Boston Flower Show Et Al

The Senior Center let me go to the Boston Flower Show with them on Friday. Yay! The theme of the show was "Super Heroes." I guess they meant of the garden as in super type flowers. 

The show was huge. I still have even more pictures -- but it has taken so long to get them out of my phone that I'm giving up (so far) with these. After all it is Sunday. There might be more later, but I'll make it into another post. (I mean more conversation.)

These inlays were amazing and they are the border around a mirror.

Above are some carnivorous plants -- one wanted to eat Batman.

I loved these garden ornaments made of glass plates and bowls glued together. I assume they melted the glass to make them stick together.

Cute bric a brac anyone?

Now we come to Luncheon with a Super Hero

These next displays seemed to be steam punk ...

Bracelets for Wonder Woman -- Made with Dried Plant Matter

And, yes, there was lunch with Hello Kitty.

It's hard to see, but it's the Vitruvian Man is in the smallest plate above. This was in the 'Victorian Era Meets Today' or some such thing. I hated the vase which looked like it should be on a farm.

 Below is "X Ray Vision."

There's a lucite circle here  that you are looking through, using x ray vision.

Title: Bam, Pow! The judges gave points off for use of black which they said, 'is not a color.' You could have fooled me. This might be my favorite.

Below

Yes, that is an old drain pipe.

Another favorite of mine.

This is set in a metal barrel stave. There were 4 arrangements using the stave.

Success!

The Puff Quilt (known by some as the Pouf Quilt) is done! The backing is off white fleece.

As you can see, it's as wide as the couch seat but only half the length. So it is a small lap quilt.

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I have been fighting off a cold since Thursday and was really sick Friday night. But I've been using Equate which is like an alka seltzer with vitamin C and zinc with lots of tea and fluids and I seem better. Saturday morning I was fine, which surprised me. I'm hoping it doesn't "bloom" into the awful cold many people at work have been battling. Of course, I've done nothing all day except sew.

I did make some chicken curry yesterday which turned out to be delicious. I served it over cauliflower "rice." Yes, I made chicken soup at the same time.

Tonight's supper is chili (no beans) with Miracle Rice.

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As I got going on sewing the backing to the quilt, I didn't get up to get the remote and change the channel on the TV. Hence, I am in the middle of a "Naked and Afraid" marathon. This (their challenges and my watching the marathon) is my idea of hell.

First of all, I can't for the life of me figure out why these people do this. Supposedly, they don't get any prize except the satisfaction of having survived 21 days in a jungle, or desert -- naked. They always pair a guy and a gal and the first time they meet, they are naked. 

If they have to leave because they can't stand it or for a medical issue, they call it "tapping out." One poor guy had to tap out because he got some black tree sap on him that burned his skin like acid and it was much more virulent than poison ivy. (I think they called it a Chinko tree.) A woman had to tap out because a pot of boiling water burned her when the logs on the fire shifted. She got third degree burns which got infected.

But barring accidents, hypothermia (and hyper), plus dehydration are real threats to life and limb. And even if they are 'fine,' they are being eaten alive by mosquitoes and other bugs. There are wild boar, howler monkeys and big cats that can eat them. It's not my idea of a vacation.

As I have always said, my idea of roughing it is a black and white TV in a motel room.

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Well, it has certainly warmed up: it's 17 F. (Hey! It was 9 F. the other morning.) I was kinda hoping for spring, but I guess I have to wait. Of course I do! It's only March. Bah humbug.

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Don't you just love this Daylight Savings Time? Me either.

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I Said I Wasn't Going to Do It

But I did -- cooked a bunch. I now have roasted radishes, chicken with Montreal seasoning, cooked Italian hot sausage, boneless pork ribs with buffalo sauce and homemade cream of mushroom soup.

I froze hamburger, chicken and sausage. Maybe I won't have to shop for a while! Dinner was ham with melted mozzarella on it and a side of broccoli. Anybody want a cook?

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Phabulous Phyllis had a birthday dinner for me at her house. Her house is stunning with her new furniture and arrangement of her art on the walls. Nine of us had a very lively conversation with wonderful food. Thank you, Phyllis!!

When I remarked that I had stopped at home to get into comfy clothes, Emily said, "That's because you wanted to match the drapes!"

The only one you don't get to see is Lisa who brought the caramel/salt chocolate birthday cake. I ate low carb chocolate macaroon cookies that I had made (in front of Emily in a bowl on the lower left). I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all.


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This morning I met Nancy (the one in the dark green above) at the Library for the a capella singing. It was great! There were the Bluestockings (females) and the Zumbye (males) singers. They were really terrific. Both groups are from Amherst College -- at 10:30 a.m., it was early in the morning for them, lol.

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It's cold as a witch's broom. It's 13 F. which I know is not that bad, but it was in the 70's last week! Sheesh! And windy too. Even more than blustery -- freaking windy!

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Yesterday (Sunday) we were greeted in church with some happy flowers on two of the window sills.

This is the sunny side.

This is the not sunny side -- I had to lighten it up a lot, so it's a bit washed out.

Just because I like it!

After church I zipped over to the knitting group at The Works which is a soup, salad, sandwich type of place. It was surprisingly full of hungry college students. 11 to 11:30 a.m. is usually early for them on a Sunday morning. 

We had a nice time knitting and chatting. I met a couple of new people including Zach who is a physicist with a new masters degree doing post doc work. Hmmm ... that sounds like his new degree is a doctorate. Anyway, he is making a large, very beautiful, blanket of many colors. The pattern looks like a half of a quilter's log cabin block. 

Log cabin quilt block. Zach's pattern looks like the right half of each of these blocks -- in other words, triangles. It's quite an achievement. 

After that, it was off to the Irish Club's lecture given by the Rabbi of the Jewish Community Center of Amherst. He had spent a graduate school year in Dublin (at Trinity College) studying five great Irish writers, including James Joyce. He had become passionate about Joyce's writing as an undergraduate.

He was there in the 90's which was a time of great social change and he told us about his experiences while living a "bifurcated life." His college friends were all goyim (non Jews) and when he went to Temple, he discovered a whole new community/extended family of very young and very old Jews. Apparently, any young Irish had to leave the country to find work.

It was a great talk and I learned a lot. The room was filled to capacity because many of his congregation were there to hear him speak.

Blustery Thursday

I counted at least 20 snowflakes before they melted on my windshield. It's really blustery -- messing up my carefully coiffed wet hair.  Yup, I'm actually at work early after the gym. A woman said to me, "You always feel better when it's done." (We had been remarking on how long a minute on a treadmill is as opposed to real life.) She must have seen the look on my face because she added, "Because you accomplished something so you feel better than everyone else for the rest of the day."

Now, that's a nice sentiment and I'm sure it cheers her. I don't want to quibble, but I'll tell ya, if I had had sex -- I would have skipped the gym in a minute.  Just sayin'.

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Another gym story: I was in the shower hearing a conversation and one woman was saying that she really didn't care for philosophy as a subject, but she went to this lecture anyway ... at that point, I was able to leave the shower to go to a changing room and I see the two women. They were standing there buck naked having a philosophical conversation. They had mostly strategically placed towels, but I was amazed. Of course, they are the older women with the killer bodies. I wonder if I'll ever be comfortable enough to do that. No, probably not.

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Geez, spoil sports ...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts shop that authorities say was attempting to skirt the state’s new recreational marijuana law by charging an entry fee and giving patrons “free” marijuana samples was shut down Wednesday.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno’s administration issued a cease and desist order to Mary Jane Makes Your Heart Sing.

As police officers hand-delivered the order, an audible groan could be heard from a crowd of some 50 people lined up outside the nondescript strip mall storefront Wednesday waiting to gain entry, the Springfield Republican reported.

The newspaper reports the crowd quickly dispersed and no criminal charges were filed against the store operators.

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Left to right: Sharon, Tina, Lisa, Roxanne. This is me holding my no carbohydrate birthday cake, aka yellow tulips. What a joy to have such caring co-workers! (Yes, I'm now 67 years old; no, I don't color my hair.) 

Cheers!