Last Monday, Hester sent pictures of Keira
with a cicada shell, writing, “We’re trying to be brave and touch cicada shells.”
That meant, Oliver was trying
to be brave and touch cicada shells. 😄 He just didn’t know about those ugly little
critters!
I once stuck a cicada shell on me like
a brooch and went down the street to visit a friend. She let me in the house – and then, spotting
the cicada shell, shrieked bloody murder.
I, who am not jumpy, alllllmost
jumped.
My blind friend Penny just never asks for
anything – or if she does, she wants to pay me. But upon hearing about the
quilt I am making for my son-in-law’s sister Esther out of fabric from their
late mother’s stash and from dresses she sewing for Esther when she was little,
Penny asked if I might have a small piece left over, about the size of a
handkerchief, that she could have, and would I mind hemming it for her.
Penny and Bethany were good friends, as they taught
together at our church school, and often worked on lessons and graded papers
together.
Well, I wrote back, “Instead of just a small
piece of domp r-r-r-rag (roll the r, like the original Winnie-the-Pooh narrator
did), how would you like a pretty throw pillow? I have enough fabrics to
do that.”
(I imagine most of you know the story of
Piglet and the burst balloon he’d intended to give Eeyore?)
Penny answered with a long line of X’s and O’s. Yep, she was pleased with the
offer, though she did say I should finish all the grandchildren’s quilts
first. But that won’t happen for a good
long while; and a pillow only takes a few hours.
Esther, too, was pleased to learn I was going
to make a keepsake pillow for Penny. “Eeyore
happens to be a personal ‘hero’ of mine,” she wrote, reminding me so much of
when her mother and I used to exchange notes when we were in Jr. and Sr. High
together. “I find my outlook on life to
line up with his quite often: ‘We haven’t
had an earthquake lately...’”
“I, on the other hand,” I told her, “identify
with Piglet, who, if he did anything embarrassing, proceeded to do it several
more times in a row ‘in an exercising manner’, in order to pretend like he did
it on purpose.”
Since someone was worrying about rabies last
week after I posted pictures of the raccoon, though I knew the bat was
what she should have been more worried about, I looked up the statistics. Here in Nebraska, we generally have fewer
cases of rabies than many other states, particularly those states to the east. There have been no cases of rabies in our
county or most adjacent counties for the last 5 years, and only three cases in
the previous 10 years. By far the
greater majority of rabies cases in the state are bats, at nearly 90%. Next in order are skunks. No raccoons in the state have tested positive
for rabies in the last 5 years, and only one raccoon case in the previous 10
years. I like to keep track of these
statistics, particularly because there are so many bats in our vicinity.
The raccoons around here always look fat and healthy. The one we’ve been seeing the most of for the
last couple of weeks is a young male, all bright-eyed and cute. In fact, he’s out on the front porch right
this minute, cleaning up the remnants of sunflower seeds.
The cicadas were singing up a chorus a little
earlier. They’re loud, but no louder
than they are most summers. It seems we
have not had the infestation of them that some places have had. Speaking of singing insects, ever since I had
a second bout of Covid, maybe in 2022? – I’ve had tinnitus. Katydid of
the ear. That’s what it sounds like: half a dozen katydids singing
vociferously in my ears. I can still
hear all right, for the most part, though.
Tuesday
afternoon, I picked up a grocery order at Wal-Mart. Home again, I got everything put away (except
two 40-lb. bags of black-oil sunflower seeds that were too heavy for me). I paid some bills, cleaned the kitchen, watered
the porch flowers, and was about to head upstairs to work on the Hanging
Gardens quilt when my phone rang.
It was a lady from the County Fair calling to tell me that the Fisherman Fred Goes
Canoein’ quilt had won Best of Show, the Puppies & Kittens in the Flowers
quilt won Best of County (which gives it a special ticket to a special division
in the State Fair), and one of the Fisherman Fred pillows won Best of County in
Textiles!
I would later learn that the ‘You Are Loved’
fabric book won a 1st-place ribbon, as did the other Fisherman Fred
and the Farmall Scenes pillows; the Farmall Scenes quilt won 1st-place,
and the ‘You Are Loved’ quilt won a Judges’ Choice 1st -place
ribbon.
I promptly
called daughter Hester and granddaughter Keira, 6 (they were on speakerphone),
to tell them the news. I was pleased as
punch, because Keira was just sure her quilt would win something, and I really
wanted it to, for her sake. I promised
her the ribbons and whatever money award it would win. It’s never a whole lot, from the County Fair.
And then I
was finally ready to go upstairs and work on the Hanging Gardens quilt.
By 11:30 p.m., three borders, including the pieced one, were on the quilt. There
were two more to go.
Here’s
the morning sunshine shining through the quilt as it hung over my frame. Doesn’t it almost look like stained glass?
It was a lovely morning early
Wednesday, so I did some work in the flower gardens, and cut down a few
volunteer trees. I filled the bird
feeders, and even managed to drag those two 40-pound bags of black-oil
sunflower seeds out of the back of the Benz and land them in my Gorilla Cart,
then take them to the house and, with more grit than grace, pull them up the
porch steps, ka-bump, ka-thump, ka-bump, and into the house.
The purple coneflowers are in bloom,
along with tall lavender phlox, orange daylilies, hollyhocks, and lavender hostas. There is one Rose of Sharon hibiscus blooming
– and hundreds of buds, all over the bush, which has grown to be about ten feet
tall.
After a shower and some breakfast, I headed
upstairs to work on the last two borders of the Hanging Gardens quilt. It went quickly enough that I even had time to
put together the backing before our evening church service. Hannah had given me a bolt of flowered fabric
that used to be Bethany’s (her late mother-in-law, Esther’s mother), and there
was just (barely!) enough for the backing.
Thursday, before
loading the Hanging Gardens quilt on the frame, I cut the pieces for the memory
pillow for my friend Penny, since the fabric was on the quilting table, which I
also use as a cutting table. And then, before I could
stop myself, I just hauled off and sewed it together. The trim around the edges came from one of
Esther’s dresses that I cut apart.
It then occurred to me that I should sew one
of the large pansy buttons that was on one dress in the middle of this
pillow.
When the
pillow was done, I put all the fabric away, loaded the Hanging Gardens quilt on
my quilting frame, chose a pantograph, taped it in place on the quilting table,
and quit for the night.
Our
grandson Levi, 14, had his first piano-tuning lesson that day. By the next day, he had begun working on
Hannah’s piano. He has a digital tuner
that helps him get the vibrations for each string correct.
“The machine is expensive,” he told
me, sending a picture of it. “If I’m not
careful, I’ll be crying, ‘Alas, master, for it was borrowed!’”
(That’s from one of the stories of
Elisha, when an axe head fell into the Jordan as a young man was felling a
beam.)
One time when Caleb was a little guy,
about four years old, he was sitting at the piano picking out a few tunes – and
then he went to thumping on one note and one note only: “DONG DONG DONG DONG DONG”
I yelled over the racket, “CALEB!!!! What are you DOING?!?!”
He jumped out of his hide, looked
sheepish, and explained, “I was tuning the piano.”
(That’s what a piano tuner does, isn’t
it? Just DONG DONG DONGs on a note to
tune it?)
Friday morning when I went out to water the
flowers on the porch, I discovered that the raccoons had figured out how to get
to the black-oil sunflower-seed feeders hanging from a tall shepherd’s hook in
the front yard by climbing a trellis next to the front porch, stretching out
and grabbing a feeder, and pulllling it to them. They bent that heavy-duty shepherd’s hook! They’d already squished a couple of healthy
hostas under the feeders.
Hmmph. It was not my idea to hang feeders
directly over my flowers.
“I think
you lie awake nights, dreaming up new ways to demolish my flowers!” I accused
Larry.
He
laughed. He laughed!
I went to visit
Loren that day, since I planned to go to the Platte County Fair Saturday.
He just could not stay
awake enough to visit, though he knew I was there, and was pleased I had come. His favorite nurse told me he has not been
eating well – at least, by himself, he has not.
He does not appear to have lost any weight, though, as she sits down and
helps him get started, giving him a few bites.
That evidently whets his appetite, so he picks up a fork or spoon and
starts eating.
I got
home around 5:30 p.m., and headed upstairs to my quilting studio. I was glad I’d gotten the pantograph ready
the night before, and that everything was ready for me to start quilting. It’s so much nicer to be able to walk in,
turn on the machine, and launch straight into quilting, than to have to get the
pantograph adjusted, taped in place, and the machine positioned at the start of
the design before I can begin.
When I
had two-and-a-half rows done, I quit for the night. The pantograph is called ‘Marigold’, and it’s
designed by Patricia E. Ritter and Leisha Farnsworth. It’s a somewhat intense pattern, and takes a
while for one pass across this 113 ¾” quilt top. (I just measured it; it’s not quite as big as
I had thought it was going to be.)
Saturday,
I quilted until Larry got home from work in the late afternoon, and then we
went to the fair.
It was very hot here, and a heat
advisory was issued. A good many of the
animals had already been taken home, as the barns were awfully hot. It wasn’t bad in the big barn with the cows,
but the smaller barn where the chickens were was so hot that all the chickens
were panting, poor things.
Several animals were still in the
‘Petting Area’, including these curious alpacas. Every time I tried petting the bigger one,
she tried nibbling my coral ring right off my finger. 😄
After leaving the fair, we went to Pizza
Ranch, where we used a gift card one of our great-nephews, who is also Larry’s
boss, gave him as a thank-you for all the work Larry did on the company trucks.
Then we took the Benz through the carwash and came home.
When I went out to get the bird feeders, a bat swooped so low over my head,
I could’ve reached right up and touched it.
They’re curious little things. I
like to watch the bats – so long as they stay outside and don’t come visiting
indoors, and so long as they don’t lay eggs in my hair.
Yeah, yeah; I know they are mammals and do not lay eggs.
I
quilted a little more, until the quilt was almost one-third of the way done.
We were
just about to go to bed when Larry took a look at one of the news notifications
he’d received – and learned that someone had tried to assassinate former
President Trump. A bullet hit his ear,
and a bullet hit three attendees at the rally, killing one and leaving the
other two in critical condition.
Horrible – and a serious breach of security.
The
Secret Service killed the shooter.
Sunday was another hot day, getting up to a high of 94°.
After church last night, we had a supper of chicken
sausage gumbo and Flipside pretzel crackers, with Oui Mocha Chocolate yogurt
for dessert.
This morning I picked up my things at the
fair, and then took the promised ribbons and award money to Keira. It was only $3.50, but that’s a nice little
prize for a six-year-old. I will leave her
quilt with her until time to take it to the Nebraska State Fair. I took a small tablet with a deer printed on
each page to Oliver, too; can’t give Keira something without giving little
brother something, too!
Oliver was still asleep, but he’s old enough
to understand who gave him the tablet.
Keira carefully and
artistically lined up rosette, ribbon, dollar bills, coins, and quilt on the
couch, and looked everything over. She
couldn’t quit smiling.
Before leaving town, I stopped at the Daniels’
Produce stand and got some fresh produce. They have the best food in the area, hands
down. Their big farm is just a few miles
to our west.
I got a couple of tomatoes, half a dozen ears
of sweet corn, a big sweet green bell pepper, and a large watermelon. I love
watermelon. Cantaloupe and honeydew, not
so much.
I was glad I had my red canvas wagon to haul
everything into the house.
That done, I walked around the yard taking
pictures of the flowers, watered the flowers on the porch, filled the birdbaths,
and started the sprinkler. This is a
Stella d'Oro daylily.
I learned from Newsbreak Nebraska that last
night’s brilliant sunset was caused by wildfires, as I had supposed – but not
from those far away in California, but much nearer. There’s a big wildfire near LaGrange,
Wyoming, which is just over the Nebraska/Wyoming line, southwest of
Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
For
supper tonight, we had a couple ears of the corn and one of the tomatoes I got
from Daniels’ Produce, crackers and cheese, and smoothies made with Kemp’s
vanilla ice cream, frozen fruit, and a bit of milk. The heavy-duty KitchenAid mixer with its new
blender coupler worked just fine, though I didn’t blend the smoothie long
enough, and we still wound up with pomegranate seeds in our smoothies. Larry finally removed his dentures and ate
his smoothie sans teeth, while I chewed a piece of gum afterwards to remove the
seeds from my teeth.
That
cute, not-so-little raccoon on the front porch just spotted me at the window,
stared, came closer, and then stood up tall on his back feet, the better to see
me. The porch light was probably
creating a bit of a glare on the window, making it a little bit hard for him to
‘look me between the face,’ as an evangelist we knew used to say.
Then he
heard something out in the yard that frightened him (the raccoon, not the
evangelist) (was it a coyote? a Great Horned owl?), and he scurried away, stage
right.
Today is our 45th wedding
anniversary! Larry jumped the gun and
gave me a gift on Saturday – a handmade Bed|Stu leather purse with a matching
coin purse/wallet.
Wow, now
there was an entire family of raccoons on the porch! – two big ones and
three quite small ones. Cuter’n all
get-out, they are. One of the big ones
was about to haul off with the empty feeder, and was making an unearthly racket
with it. It’s glass, with a brass base
and a brass lid. It’s a wonder the glass
is still intact. I rescued the feeders,
and the raccoons headed off to the trees.
And now
I shall head off to the feathers.
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.