What's for supper?

We had burgers off the grill...an easy end to a tiring day.  And they were delicious.  I only wish I had had a tomato from the garden to eat with it.  I had a slice of one from the store on the burger, but that is not the same as big thick slices on the side.  If my tomatoes don't have some good tomatoes this year, I might cry.  Or at the least I will feel like crying.

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It has been a tiring day.  If I told you all the details, you would not even finish reading this.  I have spent almost every spare moment on the phone.    It just seemed like I could not get anything done.  A dozen phone calls to take care of one thing.  Then, had to get on line to register Roger for something else.  This after a trip to Terre Haute for his allergy shot.  And it is back there tomorrow for the scan I did the pre-register for.

All of this is a result of Roger saying his ear hurt.  Remember he actually had an ear infection a few months ago.  I had to take him to a different dr. where we go this past Saturday, and this guy is trying some new things to help control his chronic cough.  (When he got up Saturday morn he said his ear did not hurt, but I was afraid not to take him.)

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We went to a greenhouse last week and I saw this flower...Mandevilla Sanderi..I know the first part of the name is right.  Plant Snap added the second part.  There was a bright, bright red one, too.  I would have loved either one if I thought I could keep it growing.

I went for a red hibiscus and I wanted another tomato plant.  I found the red hibiscus if it will just survive the planting.  It ought to feel better in the ground, I would think, than confined to a pot.  It was a greenhouse owned by some Amish people.  They had very few tomato plants left and those came in a container that held 4 plants.  I got four called Mountain Fresh...the lady said she used them for canning and eating and everything....so we shall see if they produce some good tomatoes.

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I had more to tell but my mind just went blank so will hush.  Have a good week everyone!

A bit of this and that...

First, I will show you a block my daughter made...it is made using the paper piecing method.  She bought the pattern from someone on Etsy.

This is her second one...it is to become part of a baby quilt for a friend of hers.  Her friend is planning on grays for the baby room right now.  I would not mind making it in red fox colors.

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We went to visit both our daughters this weekend...we had not seen their new homes and they have both been in them for over a month.   First one thing and then another prevented us from going.  At Lorelei's home, they have a bunch of baby squirrels...she has not got to feed them by hand any more.  But I had the most fun watching them.  There were at least 4 and they are all adorable.  Rosie chases their moms and then the mama squirrels tease her.  They get about 3 ft up the tree and flick their tail at her.

We have seen our daughters since all this with Covid 19 started, but there has been so much they had to do and so much going on that we have not really visited much to speak of.  It was just so good to see them in a relaxed situation.

And Jeremy changed my windshield wipers and put in a new battery for me.  I just hate asking him to do stuff like that but he just says it is what he is there for.  And does it as if he is having the best time of his life.  And truthfully, he always likes to keep a car that he is 'working' on...either improving it or he will buy one that has something a little bit wrong with it and he will fix it and drive it a while, and then sell it.  Or he will be helping a buddy do something to their car.  So, I guess this does seem like nothing to him.  But it sure helps me out.
 
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I have two tomato plants...this one is a Big Boy.  As far as I can tell it has 4 tomatoes.  I have a Beef Master plant that does not look right.  I had not been able to find a single tomato on it till this afternoon and it does have at least one.    I did not attempt to take a picture of it.   I just hope some of these develop fully and taste good.  I could eat a dozen tomatoes from the garden if I had them.

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Remember that I pulled up all the coneflowers last fall.  I figure I would have a lot come back this year as from year to year they have spread and spread.  Well, I do have about half a dozen plants, but this one is the only one that is even close to having a bloom.

I guess I should hit the publish button and be done with this.  I was going to do this post last night but just simply did not have the energy to do it. 

A new pic

My daughter sent me this pic the other night of Lorelei and her little dog Rosie...Rosie must have been totally worn out.  She is seldom still.  But look how Lorelei has grown!    It just boggles the mind how quick she has grown.

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My leaf quilt top is still on the design wall as you can see...the real quilt name is Orange Peel.   Just in case you wondered.

On my ironing board is 70 crumb blocks.  I had half of them already made, and had several already started.  Anyway, finished those started and added more.  Now, I either have a few too many blocks or a few short...depending on how big I make the quilt top.  I was squaring the new ones up today...which actually means  I was cutting them to size.    Anyway...I use a rotary cutter and ruler and had an oops moment.  Sorry this is so blurry...and maybe I should not even show it...

I know to close my cutter when I finish a cut, but just didn't and believe me it was the oddest way to cut myself.  I got two fingers, one didn't bleed very much but this was the second wad of paper towel and it is saturated through all the folds.  But it did quit and I have band-aids on to keep them closed.  I know...not really the best thing to use, but other than my foot, I have never had any trouble healing.  If you have not experienced a rotary cutter, they are sharp, sharp, sharp.  At least the ones we use in quilting.   You just barely touch the edge and you have a cut.

Other news, I had got the oil changed in our vehicle. And for some reason I have been leaving it parked outside a lot since then till the past few days.  Well, I am getting oil spots on the garage floor...  so I called the place that changed the oil and am running it in there in the morning.  So much fun.

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I have a little tomato...have not taken a pic of it yet.  I just have two plants...I am hoping to get some to eat.

That is all I can think of right now, but feel like I am forgetting something...

Critters....

The other day I came home and Chuck was actually out in front of our garage, but started to run across the street.

I always wonder if there is only one....and I think there is or we surely would have seen babies.  It has lived under a little building of a neighbor for over 5 years now...since well before Roger's stroke.  I think it is looking old.

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This was the first critter photo I took yesterday.  It was also the only deer we saw.  It was in a field right before we get to the swamp area.....

One of the many, many dragonflies at the swamp.    I have other pics over on Time Stand Still.

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Do you want one more way to waste time?  I have recently been on drives in England, in Canada, in New Zealand, in Russia.  All via the internet and the little man on Google maps.  Do you know about him?  (Please click the images to see better)

I would say most of you know about him, but just in case you don't, look up any place, in this case I googled Rockville, Indiana.  I just clicked on the image of the google map.  A regular map came up, and on this one where you see the little image of a map in the lower left, I clicked for this satellight image.

On the lower right side, see that little yellow man?  Click on him. Streets and roads become highlighted.

You can click anywhere a road is highlighted and you are immediately taken there.  For instance, I clicked on the road that goes west right outside the town, there where it says 36...and this is the view I seen:

You can turn all the way around to see what is on either side.  Sometimes my computer/internet takes a few seconds for the image to become clear.  Then click to go forward or turn around the other way.  It is a fun way to spend some time.  Also useful when you are going some place new.  I will google the address and then click the map and click the little man...and then click where the place is marked.

I have recently told two people about this that did not know you do this.  It is really fun to go look around.

Just a bit of this and that...

These are fabric scraps my daughter gave me...and some are so pretty, I want to wait and find something special to use them in.  They are from a line of Tula Pink fabrics.  There are some really fun fabrics if you care to scroll down through the link and look.
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I don't know how many of you use Instagram.  I joined mainly because a friend of mine completely stopped blogging and she told me two or three times I should join.  And I did, and I really enjoy it.  But I got away from it for a while and not real sure why.  I had not even been 'looking' hardly at all.  It is easy, cause for the most part people just click the heart symbol that they like a pic and go on.

However, I have not developed any 'friendships' like I have with blogging.  But I have started posting a pic here and there again, and last night I was thinking I had not seen any photos from a couple guys.  One a long time blogging friend, but not someone I emailed back and forth with.  Then the other was someone I found on Instagram.  And I LOVED his photos...I thought I haven't seen a single pic of his in ages and ages..and the thing was I could not remember his instagram name....and could only remember his first 'real' name.

So started going through my list of followers and there he was...I clicked PrairieEyes and took me to his page and it said

In Memory Of....oh, I cannot tell you how hard that hit.  And I did not really know him at all.  So, googled his name....

He had died doing what he loved...photographing rural Saskatchewan and Montana...maybe other rural areas...I am not sure just where all he photographed. He posted pictures of old barns, houses, churches, grain elevators, etc....I don't know if he ever posted a picture that I didn't like, and most of them I truly loved.  There was just something about them  He had stepped on a loose planks and fell in a well...and he was not found till the next day when a rescue mission found his vehicle...and found him.

So that led me to thinking of EG Camera Girl...I will always miss her...and there are two or three others that just stopped posting and I always wonder what happened.

I know this is not a bright and cheerful post...but just had to talk about it a bit.

I hope you all are going to have a great weekend...

Chaos reigns + a funny

I put on a pot of navy beans this morn after breakfast...which consisted of taking Roger through the drive through.  When Lorelei stays with us I always cook breakfast...she was here from Monday till yesterday afternoon.  So Roger was ready to go drive through.  I came home and had a piece of toast and jelly...I was not very hungry.

I ate quickly, and went and tied up the two tomato plants.  They are growing like crazy but I have not seen a single bloom yet.  I had picked up a few more rocks, so put them around the plants.  I am hoping they will do better than the last time I had tomatoes.

I came in and vacuumed and mopped...just a bit of this and that in the house.  Then I headed to the sewing room.

Though this does look like chaos, not all my fabric looks like this.  These are just scraps...some are actually from me...or from my daughter

But a lot are scraps that I bought from the local fabric shop.  They have a plastic bin or tote or whatever you call it always about half full of scraps.  I can fill a gallon bag as full as  I can fill it....I am supposed to be able to close it but they never have said a word.  But I get it for $5. 

I thought I had enough of the scrappy crumb blocks to make a top, but when I went and got them I didn't.  Though I think I need to go look again.  Maybe they got separated.  I only had 35 in the stack you see at the top right in the photo below.  They are 9½ square.

I had a few I have been making the past few days.  And I dug out some more that were started from other times.  I sat and got 3 or 4 or 5 finished, plus some more started.  But I sat in there All afternoon.  It felt wonderful.   I have been trying to spend a few minutes every day this week doing something in there...yesterday was the one day I did not sew a stitch or even play with fabric.

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Most people do not understand how I am about fabric.  Now my girls could come in and get any fabric I have.  Even my Kaffe Fassett fabrics or any of my batiks.  Or my quilting friends, which are not that many and they are on line friends...if I had just the perfect fabric they were searching for...they could have it.

But I have so much trouble cutting even those scraps from the quilt shop.   I get some big chunks of fabric in those bags of scraps and I cannot bring myself to cut off strips or crumbs to put in these crumb blocks.

I don't know if it comes from my mom not having much fabric to work with when I grew up.  What she had was literally leftovers from making dresses and skirts and shirts.  And some of my sisters gave her some of theirs from home sewing.  It was all such a treasure.  I do not know how she made the number of quilts that she made.

Anyway even thought Lorelei went home yesterday, today managed to be an okay day.  I know her mom misses her and she misses her mom and dad and her pets...but oh, it is so empty when she goes home.

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A true funny story follows.  I don't know why it crossed my mind yesterday evening but it did and I have to share it with you:

I don't know how it came about, but Roger and one of his bosses got to talking about embarrassing things.  And he admitted to Roger that one morning he got up, hurried and got ready and headed out on his morning walk.  I don't remember how long he walked, but it was not a ten minute walk..it was a substantial one.  And I don't recall why he was in such a hurry.  But he got about half way through his walk and looked down and he only had underwear on his bottom half.  I never did know if that was tidy whities or if it was boxers...but I get so tickled every time I think of it.  He told Roger he just could not get home quick enough.  They lived out in the country so houses were few and far between...I do think he had to pass some houses, but I don't think any cars passed him.


Hope that gave you a chuckle...I laughed till I cried when I thought of it.  I guess it was funnier for me since I knew him. 

To make you feel good....

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I came across this...just had to share...I hope you enjoy.