Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!

Hi Everyone! I hope that you are all dry and doing well after these endless days of rain. On the bright side, no one will have to water his or her garden for a while!

I have never met a hibiscus that I didn't enjoy photographing. They are a nearly perfect plant for a sunny porch or deck. The blossoms which only last a day just keep coming and coming all summer and into the fall.

 

These photos were taken early last week. On Friday, I attended a webinar from Hunt's Photo Education with Kathleen Clemons. The subject of the webinar was "The Painterly Photograph." In the two hour online program she showed how to create painterly flower photographs and more. She offered tips, ideas, and techniques. I just watched the entire webinar again so that I could pause it and take notes. Click on her name to see some of her truly gorgeous photos.

I believe that in July or some time later this summer Hunts will have her present a webinar on iPhone photography. Sign me up!!! To check out upcoming online classes, go to Hunt's Photo Education. They are offering a wonderful group of online classes, and the price is very reasonable. Let me just say that Kathleen Clemons was an outstanding presenter.

 The fungus among us . . .  was growing along the walkway in my front yard. The lighting was not great, and it has been raining for the past few days. In spite of that, I like this image.

Last week I trimmed some low hanging branches from the huge oak in my front yard. Look at these acorn clusters. They were all over the branches that I trimmed. You know what that means!!! Enjoy the summer because all of these baby acorns suggest that we will be in for quite a winter.
 

Let me leave you with this old verse . . . 

Always remember and never forget

the  mighty oak was once a nut like you.   

Stay safe. Stay strong. Have hope.

Sunshine for $12.99

 

Yesterday I stopped at Christopher's Garden Shop and Farm Stand on Washington Street in Weymouth to pick up a few bananas, but I was stopped in my tracks by tables full of sunshine. This plant is full of blossoms and buds. . .  instant sunshine. Who could have resisted, and it was only 12.99!!!

I saw a member of our Crosstown guild there. Well, I saw a masked face and eyes that looked familiar. After a moment or two I was able to process the info; it was Diane W. We talked for a few moments about how we were doing during these challenging times and speculated whether we would be meeting in September.

 

Scenes from my gardens this week. . .

 

 I'm looking forward to an online class on Friday morning offered by Hunts Photo and Video. The two hour class is "The Painterly Photograph with Kathleen Clemons." As you all know, I enjoy photographing flowers and look forward to be able to create "dreamy" type of flower photographs.

While watering my flowers this morning, a postal truck stopped to deliver a package. Excitement!!! It was from Missouri Star. Excitement!!! What had I ordered this time??? Fun stuff . . .  a 1,000 piece quilt block jigsaw puzzle, a pattern, a mini tumbler template, some sweet sewing machine bookmarks, and three cute charms for the zipper pulls on future project bags. . . fun stuff!!!

 

Mask making continues . . . if you are looking for a place to donate masks, contact local shelters. They are extremely grateful for donations of fabric masks.

On my design wall . . .  My "When Life Gives You Lemons" quilt is almost ready to be sewn together.  Alex Anderson has been offering free quilting lessons/information on The Quilt Show website and Youtube. This is her sequoia pattern. I decided to have a lemon focus. Instead of the vase of flowers in her pattern, I created a lemon tree, and of course, I had to make one block be a pitcher of lemonade. My plan is to start sewing it together tomorrow.

 

Have a sweet week.

Stay safe. Stay strong. Have hope.

Sunday Sampler - 6/21/20

Good Day!  This post will be a bit of a hodge podge: I'll blame it on the very hot stretch of weather that we have been having. It's far too hot for gardening, but I did manage to go out earlier to photograph this pretty rose. It's a knock-out rose that starts out deep yellow and gradually lightens to a creamy white.

Here are a few more circles that I have stitched along with the Sue Spargo "Toned-Down Circle Sampler." As I have mentioned previously, mine are not toned-down. . . and not predominantly blue as this grouping would suggest. The circles are all different colors, but these are a few of my favorites. I've stitched fifty-six so far. I have not followed all of Sue Spargo's designs as some of the "critter" ones are just not appealing to me.

 

Are you a country music fan? If so, did you know that they are live streaming the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night at 8:00 on Youtube? Last night's program featured Darius Rucker and Clint Black. The Opry auditorium is completely empty except for the socially distancing musicians on stage. You can watch it on Youtube or at CircleAll Access.  It's impressive to see the many great performers who stand there each week with no flashing lights and other special effects, but rather just stand there and sing for an hour. 

Now for Emma fans . . . as you can see her coat and beard are growing back and you have to love those eyebrows!!!

Questions:
  - Had you ever heard of Juneteenth before this week?

  - Why were the shameful Japanese interment camps of WWll never mentioned in our history classes? Of the 112,000 from the West coast sent to interment camps, 80,000 were Nisei or second generation, American born citizens. How could this have been allowed to happen? We were at war with Germany and Italy and yet no camps existed for the relocation and incarceration of people of either heritage.

- Why would our President choose to hold a campaign rally in the midst of a surge in deaths due to the pandemic? Why would he say, "the virus is going away" when the number of deaths is steadily rising???

- It is reasonable that statues of rebel Confederate generals be removed. But, why were statues of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, and Francis Scott Key toppled in various locations in the last few days?


Okay, enough of that. It's Father's Day. I was blessed to have had a wonderful dad who was a good, good man and whom I especially miss on this day.  Best wishes to all the dads out there trying their best to raise children in this troubled world.

_____________            ______________               ________________               _________________

Covid Statistics:

                World              United States                  Massachusetts

Cases:    8.8 million              2.3 million                  107,000

Deaths:     465,000           122,000                            7,828

---------------------        ----------------------             --------------------------              ---------------------------

Stay Safe. Stay strong. Have hope.

This and That Thursday - 6/18/20

We have been enjoying glorious June weather. On Tuesday afternoon, my friends came for a sit and sew and "show and tell" in my backyard. As you can see, we observed the social distancing directives. Because of covid-19, I was not able to serve lunch; each brought her own food and drink. I did provide a basket of individually wrapped, sanitized treats. :-) :-)

This group of wonderful women first came together many years ago on Wednesday nights at Quilters Compass in Quincy. When the quilt shop closed, we decided that that was no reason that we should not continue to get together on Wednesday evenings, so we have taken turns hosting every two weeks. Sometimes there was not a lot of sewing accomplished, but the friendship, conversation, and food was always first rate. :-) We have not gotten together since the world turned upside down in March.

One of our group was unable to make it on Tuesday, and boy did she miss an awesome show and tell session. :-) Just look at what my talented friends have been up to . . .

Liz showed this bright, colorful quilt that she made for her husband.

Next up was Edith with her improv quilt.

Check out the back art.

 Even her top matched the colors in her quilt!

Maribeth has been super busy.  This spectacular chandelier quilt had about a zillion pieces!!! She was inspired by photos that she saw on Pinterest.  Click on this image to see the lovely quilting that was done by Jill Wiffen of Easton.

Maribeth has yet to met a tiny piece of fabric that she does not like!!!

All in all, it was a perfectly lovely way to spend an afternoon during these troubled times.

Stay safe. Stay strong. Have hope.

This and That Thursday - 6/11/20

I finished another jigsaw puzzle featuring covers from the Nancy Drew series. It was only 500 pieces, so it went together quickly. A few weeks back, I read another blogger's account of doing this puzzle, so for something different, I decided to order it. Turns out that there are two versions: this 500 piece with quotes from the books and a 1,000 piece which features fifty-five covers. (Nancy Drew was a busy, busy crime solver.)

The 1,000 piece puzzle was back ordered and assuming it would not be available for some time, I also ordered the five hundred piece version. It's fun since it has quotes from various books. Look at this one which seems particularly apropos to these days.

There is nothing worse than a threatening note that

demands you stay at home, when you 're just not 

the stay at home kind of girl.

H'mmm . . . Nancy Drew would not have done well in covid-19 quarantine.

Oh, by the way, the 1,000 piece puzzle arrived the other day, but I will wait to start on that one. In fact, I ordered a puzzle featuring different quilt blocks this morning.

Now, because I specialize in providing random bits of what I consider fun, unusual, odd,  or interesting tidbits in this blog, let's talk jigsaw puzzles. Did you know that the first ones appeared way back in 1767 when an English mapmaker and engraver first pasted one of his maps on a thin piece of wood and then used a scroll saw to cut it up? It was the Parker Brothers gaming company which came up with the concept of making the pieces interlocking. The popularity of jigsaw puzzles exploded during the Depression, and today many companies are having a difficult time keeping popular themed puzzles in stock. (This info came from various sources. )

If you are looking for jigsaw puzzles, let me share two good sources: Galaxy Puzzles and Serious Puzzles.

Isn't this Knockout rose sweet?

Well,  all you smart, stay at home guys and gals, have hope, stay safe, stay strong, and we will one day once again be  . . . 

In My Garden This Week . . .

I don't know about you, but the crushing news of the last two weeks coupled with the global pandemic is almost too much to bear. Therefore, today I offer few words, just pretty photos from my garden to soothe your soul.

 

 

  

  

Have hope. Stay safe. Stay strong. I wish you peace.

Signs of Our Time

I promise that today's post will be lighter in tone than my previous one. Not that the emotions are any less intense and the feelings less passionate, but I realize that as we face crisis after crisis, we need to have moments of lightness to maintain our psyches. Hopefully, you will find some brief moments of lightness in this post.  

The sign above was in the lobby of my doctor's office, and the one below was from the Cameo movie theater in South Weymouth, MA.

On Tuesday,  Miss Emma went to be groomed at Pooch Paws in Rockland. Her last grooming was on Feb.18th. We both get our fur/hair done every six weeks, but when the world turned upside down, both of us got shaggier and shaggier. Her appointments kept getting postponed. I took to trimming her eyebrows so she could see, but the mats in her furnishings were hopeless. You have never seen a dog happier to be entering the grooming salon! Cheryl had to give her a super short cut and remove her beard, but it will all grow back. It was such an amazing transformation that I pleaded with Cheryl to run her razor through my hair, but she politely refused. 

Before the grooming, I was a bit concerned that Emma in spite of our daily walks had gained weight. I figured about five pounds or so. As you can see, it was just all that hair!!! She is as sleek as ever. You should have seen her bounding around the backyard when we got home.

I, too, decided to abandon my new covid hobby. As I have mentioned before, I have curly, bushy, red hair. My new pastime had involved trying to let it grow and attempting to keep it under some semblance of control. Things were going along 'fairly' okay until the humidity hit on Tuesday. There was no hope. Frizzy doesn't begin to describe the problem. (Picture Little Orphan Annie's hair after sticking a finger in a light socket!!!) So, on Thursday I had my hair cut. The procedure was different. I'm detailing it here as part of my covid-19 records.

Upon arrival at the salon, I texted and was told to wait until my hairdresser was free. When notified that I could enter, I saw that the reception area had been taped off with yellow caution tape. It is a small shop, and one of the three chairs had been moved aside to maintain social distancing between customers. Both hairdressers and clients had to be masked. The hairdressers are allowed only one customer at a time and only one customer throughout the entire process. Fortunately, I am a wash, cut, and out the door . . . (I did not want it, but Holly told me that they are not allowed to do any blow drying.)

 One disappointing note: though incredibly hopeful . . . unlike Emma, I did not appear to lose even a single pound after leaving a pile of my bushy locks on the salon floor.   With that in mind, let me show something that I saw on one of my favorite blogs, Anna Bates' Woolie Mammoth.

I promise I will if you will !!!

And one last thing . . .

Have hope. Stay safe. Stay strong.

Putting the Pieces Back Together

The other day I finished my 1,000 piece puzzle featuring places and iconic items associated with New England. Actually, make that 999 piece puzzle as one piece from the Mystic, CT section is missing.
Good news though as Necco wafers are making a comeback. The Massachusetts New England Candy Company closed its doors in 2018 after having been in business since 1901.  It has recently been announced that another candy company, Spanglers, has purchased the business and the familiar rolls of pastel candy wafers will soon be appearing on shelves again. Spanglers also will be making the conversation hearts which are part of every Valentine's Day.

 

      ---------------                -------------------                     --------------------              -----------------
For the past few days, I have been struggling with how to write the rest of this post. Jigsaw puzzles while sometimes time consuming are eventually put back together. How do we put back the pieces of our fractured society? The death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of four policemen in Minnesota has rocked our very souls. Protests and riots have happened across our country and in other parts of the world. How are the pieces ever going to be put back together?  How will we move forward?

This morning I came across a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin. . .

Justice will not be served until those who

are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. 

Because I am a bit of a geek, I tried to ascertain where and when Ben Franklin might have written this, but to my dismay, I found that there is no record in Franklin's papers of his having done so. Indeed, many Franklin scholars do not believe he was the source of this quote. It doesn't matter as attributions aside, it is a quote which speaks powerfully to the social injustices of our times.

Here are two things that I believe are well worth your time today. The first is a blog post "On a day when the world  seems to have gone mad" on the Mereknits blog. Its simple eloquence and perspective is worth reading.  Then please view Emmanuel Acho's Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, Part 1. This is the first in what will hopefully become a series of thought provoking conversations. Please do view it.

My attitude and perspectives on social justice were formed in high school with the reading of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel which influenced me more than any other novel that I have ever read. We also read Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country, a novel which dealt with the racial division in South Africa. It's time for me to read that novel again.

Today I cry for our beloved country, for the promise of what it should be for all of us. Let us pray and work for justice and for the changes that will save this land that we love.

Have hope. Stay safe. Stay strong.