Little by Little

Some days I feel as if I'm going crazy with wanting life to go back to what we knew. Missing camping is nearly at the top of my list. I miss church too because I don't really like watching it on television from their home, or mine. Church is an anchor in our life and although I know it is not for everyone, it is for us. Then too, if I'm being honest, I am missing my house right about now for a variety of reasons. I suspect, once we are past all of this craziness, I'll be back to being content as can be living here. As it turns out, they are opening the State Park system, however they are already filling up and Bruce, having just returned from helping Bill, tells me that campfires are now allowed due to the ongoing dry conditions here in Florida. Many days our phone will show rain at such and such a time that never happens. One of these days, the skies will open and we'll wish they would close!

In the meantime, we just keep on, keeping on. I'll say one thing, the weeks do go by fast. How can it already be Thursday? So, here's the Rhubarb pie I made with lard crusts that I'd had in the freezer. Thank you Jackie!

I used a new recipe that I found online and the pie turned out to be delicious with a very interesting bottom crust. How so? Well, instead of mixing the sugar and flour with the fruit, then putting it in the shell, I mixed the two ingredients, putting half in the shell, followed by the fruit, followed by the sugar/flour mixture. Wow, did it work well, and I can't wait to try this with apples.

So, I told you that we bought some of Bruce's favorites at Costco, one of them being cooked shrimp that I used for our lunch the following day. I thought the plate looked so pretty, well, it begged to be photographed.

In other news from Lake Willisara, we've got a new Wood Duck family that I spotted early Tuesday morning; I watched them hoping they would travel into the sun, and by golly, they did. Eight ducklings should you be wondering, bringing our 2020 total to 30 ducklings to date!

The other Wood Duck family continues to thrive and I'll tell you, it is fun to see them coming along en masse.

You would hardly recognize the Mallards these days. If I didn't know better, I would think they had always been this size.

And as to the Woodpecker nest, or hole?

I've got my eye on it multiple times a day, however, so far, this is the main action from morning to night, with no sign of any babies yet.

It's now in this post that I explain today's title. Freely admitting to not working on this nearly as much as I should, I finally sat down to work on the quilt that looked like this.

The thing is, it is naturally slow going, made even more so because I was not as motivated as I should be.

Each piece is two inches by three and a half inches and there are crazy amounts of pieces to go. Perhaps you notice that the pieces are bent and not looking their best. There's a reason for that and here's the reveal.

You're right--a big fat mess. So, getting out my ironing board, I set about making some sense of it all. Then too, over the weekend, when I realized I might be way shy of cut fabric to finish the quilt, I sorted through my large baskets, tidying things up after the mask making spree. Okay, so iron, then sort. You might note that I am in our bathroom and glad for the big countertop because I needed all kinds of space. 50+ different fabrics were sorted into piles.

After that was done, I carried them to the dining room table to put together in pairs. Those pairs went on anything mostly flat I could find, including some cardboard I got from the trash area outside.

They had to be moved to another table because, drum roll please, I ordered two puzzles from Puzzle Warehouse and they arrived in a flash, so the dining table will be used for that.

Alright! I've got 180 pairs (counted them after the fact) and the motivation to go for it, and so I did. What made it more fun was listening to our son Dave being interviewed for a very long podcast that aired on Youtube.  If you know David, you know he loves to talk, as well as answer questions about his vast wrestling card collection, which he did for nearly 21/2 hours. Listening to the entire interview, I have to say, it was pretty darn impressive with the added bonus of me getting all of the pieces, little by little, sewn together in pairs. As to the puzzle, I've just about got the frame done.

Here's a bit of a funny story from yesterday morning. Before it got too hot, Bruce and I finally got back over to Lake Davis for a walk that included the Lake Cherokee circle as well. I'll tell you more about LD another day, but as we were getting close to LC, we saw the swan family chilling on the bank.

Walking up to them, all seemed just fine until the cygnets began heading into the water and I apparently got a little to close for their comfort. Much to my surprise, one of the adults nipped me in the ankle!! One day it is a Llama coming my way, and now a Mute Swan!

While Bruce and Bill put strips of wood down, one piece at a time, I did the same this morning with fabric, while trying not to watch the birds out my window. While I said I'm missing my house, who am I kidding? I did not have a view like this before, and I do love it at all times of the day.

I guess my title is actually more apropos than when it came to mind as to my quilt. Little by little, we WILL get over this disruption in our lives, people will not be dying, a vaccine will be discovered (Jonas Salk we need you!), there won't be more people unemployed since the Great Depression (a sobering thought if ever there were one), and people will not go hungry.

Little by little.

your friend,

Gail