Winter this spring

 My crazy cat crawled into this plastic bag which held the batting from the quilt sandwich below and went to sleep.  I went upstairs and she was asleep completely in the bag, then I checked later and finding her head in the handle, lifted it off and by the time I got the camera, she was partially out of the bag.  Silly cat!!  I posted earlier the old quilt top belonging to a dear friend and have had to improvise the assembly process I used at my previous house.  So with a tip from a quilt show, I used blue painter's tape to secure the backing and although the tape really didn't hold very well (and maybe I didn't use enough), it worked pretty well.  I am now quilting it.

In my absence from this blog and I didn't realize it had been so long, I had my friend whose quilt top this is, come to visit for a few days.  We gathered some other friends for a dinner for her to celebrate her birthday and worked on preparing for our summer projects for our girls' retreat.  One of these will be a few stepping stones each with glass flowers in them so we planned for some patterns and purchased some glass.  I also had a sister and niece come to discuss a wedding cake I am do do for a great niece and they were able to stay for lunch.  They left just before our winter arrived this spring.  We have had snow for two days straight, maybe more as I can't remember!!! I know the roads were closed.
The afternoon before the snow began, with the wind at our backs (and fronts) the Mr. and I finished a backyard fence with which to contain the dogs and I might add that they are none too happy about this fence.  We discovered a tick in the house before we finished the fence which was unsettling and hopefully the dogs will not have as much access to the sagebrush now.  With deer and other tick carrying critters so close, I fear we are fighting a losing battle so will just be vigilant and see that the little guys get short haircuts when the snow is gone. 

"I try to take one day at a time, ...but sometimes several days attack me at once." ~ Jennifer Unlimited

Spring?

 With spring officially here, I have finished my Christmas quilt so it has been put away and I am off to start another quilt. That is because it really is NOT spring!!!  We are expecting to get another snow storm and I will be forced to stay inside this weekend.  Hurry up spring!  Someone has however, forgotten to tell nature's little critters.  The prairie dogs and little ground squirrels are busy tearing up the soil around here.  I see them scurrying in and out among the sagebrush now and the scent of little beings is driving my dogs crazy.  They have had rabbits to chase before, but this is new territory for their keen little noses.  We need a fence as they continue to roam farther away from the house as they become more familiar with the acreage. Bad dogs!!

 My cat thinks she can do anything she wants and she pretty much does.  Questionable as this looks, she has attacked my little Spencer and has him pinned down in a wrestling move.  He did escape her attempt to hold him down and she did not pursue him, considering it a win I think.  They make me laugh and they will cuddle up and sleep together sometimes when they are not playing.  How do people live without pets?

This is a houseplant related to the African Violet I think.  Sorry, Bonnie, I don't remember it's name, but most of my plants are gifts of my good friends.  This one blooms constantly and at present, it has at least 18 blossoms.  So.....spring, hurry up as I need to get my hands in some soil!!!!

"If you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud." ~ Charles Dudley Warner
  

More crafts

 So after the last post, this shows how this piece will be mounted on a piece of metal rod in the garden. The bottle will simply be slipped over the rod.  And below, another of the critters that emerged from the quilt.

 This past weekend we went to a State team Pool tournament and although the Mr.'s team did not make it to the finals, the weather was beautiful and they had a good time.  We saw lot's of old friends and were able to do some shopping.  However, the wind began to blow on Saturday and by Sunday as we headed home, we battled 60mph plus winds and blowing dirt.  We though we were in Arizona! Actually one strip of highway in the eastern part of the state was closed for 6 hours. So this is our devil cat Coalette, getting ready to practice some trick shots. We boarded the dogs, but left her home in the care of our friends. The only damage she did this time was to rip up a roll of paper towels at the bar sink and dig around a little in the plant soil looking for small flying bugs.

I love, love, love daylight savings time which we are now enjoying.  Not everyone shares my view, but if you are a gardener...well need I say more?  We will be battling a newcomer to our property though.  The previous owner had pretty much erradicated the destructive rodent-type of critters, but we now have a new little guy, a prairie dog who has moved in. My dad had two as pets actually in our back yard in an enclosure.  He called them "Pete" and "Repeat".  Maybe I will call this little guy "Pete", but he will NOT be a pet and may not stay long.  Sorry!

Spring crafts

 With snow in the forecast and temperatures mostly chilly, I should not be thinking of spring.  But wait, it is but just a few days away (Officially).  The days are getting longer and with daylight savings time taking place this weekend, the sun will still be up even longer in the evening.  When I was in Denver a few weeks ago, I was at the Brass Armadillo (a terrific resale shop) with other bff's  (you cannot have too many bff's) and on a mission to locate one of these older cookbooks with just these particular graphics for my bff here down the road.  We found several ranging from about $9 to $40 and this one was only $10 and in the best shape.  So my friend finished it this weekend and this clock sits on her counter.  Isn't that clever!!!

 Easter is also upcoming and if you all remember that at Christmas, I took an old quilt also belonging to the same friend and made 3 stuffed animals for her using that old quilt.  It was faded, torn and in no shape to be repaired so this little bunny emerged and sits in her sewing and craft room.

 Thoughts of spring stirs the gardening ideas in those of us who cannot wait to get our hands in the soil.  I am not sure how much I will do here, but we do have a few flower beds and my friend down the road has the most gorgeous plantings.  As previously posted over the years, I have made several versions of garden art involving cast-off glassware.  This is a new project where we actually painted some snack trays with glass paint and with other pieces attached with silicone, we have our "garden flowers" ready to be placed in the beds.  They reflect the sunlight and add color to the beds.

We scrounged for bottles with flat sides and attached them to the back, again with silicone, and the bottles will slip down over some metal rods which are placed into the beds.

"To create a little flower is a labor of ages" ~ William Blake

Quilting? Jerky?

The Mr. makes wonderfully delicious jerky.  The Native Americans called this dried meat "charqui" (pronounced "sharkey"), which was later anglicized into "jerky".  Buffalo, deer, elk, antelope and other "wild" forms of meat dried in the sun provided nourishment for them.  We use beef now that we no longer hunt and for us it is a treat rather than a necessity. 

 After the strips are marinated overnight, they are placed on shelves and placed in a manufactured dehydrator "not the sun here" for several hours at a temperature of 155 degrees.

 This cat thinks she can sleep anywhere! The Mr. played in a Rocky Mtn. team pool tournament last weekend near Loveland and we took advantage of the opportunity to shop.  Just the girls!  My quilt buddies from Cheyenne and my friend from Brighton all met and shopped for quilt fabric at a wonderful shop in Berthod called the Laughing Ladies.  I was looking for fabric for backing and batting for both the above quilt as well as my friend's Dresden Plate quilt top.  I have started to quilt the redwork but I have discovered that Coalette sleeps on it whenever she can, even when I am trying to quilt it.  Bad Cat!

This is a Crown of Thorns plant given to me by a friend and never having seen one before, I had to do some research to determine how to care for it.  She told me that it blooms continually and even though I trimmed it severely as the research indicated, it is doing quite well.  It was an old plant and had gotten a bit leggy but it is so pretty and special to me since my friend trusted me with it.  However as it's name suggests, it is really thorny.

 I haven't blogged in a few days, so this is a mish/mash of stuff, trying to get caught up and more organized as there are many projects to start and complete in my constantly turning mind. 

Love

 Valentine's Day is tomorrow.  But yesterday was our 49th wedding anniversary...so this is what I got from my Valentine of 49 years.  We actually went out for dinner the evening before to a wonderful little Italian place here in town called "Bella's."  Yes, we do have some great places to eat here although we are a small community of 2000 or so.  Wine, flowers and a card from the proprietors along with wonderful food, including a decadent dessert made it a great dining experience.  So when I got up yesterday morning and began to make coffee, this is what was taped to the coffeemaker.  A handmade card in crayon....how special is that?  The Mr. and I have never been extravagant...no cruises, modest vacations, no high-end vehicles and in fact we are very content with how we have been blessed. So will there be another 49?  No of course not, but we hope to have many more years of love together.

One of our nieces lost a very loved pet this past week. Not all people are pet people, but nearly all of our friends and relatives are.  Unless you share a home with a pet, it may difficult to understand the unconditional love an animal can give.  This niece had grown to feel like this dog was a family member and gave her much comfort when she needed it most.  We are sorry for her loss.  This picture shows our furkids and how much they are considered our family.  They have the run of the house and this is our master bedroom.  (and theirs)  They do not sleep with us on the bed..there are too many of them and they all have their own beds...two in the hallway and the cat and white dog in our room on the floor.  This is one kind of love for sure.

I have been telling the story of my cousin, who was adopted and who, in her 70's was able to locate some of her birth siblings.  Her mother, Hilda, married a Mr. Spaulding shortly after the birth and together, they had 3 daughters.  They were later divorced and she married again in1942 and died in 1944.  Eventually all of Hilda's siblings were reunited and that was a good thing I am sure for my cousin to know.  As far as I could tell from the information I received, only one of her mother's daughters had any contact with her after being located and she had passed before my cousin became ill.   None of the others wanted to have a relationship with her. But because her father's family had been so receptive to her existence, that would be her half-sisters and cousins, she was able to develop a relationship with them and discover her paternal history.  Not much of that information was in the file as he had accordingly  broken off their engagement before the pregnancy was known.  So my father's sister and her husband, who were unable to have children, adopted this baby in 1926 and gave her unconditional love all of their lives and although I am a bit younger that she was, I can testify to that love.  I lost my only living grandparent, my paternal grandmother when I was about 10, and this couple who took Hilda's baby to be their own, accepted the role of grandparents and loved us as a grandparent would.

"The greatest pleasure of life is love." ~ Sir William Temple

Winter and more this 'n that

As the eastern part of the country is bracing for the monster of a storm, it has not yet begun here, and it has been a quiet February so far.  I did have to get my annual check-up this week and all is fine, but I did get a tetanus/pertussis inoculation, which is recommended for a lot of us now and it has been many, many years since my last one of those.  I was told my arm would be tender and to use it a lot so it was my right arm which received the shot.  As I waited for the dreaded needle, I was reminded of a time long ago when my father did something special for me and my father was an especially good "daddy".  When I was a child, everyone got smallpox vaccinations.  Smallpox was a horrid, dreaded disease as was polio.  I did not know anyone with smallpox, but I knew several children and adults who had contracted the crippling polio disease.  The smallpox vaccination left an ugly "scab" and we were constantly told not to touch it as it would leave an even uglier scar if disturbed.  But it itched much like chickenpox.  My dad fashioned a small piece of Plexiglas into a shield for my arm where the scratch-type inoculation was.  (It was not a needle inserted into the muscle, but a surface scratch with a needle type instrument).  It looked like a clear lifesaver candy and when taped over the small area, it allowed air circulation and kept me from bothering the "scab".  Most of the baby boomer generation and a few generations later will carry that scar as it ALWAYS left a scar.  My son was probably one of the last to get that, but his was given on his back...wonder who thought of that?

My, my, the snow has arrived and as I look out the window now the range land surrounding my home is beginning to turn white.  We will hunker down.

A little more about my cousin's story.  Her mother, Hilda, had several siblings.  When they were separated from their mother and each other, they all went in different directions.  One boy, who was placed in a home to be forced to work only, left when he was 15 and he began to search for his siblings.  He located one younger brother who had been placed in a home and adopted, apparently to loving parents.  However, they did not want him to know that he had been adopted and refused to let his brother contact him.  They moved often and the older brother followed them with each move in order to continue to keep track of him.  Two of the other young boys were adopted also.  There was not much information about the other children, except for Hilda and her older sister who had married a Steffen. Mr Steffen's brother, Frank was my cousin's birth father............more to follow.