An explanation of Wordless Wednesday 05-01-20

First, Happy May Day!  When I was a child just outside of Portland, Oregon, May Day was the day we went around to our neighbor's and left paper cones of spring flowers hanging on their doorknobs.   I sometimes think I will do that in my current neighborhood, but fear that everyone would think I had just gone over the edge and call the guys in the white jackets to take me away.   Times and traditions change. 

I feel the need to explain this week's Wordless Wednesday.  On Tuesday KoKo and I drove up to San Juan Bautista to spend a few days with our friend Mary.  Mary also lives alone, and doesn't even have a doggy for company, so a houseguest is a treat for her.  We didn't leave Placentia until 4pm and made an amazing trip in 5 1/2 hours and that included two half hour stops for potty and gas.  So, the actual driving time was 4 1/2 hours.  There was almost no traffic except for the big trucks and, to my surprise, people were driving the usual 70 to 80 mph.  I expected some speed demons to be hitting the 100 mark, just because they could.  None of those.  So, it was a very pleasant drive except for the last hour over the Pacheco Pass in the dark.  Usually there are a lot of other cars and trucks to sort of light the way, but not this time.  Some of the time mine were the only lights on the road.  Weird and creepy.  Anyway we arrived about 9:30pm and we all went to bed pretty soon after that.  

The first picture on Wednesday was the wildflowers on the hills around Gorman, CA, at the top of the Ridge Route.  Only poppies and some short yellow flowers I can't think of the name of right now.  No lupine in sight.  The middle two pictures are of Mary and KoKo and Froggy.  Mary didn't want me to post her face, but I couldn't resist her gorgeous white hair.  Like most people in the world she is yearning for a haircut.   The last picture was taken from the end of her road where her new house is in a new development on the edge of San Juan Bautista.  Right now the hills are a bright green and so lush and beautiful.  The old barn is part of the original farm the development is built on.  I'm not seeing many people as KoKo and I do our walks - two or three other dog walkers in the morning.  Many of the houses here have a gold colored card in their window with OK written on it.  These are distributed by the town and the fire department drives around to check that none of the signs have been changed to a red sign, which I suppose says NOT OK.  Nice to know that people are watching out for the residents.  

We will drive home on Sunday in isolation in our car with only one potty stop and then get gas after we are back in Placentia.  Social distancing by car.  

While here I have been working on the Little Houses. 

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Thursday Thoughts 04-30-20

Here are a few more "treasures" I cannot part with.  Maybe I should title this "Thursday Treasures" rather than Thursday Thoughts!   I imagine these items are at least 100 years old and have belonged in my family for all those years. 

Once upon a time restaurants served butter on individual tiny plates called butter pats.  They are about 2 1/2" in diameter and generally held just one pat (a TBLS) of butter.  These are from a diner or some such establishment, although sets of fine china could also include these little plates.  I did not realize until a few years ago that the pat on the left and the Spencer's cream pot have the same black and red pattern. They may or may not have been acquired together.  The pat on the right is a very common pattern from those days. 

This little pot with the name Spencer's, which was my maiden name, was used to serve cream for coffee or tea.  I have always supposed that Spencer's Restaurant was in Portland, Oregon, where I spent my early years, but I don't know.  All through my 81 years it has held toothpicks, in my mother's cabinet and in mine.  I do have a male Spencer cousin and I spoke to him about this one time, but he didn't seem very interested and I have no contact with any of his children.  So I suppose this will appear at the Salvation Army store when I have used it for the last time.  I hope a Spencer finds it and enjoys it.  

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Wordless Wednesday 04-29-20

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Flowers on our walk 04-27-20

Such a gorgeous spring day, not too hot in the morning, but 81F high in afternoon.

These three daisies bloomed all in a row - just for this image!

The white iris are all blown and deadheaded.  In the same flowerbed the poppies are towering, this one over my head.  Look at the great foliage. 

Here is a poppy blossom full on.  That odd grey thing just below the flower is the head of my cane which I used to pull the very tall flower stalk down to take a picture. 

Here is the deep heart of a different bloom, so intricate. 

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Thomas Contemprary Quilt Collection 04-26-20

For quite a few years I posted quilts from TCQC on Sundays and I am going to go back to that.  Here is a piece from England that was added in June 2014.

There is a lovely shop in England that specializes in African fabrics, beads, baskets, jewelry, and a lot more.  The owners travel in Africa every year and buy from the native artists and markets.  Musa, one of their artists, dyes fabric in his village and also works to provide medical care to the people there.  One year the English quilters made this huge quilt to hang in the booth of the African Quilt Shop at a large quilt show.  But after the show was over, what to do with such a huge quilt, there was no space to hang it in the shop.  So, they cut it up into "planks" and sold those to interested quilters.  The result was a number of very nice pieces that they put up for auction online with the money going to Musa's clinic in Africa.  I happened to run across the auction and needed to add "One Plank Makes Many Huts" to TCQC.  

This is the original very large quilt that was eventually cut up into "planks".

"One Plank Makes Many Huts" 

 Alison Livesley - England  2014   47"W X 47"L

Many of the fabrics are African, but there is a little bit of everything including Liberty prints, hand-dyes, batiks, etc..

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As always I am having problems with my photo files, so these are all the pictures I can post tonight.  

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Heatwave 04-25-20

We are having a very warm end of April.  The high today was 90F, but yesterday we were up to 91F and Thursday was 101F.  Even with the A/C I am flushed and sweaty and don't feel like even moving.  KoKo and I are walking early in the day and waiting until the temp gets down to 80F in the evening, the last few days this has been about 9pm.

This gives us a chance to admire the crescent moon and the brightest light in the sky, the planet Venus.  Even though I held the camera against a car I still shake too much.  The crescent moon is in the tree and Venus is high above - both are blurred.  I'm always amazed at the lightness of the sky in the pictures, as it is quite dark in reality.  

I did takeout sushi for lunch from our favorite local place, Fish in a Bottle, and it was very good.  I bought two rolls, but was more than full with one, so it is sushi for breakfast tomorrow.  Yum! 

In today's mail I had a lovely package from Carol Esch of New Jersey who I met in an Empty Spools class at Asilomar several years ago.  She had come across some Ruth B. McDowell postcards and sent them to me because she knows that I collect Ruth quilts.  AND she included one of the masks she has been making.  The quarter inch elastic goes through the channels on either side and fits behind the neck and over the head, so it fits very snugly against the face.  it is sort like a halter top only on the face!  Much better than what I have made with ties on all four corners.   I am looking up because I think it shows the fit better to have my saggy chin stretched up!!  

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