This is the first chance I have had to post in a while...I am using this photo from a post in the past...partly because I don't have my computer and partly because I just love the photo. It was taken years ago with my one of my Nikon cameras.
I hope all of you have happy and healthy Christmas and New Year...
I am thankful for many things, but foremost right now is that Sarah just came through her second surgery last week...all is going great in that department. One of these days things will be back to normal.
Lorelei is changing daily it seems...she is just so busy all the time.
She sings Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, and other songs...
and has just been playing the drums and singing
She loves you, Yeah, Yeah, yeah
She loves you Yeah, yeah, yeah
Over and over.
She now tells me to 'Get up---I need you' She will get my hand and take me all over the place. Otto hardly has a moment's peace...and for the most part he enjoys every minute of it. This morning she went for a short but wild ride on him....unplanned. She was climbing on his back and was astraddle of him and up he got. She hung on for a second or two before falling off. I half expected her to get back up and try it again but she didn't.
Our oldest daughter will be here at this time tomorrow night...along with a bit more snow. I am not sure how much is in the forecast. I am hoping not much.
This will probably be my only post on here for a little while to come...one of these days I will get back to it on a regular basis I hope. There simply is not time to be on the computer...when there is I plan to try to catch up with everyone.
Between frequent trips to Indianapolis Roger has been busy. This is latest creation....he made it for Lorelei's dad. This knife really has a nice feel to it....the wood for the handles is African Padauk. It is an an excellent hardwood with straight grain...it hard,heavy and resists decay.
One day last week I was cleaning an onion--I was making spaghetti and even though I just buy sauce in the jars I always add onions, sometimes garlic. Spaghetti is not the subject of this post though.
It is onions. Just with the simple act of cutting into the onion, I am immediately ravenous! I don't care if I have just gotten up from a holiday feast, or if I have just had a steak meal, or barbecued ribs...if I smell an onion I am immediately hungry. I want cornbread! Southern style, I suppose, without sugar. I don't know if that is a southern thing or just from my particular neck of the woods. But I do know that I have yet to meet anyone up here, that makes our type of cornbread.
But back to onions. I want cornbread and a slice of pork shoulder or salt cured bacon, cooked over an open fire with onions to eat with it. Or if I smell onions, I want soup beans and cornbread and onions...and you won't believe this. I like them cold out of the fridge...one of my sisters used to come back home to visit and I can remember her/us getting up after everyone had gone to bed, and we would go raid the fridge and if there were cold soup beans, she would have cornbread, soup beans and onions. I had not had that in years and years, and last spring, I remembered and tried it again, and I still love it.
And let's not forget wilted lettuce and onions. With cornbread....
Or something my mom cooked and I do, too, that I have never seen anyone else cook...well, my sister-in-law might...but she would be the only one...but not sure if she does. I think I ask her a year or two or three ago, but forget the answer. Anyway, mom would get stew beef and cook it in the pressure cooker till tender, or almost tender....then add potatoes. I get a nice chuck roast from my local IGA store...cook it till tender in the pressure cooker. While it is cooking I usually have my potatoes cooking in another pot and once the meat is tender, I add the potatoes to the beef and add water if needed and cook a while longer.
I have my cornbread baking, and green beans in another pot...then when I sit down to eat, I have an onion sliced....there just isn't much better on this earth. I don't fix it often...but when I do, I am ashamed of how much I eat.
I don't cook like that all the time, but ever since I made the spaghetti I have been craving at the least, a pone of cornbread and a slice of onion.
When a kid, and my nephews stayed/visited in the summer, if there happened to be sliced, white bread, which we called light bread, sometimes for a snack we would have a mustard and onion sandwich. I still have that once in a blue moon....
And I love onions on a hamburger.
I suppose if I could have left the bit about having a mustard and onion sandwich and having onion on a hamburger, I could have titled this post With cornbread.
But since there are some people that just cannot stand onions, I will leave it titled as is...
I got this in my email yesterday from my niece, Holly...it is looking up towards the holler that was our old home place. I think she knows I long to be in Tennessee one more time when it snows. There is just something about looking out and seeing snow on the hills and the misty look of the mountains. It is home...one of these days maybe things will settle down till we can head down that way when we know they are expecting snow. Now, Holly is Jackson's mama....and Holly's mom told me that Holly had taken a photo of Jackson and he reminded both of them of Lorelei....it was hard to imagine but being that Holly's mom and I agree about a lot of stuff, I sort of figured if they saw it I would too so I told her to have Holly send it to me and she did a few days later..so now I am showing it to you along with one of Lorelei when she was younger. I think it is the way they hold their mouth and also their eyes when they are really happy...how they are all squinty.
And that is not the only way they are similar....Jackson loves to dance, also. But he is a toe tapper where Lorelei is a butt wiggler, head bobber. Can you just picture the two of them together! *************** We got another dusting of snow yesterday...maybe an inch or so. But the wind has blown it around so much it is hard to tell. We had our first howling wind last night of the winter. It was searching for any little crack or crevice to get in. Our swing on our back porch is a glider swing...made of wood. So, in weight, it is not real light. It normally sits with the ends going east and west. I heard it being scooted around by the wind last night, and when I went to let the cats out, the ends are now pointed in the north-south direction.
The cats are getting cabin fever....they want out but only stay out a minute or two and come back in. Last night they were trying to start the game of tag, or something and racing through the house after each other...Roger was laying on the couch and Cougar came tearing through, jumped over the end that his head was on, and landed right on his solar plexus and made him about jump out of his skin!
Even Mama Cat was swatting everyone and trying to get them to play chase with her. If Lorelei had been here she would have had a ball watching them. She just giggles and laughs so hard when Otto and their cat chase each other. As you can tell, they are absolutely the best of buddies. When we were over there just a month or so ago, we were outside. Sarah, Roger and I ended up setting in the swing...along with Lorelei. And on top of all of us, here came Otto and got up with us. It would have made the most perfect picture, but we could not have got up to get the camera without them moving.
It was so funny, Otto was sitting there between Lorelei and me. Her mom was on the other side of her. I looked down at Lorelei and she looked at Otto and scooted over as close to him as she could get. I would love to have captured that moment in time.
I have been wanting to get out to the strip pits near sunset...so last night, I debated on going or not. I wasn't really in the mood to get out but I knew it was supposed to rain today so I forced myself got my mind/body in gear and headed out there late yesterday evening. I had not gone even half a mile till I seen my first pheasant...he took off at a pace, too fast to get a good photo. But just little bit farther on I hit the jackpot! Except I did not get a photo of them all. Up near the road there were 6, yes SIX male ring-necked pheasants...and up the hill a bit farther were the two above. I did not get a single picture of the group of six....they were kind of strung out and started taking off before I could get all the photos I wanted And at that none of the ones I took are very good. The only thing I wonder is where are the females...I saw several more pheasants after this bunch, but not one single female. And back during the spring and summer, I only saw one or two females...but lots and lots of males.
I know the females are harder to spot...they do not have the the beautiful colors of the male, but still you would think I would have seen one or two last night...specially with the snow on the ground. No here we have the main reason I was wanting to go out there late in the evening...I wanted to see if any of the short-eared owls had returned. I am here to tell you they have returned and brought their relatives and neighbors, too. I have never seen so many as were out there. I am showing three different short-eared owls....but I could not count how many I saw...I counted 5 in the sky at one time. It was not seeing one, it disappearing and seeing another...they were all within sight at the same time! They look like a bomber at certain angles in flight.
Notice the sign under the one above...apparently the owl is not reading the sign. Click the above photo and and look how intent the owl is looking at something down below. If I were a mouse, I would be afraid. Aren't they a fine looking bird?
These are just a few of the little feathered friends that have been stopping by for a bite to eat...I know the above is a woodpecker, but what type he is I don't know. I really need to study the little woodpeckers and the sparrows. I am not sure if the above is a purple finch or a house finch...whichever it is, I like seeing them. This here is the titmouse. Another visitor I am always glad to see. And of course the nuthatch...we always have some of the above birds with a few more that I did not stand out there long enough to capture. We have the chickadees, the cardinals, red-bellied woodpecker...oh, and the juncos. Plus all the other sparrows. They have been flocking to our feeders...most all coming in in one big swoop, with a few stragglers following behind. I think there has to be at least 50 of them. I have never had them so thick.
Then, I have been having the wren regularly...I only see one at a time, so don't know if it is single or I just haven't looked at the right time to see the two of them. And, I had three big blue jays out there at the same time. We used to have lots of blue jays all through the summer...but the past few years, we only see one occasionally. I don't know what has changed for them to just not show up at all, and now to see them at the feeders was surprising.
One afternoon we came home...can't remember where we had been, but it was as if someone had dumped the feeder on the ground. I wondered had two or three blue jays landed on one side, but the next day the crows were out here so I sort of figured they were the culprit.
I only have two little squirrels that are coming, and I have not seen one of them attempt to get up to the food....plus even if they did, they are only a bit over half grown. Or else really small. They are not big as Mama Squirrel and she never did tip the feeder when she was getting into it.
Well, that is my bird report for now....maybe I will have success later with some of the other visitors we have.
Out at the strip pits I go to as often as I can, we saw these two whooping cranes....
Last week Mary at Faith, Fabric, and Photos went to Goose Pond which is south of me...probably just a little be farther east then me, and she came back with photos of some Whooping Cranes she shows HERE. When I heard about her trip, I immediately wanted to go out to the strip pits near here...just in case. I didn't really think there would be any there, but much to my surprise there were these two....
According to Cornell's All about Birds, the population of whooping cranes in 1987 was 100....about 250 in 1995 and in 2004 the population had reached 468.....only part of those were in the wild. You can read more about them here....
On the bird in front, I could definitely see something green when I looked through Roger's spotting scope...not thinking to look it up I told Mary and she told me they are radio transmitters used to track them. ************************** It is staying bitter cold here. I have my doubts of the temps even reaching 20º F today...the only thing I have done is let the cats in and out a time or two. Even they are mostly just laying around, taking it easy, and sleeping away the hours.
Bubbie was up this morn and wanting to start something with the other cats; he gets bored. He is also so rough, no one likes to play with him. Of the three cats, he needs the most attention, likes to play the most, and is probably into more stuff in general. Anyway, after a short stay outside, he calmed down and welcomed a nice nap in front of the TV.
I can laugh till I cry sometimes thinking about these cats and things they and the dogs have done. When my older daughter was going to college, she worked full time here in town at a Mini-Mart. She came home to eat a quick bite about 7:30. Her dog, Shelby, always had food available. But when did she eat...she would wait till my daughter was sitting down to eat. She would get a big mouthful of food, come and drop at her feet, and then CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH!!! CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH! Which in turn got on her and my nerves both...because we were usually taking that opportunity to talk a few minutes.
After that, fast forward a few years and she is out of college, has been out on her own for a while, moved back home for a short while. In that time I had acquired two of these cats from her, and when she came back home, she brought their mom and brother. This time around she has a good job, and has to really be awake and aware of what is going on around her.
Every other night or so, soon as she went to bed, two of the kitties would go in the kitchen which is right off her bedroom. They would proceed to start some sort of game which involved the cabinet doors. This time it was rattle, rattle, rattle. Rattle, Rattle, Rattle! Sometimes it would just be one reaching and pulling a door with their paw; other times one would manage to open the door enough to get inside, then they would play with each other through the door. They would have did this right on if I did not go set something in front of the doors till they could not reach them.
And I cannot tell how Puss Puss does Roger...you would have to hear and see him tell how she comes when he is sleeping and gets right in his face and her little whiskers tickling him so bad. It is just so funny...she does not do me that way. But then, Cougar does not bother him...and Bubbie has no mercy on either one of us. He used to never jump onto the bed itself...he jumped up there but it was always to land on my back or side...now he actually jumps on the bed part of the time so that is a big improvement.
There's other stories but I will save them for another day...
I always get a slight thrill when the snow begins to fall...there is always that slight anticipation of school being canceled...or called off as we used to say. Yet how long has it been since I was a kid...longer than I want to admit. And several years since the chance of our daughters getting a snow day. But if I quit feeling that anticipation of school being called off, I will probably be dead.
When I see the snow capping everything after a fresh snowfall, I remember walking along and taking a bite of snow off everything....fence posts and heavy laden branches or anything that would hold a mound of snow. How thirsty it made me! I never understood why I could be eating what is basically frozen water, and be getting thirstier all the time.
Going through the strip pits pulls at my heartstrings even more...I want to be a kid again and take my dogs and go tramping through it all. To see if we can scare up anything. I don't ever remember us jumping a rabbit in all my times of taking them, but there was still that anticipation. I do remember finding a rabbit sitting in a feeding trough at a neighbor's barn, though but I did not show it to the dogs.
I also remember one time my niece and I were out rambling about after a new fallen snow. We were walking along the railroad, where honeysuckle grows. I think she was the one spotted this 'wad' of stuff in the vines about as big around as a softball , but more elongated than round. We got the bright idea to squeeze it. I don't recall which of us squeezed first, but each time we did, a mouse would run out....and we would jump each time even though we expected it.
After seven ran out, no more would come out. We left the nest...we didn't want to hurt them. We just wanted to see. I suppose it is a wonder we didn't try to catch one or two. That memory makes me smile after all this time....
The above was taken was taken at 12:58 a.m. yesterday morn...it is a handheld shot off my front porch. I like it a lot...and would love to have walked the neighborhood taking more, but it was snowing too hard to have the camera out in it. These were taken over in Illinois...as we were driving down the road above we were thinking all kinds of titles for it but sadly I cannot remember any except something about Edge of the World and wondering if this is how Columbus felt. You have to click this to get a better view...although you will still wonder why I posted it...it is just to show how hard it was to see. I have some I took before we were this close, and I fear you could not even see it. These trees just a bit farther down the road, and this was actually probably not even the length of a football field away. I love the misty feel of it. And this one was taken late yesterday evening after we got back to the house...at 3:53 pm. It snowed all day long...never hard...but the ground was warm and the snow melted all day long sidewalks and paved areas were warm, and the snow on them melted all day long....but last night I started hearing the crunch of tires as the snow and slush froze.
It is a cold, cold world out there this day...the birds are flocking to the feeders. I see my little Jenny Wren out there...she is a Carolina Wren. I always name them Jenny...I don't know where got that but I heard someone else or read someone else calling them Jenny. So I just give them that as a name. I am hoping she stays here through the summer.
It is so cold the cats are staying inside with barely a thought to going outside. If they do go, they don't stay long, they don't come to the door begging us to come outside either. They come in and are glad to stay inside for a good long while.
I have been wanting to post pictures of the cats for a while now, but the only time they will be still is when they are sleeping. I went ahead and took a few of the boys today. First we have Bubbie...the above picture is just typical of him. He sleeps like this at least half the time. And below he is helping Roger surf the net, taken a couple days ago. Can you tell that he loves us? He should...remember when he broke his leg....way back here. I think he has been grateful ever since. Before his leg was broken, he was Roger and Rachel's cat....did not have the time of day for me. Unless I was feeding him..just didn't care if I gave him any type of petting or anything. After he went through his leg being broken, he comes at least once a day for me to pet him...can be very insistent on it. And he still doesn't mind Lorelei...remember this. That seems like a lifetime ago. Just look how small Lorelei was in that post. And this is my boy! Like his namesake, I am Cougar's favorite person. He likes everyone but I am the one he loves best! I cannot put the skirt under the tree...any time I think about it, a cat is sleeping under it. And I don't like to disturb them. I will forever think that a cat laying sleeping in a house or store adds so much to the atmosphere. *************** As I type this, we are getting snow!!!! I told Roger the other night that winter is officially here. We happened to go to bed about the same time and here came Puss Puss wanting under the cover with us. And she still insists on being between us. Roger let her under the cover on the outside edge but she just goes under and then proceeds to climb over him and snuggles down between us.
Bubbie, on the other hand does not want between us and generally does not want under the cover. He likes for one of us to scoot back from the edge of the bed and then he will snuggle in to our stomach and sleep.
Cougar comes and will come up and if my hands are under the cover, he will reach under with his paws to find my hand. He only wants to be petted a little bit and will either sleep curled up at the foot of the bed or get down completely.
And Mama Cat now comes and gets in bed occasionally to be petted and even sometimes to sleep with us. She now comes and gets in my lap and sits and sits. And she still is good with Lorelei also...if you knew her life before she came to live with us, you would understand that her attitude is basically a miracle. I have yet to see her get mad at Lorelei. ************** That is it for now...I am hoping we get enough snow for it to make the world new. It is just beautiful to look out towards the streetlights now.
We were coming home from Sarah's today, and happened to have the radio on and this song happened to come on...
I so would love to be home one more time in my life when a few inches of snow is on ground....the photo below is of our childhood home. I can remember wishing we had ornaments to really decorate that blue spruce out front for Christmas. We were lucky to have any to go on our Christmas tree....let alone to decorate outside. We had a strand or two of the big multicolored lights and a few of the shiny ball ornaments...I don't ever remember getting to buy any new ones.
However, I can remember cutting a star out of cardboard and wrapping it in aluminum foil to put on the spruce...I think about this every year...and I never fail to think about how we saved wrapping paper from year to year. And I think of gathering pine cones and painting them with gold and silver paint. Thinking about that now, I would love to know where the paint came from and why we had it. It was in little bottles...maybe a couple inches tall. I wonder if they had been model paint...but even if they were, that still does not explain why we had them.
But don't feel sorry or sad for me...having a childhood like this has made even simple things so much more enjoyable. I buy a few new Christmas ornaments every year, and probably get twice the enjoyment from it that most people do. Anyway, all that is going through my mind, and thinking how I have lived in the small town I live in now for 30 years...even with living here that long, Tennessee is still home.
And I would love to go back to Tennessee to live, but I could never willingly move farther way from Lorelei....nor her mommy either. It is bad enough when the kids move away by choice or with work and jobs...but I don't think I could willingly move away from them. Our one daughter lives on the west coast, but at least we have hopes of her someday moving back closer to home.
Right now I get sort of teary-eyed after leaving Lorelei...she is such a bright part of our life. She is always so glad to see us...right now she is at the age where Mamaw and Papaw can do no wrong...and honestly she can't either;-)
For the first time in a long while, Roger and I went on a rambling drive today...I kind knew where I wanted to start out at, and in fact most of the time gone was on roads we have been on before...with a few new ones thrown in.
However these below, and the ones I am going to show on Time Stand Still are probably not ten miles from home, and certain not longer than a 10-15 minute drive...if even that. Be sure and check out the photos there.... You need to click on these to see them...specially the one above. There had been this little kestrel on the power line and every time I got near enough to even think about taking a photo, it would fly. Usually just past the next pole, but it skipped one and went on...I wondered why. Then gave a second look and there was this big hawk sitting on top of the light pole...it took off before we could stop.
In just a second here came the kestrel and looks like it was trying to knock the hawk right out of the sky! Just click the above picture...it is a tad bit blurry but there was no time to focus. I can't help but wonder if what the hawk thought, or if he had a head ache. They proceeded to fly on; it was as if the kestrel was escorting the hawk away from its hunting territory.... In the end the hawk was fine and no worse for wear...
For several years, with the exception of last year, I have listened to the unabridged version Rick Bragg's book, All Over but the Shoutin', sometime during the holiday season...either on the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas as I mess around in the kitchen fixing this and that. But last year, it was no longer available at the library. I know I ended up with something to listen to, but whatever it was did not impress me because I don't remember.
This year, I just happened to start listening to Oogy, the Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin.... I tell you I have found my new holiday book! You can click the badge to be taken to Amazon's page....or you can watch the video below about the book. Oogy was used as a bait dog for fighting dogs, but was rescued in a police raid. His ear is chewed off, and lots of other damage...but he never holds a grudge against human beings, nor other dogs for that matter.
I have cried and I have laughed while listening to this...the bittersweet sort of tears. Though Lorelei's Otti Doddi was not abused, there are so many of their traits that are the same. The destructiveness in puppy hood--that was oh, so familiar. Then the barking at people, not because of aggressiveness but because he can't get to them...in Otto's case he wants to lick them to death.
In Otto's case, other than once or twice showing aggressiveness towards strays, he usually drools with anticipation if he thinks one of their friends might be bringing a play date for him...that is the only time he drools. Since they have moved away, he no longer has play dates, but a neighbor behind them has a little dog that runs up and down the outside of Sarah's fence and he enjoys running back and forth with it.
Anyway, I am not being paid for this...I am just really, really enjoying the book. It is one of the better finds I have made. Sometimes I check out a book at the library thinking it will be good, only to be disappointed....I have had two or three animal stories that while not bad were not as great as I thought. So, I checked this one out thinking well, it is free...if it isn't good it is nothing lost. I didn't want to be disappointed again. Now, I am thinking I would not mind owning it.
I will leave you with a picture of our Lorelei...this is the other thing that makes me smile, when I think of this picture. I will leave you a picture of Lorelei... Sarah was at her sink, which is where the bright spot is in the photo...she heard this "I found you mommy" and looked around and Lorelei had rolled the chair over from their computer and climbed on it and was looking over the counter at her.
I haven't got a new picture of Otto...Lorelei still uses him for everything. Sits on him, uses him to climb places, gets her blanket and lays down beside him, and generally loves him to pieces. I would say they are both lucky to have each other...the only thing he don't like is for her to get his tail and pull on it. He don't get mad or anything, he just pulls away....other than that he takes it all and kisses her every chance he gets.
As this holiday season begins, I am so thankful to have the husband I have, and to have two daughters that are ever a source of love, joy and might I add pride, a son-in-law that could not be better, and cute little Lorelei to hold and love...I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving...and may it hold for you all the joy your heart can hold.
Edited to add: I have listened far enough to learn that Oogy is not a pitbull, as the vets first thought but is a Dogo....a breed that was developed in Argentina for big game hunting. To me, they still look like pitbulls.
Just thought I would post a picture of Lorelei with her new quilt...but I will tell you that her Elmo fuzzy blanket will probably always be her favorite. It isn't a quilt...just a fuzzy little blanket I picked up at Walmart.
I did take this outside and take photos of it before washing, but it is in the dryer as I type this. We are at Sarah's for the night, so I just brought it on till Lorelei can have it.
Above is the back of the quilt...I generally don't use/don't like white but it was what I had enough of for the back so I used it. And here is the whole quilt....when I thought to bring it out for Lorelei, I spread it out and she said, "LOOK!" And proceeded to tell that it was Olivia and then she got down on it and really examined the pictures. I did take photos of her and the quilt, but that will have to wait till I am at home and can download them on my own computer...
I had every intention of getting photographs taken of Lorelei's Olivia quilt today, but instead I did almost totally nothing. I did get the loose threads picked from it...there was not near as many as I had thought. I had wanted to photograph it outside because when I use flash, very little of the quilting shows.
Not that the quilting is all that great, but I do like for it to show enough to see how it is quilted. We were supposed to have warmer temps today...I even got an update from one of the local news channels in my afternoon email....it said:
Saturday Sunny High 58º
That was sent at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. There had not been one single ray of sunshine so far the entire day, and I will say here that we never got the first hint of sunshine before dark. And though I didn't check my thermometer, I checked the weather on line and the high was 48º.
Anyway, I just didn't feel like being out in the chilly wind to take photographs. So instead I am showing you the courthouse over in Paris, Illinois....it appears to be getting a face lift of some sort. This was taken yesterday. To see what it looked like previously, go here.....it is a picture taken in 2009. Both are drive-by shots. I will tell you right now, I am glad I am not the one working up there...I want to go back when I have time and take some pictures of the entire courthouse. It is really a beauty.
We drove to Arthur, Illinois today. I wanted to get out. It was all drab and dreary here this morn, so after checking the weather in a couple other places, Arthur seemed to be the one that promised to be sunny. And by the time we were there, we were in bright sunshine.
We ate at my favorite restaurant...Yoder's Kitchen....or is it Yoder's Country Kitchen...I honestly cannot remember. I for the longest time called it one thing and it was the other and now I can't remember which is correct and which isn't. They have the best chicken, best dressing, and vegetable soup! They are served on their buffet, which we always get. I always get those three things..sometimes I try a little of something else, but I always choose those first.
I ran by Stitch and Sew to pick up a couple things, then by an Amish shop out in the country where I got Lorelei some coloring books. They have coloring books more along the lines of what we had as kids...not based on some TV cartoon or character. These have all kinds of nice pictures of animals, and kids playing doing things.
We headed on home from there, sticking to back roads for about half the way. We passed this place after we left the previously mentioned shop....I liked the door area, and I liked the fall decorations. ********************** I set and finished the binding on Lorelei's quilt. I will wash it tomorrow, and try to clean up all the strings, etc....and hopefully I will get photos taken to show tomorrow night.
First watch this video...I may have shown it before. If so forgive me; I think when you watch the next one you will realize why I show this one.
Then just take a few more seconds and watch this one....
I am not sure if Sarah got 'how an elephant goes' from the Tim Conway/Carol Burnett thing, but every time Lorelei does it, she reminds me of the them.
*****************
I had another night of no sleep...at least not till it was about daylight. I was going to bed about the time the local morning news came on. I slept 2 or 3 hours before I started the day.
We had to go to Terre Haute and get a new water heater...ours has had a leak. I was afraid I would come home someday to a foot of water in the basement. So we picked up a new one, came home, and I helped Roger get it down in the basement, and left him getting ready to put it in. I had gotten some new birdseed and wanted to fill my feeders...then got into something else.
I went down there in a bit, to find a big puddle of water...the 'faucet' that served as the drain at the bottom of the old water heater had broken off when Roger put the hose on it and tried to turn it on. So ended up helping him clean that up before he had to go to the hardware store and pick up a couple fittings.
Anyway, it is in and working fine...and I no longer have to think about coming home to a flooded basement.
When we were in Georgia in September, I finally had the opportunity of seeing fields of cotton. I have always wanted to have a few seeds to see if I could grow it up here. I know I would have to start it inside in very early spring or late winter. But that has never happened...but at least I got to see it growing and got to take these photos. There were occasional blooms, even though the majority of the field was about ready to be picked...at least I think it was about ready. When picking apples in the fall, I would occasionally find a few blooms scattered here or there in the orchard...so it did not surprise me to see these cotton blossoms. I always thought growing tobacco was a hot job, and sort of nasty with the way the tobacco would tar up my hands...but I am thinking nothing I done with tobacco would hold a candle to the job of picking cotton by hand. The cotton we seen was low growing--maybe two feet high. So most adults would have to stoop to pick it...then it would be rough on the hands...and dragging that bag behind would have really been tiring when it was full and probably aggravating even when it was empty. But I would still like to grow a few plants just to see it grow.
I love cotton...I prefer clothes made of cotton. I want sheets made of cotton. It is the fabric I use to make my quilts with. So it really is the fabric of choice for my life.
The above is a Lorelei while daddy is beatboxing for her...
And this little video was waiting on me when I got home today. Lorelei loves her Otto...if you listen closely when Otto walks out view you can hear him 'sneeze', and Lorelei copies him...then says 'Bless you, Otti!' She loves her Otto...and I must say he loves her.
Anyway, as to why I haven't been involved in blogging for the past month or so, our daughter had major surgery last month, so we went to help her, and to help with Lorelei while she recovered. We came home late Oct 31, got here about 11:00 p.m. (She only lives about 2 hours away.)
Anyway, I had things I had to do, and her hubby was going to be home with her. She caught a cold right before we left...I came home and caught it about 2 days later. Meanwhile, back at her house, both Lorelei and her daddy also caught it. I ended up being home about a week more than I had planned.
Sarah is doing great, and we are all about recovered from our colds except for the occasional coughing. I just have to tell this...I don't think Sarah will mind. After we left that first night we came home, Sarah had to get up with Lorelei....then Sarah got sick at her stomach. Lorelei was standing in the door of the bathroom while Sarah was being sick...Lorelei stood over there and laughed and laughed at her mom vomiting. Then she started trying to spit--I suppose she thought her mom was having all the fun!
I am not sure how regular I will be in blogging, but maybe I will get to do a few posts.
These are clouds that if you saw them in a painting, you would think the painter did not paint them realistically. Yet here they are.....we could not stop looking. I was sorry I didn't have an interesting foreground, however maybe it is for the best since it sort of forces you to look at them. By the way, they are straight out of the camera, other than being scaled down in size. I think you would enjoy them if you clicked and enlarged them....the sky/clouds are amazing. *************** I am coming right along on the quilting of the quilt top I showed in my previous post. Maybe the quilting will be finished by this time tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, we are supposed to get our Rav4 back then. Hopefully all will be as good as new.
Isn't this wild? It is going to be a new quilt for Lorelei...it is Olivia, the TV cartoon pig. I saw her before Lorelei had arrived and thought well who in the world would like that cartoon. The answer is Lorelei. She loves her...along with a bunch of others. I have had the top made for a week or two. I had the 'blocks' made for a few days before finding that wild fabric to use as sashing and border.
I use the term block loosely here...the pictures of Olivia are just printed on the fabric. Not applique or anything hard. They came framed in pink and red, but I cut that off to cut them all the same size, then used a black and white print to frame each picture. They sat for a while...I went through my material and could not find anything I liked to use between the blocks.
I happened to go for a drive one day...one of those rambling drives with no destination in mind. I ended up north of Paris, Illinois, on Route 1 a couple miles north of Lori's Pins & Needles, one of the best quilt shops around. She always has the best selection of fabric around. So, I thought since I was over there I would stop and look for sashing material. I had something entirely different in mind, but she had everything but what I wanted. She had fabrics from the line of fabrics I wanted, but not the particular fabric I had had in mind.
Then I saw the red/chartreuse fabric and it called my name...no, it shouted my name...saying 'Here I am! Here I am!' I could not resist it. I thought I might get home and not like it, but when I laid the blocks on top of it leaving 3 or 4 inches between, I still liked it. I hollered for Roger to come look and see what he thought. He loved it as much as me. So, I stuck with it.
I made the backing the other day...I am using bleached muslin for the first time ever in my life. Well, the bleached part...I have used plain muslin before. Anyway, yesterday I got it all stretched and layered and pin basted, my machine is set up to free motion quilt...yet I have not totally made up my mind about how I am going to quilt it nor the thread I want to use. About the time I think I have decided, I have second thoughts.
I am hoping to get it quilted in the next day or so...since we will be headed over there this weekend sometime.
Lorelei's dad had a couple days off...it is apparent in these photos that both Lorelei and Otto are happy. BTW, that is a fort built out of cushions that Lorelei is in. She must have captured her dad. Can you just feel the love here?
