A Lot of Ground to Cover

I've got a lot of ground to cover in this post so let's get going!!

Good news! I spoke with Laura and she is fine with us bringing a bird feeder. Seriously it would be hard for me not to have one in my life and I already know that there are birds in her yard!! Look at this pretty female amongst the fresh spring green leaves.

While I am on the subject of our new landlord, Sunday morning we watched a service from a church in Murphy after finding it on youtube. Look who I found while on the search words Murphy, NC! (hint...her name is Laura) How fun is that? Now our family will know exactly who she is! 

Several more fun things about our time in Murphy, one of which was finding this place on a road that Karen and Jim had taken us when we were visiting in the Fall.

Food was yummy and while cooked in the freight car, it was served inside the adjacent building. Sitting at the bar, we talked to the owner and learned a few things about both Murphy, and her restaurant.

Another day, after having a great bar-b-que lunch downtown, we popped into here:

While I have forgotten her name I have not forgotten the story she told us. Who knows how the subject of professional wrestling came up but it did. Well, but of course we had to mention that our son David has the largest collection of wrestling cards, in, I think, possibly the world. Wouldn't you know it, the lady above went on to tell us how her family owned an arena of sorts in Louisiana that hosted the matches when they came to town. She knew all the old greats including Andre the Giant, one of David's favorites. Small world I tell you, small world.

Showing off the full field of yellow flowers in this post, upon closer inspection there were several different yellow flowers to be found including a personal favorite below.

Hurray for pollinating bees! I have to presume that the wildflowers will be a thing of the past when we arrive in two weeks time. And probably so will these beautiful flowers.

A girl can dream can't she? 

We took a little walk while we were at the cottage and again, the shades of green were noteworthy which sounds like such a formal word to use. Nevertheless, it does describe how I felt about seeing the varitey. 

The driveway to the cottage is the road to the left. Along the main road in, pictured on the bottom right, we saw this,

and this:

Apparently it does get pretty cold sometimes. Fortunately my camera was already in my hand when this happened very quickly.

 According to Laura, deer are plentiful so before long it might just not be noteworthy at all. For now however, it most definitely is exciting!

Because new guests were booked into the cottage we had to find somewhere else to go. But first we stopped by Hank's house and were so pleased to see the progress he is making.

He has very much enjoyed his time in Murphy, having just gone through his first real winter in years. Living in Southern California for thirty plus years will do that to a person. Despite the fact that his pipes froze, he still raved about the experience. It will be so great being able to see him on a more regular basis.

The blooming Peonies alongside his driveway that apparently just popped up unannounced.

In a stroke of extreme luck, a former friend and neighbor at LPV saw a photo I posted on Instagram and got in touch, reminding me of how close we were to their place in Ellijay, GA, about forty miles south of Murphy.  In fact, she suggested we drive there and spend a few nights in their vacant home as they were back in Florida! After much insisting on her part we took her up on the offer and headed SW from Hank's house. The road took us straight to Blue Ridge, an adorable mountain town.

Gosh I love seeing mountains in the distance!! Blame it on Vancouver. Turned me into a mountain lover and that's a fact!

Here's what we did while in Blue Ridge...a very yummy lunch at Harvest on Main,

followed by a visit to the bird feeder store.

Now that was a fun store! We did buy a small bag of bird seed to try out at home. The reception here has been somewhat tepid. :) That said, it is the time of year when birds are visiting feeders less and less because of more available wild food. Lesson over.

Ellijay is another twenty or so miles down the road.

Bill and Fallon visited Ellijay in the Fall and fell in love with the town. On this day, we skipped downtown and went straight to Frank and Lynn's tremendous home. The iPad struggled a bit because it is in the woods, but we made it and were blown away by how wonderful it is.

The truth is that the house was so warm and welcoming, not to mention being on a pond surrounded by woods full of birds, we only went into town once. 

For now we will move on to the here and now although I do plan on revisiting this experience because it was so great. 

No doubt you are nearing the end of your patience with me so let me conclude with a few sewing stories.A blessing in disguise when we moved to Vancouver was that when it came time to sew I discovered that I'd forgotten my regular presser foot. The walking foot that generally is used only for quilting was all that I had for straight stitching. I needed clothes because take a look at this closet on the day we moved in.

Does that look like a year's worth of clothing to you? I thought not. Sewing commenced and by the time we left I'd made about seven blouses, a dress or two, a couple of skirts and a coat. And what I discovered during all of that sewing is that the walking foot was absolutely perfect. Rather than use it only for quilting, when it came time to put pieces of fabric together it worked perfectly. By now you wonder what the heck is a walking foot so here is what it looks like,

and what it does is keep the bottom and top fabric moving in conjunction. Above I am using it for quilting, along with that guide on the left,  however I never take it off anymore so I join seams together using it as well. Another cool sewing gadget that has come to be very popular of late is using these cute little clips instead of pins. Another winner! Another gift from Fallon.

May I presume that you already have guessed that the quilt is completed? Indeed it is, shown below on our bed. Although I have never done anything in red before, I have to say the both of us are looking forward to seeing it in its new home with the lovely red curtains.

In my last post I showed a few things I'd made from the past and if you look pretty closely you will recognize some of that old fabric. While I did have to purchase the flannel and backing fabric all of the rest was gathering dust under the table where I am typing this. That's a big win in my book.

Holy cow, is this really happening??? Eating lunch at our familiar kitchen table we went over the packing list Bruce has put together. It must be happening.

your friend,

Gail