Update on the Corky, Poodle Prince 03-26-10

I was REALLY missing Corky after I was gone for almost three weeks. So, on Sunday evening, after driving from Mary's in San Juan Bautista, I drove to LBeach to see him.

Although he was initially happy to see me he finally came around to punishing me for neglecting him and refused to look at the camera. Usually he is such a ham.

He was still wearing his St. Patrick's Day green.

Eventually he went to lay in front of the garage door - waiting for his parents to return and ignoring me. .

Isn't this a pitiful sight? His dad sent me this picture on Monday evening after Corky had spent the day on his mommy's desk in his boat bed. He was recovering from having his teeth cleaned that morning. We always worry when he has to be anesthetized because he is almost 14 years old and we all know that it is harder for our bodies to recover from that as we mature. It took him the entire day to be his own self again. I'll have him quite a bit in April as it is a very busy month for his parents' business. Of course, I am looking forward to having him at "Camp Del".

Actually, I am recovering from anesthesia tonight. I had a routine colonoscopy this morning - what torture! But all is well and I don't have to do it again for five years. This has been a doctoring week with appointments with the eye doctor and the periodontist. Next week I will have to have a tooth pulled and start the process of an implant, which takes months. My friend Carol tells me it isn't so bad and I'm going to hold her to that!

"Morning Sniff" 03-25-10

In many SCalifornia quilt guilds there is a "Monthly Mini" quilt, made and donated by a member, to raise funds for the guild treasury. Tickets are sold, only at the meeting, and one is pulled for the winner. Over the years I have done this for several of the guilds I belong to and March was the month I volunteered to create a quilt for Surfside Quilters Guild. The member with the winning ticket was Hiroko Moriwaki.

"Morning Sniff" Del Thomas 2010 Approx 12"W X 15"L
The idea came from a childhood cat "Baby" who was a blue/grey color and lived to a ripe old age. She would go out in the garden with my stepfather and follow him around as he worked. She is the only cat I have ever seen who would sniff flowers as she walked along.

Fused applique w/straight stitched edges, machine quilted.

Talking about food 03-23-10

These handsome immature seagulls (they turn from grey to white as they mature) were waiting for me to feed him/her something as I sat on a bench admiring the awesomeness of Monterey Bay. It was a lovely breather after the two weeks of Empty Spools and before driving to Mary's to get packed up to leave on Sunday for the drive home. One is not supposed to feed any wild animals or wild birds and I didn't have anything to feed them anyway.

Regardless of what my fellow students thought, I thought the food at Asilomar was dreadful. They served pork for either lunch or dinner almost every day and I can't eat it. Bacon and ham don't bother me, but pork is definitely off my diet. They also listed Red Snapper as the fish for dinner one night in both weeks, but it turned out to be Tilapia. Cheaper, I'm sure. The one thing they always do well are salads - greens so fresh they might have been picked the minute before we ate them. I think, however, I will in the future bring my own light oil/vinegar dressing. They make a very heavy dressing that kills the fresh greens. I used to rely on choosing the vegetarian entree if I couldn't eat the meat, but one night I tried it and it turned out to be a baked onion stuffed with a concoction containing some sort of grain, dried cranberries (I think), maybe some veggies and served with cooked red cabbage. Yuck. I went hungry. I managed to eat the eggs in whatever form they served for breakfast.There is now a do-it-yourself toast bar using their six slice toaster - which would be fine if there were not another 100+ people trying to use the same toaster. I ate out most evenings - Pepper's, Tillie Gortz, The Red House, TJoe's salad and I tried An Choi (Asian Contemporary Cuisine) http://www.anchoirestaurant.com/

This is their "prawns in tamarind sauce" which is served on a bed of noodles, mushrooms and onions. There were four prawns and the meal was good if not spectacular.

The chairs don't look comfortable, but they were, and the view was typical Pacific Grove.

Since I am talking about food, here is a look at 9 foods that reportedly make one's skin stay fresh/young:http://tinyurl.com/yzf5x8c

I have made some changes, regarding Caryl Bryer Fallert, to yesterday's post about Empty Spools.

25th Anniv. of Empty Spools Seminars 03-22-10

Empty Spools Seminars is celebrating 25 years of great teachers, students and friendships. As part of the celebration the three women who run the seminars, Diana McClun, Suzanne Cox and Gayle Wells asked all those who have taught over the years to send spool blocks to create some anniversary quilts. Six quilts were created with the help of some of the teachers and many friends. At each of this year's five sessions all the attendees names are put in a box for a drawing for one of the quilts. The winner pulls a slip a paper with the name of the quilt she has won. At the end of the fifth session in June the names of all of the 2010 attendees will go in a box and a name pulled to win the sixth quilt.

On the last night of the first week I attended (Session III) I was the winner and the quilt I won is "Freddy's Polka Dots". So named because when the blocks were divided up Freddy Moran took this set home and assembled this quilt. I think it is spectacular and I feel very, very lucky. These pictures were taken at the end of Session IV when the quilts were taken down from where they hung over the edge of the balcony and placed on the empty chairs in Merrill Hall so all could see them close up. Not the best situation for photography. I had someone hold up the quilt for an all over shot and I took individual blocks while it was draped on the chairs. I cannot identify the makers of all the blocks. The one on the bottom row with the rainbow flying geese is NOT Caryl Bryer Fallert - she has not taught at Asilomar that I know of. But I cannot tell you whose contribution it is. (Addendum: I am wrong! Caryl taught a computer aided design class several yearss ago - but is still is not her block!! She will also be teaching in 2011. For a list of the teachers for 2011 go to http://www.emptyspoolsseminars.com/Teachers2011.html)

Here are the blocks I can attribute correctly.

Top left: Elizabeth Spanning Bottom right: Becky Goldsmith


Top: Gai Perry Bottom: Dale Fleming


Top left: Freddy Moran Top right: Kathie Pasquini Masopust
Bottom left: Peggy Martin Bottom right: Sylvia Einstein

This elaborate block was made by Louisa Smith.

Here is a better image of Sylvia Einstein's block with one by Dale Fleming on the right.

Freddy Moran's colorful block.


After the final drawing the winners will receive their quilts.

One Blossom - Cherry? 03-21-10

When I left from Mary's in San Juan Bautista this morning I took a little detour on Lucy Brown Road to see if there were blossoms on the trees with the yellow lichen I photographed exactly a month ago.

I found this one open blossom in the same orchard and the yellow lichen was gone! Warmer, drier weather - don't you think?

There were lots of buds like this and I wonder if they will be open in a few days if the warm weather continues.

It was a wonderful drive home on I-5. Not many wildflowers at the top around Gorman, but still snow on the peaks. At the north end of the Grapevine are huge fields of lupine and "blue faces" (I think that is what the common name is - I will look it up before I post the pictures).

I am too tired to write more.