Happy New Year 2021

 This past year has been such a strange and awful thing.  Who knew way back in March that we would all be hunkering down at home, cutting out travels, foregoing hugs and generally becoming hermits?  We spent last January in Arizona near Phoenix where I did considerable birding, adding to my life bird list, visiting with family members and friends,  and enjoying the sunshine.  

Burrowing Owls

On our way home we went to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon where I had never been. 

 Then we detoured to Socorro, NM to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.  

Sandhill Cranes coming in for the night

Thus ended the fun part of the year.  Our drive home from that trip carried us through some nasty stuff in Oklahoma and through lots of rain in Tennessee.  We arrived here at home just in time for an overnight snowfall of several inches.

We had planned to go to Iowa in May for two graduation ceremonies but those trips got cancelled.  Then we were to return in July for our granddaughter's wedding.  That also did not happen, much to our dismay.  The wedding went forward mostly because they could not change dates or cancel without losing much money in deposits to the venue.  Two family gatherings got cancelled, one in May and one in November.  Quilt guild activities were cancelled and have not resumed.  My husband's bridge games were cancelled and have not resumed.  We were supposed to be on our way to Arizona again at the moment but that had to be cancelled also.  We just did not want to take the risk. 

Thankfully, we are resilient people for the most part.  We've spent the year at home mostly, going out for groceries, medical appointments and the walks at the park where we can maintain distance.   I did take one short trip for a quilting retreat but it was only after a whole lot of deliberation.  So far as I know, everyone who attended was fine.  It sure was hard to forego hugs with friends, though. 

I have spent most of my time quilting and reading.  Thankfully those hobbies can consume many hours.  We also enjoy our home and the many birds around us.   My husband caught up on some maintenance chores as well. 

I won't even go into the turmoil concerning the elections and its not over yet.  

I'm truly hoping and praying that 2021 will be a much happier and healthy year for all of us.  I'll leave you with the quilting projects I've worked on this year. 

Finished this one off this year

For the high school graduate

I've also been working on wool applique projects but none are completed as yet.  Anyway, it keeps me busy. 

Y'all take care of yourselves and please stay safe until such time as we can all move freely about our worlds.

Happy New Year, friends

Evidence of Progress??

I went to northwest Florida last weekend to attend a family gathering.  Since we don't have ready access to good seafood up here in the mountains, my hubby and I wanted to take advantage of the proximity and headed down to the coast with my brother for dinner on Friday night.   It had been a long time since I'd been the south end of the county where I grew up so I figured we'd head out early and see what was happening, even getting to see a few birds along the way.   

Well.......let me tell you.  I got the shock of my life.  I knew south Walton County had been growing in popularity for years but nothing prepared me for what I saw.  Every single foot of the gorgeous white beaches I grew up with and loved has now been  plastered with condos, houses, restaurants and shops.  Public access to the beach is almost non-existent.  I was driving so I didn't get a single picture but you can go to some websites to find out just exactly what I saw.  Rosemary Beach   Watercolor  Seaside   and others including Sterling Properties.  Some of these have been in existence for many years, but the spaces between have all filled up.  

The traffic was unbelievable, both on the 4 lane divided highway parallel to the coast and on the inner roads, and this was on a random Friday in early November!  Knowing what happens in the summer, you couldn't pay me enough money to go there then.  Makes me so sad to see places I loved become inaccessible to a whole lot of folks who actually live in that county.    Perhaps had I not grown up in that county I wouldn't look at it as a bad thing, but I did grow up there and it hurts.  

Since I got no pictures on this trip, let me see if I can find something in the archives, so to speak. 

Hubby with friends from Germany

Oh, well.  I'll just stick to my little town in the mountains and proudly proclaim I've become a curmudgeon.   Oh, and there wasn't a bird in sight.  

Y'all take care

Procrastination and Cruising 'Round Town

I’m sitting here today knowing that I need to get busy making the backings for the quilts I’m working on.  I have confirmed that I have the proper yardages, but getting them made and pressed just isn’t what I want to be doing.  Unfortunately, the backing and the basting of the quilt “sandwich” are necessary evils before quilting.

I looked into John Flynn’s diagonal piecing method for the backs, but because of their size, there’s not a lot of difference in fabric requirements between the diagonal method and normal.  So, I’ll just do the normal backings and not attempt the diagonal on five quilts on the first try.   Oh, four tops are totally done and just need a border on the fifth to have them ready.  I’m still waiting on my batting order to arrive.  Once that happens, I won’t have an excuse for not moving forward. 

I’m finding all kinds of things to distract me from the job at hand.  Do you ever do that?

On Saturday, hubby and I went into town to the farmers’ market.  It’s a ways in there, so this is the first time we’ve been.  I think we're convinced that its worth making the trip. 

It was small but held in a lovely setting and there’s certainly room to expand if it can ever grow enough to need the space.  Very little produce was available because the gardens down here have quit producing by now.  There were baked goods, plants, crafts, soaps and toiletries, free range eggs and other good stuff. 

After strolling through, we sat for a while and just enjoyed the lovely day and the beautiful blue sky. 

Pensacola is a very old city and there is some lovely architecture in the downtown area, not the least of which is St. Michael's Catholic Church just across from the market area. 

During our travels throughout the country, farmers’ markets have been a favorite pastime for hubby and me.  Everything from two or three farmers on a corner to the one in Des Moines, Iowa which fills downtown every Saturday morning with 10,000 or so people and hundreds of vendors.

After the market and a couple of errands, we headed over to Five Sisters Cafe for lunch, our first time there.  Been hearing about it for a while but just haven't gotten over to it.  Had a lovely lunch and would love to return when the music is underway.

We have been having good weather lately.  Right now it is a bit above normal in temperature but the humidity levels have dropped and that makes it a lot more bearable.    Three of us went birdwatching in Blackwater yesterday for the first time in a while.  It’s an awkward time of the year for birding.  The winter migrants haven’t arrived yet and the residents are quiet and still.  However, as we all exclaimed, it was just good to be out in the woods with the fresh air and sunshine.   Besides, we enjoy each others company.

Y'all take care.  

My World Has Been Nuts

The past week has been nuts!!! We went through the routine of getting the house ready, packing up the RV and heading out of town for what WAS to have been a several weeks long trip. Really looking forward to it because we were going to get to see the kids and granddaughters, including a new granddaughter born on May 3. Gonna visit friends in Nebraska and then maybe trek to upper Minnesota for a while. We got so far as Branson, Missouri (a two day drive with the RV) where I was able to meet up with a quilting buddy from the HGTV quilting forum. We had a great day checking out quilt shops, visiting and getting to know each other.

Then on Saturday, things got really interesting. While at an afternoon show, in a darkened theater and me looking forward (not sideways at my him), my husband is having a major episode of cardiac problems. Tells me nada - zilch- squat. Then an hour later at intermission he wants to go for a walk -- as though he has ever done that before. So, I finally asked folks to let us out and we go for our walk -- all the way up to the back of the theater where he finally tells me what had been going on, but that the pain and pressure had pretty much gone away by then!!! I'm ready to cart him off to the ER but he wouldn't hear of it. And you want to know what, the same danged thing happened again Saturday night, including not telling me about it until it was long over.

Now, do you have any idea how many times he's done this to me since his cardiac problems were diagnosed a couple of years ago? Oh, his excuses are that he doesn't want to upset me, that it's not that bad, or if it comes back we'll go the ER or call 911, yadda, yadda, yadda. Does he think it'll upset me less if he drops like a rock in front of me? Possibly to not get up again??? Anyway, we aborted our trip to see the kids which broke both our hearts. But, we both also wanted to be home to deal with this. We then spent two stress filled days driving back home. Since we got here, I've done everything and won't let him so much as spit without permission!! I suspect the cardiologist is gonna plop him into the hospital when we see him tomorrow morning and that's right where I'd like him to be until this is figured out!!! Does that sound selfish of me? I truly never know what the next minute is going to bring and it's taking its toll.

This unexpected return to sunny Florida reminded me of why we like to leave in the summer anyway. It was 88 degrees and 79% humidity yesterday afternoon when I was trying to unload the RV. Oh, and it had rained here earlier in the day so the ground was wet. Now, that was truly fun! NOT!!! So, I guess I'll spend lots of time sewing and doing other crafty stuff inside for a while. Or maybe I can haul my butt down to the pool at the rec center. At least that will be constructive.

There was a story in both national and local news tonight about the Gulf oil spill nearing the coast here in Florida. That just breaks my heart and I am so angry at not only BP, but all the other oil companies who put profit and expediency ahead of safety and good sense!! Now, there's this royal mess destroying a beautiful body of water and who knows if it can ever be fixed or cleaned up.

I was going to attach a picture of our beaches, but it is hiding from me somewhere. My computer crashed last fall and although I didn't lose anything, some things are stacked back in folders and I just don't remember where those photos are right now. Guess that's another bit of evidence that I'm often afflicted with the CRS (can't remember crap) syndrome!