This so forlorn little lady is my granddaughter Madeline. She came to stay for a few days and we were blowing bubbles out back. Well, I picked up HER bottle of bubbles and actually blew some, and oh, the heartbreak! Somehow, in my old age, I'm a little more patient with this kind of thing, and I didn't laugh at her. But on the phone with Mommy that night after Madeline was tucked in, I laughed till tears came!! When I saw the picture, I laughed some more. Ahhhh, to be young, and no larger care in the universe than Gramma blew your bubbles!

One persons' Trash.....

Is my treasure!
A friend of mine came across these blocks in her stash, that she hand stitched many years ago. She decided that she would never set them now, so was going to throw them away!! Thankfully she brought them to show me first. They are safely in my clutches now, and she has strict instructions to call me next time she goes on a cleaning binge. The stitching is exquisite, and the blocks are perfect. She is one that used to be a technician, but has now mellowed into an artisan. (Thanks to Jeanne over at Spiral) Now to figure out how to set them, and tackle the quilting. Of course I will have to quilt this one by hand, and it will be the biggest hand quilting project I've taken on yet. For now they'll sit and wait patiently while I finish some of my UFOs - at least 3 by Christmas. Heh heh heh -- anyone want to place a bet on this one?

Hand dyed Pickles?

What a fun, tiring day I've had!
Every couple of years, Jerry and I spend a long hot day putting up as many jars of pickles as we can. We have a blast doing it too -- and we each have our areas of domain. He washes the cucumbers, cuts them and packs the jars. I prepare the garlic, mix and maintain the brine, fill the jars and put them into the canner. Jerry then lets the rack down into the boiling water, and lifts it out when it's done. Together we take the jars our of the canner, 2 at a time keeping it balanced, and put them on the counter, and the whole thing starts over.

Here is Jerry at his station, packin' pik's. We throw stuff and tickle and poke and generally behave like kids, and have a ball. After all is said and done, we have 67 quartsd of pickles, and what a satisfying feeling.

These pictures taken after the first couple of batches, before I got too hot and tired to think. After all the jars finished, kitchen cleaned, lunch taken and short rests, I decided to tackle hand dyeing fabric for the first time - WOW!! What fun! I have three tiny jars of Porcion powdered dye, the gold standard as I understand it, and lots of pages of instruction printed off the internet. In the end, it was pretty much expiremental. I made cyan, magenta and blue mixes, then mixed those to make others. I only had 3 yards of Kona PFD, so I cut it into fat quarters for my trial and error play day. Boy, was I surprised! I was under the impression that hand dyed meant pale -- WRONG!! I mixed my dyes very conservatively according to all the directions I had. I dyed in baggies with very small amounts of dye water, and left them in the sun for a couple of hours before adding the fixative and leaving them for another 2 hours. Rinsing the dye out was a drag, but in the end I have this:

Color is hard to get right online, but they're great colors, not pale at all. I love the crinkles and texture in them. Now what will I do with them? And how will I stop this sudden desire to do more more more? I'm so hooked. Watch me stock up on Kona PFD and become a hand dyed maniac!! LOL! Fun, fun, fun! But now I'm pooped, so a shower and bed sounds like just the ticket........

Silence is Deafening!

Jerry and I sat for awhile tonight, planning our weekend adventure of pickle making. We'll put up 50 lbs of pickles, and spend one long hot tiring day to do it, but we make the best pickles in the world if I must say so myself. During a brief lull in the conversation, it dawned on us that we could hear things - like a dog barking somewhere, our horses snuffling out back and hummingbird wings outside the window. Crickets and frogs and nightbirds - all sounds we haven't heard in 3 weeks! Because of the horrible unrelenting heat, air conditioners or fans have been running 24 hours a day, drowning out any other sounds. It's not exactly cool by any standard - still 80 degrees at 9:15 pm, but compared to all the nights that never quite dropped below 80 all night, this seems almost comfortable. And quiet. The silence now is startling, but I am certainly enjoying it. Now I'm going to go to bed and read, no TV, just a book and the gentle sounds in the trees. I have much to be thankful for tonight.

Heat Waves, Quilts and DJ's

Hammerheads and fishhooks!!! Not sure what that means, but my favorite uncle would say that whenever he smashed his thumb and I was around. He said something entirely different when he thought I was taking a nap in Grammas room! But I think it applies here, when we are gripped by this other-wordly heat wave. Neither makes sense, so they must be a pair. This shot is on my back patio, and I don't think it's quite accurate. The highest I heard anywhere for us for that day was 114, not 122, but you get the idea -- HORRIBLE.
My Heat Wave quilt is being quilted, sort of. This quilt is as stubborn as it's namesake! The thread kept breaking, the tension slipped off 3 times. The marking pens went dry. the backing doubled up on itself and got quilted like that. I grimly kept at it - I turned on a great oldies radio station, although their playlist has gotten a bit stale. "PLAYLIST" - a word left over from my days as a radio dj. 20-odd years ago, the station I listened to seemed to be moving to a much slower paced music than I liked, so I wrote them a letter protesting what I thought was a change in programming. To my surprise, the morning DJ called me, and invited me to do a guest shot on his show, and I could pick all the music myself. Well, I leapt at that -- what fun!! I showed up on the appointed day with my playlist in hand, met everyone all around including the station manager who said a brief hello then left, shared a bit of banter with the dj, and got down to business. Near the end of my hour there, I noticed that the station manager was back, gesturing to me thru the glass. When the news guy took over, the manager came busting in saying, you were great - do you want a job? HUH?? me? Are you kidding? By the end of the week I had an FCC license and a regular slot on the afternoon show! It was an amazing and really fun time of my life, and I got to meet a lot of famous singers because I was a co-emceed their concerts in our town. BUT back to the old worn-out rotation of this oldies station. They have finally changed it up a bit, and I was happy to be listening to a new set of songs. Some Blood, Sweat and Tears, some Donovan, Strawberry Alarmclock - remember these guys? Suddenly the quilting clicked, and I was off. About that time I noticed what was playing -- it was Martha and the Vandellas 'Heatwave! I laughed like a little kid -- how perfect is that? <<>> Quilting does belong to some higher order in the universe, and has powers we can never understand.
(tongue firmly planted in cheek)
At 9:25 pm, the temp seems to have finally dropped below 90, and I'm ready for bed. Hopefully tomorrow will have a bit 'o binding in it!

We're havin' a Heat Wave

I like orange fabric. There -- I've said it. You knew all along that SOMEONE did, now you know who. So I have a fair little collection of oranges, and while I may not ever make a full sized orange quilt, I always knew there's some orange projects in me somewhere. Here's the first:

These are the first blocks of what will be a wall hanging. I have a built-in stereo cubby situated in a wide doorway between rooms. The opening is pretty big, and it looks like a big dark hole in the wall, even with the stereo componets taking up space. So, I make wall hangings to cover it, play with designs, use up orphans, expirements and generally get things out of my system. I saw this quilt on someones' blog, but unhappily can't remember who or I'd give you a link. It has some sort of Irish name, but I don't think the Irish would particularly appreciate this particular set of colors. Since we are trapped solidly in our annual month-long run of 100+ degree days, Heat Wave seems like a more suitable name. What do you think???

Aaahhhhh, Vacation!

So relaxing, so exciting, so invigorating, so exhausting!! We've just returned from a whirlwind 5 day road trip, beginning with an auction in Reno, NV and wandering from there up the northern most parts of CA that we've never seen. It was rugged, wild country and incredibly beautiful.

After a time winding thru mountain roads, we came around a bend and saw this - it is Lassen Peak. Our trail didn't take us too close to it, instead we veered around and wound up close to Mt. Shasta - in the shadow, in fact.

While cruising along at 65 along a nice semi-freeway, Jerry saw a dirt road up ahead and unceremoniously dove for it. We followed this logging road for a couple miles until it petered out, then became a cow trail and we stuck to it. This was the first big trip for our new truck, and it was a terrific way to travel, very comfortable. On this particular bit of off-roading, the truck did it's first bit of 4 wheel drive, thru some rough and muddy areas. It turned from white to brown in a big hurry!! Our next important stop was Burney Falls:

And all you can say about this is WOW WOW WOW -- awesome! There was a short 1/2 mile hike on a good trail to actually get to the pool, but after a long debate, I decided not to. The path snaked across the face of the cliff, not a hard walk but right against the wall, with the sun directly on it and the thermometer sat right at 102. Being old and thermostatically challenged as I am now, I figured I'd probably pass out before getting back up.

Finally, my personal Mission Statement for the trip was to visit as many quilt stores in as many towns as possible. May I present to you the evidence:

I did have a purchasing plan, and I stuck to it quite well. I was to only buy very lights, or very darks, or books and toys. With 2 exceptions, I did exactly that - but the two pieces of orange sherbet were too luscious to pass up. I found a long ruler 7 and 1/2 inches wide instead of 6, and that will be handy for me.

So after a lazy day mostly dozing in a chair, today I'm fired up to "play" as I call it - I still have 5 days of work, and getting to stay in my home and be domestic is such a pleasure for me. I may even have myself a little tea-party, a la Patty over at Morning Ramble!

Hummers of the world, Unite!

Attack of the Hummers!!


We are having the best time watching the hummingbird wars. Fully outfitted Army Humvees have nothing on these puny warriors. We have two feeders situated outside our family room windows, so when we sit in there we can easily watch. Presently, there are at least 12 who come constantly, and in the early morning and last gasp of dusk they come all at once and wage all out war. I've seen one tiny bird chase off all the others and stake out one feeder for himself (herself?) Sometimes 6 crowd around one 4-hole feeder, and the other feeder sits vacant, 4 feet away. They are going thru 2 quarts of nectar every other day! At least the feeders don't have a chance to get moldy.......
Happy 4th! I had big plans for today, having to clean the house a little (housekeeper didn't show up again yesterday - long story) and play with fabric a little, maybe sew. At 1 we were supposed to go to the kids house next door for BBQ, then back later tonight for fireworks in their back tennis court, (I mean patio. It's huge.) Instead I got a frantic call from work that they are out of a chemical we need to operate. No Renalin, no dialysis. Yes, the clinic was open today because patients have to dialyze, no matter the date. So I made a quick call to our closest neighbor clinic 45 miles away, and headed out. The 2 lane road into the next county skirts 4 lakes, and as you can imagine a warm holiday has everyone out on the road. Anyone who wasn't pulling a boat or house trailer was driving a '66 Chevy pickup that hasn't had a tune up since 1978!!! I tell you, no one was able to get over 45 to 50 mph. Of course, there's no passing on a 2 lane, winding road. Hugely frustrating. When I finally got to the other clinic, the administrator there whom I had talked to earlier, had left in a hurry to drive to another clinic 60 miles away, because he was out of another necessary chemical -- this is ridiculous! He and I need to put our heads together and figure out how to not run out of stuff. That won't happen for a few weeks tho, because after tomorrow I am on vacation!! YAAA!!!! A quick trip to Reno, then hopefully I will stay put in my own house for 7 days in a row. To me, this is the height of bliss; now lets see how far I get. Dear Hunny hates to stay at home, he has the worst case of wanderlust I've ever seen. I love to go "adventuring" with him, so I certainly will. It's just that I am in serious need of nesty time.
So, holiday winding down quietly - we'll go watch the kids fireworks and try to stay awake, and remember why we celebrate this day. I have the freedom to live all of my days as I choose because of this day, and it's important to me to acknowledge that often, not just once a year.
Happy Freedom!

At last I am back to blog -- having lost a few weeks in a fever pitch at work, suddenly having to absorb half again as many patients as we already had -- approximately 6 years growth in a span of 2 weeks. The logistics, the paperwork, the computer data entry -- all of it was formidable. We have to hire 5 new staff, our medications and supplies have to be increased, even details like increased amounts of chemicals onhand to be registered with the county HazMat department, and the medical waste disposal folks. A thousand details. I did get to be a bit quilty -- the blue quilt to the left is actually just a top, and it does NOT have yellow borders! It is pinned on top of another quilt that is hanging there, so I can decide what to do for borders. The Delectable Mountains blocks are a result of a block exchange within my mini group, and having seen all the variations of settings decided I wanted something different. The vertical set with blocks down the center really appealed to me, and there isn't one on every corner. Now - what to do with those borders? This was in pieces on my design wall, and taking up most of the wall, so when I became enthralled with my next project I had to make a deal with myself. Sternly, I told me that this could not come off the wall in pieces - it must be a finished top before I could use the design wall again. It had lived there for many weeks, and the time had come. So all in one day I put it together, and I'm kind of pleased with it! But really; I did it to make room for this:

This is Chunky Churndash from Bonnie Hunters' wonderful site, Quiltville.com. At this point it is about half pieced, or half blocked, I should say. I love the scrappiness of it, AND I love the symmetry, the graphic-ness. (is that a real word???) My two favorite things. I've about tapped out the variety of my scraps, without delving into batiks or 30's or flannels, so now I'll attack the FQs - and there are hundreds of them. The last 3 quilts I have made have been entirely from stash, and of those, 2 are bedsized and scrappy! As a relatively new quilter, I'mm starting to feel like a "real" quilter......Oh what a good feeling!

More tomorrow ---

Apples in my Eyes

These perfectly adorable young ladies are my granddaughters, Madeline on the left and Meghan on the right. Madeline is 2 1/2, and Meghan is about to turn 6 in July. This picture perfectly captures their personalities! They are cousins, and as close as anyone can get - they call each other "My Friend". I call this picture the Amish girl and the Pole Dancer, because that best describes their personalities and their dress. Meghan is the quieter, more introspective child, modest in both her manner and dress. Madeline is is a ball of fire and outgoing rambuctioness, and prefers wild loud colors - she holds nothing back. Meghan is slow to let go of shyness around people but when she does she is devoted, in a quiet, sturdy way. A hug from Meghan is a very special thing. Madeline is a perfect mirror of both her mother, (my daughter) and I. My daughters birthday is September 11, and on the day of those terrible attacks she decided she would have her birthday legally changed so as to be able to enjoy her birthdays for the rest of her life. When the attacks happened she was already nearly 30, a war veteran but not yet a mother. When she became pregnant with Madeline, a brand new doctor who did not know her estimated the delivery date at Sept. 11 - and took her breath away. She decided immediately that the child would be born instead on Sept 14, which is mine and her fathers birthdays, both. Darned if it didn't turn out exacly that way! Naturally! So the wild child is born on my birthday, has my middle name as her own, and shortly after her birth spent an inordinate amount of time, at least 15 minutes, staring into my eyes, and she looked for all the world as if she was completely focused and knowing. She was totally limp and relaxed, and did not lose focus from my face for even a second. I was shattered, and cried for quite a while - she looked so wise and as if she had known me for millenium and was just renewing our aquaintenence. These two small girls are the light of my life, and I delight in their company - I can't wait to see what's ahead for us all!

Changes

"Never complain about how things are, because they are bond to change."

This was a line my grandmother tried to hand me many years ago, and of course I knew better and I knew of course things don't change. I always pray that somewhere she is chuckling as I wander thru time and learn hard the lessons she tired to teach me gently. In my quilting I am expirementing with techniques and color and styles I thought I'd never be remotely interested in. My tastes in music and TV are now those of an adult, somewhat conservative gramma type (but I stop myself from saying "this modern music is nothing but noise!") Clothing is still pretty wildly colored, but more sedately cut. And in my work environment I know never to count on anything staying the same for 5 minutes in a row, BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!
LOL -- I am referring to the fact that a rival dialysis clinic in our small town is going out of business, closing it's doors, and sending nearly all of their patients to us. We will go from 54 to 76 patients over the last 2 weeks in June, and the logistics of this meld are immense. Typically growth in our world is very slow but steady, 2 forward, 3 back type of thing. There have been periods that we have admitted 2 or 3 new patients in one week, and that always has everyone scrambling so figure the madness multiplied expotentially and couple it with rumors, misinformation and technical difficulties, and we're about to have a June to remember. In better news, MUCH better news, this Saturday I get to take an all day class with quilter Linda Ballard to make her famous Fractured Crystals quilt design. I am so looking forward to this! I've spent a long time auditioning fabrics and finally settled on a family of purples. Purple is cropping up a lot these days, maybe because it is granddaughter Madelines favorite color?
I've tried 4 times to attach a picture but blogit not cooperating, maybe tomorrow. Now I'm off to bed to prepare to fight another day!

I did it!

At last! Today I moved 3 yards of a delicious topsoil mix from the trailer to my first bed. 3 yards is quite alot - your average pick-up truck holds about a yard and a half. My daughter Cory called this morning and asked if she could come up and play, and bring her daughter Madeline, who is 2 1/2. Like there is any other answer than YES YES YES! By 8 am I was out picking up the last of the hated rocks and running the rototiller over every inch of the old compacted soil. It was 9 am before I started hauling load after load in my wheelbarrow. I took a few detours to feed horses and chickens, but I really wanted to get it all done before Cory came so I could play. It takes her a little over an hour to drive here, and they hadn't yet done showers or breakfast, so I figured I had close to 3 hours. And, I almost did it -- I had about 3 loads left in the trailer when she drove up at 11 am...... and this evening I am a stove-up old lady. But boy, do I feel good! HUGE sense of accomplishment, and had a wonderful day with my girls. We went to a nursery new to us, and I bought a trunkful of interesting plants, including a peony and several alstromeria, had sodas at a little diner and came back. Madeline was a very busy little lady all day, she had her hands full helping Gramma and was feeling quite important. She told me shortly after she arrived that my kitty was happy to see her. I had to agree! Her language skills have really taken off the past few months; suddenly it's full sentences and many of them are hysterical. "Gramma, I will ride Paco in, umm, about 3 days" she told me in absolute seriousness. Paco is my little donkey, and while she adores him from afar, she refuses to get close enough to touch. At one point, apparently I was around the house getting soem large rocks to line the beds and Madeline called me repeatedly without reply. She leaned on her mothers knee and plaintivley told her, "Gramma is not taking to me" She is a joy.
When we returned from the nursery trip, Jerry and his son Jerry Lee were putting the finishing touches on the new 2 headed faucet I had requested. One for a timed drip system and one for a hose. Jerry Lee is 38, has 5 children ranging in age from 15 to 5, and lives next door to us. He is a successful contractor and a blessing to us both.
Tomorrow is our annual Bluegrass in the Hills day, held at the remote home of friends. every year we go and enjoy ourselves immensely, but this year I might not go. There is an annual quilt show at the same time in a town about an hour's drive in the oppisite direction, and I have never seen it so tomorrow might be the day. I do so want to go to both. You'll just have to tune again tomorrow to see which one won!

Evelene died very quietly at noon yesterday, with all of her family around her. In this line of work, we lose patients frequently, and some are harder than others. This time we are all grieving, and as several of the staff met in my office this morning talking quietly about her, I received a call from a doctor referring another new patient to us. It's a familiar cycle to us, and we depend on it as one of our coping mechanisms; that of continuations. In a breathtaking twist however, our new patient-to-be has the same last name. Literally breathtaking. When I told the assembled folks in my office, there was only stunned silence. Anyone who ever questions Gods presence or teachings, needs to hear this story and learn: life is a continuum, a circle of seasons, and will persist even when we don't want to.