Back Home

                             Needled Mom and Midlife Mom

Back again from the sunny south.  It was about 20* and a hefty northeast wind when we got off the plane on Monday evening.  After sitting for six hours in the Philly airport because of delays from the storm the day before I didn't care if it was -20* as I was so glad to be home!  Nothing like sleeping in your own bed.

We had a great time for most of it but I got hit with something that just about knocked my socks off on day three and spent most of the night laying on the bathroom floor in between bouts of hurling.  TMI you may say and you would be right.   Thankfully Needled Mom and I had spent some time together before this all came about as we usually spend the last evening chatting up a storm in the lobby and that was out of the question.  We got to sit together the first evening with our guys and chatted away until finally the guys were more then ready to head back to our respective rooms.

We went reef fishing the next day.  It was really rough on the water and I was glad we hadn't chosen deep sea fishing!  I didn't have very good sea legs but managed to stay on my feet and catch about 10 fish.  Nothing really big, only kept one and had it for lunch the rest were either too small or the wrong species.  One was a Grunt fish which was interesting as when our guide held him up to my ear I could hear him making a growling noise! 

 The Hubs always has his Blackberry going.............

Looking for a hand out.

My first catch of the day.  It wasn't big enough to keep so back he went into the ocean.

I caught more then the Hubs!  But of course you don't catch much when you are working on your Blackberry......refer to picture #1.  :o)

It was fun but I was glad to get my feet back on solid ground that wasn't swaying from side to side.  Some of the others caught some fairly big fish and kept them to have for lunch.  The guides did a good job keeping our hooks baited and driving off the sea gulls that would dive right in and steal the bait right off the hooks!  How they didn't swallow the hook is beyond me.

Each morning the men were in a class so the spouses went to breakfast together.  It was nice being waited on and the fruit there is always delicious.  There were several other functions to attend plus the big superbowl party the last evening.  I couldn't go to that but the Pats weren't in it so I didn't really care.  We had to be up at 3:30 the next morning so I got everything packed except for what we needed.  3:30 came really fast and we were on the road to the airport at 4:30.  Our plane left at 7:30. 

I read a wonderful book while on this trip.  It is Blind Courage by Bill Irwin.  He is the blind man that hiked the whole Appalachian Trail about 15 years ago with his guide dog Orient.  What a fabulous book, I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes a true heartwarming story.  It tells of his struggles and also of his relationship with God which grew stronger as the trip went along.  I must admit I had tears running down my face as I read parts of it especially when he had to retire his dog and get another one.  The bond between a blind person and their guide dog is just amazing, true trust and admiration on both parts.  I  heard Mr. Irwin speak and met his guide dog Cody recently and came away truly blessed from it.

So here we are back to the real world with the land of palm trees and beaches many miles away.  Nick had to have a shot in his hock yesterday which is just part of the after care.  He's doing really well and can be ridden in ten days.  The other boys are well and nice and fuzzy.

Guess that's it for today.  Will try to get around to visit and get caught up with you all!

Redwork continued and fabric outing

Last Saturday DIL, her Mom, Mimi and I took an outing to a fabric store called The Fabric Garden in Madison Maine.  It's about an hour or so from here and well worth the trip.  They picked me up about 8 A.M. so that we could get a nice early start.  We got onto I-95 and were rolling along at a good clip, talking and laughing when all of a sudden Mimi said we need to turn around as we are going the wrong way!  DIL was driving and I was in the back and we BOTH said no, we were going the right way, we were going southbound.  Again Mimi said we were going the wrong way we were going northbound and we just chuckled and teased her a bit about her sense of direction.............

She again said we need to get off and go the other way so DIL being the dutiful daughter that she is took the next exit but we still though we were going the right way!  Wrong.  We were going north.  When we got on I-95 we took the first on ramp instead of the second one and were having such a good time we didn't even notice until Mimi, the one we thought was looney tunes, discovered it!  Oh my, we got to laughing so hard and feeling rather stupid!  We made ourselves feel better though by bringing up the fact that a few of our friends were on an outing and got 40 miles north before they realized they were going the wrong way!  We suddenly felt rather superior (chuckle, snort, chuckle!!!) for only going three or four miles in the wrong direction........... :o)

Mimi and DIL.

The Grandmothers, me and Mimi, we love sharing grands together!

We were almost there when DIL said, "I hope it's not too busy today."  as it is a small area that's just packed full.  We drove in and there was only one  car in the parking lot, yippee!  We left everything in the car with just our money in our pocket as we didn't want to have anything slow us down.  You really need both hands free to buy fabric as you all know.

We hadn't been there 5 minutes when a 15 passenger van pulled up and a group of very excited quilt club ladies began filing in!  So much for not being busy.......that's what we get for wanting the whole place to ourselves!

The ladies were so nice and we all had a great time talking and laughing and knowing we needed a traffic light here and there as we did get rather congested at times.

I love the jelly rolls, and found several that I wanted.  What a great idea of having the fabric all cut for you and all co-ordinated.  Wish I had thought of that concept first.

We all bought loads of fabric, notions, patterns and books.  Enough to keep us busy for a while.  I can't wait to get started but we leave on Thursday for a convention so it will have to wait.

Quite a few of you asked to see a picture of my redwork quilt.  I put it on a double bed as I didn't have any way to hang it but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.  I'll also put in a few more pictures of the squares.

Here she is looking out her bedroom window watching the birds.

There always was a nest of swallows in the tree.

Bumblebees in the flowers.

Another one of Smokey Jack running through his pasture.

She always had dogs, this was Misty her German Shepherd.

This is Nikki Louise named after me because I found her for Aunt Joyce.

She loved all things of nature.

Guess that's it for now.  Must start packing and see what I can still fit into! Waaaaaaaaaa!   Can't wait to see my friend Needled Mom while on this trip, we look forward to getting together all year long.  She and her hubby are wonderful people and they have a beautiful family!  See you soon!

Redwork Quilt

I'm playing around with some pictures this morning.  I have some in e-mails that won't let me copy and paste so I'm trying to figure out how to put them in something else so that I can put them in my post.  I should be doing my homework for my board meeting on Friday but I'm goofing off.  What can I say?

Well I didn't get very far with that as here it is Friday and I have already been to my board meeting this morning.  I think I am over the worst of my headcold as I have only sneezed once this morning and that was when I had a mouth full of vitamins and they went all over the kitchen!

It is bitterly cold today with the wind whipping around the house making drifts out back.  Noodles and Munchie went out for a short time and then headed right back in and are curled up in their favorite spots in the sun on their blankets.

I watched two operations today after my board meeting.  A little girl cat got spayed and a little boy cat got neutered.  It only takes about 6 or 7 minutes to take care of the boy cats but longer for the girls.  It was very interesting and I can see why most vets prefer to do small animals rather then horses or cows.  Thank goodness we do have our large animal vets though!  Nick is coming along good with the hand walking.  Next week he will be able to go out in the inside arena by himself and move around as he wants.  I hope he takes it easy for a while but time will tell.  He does have to have a couple of shots in that hock on the 10th of February.  I just got the call from my vet. 

What I really wanted to write about today is one of my possessions that I consider a treasure.  My Aunt Joyce and I were very close for many years until she passed away a number of years ago.  We both loved horses and she ended up with one of mine in her later years and found much enjoyment in having him there at her home.

She also loved to do redwork quilting and drew many of her squares by hand or copied them from a greeting card or a picture she found in an old book or magazine.  She wanted this quilt to show things about her life and some of the things that she enjoyed the most.   

I was the lucky recipient of this quilt one day when I was over at her house visiting and I was thrilled!  She wanted to give things to people that she knew would enjoy them and take care of them.  Here are just a few of the squares that I particularly like.

She always tapped the maple trees in the spring to make maple syrup.

She always skated on the lake in the wintertime.

Growing up there were always pigs and piglets on the farm.

She loved Arabian horses and always went to watch the shows.

She loved wildlife especially the eagles that flew over.

This is Smokey Jack the appy that I had for many years until he retired to her home.  She loved to take him out in the sleigh for a ride.

This is my grandfather, her father, ice fishing on the lake.

Going down the hill on the toboggan with my mother and her other sister.

She and her family lived in California for many years and they loved going into the dessert and camping on the weekends.

She loved the rodeo and went as often as they could.

This is my grandparents house, it had a horseshoe shaped drive way and my grandmother had beautiful flowers all around it.  The tall things on the left are the gorgeous hollyhocks that she grew.  I have never been able to grow them anywhere near like hers.

This is the old barn that was on the other side of the drive way.  It had vines going up one side of it.

There was always a swing in the tree to play on.

My grandfather made stilts for the kids.  My father always made stilts for us too.

This was the block she did for me on the quilt, a picture of Smoky Jack and my initials. Probably 1993 was the year she got Smoky from me.

They really did ride the pigs on occasion!  Probably when my grandfather wasn't home!

Another square dedicated to horses.

This was in each corner.

This was her block with her initials and a spider web.  She loved spider webs and her antique shop was named Joyce's Web Antiques.  I have the big sign that hung on the front of the building out in my barn hanging on the wall.  If it wasn't so cold I would go out and take a picture.

This quilt has many more blocks, with a meaning to each one.  It took her years to make as it was all done by hand except the sashing around each block and that was done with her old treddle sp? machine.  I have all of the patterns that she drew for it and consider them a treasure too.

Thanks for going down memory lane with me via this quilt.

We've been invaded by Miss T and Mr. D!

The Grands were here this weekend.  Son and DIL had things to go to so both T and D got off the bus here on Friday after school.  The first thing we did was go sledding over at Great Grampa's house next door.  He has the best hill in the neighborhood and loves having the children make good use of it.  This is Mr. D starting down the hill.

It's a long walk back up the hill.

Whew!  Made it!

Of course Noodles the cat who thinks he is a dog had to go along with us.

Miss T picked him up and said he was shivering.  I thought he was probably purring but when I held him I could tell that he was shivering so I took him home.

Opps!  Somebody lost their hat on this trip down the other side of the hill!

Yep, it was Mr. D!  Guess it was time to go in the house for some hot chocolate and dry socks!

If you are honest and over a certain age you have done something really regrettable.  I'm not talking about anything illegal.  I'm talking about the sleds with the runners and the metal part that held the top together...........and the fact that some of us, me included, just HAD to stick our tongue on that metal to see if it would really stick!  Am I right?

We had a fabulous place to slide called Town House Hill when I was a youngster.  It was a couple miles up the road which at that time seemed like nothing, now I would groan at the thoughts of walking up a steep hill but this was 'back in the day'.  I vividly remember the cold day that I was zooming down over that hill and the thought struck me that I should try touching my tongue on the metal on the way down.....  Man oh man did that ever stick!  I spent the rest of the way down trying to get it 'unstuck' without pulling half of my tongue off.

There really is nothing you can do in that situation when you are two miles from home but bite the bullet and just yank your poor stuck tongue as hard as you can and it does come off, mostly.  There was a small layer left on the sled forever to be part of it.  Needless to say I never did that again.

Now back to the present.  The kids wanted Grampie to get out his old trumpet that he played in high school.  I was cleaning up from dinner but could hear awful sounds coming from the playroom!  The Hubs did a pretty good job of playing Taps and then the kids were giving it a try. Yikes!  I'm glad I was upstairs!

The kids went to bed about 8 o'clock and were in lala land in minutes.  All that nice cold air and walking up and down the hill was good exercise for them and they slept like a rock.  Well....until about 6:30 AM when they came giggling into our room!  Grampie was already up but I was still snoozing until two little ankle biters climbed in bed with me! I certainly didn't mind though, wouldn't have it any other way!  :o)