Last Monday, Hester, with little Keira,
brought us a meal – a gift for our 40th anniversary. Enough for two meals, actually. There was a chicken/pasta dish (what did she
call it? – texting her to find out...), Texas toast with mozzarella cheese
slivers melted on it, lettuce salad, pluots, and chocolate cheesecake with
cream cheese and big, juicy strawberries and a few chocolate chips on top.
Ah-ha!
She already wrote back. She calls
it ‘chicken alfredo with penne pasta’.
It was very good.
Are you wondering what a ‘pluot’
is? Pluots, apriums, apriplums,
or plumcots are some of the hybrids between different Prunus species.
While plumcots and apriplums are
first-generation hybrids between a plum parent and an apricot,
pluots and apriums are later-generation.
Natural plumcots, also called apriplums, have been known
for hundreds of years from regions of the world that grow both plums and
apricots from seed. The plumcot tree can reproduce asexually
by budding, but the apriplum tree resulted from hybridized
seedlings and cannot reproduce.
Pluots are later generations of complex hybrid between the Japanese
plum (providing the greater amount of parentage) and the apricot. The fruit’s exterior has smooth skin closely
resembling that of a plum.
Apriums are complex plum-apricot hybrids that show
primarily apricot traits and flavor.
Apriums resemble apricots on the outside. The flesh is usually
dense and notable for its sweet taste due to a high content of fructose and
other sugars. Apriums are
usually only available early in the fruit season, like apricots and unlike
pluots, which include some very late-ripening varieties. Aprium trees grow quickly and are smaller
compared to other common home-grown apricots. The fruit is gold, with red coloration. Semi-mature fruit is hard and does not ripen
if picked before completely mature.
So now you know.
We had a lovely visit
with Hester, and were well entertained by sweet little Keira. She walks
with someone holding her hand; she’ll be walking alone soon.
Hannah came later,
and brought us a gift card to Cracker Barrel, and we had a nice visit with her,
too.
She was telling us how, a few years back,
Nathanael was teasing Levi, and Levi, who’s four years younger, got rather bent
out of shape about it.
So Hannah was lecturing both boys – you know,
the “Nathanael, you shouldn’t heckle your brother, if he doesn’t like it,” and “Levi,
you needn’t get so upset when your brother is just kidding,” and so
forth. In her remonstrations, she said to Levi, “You know
Nathanael is just goofing around; why don’t you just ignore it if you’re
not impressed?”
And Levi said, said he, “But, Mama!
My ignoring mechanism wasn’t working!!!”
😆
I was disappointed with the County Fair this
year, because there were few entries in many categories, and not many to
compete against. It’s no great triumph to be #1, if you are the only
contestant! Partly, people simply don’t participate like they used
to. But I also think those terrible floods in our area in March made a
difference, too. So many lost homes, farmland, vehicles... Maybe they even lost those items they would’ve
otherwise entered in the fair. People are struggling, consumed with just
trying to make it from day to day, find a roof to put over their heads, clothes
to wear, food to eat. The importance of the County Fair falls way down
the ladder, in such circumstances.
I’m hoping there will be many more entries at
the State Fair. I never mind when I don’t get a ribbon; I just love to
see all the beautiful quilts!
I met a friend and fellow quilter in town Tuesday
morning to get the quilt she just finished so I could quilt it for her. I’ve
written to a few of my previous customers to tell them I’m quilting others’
quilts again.
That evening, I loaded Carol’s quilt on my
frame, and got a row and a half quilted.
Funny (or not), my toes – big toes, mainly – hurt and sometimes cramp
after I quilt, standing at the frame for several hours. If I pay attention, and don’t lean too far
forward, but instead stop the machine at a strategic point and then step
forward, so I’m not putting so much weight on my toes, or trying to hang onto
the floor with them, heh, and relax them, I do all right. And I have to keep telling myself
to stand up straight, don’t tilt my head so much, trying to see the pantograph,
and relax my hands on the handles. If
any or all of those body parts are not relaxed, I’ll soon be paying for it.
I keep wondering if it would
be good to raise my frame again... but when I’m doing custom quilting from the
front, I find myself standing on my tiptoes when doing rulerwork at the far
side. So... we’ve probably got about the
best compromise right where it is.
On the other hand, after I stand and cut for hours, for some
reason it’s my knees that protest loudest.
Wednesday, I went outside to put fresh water
in the birdbaths. It was blazing hot out there. If I don’t cool those birdbaths down several
times a day on these hot, hot days, the poor unsuspecting birdies that land
therein might very well wind up parboiled!
We were issued a heat warning, and the
temperature continued to rise. Heat indexes were expected to get up to 113°
that day, with real temps in the high 90s and lower 100s. Every day last week,
they extended the heat warning one more day, until finally Saturday night it
began cooling off. It rained during the
night and part of the day Sunday, and cooled down a lot.
I needed to weed the flower gardens, but it
was too, too hot. I pulled a handful of weeds while I was out there, and
that was quite enough. 😓
I wished I was way up high in the Rocky
Mountains, in a valley beside a rippling mountain stream! But... Larry’s
vacation time – and money – went toward teeth removal and dentures. It certainly is good not to have him
suffering from abscesses and toothaches.
I headed back to the quilting machine, and
got several more rows done before time for church that evening.
Here’s something funny/odd that
happened: Thinking about my customer’s request to slide the quilt over so
the stripe on the backing was more to one side than the other, I loaded the
backing, laid the batting on it, putting more to one side than the other,
basted it down... then laid the top down, starting at one side and just
making sure there was enough backing that my machine wouldn’t bump the Red-E
Edge clamps I use. I smoothed it down, basted, clamped it to the front
bar, rolled it up, positioned the panto, and went to work.
That was Tuesday night.
Some time Wednesday as I was rolling the
quilt forward for another row, I noticed the stripe in the backing, and
thought, I wonder how off-center that really is? Doesn’t look like much.
I measured.
Get this: It was exactly, exactly,
right smack-dab in the middle. I couldn’t have gotten it closer, had
I worked at it long and hard.
I think if there had’ve been any less at the
sides, the machine might’ve ka-bonked into the side clamps. 😏
Late that night, a
quilting friend wrote to me, “I don’t know how far you’ve gotten on the Bear
Paw quilt, but I think I just found the panel you were looking for.” She included a link to eBay.
Sure enough, it was the very panel I’d first
designed the Bear Paw quilt around! Someone
had just listed it. But... the thing was,
I’d already gotten fond of the Black Bear Essence panel. And it was all
trimmed at the top and added-to at the sides to make it perfectly fit into my
quilt design.
But... I decided to get that panel
anyway. I do really like it. It was overpriced at $16.99. Marshall Dry Goods sells the same size panels
from the same manufacturer for $6.49. But... there was free shipping. And there was a button for a potential
buyer to ‘Make Offer’.
I clicked, offered $12.99.
The next day, the seller replied, “No wiggle
room, because of price of shipping to your address.” Nevertheless, she made a counteroffer: $16.50.
Wow, she dropped the price a whole 49¢. 😲
I wonder why people put that ‘Make Offer’
button on their listings, when they aren’t really willing to drop the price at
all? Siggghhhhh... I decided to
get it. Might never have the chance
again, after all.
After church, I quilted long enough to assure
my finishing the quilt the next day, barring calamity.
Since nothing disastrous happened, I did
indeed finish the quilt Thursday. There was barely over an inch of
backing fabric to spare at both the top and the bottom of this quilt.
I made
arrangements to meet my friend in the little town of Cedar Bluffs, just south
of Fremont, where she and her husband live.
He is the pastor of one of the churches there.
It was another hot day – 93°, but the heat
index was 106°. All the poor little birds were sitting around with their
beaks open.
When
a bird pants, it causes air to move across the moist surfaces of its lungs,
throat, and mouth. This moisture then evaporates, releasing heat from the bird’s
body.
I gathered up my paraphernalia: purse... tablet... phone... coffee...
water... camera... I suppose I shouldn’t
forget to take the quilt?
Carol made us iced coffees when I arrived, a
welcome treat on that hot day.
Friday, it got up to 97°, and the heat index rose
to 115°. Yikes, that’s too, too hot. I worried about my menfolk who were doing construction
out in that heat.
I worked on the Bear Paw quilt, and managed
to finish all the separate ‘bear track’ units.
There are 36 of these units.
Larry came home a couple of hours earlier than
usual, and we went to Sioux City, Iowa, to get a paint sprayer he’d purchased online.
This will help him in applying the stain to the log siding on our house, and
come in handy for other jobs, too.
It was in such a pretty part of the state,
with hills and trees and deep valleys. We
saw deer in the clearings, and a wild turkey hen with a number of chicks crossing
the road and then running down through the ditch. We saw seven little poults, but there may
have been more.
We ate at Texas Road House in Sioux City,
using gift cards our neighbor gave us for caring for their animals and chickens
while they were gone. Mmmm, mmm, that was good food. For the most part, at least. We started with a Cactus Blossom appetizer (a
huge onion cut fancy, breaded, and fried – extremely greasy) (but pretty!), soft,
warm buns and honey butter (yummy), peach iced tea (for me) and strawberry iced
tea (for Larry).
For the main course, I
had a Dallas filet, medium-rare (melt in your mouth tender) and a loaded sweet
potato. I was surprised when the sweet
potato arrived covered with lightly roasted marshmallows and caramel sauce. It was quite good, but I’d’ve rather it had only
butter and a bit of brown sugar) (probably could’ve ordered it that way, but
what do I know?), and applesauce.
Larry had prime rib with mashed potatoes and
gravy, and green beans.
We shared a slice of strawberry
cheesecake for dessert, but I could only manage two or three bites. I was full.
I brought home a couple of those yummy buns,
half of the sweet potato, and half of the Cactus Blossom. I broiled that Cactus Blossom the next
evening for supper, hoping to cook off some of the grease; but it was still
awfully greasy. Next time, if we get an
appetizer, we’ll try the Texas chili or the grilled shrimp. Or skip the appetizer altogether. Or maybe have only the appetizer.
How do people eat so much?!
Saturday, I scrubbed the birdbaths before putting
fresh water in them. My efforts didn’t
do a whole lot of good; those things were slimy with moss, even though I spray
them out a couple of times a day or more.
I used dishwash detergent and a rag, but evidently I need to use
something stronger, and a brush. Don’t
want to harm the birds, though. Anyway,
they do look a little better.
I filled the feeders... belatedly remembered
to eat breakfast... and then got back to the Bear Paw quilt. I put the ‘bear track’ units together, four
to a block, then started joining the blocks, sashing, and center panel together.
By bedtime, the central part of the Bear Paw
quilt was together. It measures 72” x 72” now... and after I attach a
pieced border and a plain border, it will measure 93” x 93”.
I got a heap of pictures edited and uploaded,
too:
Sunday morning when we got up, it was still
raining – a nice, gentle rain that kept up until we had gotten almost an inch,
exactly what the lawn and flowers and trees needed.
When we arrived at church a little past 9:30
a.m., we walked in to a dark building.
The electricity was off. Jeremy
and Lydia said their electricity had gone off at 8:40 a.m.
For a little while, people were milling about
in the hallways and vestibules, and then there was a decided movement toward
the Fellowship Hall.
“Looks like we’re supposed to go this
way,” commented Charles, our nephew and Larry’s boss at Walker Foundations.
“Either that, or somebody started going this
way, and then someone else followed, and then...” I gestured in the general
direction, and Charles laughed.
Since the windows in the sanctuary are high
on the wall, that room was dark. So we
all moved into the Fellowship Hall, where there are large windows all along
both sides, and they’d set up enough chairs for everyone. However, it was still raining and fairly dark
outside, so that room wasn’t very bright, either. There’s a grand piano in there, and it was
situated near the windows, so the pianist could see her music. They rigged up a battery-run light on a stand
next to a small pulpit, so the song leader and then Brother Robert could see
what they were reading.
Larry and I were sitting somewhere in the
middle of that room, and we could hardly see the words in the hymnbook at
all. No matter, though; we knew the
songs almost entirely by heart. And when
Robert read a chapter from Hosea, my niece Christine, who was sitting beside
me, turned on the light on her phone, and then I could see just fine.
Half an hour later or so, the lights came on
– and with them, the air conditioning.
The windows and doors had been open, but with over 400 people in the
room and no fans, it was getting a bit stuffy, even though, thankfully, the
temperature was only in the 60s.
Lydia came visiting last night after church,
bringing us a Cracker Barrel gift card, blueberry crème cake, and a fresh
pineapple for our anniversary.
Do Larry and I look like we’re getting
skinny, or something?!
Today it’s a lovely day,
73°, with a little breeze of about 15 mph. I worked in the flower gardens
for over an hour this morning, and there weren’t even any mosquitoes whining
around, looking for blood. 😜
A couple of flies were bound and determined to bite, though, until I
sprayed my arms with the new All Natural Bug Repellent Spray Larry got at
Hy-Vee. That stuff smells good, and really
works, too, into the bargain.
My bright red ‘Knock-Out Roses’ are blooming
again, and the tall lavender phlox is brilliant. I’ve separated and
transplanted it throughout the yard several times, and it really brightens up
any corner where it’s growing.
I made my way through three of the flowerbeds
in the front yard. This week is projected
to be nice and cool in the mornings, so maybe I can get the rest of the gardens
weeded, too. Last week’s neglect is
showing!
See, this is why I like quilting better than
gardening or cooking: once I finish a quilt, it stays finished,
and doesn’t sprout weeds, or get wolfed down in five minutes flat, after it
took an hour or two to make!
Sigghhhh... At least we have cameras, and
can take pictures of said gardens and food (if we remember before we eat
it).
Thankfully, there are no
bats to report through the last week. Instead of releasing
them, we’ve been killing them. I do not like bats in the
house. I understand they eat lots of mosquitoes – but they aren’t
eating a lot of mosquitoes when they’re flapping about in my house, diving
headlong at my harmless, hapless pate!
Bats can get rabies. I don’t care to
get bitten by a rabid bat. So far, though, all these bats have acted
perfectly normal. Just got themselves into the wrong location is
all. 😏
There have been three reports of rabid bats in
Nebraska so far this year (and three reports of rabid skunks), though none were
in Platte County. Platte County has not
had a rabies report of any sort for at least three years. The above three bats bit a human, a cat, and
a dog.
In 2018, there were 22 reports of rabies in
Nebraska, 17 of which were bats.
A quilting friend posted a note a little
while ago, saying that she was straightening up her house, because her cleaning
lady is coming tomorrow.
That’s called ‘The Blondie Bumstead Syndrome’:
Blondie, scarf around head, rushing madly
hither and yon, mop and dust cloth in hand: “Gotta clean, gotta clean!”
Dagwood: “Why?”
Blondie, wide-eyed that he should even have
to ask: “Because the cleaning
lady is coming, of course!”
Now I must get back to Kenny’s Bear Paw
quilt. I have a table runner to make for a friend and customer – but just
learned that my great-niece Danica is getting married ... in two weeks, on
August 4th! I knew this... once. But this summer has been flying by. And I wanted to make something for her.
A table topper... or a potholder set... or a casserole dish carrier... Something that won’t take long, because in
addition to the table runner, another customer is sending me a quilt to
quilt. (Sounds funny – ‘a quilt to quilt’.)
Gotta hurry, hurry, hurry!
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.