Friday Food - on Saturday 04-06-19

Out to lunch one day this past week.  We went to Fitness Grille in Yorba Linda.  One of their lunch specials was blackened sea bass with veggies.  What a delight to the eye and the taste buds.  

Not terribly spicy, the fish was cooked perfectly and the veggies.....

were al dente, tasty and colorful.  

We sat outside which turned out to be a mistake as the crew refurbishing the parking lot came back from their lunch break and fired up their equipment.  It made it hard to hear and was somewhat annoying.  But the food made up for it - delicious.

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Lazy KoKo 04-04-19

I'll bet you can't even tell that is a dog!  He is on his back in the space between my body and the arm of the chair. All feet in the air and it looks like his neck is broken!  It started out with a belly rub and turned into nap time.  You can see Froggie's feet in the background, he was napping also. 

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Spring blooms 04-01-19

There is the super bloom of wildflowers in Southern California and I wish I could drive out to see some of it.  But currently have too much on my plate to do that.  But there are lots of spring flowers in my neighborhood. 

This very unusual iris has only one blossom, but it is very pretty. 

It looks very shy in a bed of nasturtiums, foxglove, orange poppies, alyssum, and a few other annuals.  I only have feverfew, wild oxalis, and sow thistle growing along the side of our house.  This morning I dug up the sow thistle before it can go to seed.  I suspect it comes from several neighbors who do not maintain their yards and let everything go to seed.  Very un-neighborly. 

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A phone visit with Ruth McDowell 03-31-19

Ruth B. McDowell - Colrain, MA

I don't know when this picture was taken, probably ten years ago.  We talk on the phone now and then and today we had a nice visit, talking about quilts, fabric selection, what we are working on right now, what is happening with people we know in common, and, well, just stuff.  The temperature in Colrain was about 40F and in Placentia 84F.   Of course, we are about 3000 miles apart, but it seems so …. drastic!  

One thing we briefly discussed is an exhibit of her work at Visions Art Museum in San Diego, planned for January - March 2020.  It will be quilts from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection and, possibly, some new quilts by Ruth.  It is all very tenuous right now, but it will happen.   I'll keep you updated

I'm still struggling with the new laptop.  I will get help soon so that I can get back to posting current images. 

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A boring life 03-26-19

This seems to be a slow time in my life.  I try to work out my computer problems and take care of KoKo.  That seems to be it.  We walk twice a day - sometime between 7 and  9 in the morning and in the evening about 6:30pm, or before the coyotes start serious roaming.  Haven't seen any this week but they seemed to love our front yard last week.  Scary stuff.

Here is another scary thing - Del on a stepstool.  I thought I had figured out how to crop a picture on my phone, but it didn't work.  I want to show you a table topper (40" X 40") I constructed from blocks I found in Toni's things when she stopped sewing last fall.  I'm sure these were made in a class, possibly at Empty Spools.  Liz suggested they might be from a Cathy Hoover class, but I don't know.  Of all the settings I tried this is the one that I could live with.  Am looking for something to put about a two inch border on it.  It needs something to contain it!  Then to figure out how to quilt it and then probably donate it to Surfside QGuild November Fest auction.  

I know I have more pressing things to think about, but sometimes one needs to just sew on something.  Right?  

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KoKo again 03-23-19

KoKo poses in his chair.  Along with Froggie, of course.  Froggie is going in for surgery tonight, not a lot of unpatched skin to sew to though.  Still looking for a Froggie II.  

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A shopping day 03-21-19

Every few months I have to go to Albertson's to stock up on things like water softener salt, bottled water, TP, detergent, etc.  Things I can't buy at Trader Joe's.  Today was the day.  It was a strange day weather wise.   Cloudy, but sunny.  Clear, but raining.  When I parked I saw this jacaranda tree in a parking lot full of very green jacarandas.  Don't know why it alone is yellow, but it is quite attractive against the grey sky.  And, like all jacarandas, it has a pleasing branching system.  Notice also the light colored cars.  I think that 80% of the cars in this area of CA are white or light grey.  I remember the 70s when there were cars of screaming orange, bilious green, hot yellow, and flashing turquoise.  We  have gotten really wimpy in this new century. . 

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