The Eclipse, an Amaryllis, and Breaking Resolutions

 Did you view the eclipse? It was indeed pretty cool!!! My friend Marilyn had given me two pairs of the special glasses, so I invited my friend Edith to join me in my special viewing area. Okay, we viewed it from the middle of my backyard. We had 93.4 eclipse coverage in our area, so it didn’t get dark or even dusk like, but it did get progressively cooler. 

I usually pick up a couple of amaryllis bulbs during the holiday season. The red one bloomed beautifully around Christmas, but this bulb was still in the box and, frankly, forgotten on a shelf in the cellar. I’m glad I came across it while searching for something else. :-) 

It’s April. How have you done keeping your New Year’s resolutions? Craft wise the results for me have been mixed. I haven’t accomplished as much as I had hoped to by this time. On the plus side, I have been quilting strictly from stash, but Saturday afternoon found me at The Quilted Crow in Bolton where I purchased a pattern and a few pieces of wool for a new wool applique project. Had I finished all the other wool projects waiting in the queue? Well, no, but I just couldn’t help myself. :-) This will be a spring themed piece, and I am looking forward to starting it.

Have a lovely week.

Happy Spring!

 Hello! It has been a minute. . . make that more than a month since my last post. I had been grounded for a few weeks with a foot issue, so there wasn’t much to write about. It was three weeks of sitting and stitching and sitting and reading . . . you get the picture. Things have improved, and on Friday I had a lovely trip to the grocery store. (I must say Stop and Shop home delivery has been great, but it was good to push a shopping cart again. :-),

It did give me time to stitch “Easter Tree “ by designer Shannon Christine. Though the piece is not that large it took quite a while to stitch due to all the color changes. If you know the pattern, you will realize that I left a few things out at the bottom. I also made great progress on a large piece which should be finished some time this week. I can’t wait to see it framed and hanging on the wall.

As for reading, I finished two novels both by William Martin. If you enjoy historical fiction, he is definitely an author to check out. As the title suggests, the first  deals with the California Gold Rush. Both are Peter Fallon novels. I finished the second in the wee hours of Saturday night. I was so close to the end that I could not put City of Dreams down. It begins with protagonist Peter Fallon receiving a text message asking if he is interested in saving America and a search is soon on for a mahogany box filled with twenty bonds from1780. This is the third William Martin book that I have read in the past two months, so I may choose to read something lighter next, but then I think I will go back and reread some of his other novels. Yes, he is that good! I can only hope that he is working on another Peter Fallon novel.

So, what have you been reading???

I received two beautiful flower arrangements for Easter; one from my godchild and her family and the other from her sister and her family who joined me for Easter dinner along with a friend. Bonus: My young cousin Des who is a Lego fanatic gave me a very lengthy, detailed explanation of the video game Brawlers. Am I ready to play? Did I understand it all? Not a clue, but it sure was fun listening to his enthusiastic, detailed explanation!

Last thing, did you know that this is the 50th anniversary of the tv series Little House on the Prairie based on the books by Laura Ingles Wilder? Nope, I don’t feel old . . . well maybe just a bit. :-) The television series is currently being broadcast in forty-six countries worldwide.

That’s it. Have a wonderful week. Wear protective lenses to view tomorrow’s eclipse, and don’t worry if you miss this one as there will be another total eclipse viewable in the USA on Aug. 23, 2044!!!

Fire Engine Quilt

 Good Sunday Morning! This is just a quick post to show you my latest quilt finish which I will be donating at a guild meeting on Tuesday. The center panel was purchased on a shop hop quite a few years ago. The yardage I purchased had four small fire engine sections. I had used one of the small panels in a piece which I donated last year. 

I’ve been busy kitting up a few cross stitch pieces. Since Christmas I have been focusing on just two projects but have decided that I would like a bit more variety in my daily stitching. 

The weather continues to hint of spring. This February will go down as one of the warmest on record, but we all know that March and even April may have some stormy surprises.

So, that’s all, short and sweet. This afternoon I’ll be with family celebrating my cousin twelfth birthday. 

Hope you all have a lovely, creative, wonderful week. :-)

“Snow Magical” and “Winter Cardinal Etching” - Two Cross Stitch Finishes

This piece is “Snow Magical” by designer Brenda Gervais. If you follow any flosstube channels on Youtube, you will know that this has been a very popular piece to stitch. The cute sweater and snow took a l-o-n-g time to stitch. Since Christmas, I have been working on this and one other larger piece, and I am glad to have finally finished this snowman. I chose a frame from Hobby Lobby to fully finish this piece.

Speaking of snow . . . in my previous post I wrote of an approaching snowstorm. Schools, meetings,  events, etc. were cancelled the day before, but then the forecast kept changing. The big snowstorm was a no show in my area although on parts of Cape Cod they received heavy snow. My friend Laurel sent this along which speaks to the difficulties of being a meteorologist in our area. If you don’t like our weather, just wait a minute.

Laurel also sent along a few photos that she had taken at the start of the lighthouse restoration project which I wrote about in a previous post.

Boy! I wish I had been there that day. :-)

I stitched this small piece, “Winter Cardinal Etching” by Cecelia Turner, this past week. The chart came from the 2020 Christmas/Winter issue of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher magazine. I stitched it for a gift when it first came out and always planned to stitch it again for myself. It took a few years to get around to it. I did change the floss used for the cardinal to DMC321 rather than the called for floss on the pattern. Cardinals in my area are bright red and the called for floss was a bit too dark.

On Wednesday, I received this sweet Valentine’s Day surprise from my godchild’s family. I can already see it displayed next year with the back filled with tiny Valentine cross stitch pillows. :-)

That’s it for now. Have a good week.

The Lincoln Letter and Snow Is Coming

 Today we honor and remember our 16th president who was born on February 12, 1809. It’s appropriate that I have just finished reading The Lincoln Letter, A Petter Fallon Novel by William Martin. It is one of the best books that I have read in the last few years. Martin is a brilliant story teller, and though I have read many books about this bloody period in our history, I came away with a deeper understanding of what life was like for the people who lived in our nation’s capitol during those turbulent times. 

When I reflect on it, I believe my interest in this period stems from knowing about my dad’s paternal grandfather who was an Irish emigrant. He was a gardener who enlisted at the age of forty. The Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was made up of Irishmen and men of Irish descent who answered Lincoln’s call. I have a copy passed down of the History of the Ninth Massachusetts Militia which documents the forming and service of this group. In the back of the book, a few lines are written about each man in  each company. If you were to see this book and examine Company E, you would find a  a small slip of faded pink paper on which in school girl handwriting,  I once wrote “My Great Grandfather” and his name to mark the page. When I was older, before sites like Ancestry came along, I sent away for and received his military records. They contained his enlistment papers, service records, and even the pension request forms from his widow. His first wife had died while he was in service, and after the war was over, he met and married a much younger woman, my great grandmother and then raised a second family.

Why am I telling you this? His last assignment before being released from duty and mustered out was due to serious health issues incurred from long hours of sentry duty along the Potomac. In this novel, the crowded hospitals for soldiers and the city of Washington are a backdrop for the story. 

If you enjoy historical fiction, I highly, highly recommend this suspense filled novel. 

SNOW IS COMING!!!

For the last three or four days, we have been experiencing  near spring-like weather. It even hit sixty degrees on Saturday. Glorious! BUT. . . we, New Englanders, are not easily fooled. I knew that touch of spring was a set up, all part of Mother Nature’s plan. So while I enjoyed taking Emma for walks each day, I waited for the other shoe to drop, and it has as we have a snowstorm moving in over night. Our guild meeting scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled as have all schools in the area. Along with the snow, we can expect high winds, just a typical nor’easter. It’s supposed to be a quick moving storm, so we will just have to see how much snow Mother Nature brings us.

Bundle up and keep your shovel handy. :-)

Photographic Outing Failure

 On Saturday, my friend Laurel texted me a photo of seals basking on rocks near the bridge on 3A in Scituate. She said she had never seen so many gathered there. Of course, my interest was piqued. Unfortunately, Sunday was already going to be busy. After church, I had gone with my friend Marilyn to the cinema in Randolph where they had a special 60th anniversary showing of My Fair Lady. 

There is something totally wonderful about viewing these classics on the big screen. You may remember that last year I saw Casablanca in that same theater. Though I had seen it maybe twenty times on tv, seeing it on the big screen was beyond amazing.

The next classic coming that I want to see is Gone with the Wind in April. As the date gets closer, I’ll be sure to let you know. Incidentally, this 60th anniversary showing of My Fair Lady was available in many other cinemas at the same time on both Sunday and Monday. 

Well, I still wanted to go photograph the seals so when Monday dawned with a bright blue sky (a rarity lately) and it was a balmy 38 degrees, I grabbed my ‘real’ camera and long lens and headed down to Scituate. There was not one seal to be spotted anywhere. :-(

Undaunted, I decided to go to Kennedy’s Garden Center just down the street from the bridge and perhaps there photograph some of their beautiful flowering plants . . . It was Monday;  Kennedy’s was closed. ;-(

Undaunted, I headed for the Scituate Lighthouse which is usually a perfectly lovely photographic subject. This is what I captured. :-(

For those not from the area, please know that this is truly a sweet little lighthouse with historical significance. When I returned home, I read on the Scituate Historical Society website about the restoration project.

So, did I capture any images at all? Yes, I did find one at the Scituate Harbor pier, and may I be the first to wish you a very Happy Valentine’s Day. ;-)

Better luck next time ;-).

Books in Bloom 2024

 

We have just concluded the fourth wettest January on record. One bright spot in this gray and dismal stretch has been “Books in Bloom” at the Tufts Library in Weymouth. The displays by members of the Weymouth Garden Club and others may be viewed until tomorrow afternoon. (2/3)  In case you were unable to attend, I thought that I would show you a few pieces. (As always, simply click on the photos for larger images to facilitate reading the info accompanying each display.)

The displays in the children’s section were equally fun and creative.

These floral displays remind us that spring will indeed come again; we just have to get through February and March. :-)