Well, It's About Time

 Back in November, when I began this massive scrappy quilt, if you had told me that it would take me until the first week of August to finish the top, I would have thought you did not know me very well. You see, when I begin a project, I generally get going and don't stop until I'm done. Not so this time! Had it not been for discovering podcasts, I would still probably be putting 2"x3.5" pieces of fabric together! 

My listening took me all over the web, including the Alaska story, America's Test Kitchen, and many excellent episodes of How Stuff Works. While I did not listen to any of these episodes, I now want to because they are so darn interesting. I did learn about jigsaw puzzles, including that the first one was made by a London mapmaker. Lots of really interesting information about how soap works, the difference between soap and detergent and when people actually began using it on their bodies. (not really that long ago) Miniature golf baby! Yes, there is an entire segment devoted to that, and it is just as interesting as you can imagine. Speaking of jigsaw puzzles, Bruce did one on his own for the very first time and he liked it! Sort of, anyway. There comes a time when one is doing a puzzle that the thought crosses one's mind that there must be some missing pieces. Generally, or at least in my limited experience, that is not the case, although for a moment, convincing Bruce of that took some doing.

So here is the finished top spread out on the floor after moving the furniture because it is so darn BIG! How big you ask? BIG, as in 90"x96". 

Well, you can't just have a top can you? No, you cannot, so making the backing was my next task using a variety of fabrics that have been stored in baskets under my sewing/blogging table. The good news was that in those baskets were several pieces at least two yards long and one piece of vintage fabric that was about 4 or more yards long. How do I know it is vintage you wonder? Because it is but 36" wide and they haven't made that width in a very long time. It's the one with the small flowers on it, but you guessed that already I bet because there is so much of it used.

The last part I need to make, aside from the quilting, is the binding, something lots of folks wait to do just before they need it. I, on the other hand, prefer to make it now and when it is needed, there it is waiting patiently for me. I've yet to decide on who exactly will do the quilting, but for now that is a moot point because batting is hard to find at the moment. In spite of it being offered as Prime on Amazon, it won't arrive until late next week. Which reminds me, does anyone imagine that Amazon will offer extensions on our memberships because they have not been able to deliver many goods within two days?  But, I digress. 

What about the current shortages of goods surprises you the most? Gutterman thread is also hard to get, something I could never have imagined, pre-Covid. As far as sewing is concerned, I'm thinking it is making a big comeback, somewhat like home cooking. Neither are new to me, but for some folks this business of making three meals a day is getting very old. Or not? Are there converts out there that are enjoying feeding themselves and their family if they have one? I will admit that procuring ingredients poses some challenges, but thankfully between Clemons and Publix, plus an occasional visit to Costco, we've mostly been able to get what we need/want. One product though remains elusive and that is Claussen's pickles, so we have taken to making our own. In a surprise move, Bruce spent some time in the kitchen making hot pickled cauliflower that is still brining; already it is far too hot for me! Speaking of Clemons, they've had some yellow seedless watermelon lately that I purchased for Bruce. He tells me that while it is good, it won't replace the traditional pink for him.

In my last post I mentioned that Ann was our fairy godmother, and in this post it is Nancy who sent me a care package with FOUR skorts for playing pickleball along with two dresses to boot! The dresses, while not pictured, are perfect! My female pickleball friends, I must admit, are a wee bit jealous of that Lily with the cute little rackets and pleats.

Should you have been wondering what a pickleball paddle looks like here is mine which is unique to our group, making it easy to find in the rack amongst about six or so of the same.

Today Bruce helped Bill with his wood flooring and I played a bit with the ladies. A bunch of the news around here is weather related, as we've had part of a big oak tree go down by the tennis courts while the weather was sunny, barely missing someone as they drove in through the gate. Before much of anything could be done, aside from cleaning up the debris, a massive storm came through late Monday afternoon. Serious wind, massive thunder and lightning, along with almost 3.5 inches of rain came as a surprise because it was so strong, enough so that our little tree took a thrashing. Not to mention we had no dire warnings from the weather folks.

Yesterday afternoon Bruce put stakes on it because, if history is any guide, we are in for more big storms before summer's end. In fact, the wind is whipping up the lake as I type. By the way, if anyone knows someone who is looking for a wonderful place to live, our friend Nancy is moving soon and her place will be up for sale. It is a 3/2 upstairs unit just around the corner from us. She has lived here for more than twenty years and her next stop is a lovely 11th floor apartment at Westminster Towers. I've no doubt she'll be making friends there soon.

Back to the storm, remember I mentioned the tree limb falling a few days prior? Well with such strong winds and a weakened tree, another huge limb came down in about the same spot.

Here's what it looked like the next day from the entry....

And here's what it looks like today.

The visible fence is the tennis courts which are now in more sun than is optimal, but that's what happens when there are giant old trees. We can only hope that this is the only one that has to be removed during storm season!

When I first began selling photography, Roger kept trying to convince me to begin selling canvas prints stretched on bars. It took me months to get up the nerve, not to mention anguish over what I thought might sell because I had to buy them first and what if no one liked it? Eventually I settled on a sunset that I titled Solid Gold. The funny thing is that it didn't take long to sell it and the person who bought it was the market manager, the very same woman who once would not accept me as a vendor! Anyway, following the storm, the color of the sky reminded me of that time in my life.

In other sky related news, I saw Venus next to the Moon in the morning sky!! The photographs are not worth sharing, but it was so remarkable I called Bruce from his place in front of the morning newspaper.

Cris has been moved to a rehab center, the only one in Orlando that will accept positive Covid patients, where they will do all that they can to bring him back to health. One piece of good news is when he eventually tests negative, Judy should be able to finally see him up close! Let's hope it is sooner rather than later. Maureen is still in good shape for which we are thankful. All of the immediate family, as in my siblings, their spouses and grandchildren, remain clear of the virus. The same goes for our boys and their spouses. All remain working from home, for how much longer is anyone's guess. 

Today I have no new vocabulary words to share, instead I'm thinking about an old word that is a good one and describes not just myself, but more people than are probably happy to use the moniker....homebody. While it suits me just fine, not everyone is loving it. And to think I subtitled this blog...Out & About with Gail? 

2021 will be the year of the gadabout for everyone, or so I hope!!

your friend,

Gail

p.s. Blogger was acting up big time today, thus the crazy formatting. 

A Mixed Bag

I've got some good news to share about Cris, which, btw, is how he spells his name. It's short for Crispen, a Latin name meaning curly haired, or so I just learned. Unfortunately I never did ask my in laws how they came up with that name for their firstborn. Two things, his first name is Joel, but he goes by Cris, and no, he has anything but curly hair! More importantly, he is improving as he enters his second month of hospitalization. He's eating better and has even sat in a chair which is huge. Today he received both a second dose of Convalescent Plasma, and a new Covid test. Should that come back negative, he most likely will be moved to another unit and here's the real biggie....visitors may be permitted!! Cris and Judy are coming up on their 48th wedding anniversary and the hope is that even before that big date, Judy will be allowed to see him again for the first time since she dropped him off at the emergency room!! Hallelujah!

For us, this week has been much the same except, get this, I've actually gone a few places and they were not Publix or Clemons! Before we delve into those exciting places, when last we met, a storm was heading towards Central Florida. It did not. We were on the pickleball court when it began raining, enough so we all scrambled to our cars, however, once we were all home out of our wet clothes, it stopped and never started again. While I'm glad for that, I am gladder still because the name, Isais was so difficult to pronounce, I was hoping we wouldn't have to use it for more than a day. Sadly it did hit in North Carolina with some damage, but nothing super major.

Yes to playing pickleball most mornings, and no to any field trips. We had loads of rain in the afternoons, keeping us inside to work on puzzles. Plural because, one of my little afternoon trips was to visit, as it turns out, my fairy Godmother, Ann. We were slated to just do a puzzle swap, but she ended up inviting me in and we had a marvelous visit, socially distanced, of course.

I'd finished this during the alleged storm and was having withdrawals, so I got in touch with Ann. Before I go further, this puzzle, while a neat image was interesting in that there was less puzzle than the image portrayed. I know weird, but once that frame was done, it was pretty darn fun. While doing the frame, I kept looking for more of that lobster on the right to no avail. Puzzled, I looked at some online reviews where I was alerted to this problem. Now when I loan it out I will pass that along. I left her place with not one, but two fantastic puzzles, two novels and a small bottle of some homemade Limoncello which is in the freezer as I type. She began the process near the beginning of the time of Corona, probably never imagining that it would still be raging on after the something like the 80 days of fermentation. Gosh it was nice to see her.

Early on I wrote a post about all of the new language associated with this unprecedented time and over time more phrases or words have emerged that are new to me. Have you heard the term "security theater"? It means safety measures that are done somewhat for show. Then there is "cancel culture", "Karen", and "woke". Some enlightened readers may have already known these terms, but they are new to me. I would be lying if I told you that any of them are very appealing to me, especially Karen as I know plenty of Karens that are good people.

Because of all the rain the quilt has been back in the picture. Friends, I am nearing the finish line on the top and the time that it has taken me is nothing to be proud of, that's for sure. Having, once again, used up all of my cut fabric, I just could not face using more of the same so.......I took a trip to Hobby Lobby for something different. Their supplies were diminished and the woman who cut my fabric told me that not only are they not having their usual sales but they can't keep enough fabric or elastic in stock. Apparently mask making is still going on.

The new fabric was cut, more couples were put together,

and it still wasn't enough!! I have 34 more duos to join,  then they all get put together, and then the rows which I'm hoping will all blend together and the new stuff won't show up like a sore thumb! Whew, sorry for that run on sentence! Seriously, it is going to be so busy, it will be a blur. All the while I listened to Lost in Alaska, finally finishing it yesterday afternoon. The bottom line is that even after nine years of digging into this story, the plane has still not been found. For those who listen to NPR, I did learn that it was Cokie Roberts father who went down in the plane. If for no other reason, I suggest you click on that link and see what her real name was. Amazing. I am thinking of sending it out to be quilted because, Lord knows, it is huge and will probably take me more time than I can imagine. Then again, what else do I have right now but time?

Dated 6/23/2020, I finally drove over to the bank to deposit the check my publisher sent me all that time ago. Sadly it was small, but is that any surprise? No, it is not. Yesterday's headline was that Disney lost $2 billion in the last quarter!!! Where, oh where, is all this leading us? What pray tell is the photo below all about? You tell me. Why would make someone take off their sandals in a bank parking lot? It is as if she stepped out of them and got in her car. Perhaps there is a short story in this?

A couple of posts ago, one that most people apparently did not see according to my stats, I showed a Mother Mallard on some eggs in a planter on the pool deck. Well, here's some exciting news. The eggs have hatched!

While riding my bike around this morning my friends told me they had seen the new ducklings on their walk, even telling me where they had seen them. Music to my ears friends, music to my ears. The first photos I took were terrible due to poor lighting, however, after an hour of practicing pickleball in the horrible heat, I was bushed so on my ride home I swung by again to see if I could get some better photos. Done and done! They came quite close, and while I've got some good ones, this one is super cute because they are close to shore in very clear water.

Aren't they just adorable?? From talking to folks, it seems as if they are about four days old. I wish they were on our little lake where there are more hiding places, but time will tell how many survive on the big lake.

I know the very best way to cool off when it is blazing hot....yup, the swimming pool where I swam and began one of the books Ann lent me. It was super great in the shade.

As you can see, there is not a social distancing problem at all. In fact, while I was there, only a handful of people came and went. Thinking about the ducklings, Mama was in the ivory planter on the right side of the dock. We are all mystified as to how the ducklings survived the jump down and then into the lake which is many feet below the pool. Nature is amazing is all I can say. The water lilies are looking lovely, especially when the sky is reflecting so beautifully on the water.

Oh snap...there's a dragonfly on that water lily! While not nearly as impressive as the Victoria water lilies in my last post, they are lovely, nonetheless.

So, there is one short story prompt in this post, and here's another. What printer would not alert the customer to the misspellings on this car I saw parked today? They paid for this sign?

Closely cropped to leave out the phone number, I'm mystified. While on the topic of mysteries, we began watching Breaking Bad and while it was good, the violence was a bit much for us. Ann and I talked about British television mysteries and she recommended one that I could not find on Amazon or Netflix, however I did stumble upon a series that has turned out to be nothing short of excellent, Endeavour. Holy Cow, is is good.

One fascinating thing about living on water is how you notice the movement of the Earth through the sunrise, sunset, and moonrise. I love walking into our not-yet-updated bathroom and seeing the day begin.

With all of the stormy weather, both the sunrise and sunset are much more dramatic than when the weather is calm. Taken this morning, will the red sky mean anything? So far, not, but the day is not over yet.

 Finally, the once a year blooms on a Giant Schefflera are something to behold.

We used to have one of these trees at our home and the yearly show was dramatic,  plus the bees had a heyday with them.

The kitchen is calling dear ones. Stay safe, wear your masks, social distance, and for heaven's sake, love one another because this virus is no joke as Cris's story clearly demonstrates. Don't let petty political differences alter that because you just never know what tomorrow will bring. Heck, Jessica is still not 100% and she's young and healthy!

your friend,

Gail

Choose Your Own Title

Over the years, I have been known to be very enthusiastic about things that I like. Take for example the time that Bruce bought me an Oreck vacuum cleaner after seeing some infomercials while he was on the road for work. Unlike me who needs mostly silence while I am writing, Bruce used to always have the television on in his hotel rooms while he was catching up on email, which means he saw a lot of products advertised. Anyway, the Oreck replaced a super heavy Kirby so I was ecstatic, telling  everyone I knew about what a great vacuum cleaner it was, and still is for that matter. Thus, my enthusiasm for pickleball follows my usual pattern of over excitement, according to some. My darling son-in-law is bemused at my behavior, teasing me during a lengthy facetime call with he and Matt the other afternoon. I did my best to convince them to turn on the television during our conversation so they could see what it is all about to no avail. They were somewhat skeptical that it was even played in England, however, it did not take long to discover that it is not only played in England, but get this, there was a charity pickleball tournament held at the Wimbledon Racquet and Fitness Club. It is no surprise that they have their own Facebook page! With a little more sleuthing on his part, he discovered that 10/10/20 is World Pickelball Day. While I am not nearly as athletic as some ladies, I am improving, and that is good enough for me. In the meantime I will continue to tell anyone who will listen what a fun sport it is to play!!

Before I delve into a little field trip we took this week, I have some better news on Cris's condition. He has begun to eat a little and they have lowered his oxygen levels. As you can imagine, we are applauding these baby steps. Jessica, as young and fit as she is, has not had a totally smooth recovery, however, she is mostly improving every day. While the cases in Florida seem to be leveling off somewhat, we now have a major storm in the Atlantic that everyone is watching. What next? Locusts?

A few days ago, don't ask me what day because they are all the same to me, we went to Bok Tower, an outdoor activity not on a court! It is so blazing hot, it's not the best time to do that sort of thing, but I was dying to get out of the city. Located in Lake Wales, or near there anyway, we began our journey, once again on Interstate 4, this time in the opposite direction.

This section is in much better condition than going East and with the theme parks drawing so few visitors, driving through that area was a breeze. We read in yesterday's paper that Universal has seen a 94% decrease in visitors!!! Gosh what will the future hold for our region? It is so scary.

Back to the trip, getting off on Hwy. 27 we mostly followed it there, arriving around 10 in the morning, meaning it was already close to 90 degrees.

Masked, we handed over our $30, and drove the one mile to the parking lot with orange groves flanking the roadway.

 Immediately I was captivated with the tower of Caladiums.

Under the covered portico, there was this cool display of insect catching plants, sometimes known as Venus Fly traps.

 A beautiful motto to live by greeted us as we made our way to the tower.

It is a fairly short walk that for those who have mobility issues would generally be made easier by a tram that was not operational due to the virus.

I'd taken my walking stick because we planned to do some walking while there. Here is a crazy photo that I took by accident that includes it. That my friends is not why I'm including it here though; it is to show off the new Lily dress that fits and was super comfy in the extreme heat!

So here we are beside the reflecting pond which is pretty, but man that gold door steals the show! For the most part people were totally great about social distancing aside from the group of students on the other side. That said, I'm not judging them because I don't know their situation.

The Koi were quite interesting and seriously active, particularly when someone is willing to drop the food right into their mouth.

While we have visited here a number of times over the years, I feel like this time is the first that I really noticed the intricate detailing in both the stone, and the pretty colored metal. At 20 stories tall this was as close as my zoom would allow.

Did I mention it was blazing hot? Of course I did, don't I always moan and groan about the heat? It was getting to Bruce, so he laid down for a rest.

 As to the details, of which they are numerous. this sundial features the zodiac. Dedicated in 1929, just seven months before the stock market crash, here's a link with some very interesting facts. 

 The carvings were done by the same sculptor who did the Atlas at Rockefeller Center in NYC.

The stone work is so beautiful and while I admired it, I was soon blown away at the sight of these giant water lilies, that I now know are named Victoria, growing on the reflecting pond.

With the carvings fresh in your mind, imagine the details of these beauties that look as if they have been carved, rather than grown in water.

Aren't they simply astonishing? I read that in a botanical garden near Gainesville, they grew some that were eight feet across!! Finally a super cool blooming succulent.

There is an onsite restaurant selling sandwiches that we took advantage of under the covered outdoor patio. Sharing a sandwich, we spent most of the time chatting with an 80+ year old couple that live nearby, visiting weekly for lunch and a shared bottle of wine that they cork to take home. Very nice folks even if the woman said tennis players look down on pickleball players! Ha ha.

Closer to home, Bruce had to trim the tree the other day because it is already outgrowing the provided space. It broke my heart watching him cut off the beautiful branches so I saved some of the fronds for the house for however long they last.

Our new neighbor Sherry took advantage of a BOGO at Publix, sharing a dozen roses that were gorgeous. Even though the sunny yellow blooms were fantastic, for some reason I thought of Maureen and we dropped the vase off at Westminster Towers and I mean that literally. I handed them off to a security guard assuming he would deliver them, and by golly he did. Maureen was ever so excited when they gave them to her after a 24 hour quarantine. I only recently learned that we could do such a thing. For those interested, she sounds better than I've heard her in a long time. So, good news on the Maureen front, and we shall hope for continuing good news on the Cris front.

We are working on a new puzzle I ordered, and I do mean we, as Bruce joined in early on. Once it is done, I'll show it off.

 Limpkins live on a diet of Apple Snails.

The drought from earlier in the year is mostly a thing of the past, with rain coming most afternoons. Followed, if we are lucky, with a rainbow. Aside from the rainbow what is interesting about the photo below is...can you guess?

Should you have guessed an airplane you would be correct. Why so remarkable? While travel is picking up somewhat, it is still down over 60% and I suspect even lower numbers of arriving passengers since those numbers were published.

And yet, in spite of it all, there is still the rising and setting of the sun every day to be grateful for.

We shall see what the next couple of days brings. If I were to have any say in it, nothing happening is fine by me. We welcome rain, just not too much. 25 mph winds is more than enough too.

Closing in on 2,000 blog posts, a decent title eluded me this afternoon. Any ideas?

your friend,

Gail

Holy Cow, it is August already!!

The Calendar May Change But....

Yes, the dates on the calendar may change, however, around here it is hard to tell one day from another. And while I wish I could bring good news about Cris, he remains in critical care for the foreseeable future. I take that back, he has not worsened which is somewhat good news. So far they have tried all sorts of things without much success. They've just started him on something new so perhaps that will be the one that will put him on the road to recovery. At the same time that we've all been worried sick about Cris, I've just learned that a very faithful reader of Camera Crazy is quite ill, however, her situation is a familiar one to most of us. Cancer. I'm heartsick upon learning that news. Her name is Barbara, and she is in a lot of pain, and could use our collective prayers for comfort. 

Let's begin our pictures with a bad one. It pains me to post it, but one of the main reasons I blog is for documentation of life and sometimes that doesn't turn out as I hope. At least it shows that it happened! Yes, the other morning, there were two owls and my pictures are horrible. I took this a few days ago and only just saw it this afternoon. Boo hoo! It is my practice to take a bunch when something like this happens, however, the owl on the left flew off within minutes of my spotting them. It is a good reminder that even someone who has a camera in their hand every day still takes crummy pictures.

 Here was Mr. Bruce working on the pickleball rack in his makeshift shop. Isn't that rug so fun?

Here's a funny story that some folks have already heard. Michelle and David gave me a Lily gift card for Christmas. It is well known that it takes me forever to finally use a gift card, but a few weeks ago seemed like the time to finally pull the trigger. To make a long story short, I ordered a dress online, it came and was child sized and then it sat here for nearly two weeks while I pondered my next step. Finally I decided to take it back to the store at The Mall at Millenia, a decision not made lightly as I've been to Publix and Clemons and that's about it during the last four, or is it five months? Apparently, I'm not the only one who is having trouble with venturing out. I parked at Bloomingdales and the next photos are for documenting what it is like during the surge in Coronavirus cases here in Florida.

This gave me pause. A beautiful store, I've since read that Neiman Marcus is one of the many retailers filing for bankruptcy during the pandemic.

You may not be able to read the sign that says they are open, but you should enter from the street side, unlike Vineyard Vines that is open only for orders.

The Apple store in this mall is normally teaming with people. Not only were there no people aside from the one woman, there were no products either. I've been in here on numerous occasions when busloads of Brazilians are in line, having flown in to shop. Not happening these days.

They were so happy to welcome customers back to Kate Spade, but I'm guessing they did not mean little boys in masks as their target audience.

And what could be more sad than this? Well, obviously lots of things, but still. BTW--there was no need for the signs as there were no people!

 Guards were in attendance but hardly anyone else was.

 The beauty department at Bloomingdales is also normally packed with shoppers.

So, I went to the store, held up the dress because the girl would have had to put on gloves, and we sorted it out.  I'd ordered a medium and while the hanging tag said that, the inside of the dress said, XXS. No wonder! Silly me for not thinking of looking inside. I left with nothing as it was not in stock, but while I've been sitting here typing, the new dress arrived and it is cute as can be. My mall adventure took me through Bloomies, and on to Lily and then back again. There was not the least problem finding my car in the parking lot.

I'm looking out the window right now and this fellow is on a branch within easy sight. We have so many hawks around here that can be heard screaming at all times of the day.

I finally got to working on the quilt again and the sewing was made all the easier because I found a fantastic podcast to listen to called Missing in Alaska. Absolutely fascinating to learn about two congressman, one the speaker of the House, who disappeared in the mid 70's and have never been found! We'd played pickleball with the group for hours and while they went out to lunch, I was the curmudgeon who wanted to stay home in order to social distance. I've been asked how in the world  Cris and Jessica got Covid-19 because the only time he'd left the house was to go out to eat on Father's Day. Well, it's a mystery, but if staying home from restaurants will help, I'm all in and that is coming from a family that owns a bunch of restaurant stock. Speaking of restaurants, during the pandemic we've had outside food maybe four or five times. While I was typing this I thought, maybe it would be a good night for Chinese food so we made that happen. I should not have bothered as it was not very good. 😦

After practicing pickleball this morning with Patty, Yvette, and Connie, we were more than ready for the swimming pool after lunch. Our Mama duck is still on her nest. The other day Gayle did a search and learned that Mallards stay on the nest for 28 days, something I was clueless about, so presuming we saw her early on, it will be short of two weeks until the eggs hatch.

One thing that has been a real blessing during the pandemic is Bruce has had loads of time to read novels, something that was in short supply during his demanding career. We both took a book to the pool, reading in the shade and enjoying the refreshing water until such time as the clouds began to gather. I read a neat thing in yesterday's paper about the mountains of Florida. Say what? Although we don't have any mountains, they compared our towering clouds to mountains. I must say, they are pretty great even though they aren't real mountains. The rain across the lake moved right over us, producing tremendous thunder and lightning, lasting for quite some time. Strong enough that I shut off my computer for a while as I don't need any problems with it. Recently Dave and Michelle's huge television suffered that fate.

So this is life inside our little Lake Pineloch Village bubble during the pandemic. All of our sons are still working from home, the cases are going up, with seemingly no end in sight. That said, I know that this too shall pass but when? That is the question of 2020, and I don't think I really want to know the answer.

your friend,

Gail