Saturday, October 6, 2012

In answer to Doris's comment on our kitchen

I believe this has been posted before.  Believe me also when I saw that it's never this tidy.  The photo was taken by the cabinet maker for his portfolio.  My response to Doris's question about having our kitchen gutted in listed under her posting.
Rosey

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Autumn

Rosey P - your field of autumn flowers is beautiful.   I love the purples, yellows and green.   Maybe the yellow is ragweed?

Mary in Oregon - What lovely quilts.  The recipients will treasure them.

Autumn weather here, too.   There are frost warnings for Sunday night/Monday morning!  If it really happens, this will be quite early for our area.  Leaves have started turning their colors and falling.   I think the cold snap on Sunday night will really get them going.

* * *

Cleaning out continues.   Ugh.  We have lived here 18 years and stuff gets pushed to the back of drawers and cabinets, lurks, and occasionally multiplies.   Imagine my surprise when I pull something out and I cannot remember the last time I saw that item.  Well, no doubt some of you can imagine. LOL  This is almost as bad as moving.  The good part is I don't have to pack things to be carried to another house.
Rosey P - I think you completely gutted and re-did your kitchen after our Rosey's Retreat in 200?.   I think of you often, wondering how you managed with a B&B on top of it all!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Mary

The quilts look wonderful. Thank you for organizing this for our participation.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Colorado Fire Quilts

The comfort quilts for the victims of the High Park and Waldo Canyon fires in Colorado are finished.  They'll be in Colorado soon.  Thanks to those who helped with the project.  The quilts are hanging in front of the Gates (Oregon) Volunteer Fire Hall.

Mary in Oregon

Autumn Colours

This is our autumn view over the valley at the east end of our country property.  The yellow flowers I'm told are not golden rod but another, which I can't remember; the purple asters accompany the deep yellow ochre flowers at this time of year and are our last wildflowers of the season.  After than, we slip into a very achromatic colour scheme and whites, greys, browns become the norm.  Autumn has been beautiful so far and will hopefully last until late October before our first snowfall or heavy frost.

Louise Penny's latest book is THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY and has even gone into its 7th printing!   It is on the New York Times list, #2, I believe.  It's set in a monastry in Quebec and as usual, the mystery, while the focal point of the story, takes its place with the human dynamics of each individual character with a twist at the end, which left me disappointed in one character but which will lead the author into her eighth book, like a thread left untied, each book is a continuance in a sense in the character development of each of her main characters.  I enjoyed it very much.  Louise Penny's books are not a quick read.  Many of her descriptive senstences need to be savored.
Rosey




Monday, October 1, 2012

Back from vacation in Canada

The cruise was good.  Hallifax and St. John New Brunswick were great.  The trees were not yet turned, which was a dissapointment, but there were lots of evergreen trees too.   The Bay of Fundy with the high tides was really something else.  We stopped in the little town of Alma and took pictures of the fishing boats.  In high tide they are in the water, in low tide in the mud.
I was unable to get to any quilt stores :( but otherwise had fun.  DH was able to relax and have fun, which was the goal of the trip.  Maine was good too.  Went to Bar Harbor and ate lobster rolls, etc.  Had lobster mac & cheese.  Drank our fare share of Bahama Mamas, and rum drinks, ate lots of stuff.  Rolled home about 5 lbs. heaver.  Spent the day yesterday stuck in the Boston MA. airport, as the flight home wasn't until 7:45 PM.  We wanted to take the train in to Boston, but it was raining hard and cold (by our standards).  Just doing laundry today, nap on the couch, went to see Mom.
Back to the regular life.  Still don't have my land legs yet, feeling like the floor is moving.
Sara in Fla.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Butterflies

Hi all,
I don't know if I had mentioned it before but DH and I are on a trip to the US and Canada.  We've been on the continent for 2 weeks so far although it seems much longer, as we've already seen and done so much.  We had 3 days exploring NYC (loved Central Park); stayed with DDIL's mother and brother in Rochester NY; took the train up to Toronto to stay with DH's nephew and his Canadian wife; had one day at Niagara Falls including a nearby winery and another at Stratford where we sat through Henry V at the Festival Theatre. On the third day our nephew kindly drove us up to RoseyP's neck of the woods.  The men sat and chatted while Rosey showed me some of her beautiful quilts and designs.  We had lunch together at a nearby restaurant run by another Aussie and then Rosey took me to a quilt shop where I bought some great Canadian fabric.  Thanks, Rosey, for a lovely day!  It was great to meet up with you both.

We are now in DC staying with a host couple from the Affordable Travel Club.  (If you haven't heard of it google it and see what it has to offer.)  They live in VA near the Dulles airport and drive us to the Metro every morning so we can get into the city.  The first day we spent 4 hours plus at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and yesterday did the same at the Museum of the American Indian.  Today we're off to explore some of the 30-odd wineries in the area.  On Tuesday we fly to Birmingham, AL.

Coincidentally, when we were at the Natural History Museum we went into their Butterfly enclosure.  As just mentioned in the previous post (sorry- can't remember whose) many of the butterflies were from other areas and so there was a strict regime of checking one's body, clothing and carry-alls before being allowed out again. 

I will post some pictures when I'm able to go through them.
Fran