Hanford, CA and SJB 03-05-10

Yesterday afternoon I drove from SJB to Hanford, CA, about a three hour drive mostly on good,open highway. It was an amazing day - bright blue sky, with puffy little white clouds and a view that stretched to the foothills of the Sierra - or almost. My eyes have been bothering me so I can't see as well as I usually do. But nothing could diminish the sunshine and the vast fields (to be planted in cotton maybe) stretch flat and forever. I went to do the evening program about the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection for Common Threads Quilt Guild. It is a lovely group of ladies and they seemed to enjoy seeing the quilts and hearing my explanations about each quilt. They kindly furnished four quilt hanging stands, in addition to my two, so we were able to hang six large quilts before the members started arriving. This gives everyone a better chance to see some of the quilts up close. Suzanne Kistler took the picture below of me standing next to Ruth B. McDowell's "Summer Lily", a quilt with a fantastic collection of fabrics that only Ruth could assemble. It is a pretty good picture even though all my pudginess is obvious. Hard to hide it these days. Maybe I should try wearing mu mu's!

The meeting finished a little after 9pm (I ran on a bit too long - sorry), I stopped at a gas station to scrape some of the bugs off my windshield (everything is green and growing and the bugs are eating everything in sight apparently - and then committing suicide on I-5) and headed back to SJB. Arrived about 12:20am and I was sound asleep by 1am. Quite a good drive.

Today I was sewing at Mary's dining room table (so I didn't have to haul my machine down and up stairs) where I could look out at the oak trees and the green, green grass in the open areas. I've never lived where the deer roamed (I know they can be very destructive) so it is nice to look up now and then and see these gals looking back at me. Lots of early shooting-stars wildflowers in the background. All day it looked as though it might rain, but I don't think we had a drop. Sure is cold up here though. The high is about what the low is in Placentia. I have layers and layers of quilts on my bed so I do sleep warm enough. And that is what am going to do right now.

The Great Outdoors 11-19-08

This first photo is a fabric image of the "great outdoors". I am finally doing a little quilting again. When I was "digging out" I came across quite a few UFOs (which were also Forgotten Objects), this is one of them. I don't have a clue when I started it - maybe 7 or 8 years ago. It is quite small, only 12 inches square, and I thought, "Aha, I'll finish it up for the SAQA auction." But that didn't happen. Maybe next year. Can you imagine some one's inability to quilt one 12" square quilt in six months or so? However, just quilting part of it is a healthy sign that I am returning to my life.

It doesn't have a name yet. Maybe "In the shadows" or simply "Bird Under Tree". After all, I have done six with the title "Bird in a Tree" with the addition of the appropriate numerals.

This picture of a majestic elk is off the Internet and I have no attribution. If someone knows who the photographer is, please let me know. He takes my breath away, but I'm not sure I would want him in my front yard.

It came to me under the subject: "Summertime in a Rocky Mountain Suburb" and made the point that humans are en roaching on the habitat of wildlife, so they should not be unhappy when the wildlife take back some of their territory. It is a difficult problem. I have a lot of sympathy for the wildlife, but I must admit I loath the coyotes that lurk in my neighborhood. They have eaten many cats and, I think, all the wild rabbits. Now, with the fires so close, I am even more concerned about finding them in my backyard drooling over Corky barking his head off behind closed windows. The people who look out their window and see the elk eating their expensive landscaping probably feel the same way - resentful.