Saturday, March 31, 2007

Sunday...

Great photos Jane. Thank you for posting them. I love the freshness of "Spring green" and the foals are delightful.

Congratulations to Jean ! You make it sound so easy ! I'm not even going to go near the scales this week. Far too much snacking and eating out this week !!

Just had a couple of hours in the garden There's something very satisfying about the autumn tidy-up !!

We were woken by a very strange noise this morning . A Hot Air Balloon, landing just beyond the garden fence ! It wasn't long before the door-bell rang and the operator handed us a bottle of wine as he asked if the mini bus and trailor could drive across the paddock to pick up the passengers and the Balloon !! All very exciting ! Not so for the tourists probably, as there was a fair amount of cow dung (if you'll parden the expression...) in the paddock....

We went to see " Miss Potter" last night. Quite the most charming film I have seen for an age. If you are a Beatrix Potter fan, don't miss this one....

Another sunny day today. The last few weeks have been lovely here. The top of the north Island had awful flooding last week, Auckland caught the tail end of it, DD#2 and daughter were on a school camp.....

Time to go.
Hope you have all enjoyed your w/end .

Marion.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Love the horse 'babies', Jane

I just love seeing all the new foals and fillies in the spring around here too, so Jane, thank you for posting such beautiful pictures. Your spring arrives earlier than ours, so this is a bonus for me to see these pictures, particularly the 'green' grass. Ours is still tinged with brown and yellow from winter-kill.

This is quite the country for horses up here and I've always said, if you don't neigh and pass wind, you're nobody around here...(tongue in cheek, of course)...there are many nice folks who don't have horses here and don't ride either but this really is horse-country and Headwaters Tourism had a meeting yesterday, which I attended, about promoting the area's horse industry. They received a grant to do a market survey, entitled: Assessment of Tourism potention of the Equestrian Sector in the Hills of Headwaters. It was slickly presented at the meeting. I sat there thinking that while this is all well and good, the area missed the boat when Toronto was applying for and lost the summer Olympics in the next Olympic year. We have nice facilities for horse events in a village by the name of Palgrave nearby and if awarded the Olympics, this is where the new facilities would have been built. As it is, Toronto lost the bid and the facilities remain seasonal as they've always been. While the presenters were all enthusiastic, after being questionned as to where the money would come from for all this promoting, it was revealed that there is some money left from the grant but after that it would come from the private sector. All it takes is money to develop this concept. And from my experience, horse people put their money into their horses, not in encouraging tourists to take part in their industry. Our area has a lot of horse events that are slowly attracting the public but somehow, I don't think it's going to take off, money being in short supply all round.

Rosey

Muscle Weighs more than Fat LOL

My son told me that, too. So when this 100 lbs of fat is gone I will weigh 400? LOLOL

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Yeehah!

Good going, Jean! You're doing just great. I'm a little worried--leaving Sunday on a 10 day or so trip to Arizona with my buddy Doris, to visit her DH, and I may have some problems sticking with my low-carb regime. I already know that one night will be going out to their favorite pizza joint, so I am hoping they'll have something on the menu that's low carb, or that they won't get grossed out if I just eat the toppings off the pizza, eeeeuw. Pray for me, fellow dieters.

Pat in Rockport, TX

Weighing in

Hello!

You people have no idea how motivating it is to announce in public the progress of my weight loss efforts! Given the public nature of my dieting you will not be surprised to hear that I have lost yet another two pounds this week! That is 6 pounds in 3 weeks and this is a rate I can live with. My initial plan -- to increase my workouts at Curves by about one third, to stop eating sweets and junk food, and to stop evening snacking -- has proved to be completely effective. I am not feeling deprived and am not hungry and I believe this is a healthy rate to lose weight. I can keep this up for as long as it takes, I think.

I do have to clarify one detail. My goal for this round of dieting was 20 pounds. Please do not think for a moment that I am a mere 20 pounds overweight! It is definitely worse than that, but I like to set realistic and achievable goals. Once the first 20 pounds are gone I will take a break (probably using the Curves model of a metabolic tune up) and then decide how much more I want to lose. That way it never gets overwhelming and one does not diet long enough to depress the metabolism and hit one of those frustrating plateaus. Hey, can you tell I have done this before? LOL

While I am on this Spring kick of housecleaning and dieting and organizing my life, I have gone out and purchased half a dozen Rubbermaid totes. The plan is to sort and organize the sewing room, finish some more UFOs and get rid of any and all fabric that no longer fits my needs or desires. I am debating starting on that today but the sun is shining and I would sooner sit on the deck with a pot of tea and read a book... And I have finally finished with the tax returns and last year's accounts for the little old lady I care for and I should be sorting and archiving all the old book keeping records -- but I would sooner sit in the sun with a pot of tea and read a book... I think I know where this is going!

Jean at Mill Bay, who will, of course, also go to Curves today...

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES



Remember that lovely song? The mares at the horse farm down the road have been busy.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

healthy living

Pat, remember, if you've been exercising, that muscle weighs more than fat. Inches are much better to count than pounds. I don't even have a scale. I've cut back on the bread, but I won't be measuring until the end of the month.

Sarah, and everyone else too, there is now a vaccine for shingles. When your mother gets over them, check into it. I understand that it is expensive, but it may be covered by your insurance. My father rushed to get his, as my grandfather suffered with shingles (to the point he was hospitalized) for two weeks before he had the stroke that killed him. We blame the shingles...

I finished my friend's quilt and took it to her so she could get it quilted. I'll take a picture when it comes back to me for binding. A group at her church (my home church) came to her and asked if they could quilt it! I'm sure she'll be paying them, but still, what a compliment to her and to me.

Laura in Alabama

Monday, March 26, 2007

Sinus crud, travel, books

Oh, I was hoping to escape this spring without the sinus crud, but it found me in West Palm Beach, and attacked. I think all the dust I kicked up cleaning out drawers, and under the bed at my Mom's house got the better of me. I had given my Mom about 25 books over the past few years, and now have most of them back here. If I can't give them away to friends will take them to the library and donate them.
I drove back on Friday, and we sat the boys on Sat. afternoon and all day Sunday. Ditched church and went to the beach for almost the whole day on Sunday, and the boys had a blast. We have found a place where if you have a 4 wheel drive you can drive on the sand, and the ocean comes into an inlet, so there is a "beach" that is calm and lots of kids and dogs can play without fear. (I nicknamed this the Redneck Riviera, because of all the trucks) Was the first outing to the beach this year, did lots of sun block, but managed to get a bit burned on the chest area. The boys were lathered up well, so I don't think they got too much.
They had fun catching large jellyfish. Yuck! These babies were about 6 or 7 in. across, and beautiful, clear with red on the outside. The tide brings them into the inlet, and they just die in the brackish water.
Finally getting back in gear at 6:30 at night. Took some Benedryl at 2:00PM and read and slept in the chair for about 3 hrs. this afternoon.
I took a quilt to do binding on with me on the trip, but it came back in the same condition as I left with it. Too tired at night to do anything, and Mom's lighting is bad.
I don't think my Mom will be here much longer. She is in bad shape, and just treading water. She has a shingles virus in her throat, and was feeling terrible when I was there. Did get her out to the beach there, had a cup of coffee and watch the ocean for 30 min. We drove down A1A in Palm Beach, past Donald Trump's place. We did see the large flag, was quite a windy day and it was waving. Yes, a bit big, but also quite beautiful there by the ocean.
After a drive down Worth Ave, drove back to Mom's house. It is still the "season" in Palm Beach, so Worth Ave. was quite busy. I counted 3 Rolls Royces. Not too bad for about 11:00 AM on a Thursday in March.
Going back to the couch.
Sara in Fla.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Weighing in

Drat, I'm up a pound this week, but down 1" on my measurements, so go figure. Ah, well, next week will be better. I'm going to weigh Saturday next, since I'll be taking off on April 1st with my buddy Doris. She lost her husband (who had been bedridden for 2 1/2 years) a few weeks ago. She hasn't been able to go visit any of her family all that time. She wants to go visit her brother just the other side of Phoenix, AZ and asked me to come along to share the driving. I thought long and hard about it, around one second, and said I'd be delighted. DH is capable of looking after himself for 10 days or so, and says he'll enjoy the peace and quiet, LOL. We're going to take 3 days for the drive out, planning on stopping in Fort Stockton, TX and Lordsburg, NM on the way. We'll stop for an hour or two at the Saguaro Cactus park near Tucson, we both just want to see those beauties, and maybe the museum of desert stuff there, too. We're getting teased by our buddies about pulling a "Thelma and Louise", but I say, no cliffs! In honor of the occasion, I have dyed some underwear, using the Ziplock bag method with Procion Dyes. I took pics, but think perhaps this is not a good place to post one of my undies, LOL. Did sets in turquoise, green, red, purple, and orange. The bras, while mostly cotton, had some non-cotton parts, which took up less dye, so they're two-tone, and I love them. DH has often thought that perhaps some of my screws needed snugging down, and now he's sure, LOL. However, he did say I could dye some undies for him, which surprised me.

Pat in Rockport, TX

garbage, VT, weight & oh, quilting!



I decided to wait & take a picture of my GMFG while it was hung at the show.
This is a nice small show called "The Airing of the Quilts"
I bought this top on ebay & had it hand quilted by the group that hosts this
show. Since I had done nothing on the quilt I decided to go around the hexagons
for the binding....so I can definitely say I had a role in this quilt! It took forever!
The first picture is my DF Charlotte from my small group "The Monday night quilters"
She is caressing the lovely 30's raffle quilt.........drum roll pleeeze...... she won it!!!!!!
We were speechless....this is the 2nd time in 6 months that she has won a quilt at
a show (I'm pretty sure I must be her good luck charm!). It couldn't have gotten a
better home, she will love it! And she does actually have quilts on her bed!

Here in Portland we can do a ton of recycling at the curb & we have a recycling center
very close to us. I suggested that they open a "junk Store" where people can leave things that someone else might be able to use, my sister's center in NH has one, she's gotten many
usable items there & leaves stuff there too.
I've gotten some cool stuff for my yard from other's recycling, a wooden ladder, wheel barrel
(sieve)a grill. My DH just rolls his eyes.

No weight loss here this week, tomorrow's another Monday!


Can I come to VT? I'd love to go to the Vermont quilt festival!
I have finally hired a new veterinary assistant, she starts in Apr. & I hoping my long work weeks will soon be a thing of the past, and maybe even a vacation!

WT RPT/LITTERING SHOULD BE A FELONY

Well, last week I showed a three pound loss and this week a half pound gain. Once I show a loss I tend to decide, well, that was easy. And then I don't try as hard thereafter.

Just took a hike up into the nat'l forest nearby (Nantahala Nat'l Forest). Naturally I left the house later than I'd planned so it was sort of sweaty by the time I got back to the Jimmy. Shadow got so warm she took a dip in the creek.

The county road people had been up there and spent a whole week grading the road and clearing trash that had been accumulating for forty years. It was once the custom to dump your old stove or car off a steep bank and in the summer you couldn't see it for the growth. Now we have one of the most advanced recycle systems I've seen even in fuss budget Rochester. You have to haul it if you live out of town limits but there are folks who will do it for hire. As long as I have to go to town as often as I do I haul my own garbage and recycle stuff. You get to chat with your neighbors there. If you have something that might be of value to someone else you just put it in a designated spot and sure enough it disappears within 24 hours. I'd always meant to buy a small sauce pan for boiling just one egg and guess where I finally got it. It was Revere Ware in far nicer condition than the stuff I got as a wedding gift 49 years ago. Unfortunately at a spot where hunters and fishermen build fires there are already a few cans and bottle caps. They don't have any trouble carrying that stuff in but apparently carrying out an empty can is more work than carrying in a full one. Grrrr. I get violent fantasies at the thought of that. Al and his hunting buddies never so much as left a shot shell or cigarette butt (back when they smoked) behind and it made him angry and ashamed to say he was a hunter.

Off to quilt more rectangles for the boys' quilts. There is light at the end of the tunnel, at least the preparation of the rectangles.

Jane in NC, about to have a healthy lunch.

Wrong board

Well duh, I posted my post on the wrong board -- it's over on the regular bb page. Come on over..... Lavinia