Post Hiatus -- May through July 2023

 I don't know why I haven't posted in such a long time. I'll try to catch you up -- but it will be a goodly bunch of photos!

I made the drive back from Palm Springs, CA (PS) at the end of April, the beginning of May. It was the end of many enjoyable moments with the Mexican Train Gang.

On the way home, I stopped at the Georgia  O'Keeffe Museum in NM. 

I really liked this painting. Then I discovered why.

At home in Amherst, it was a very good spring for flowering trees. I mourn the loss of my flowering crab apple tree, but I can look at the one across the street.

With a thumb drive full of photos (thanks Nancy!) of Cricket's quilled cards, I got to work tranfering the images to fabric.

Finally I completed Cricket's birthday quilt and mailed it off to California.

Trying to keep busy, I got my name on the list to help cook at the Church kitchen for various suppers and canning for sale at the Sleighbell Fair. Here I am helping to make Tricky Pickles. Yes, that's the apron I made for myself years ago.

My friend, Tomi, and I went to LilacLand which is in Amherst. It was a lovely windy day for viewing the 52 varieties of lilacs.

On another day, we be jammin' at the South Church making peach jam.

We made berry jam too and this is Gina who always has a smile and is a fabulous soprano among her many other talents.

This really is the final picture of Cricket's quilt. I hand quilted it -- large stitch -- on both sides.  It was complicated but it's one of a kind!

Then came the poison ivy. You don't want to see those pictures. Trust me. At least it was only on my inner elbows but I was miserable and on steroids for a week.

I began work on my sashiko project. It's Japanese embroidery. The stitches are stamped on the fabric and once you have completed the stitching, you wash the piece and the stamped image disappears. I'm close to finishing it -- months away. But it's often something that I may do during my two hour greeter shift at the Amherst Survival Center. (Unless they have me sorting eggs.)

Emily and I had a wonderful trip and Girls' Weekend with Deb at her home in New Hampshire. Here's Pork Chop (PC) welcoming us.

We got to meet Deb's next door neighbors.

Back in Amherst, the peonies bloomed and I had one perfect iris.

My long legged flower box did pretty well -- until it didn't. It totally collapsed toward the end of the summer after heavy rains. (We're in June here.)

This was really only the beginning of multiple heavy rain storms. 

My mini tomatoes did well even though they did a lot of traveling. I had to bring them in at night because it was still too cold to leave them out overnight. So when I went to Emily's house to stay over, I brought the plant with me. My front yard is south facing making them very happy in the day time, not so much in the below 40 degree nights.

Another time at the Church assembling apple crisp. They will be sold frozen (with baking instructions) at the SleighBell Fair.

Beagle sitting is always fun for me! This is Shortie and Brownie in their fabulous back yard. Jon and Farah have worked very hard in making it into a gorgeous patio/garden/park-like area.

I made a pilgrimage to Swanson's in Greenfield to donate some fabric. I am trying to get rid of fabric. And I saw this baggie ... with blocks of stars. And I thought, 'Some woman worked hard on these blocks and her work should be honored.' So this is what I did.

At this point, I may have some lunch and get back into August. Needless to say, it's fun to see these memories, but a bit time consuming to weed them out. I hope you haven't been bored. The good thing about this blog is you can ignore it whenever you want!