She's back!

Monday's afternoons with my granddaughter are one of the best parts of every week. We were on hiatus since Christmas, because her mother was on maternity leave, but today Em and I were together again!

In celebration of our reunion, I let Em choose a craft to do.....of course, she choose to make a diorama...........

Last Friday, I instructed her to wrap a balloon with yarn soaked in white glue. She let it dry over the weekend ....Today she popped the balloon,

cut an opening, removed the deflated balloon

glued in some spring-like stuff

Voila! Is she an artist or what!

I wonder what we're gonna do next week?

I tried

I spent today at my parent's farm. They have some peacocks that run around the place..... I wanted to take a photo.... I followed the big blue birds around an old corn crib.......
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they flew over the woodpile, I walked around it......

another woodpile stood in my way

Can you guess what this is?.................... It's peacock feathers caught on a log.

I keep walking..............I am easily distracted by shiny objects.....

Bits of glass on the cow path. More than 50 years ago, it was the garbage dump.....

A dead tree, no peacocks....................

My bits of glass balanced on a old hay rake , I told you I am easily distracted!

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My elusive prey...... the best photo I could get!

Sister and Brother

Monday was a warm sunny day, Gael and Em were visiting me..... I wanted to introduce Gael to the creek, but it was windy, and he did not have a jacket along.


I dug out his Uncle Clay's jacket from 25 years ago.........and away we went!

I made this jacket in 1984 for my son, and appliqued his name on the front.......I must have had more time back then,,,,, were there more hours in a day in 1984?

Gael liked it!

You think you know someone

You think you know someone, then suddenly they surprise you with a bit of info or an action that changes your perspective of them.



The person in this case is my Dad, who I have "known" all my life. (Not everyone can say that, so I felt the need to.) All my life is 52 years.

He is recovering remarkably quickly from a total knee replacement. Faster than I did, and I was almost half his age when I had mine knee done. After watching him walk on his first day home from the hospital I quoted my friend Lynda saying to him "You're a better man than I, Gunga Din." He was walking so well!

That's when he surprised me by reciting from memory whole paragraphs of the Rudyard Kipling poem! What? I never knew my Dad ever read any poetry! Growing up, both of my parents encouraged reading, but they themselves were too busy farming and raising children to read anything as 'frivolous" as fiction or poetry.

My Dad tells me he memorised "Gunga Din" during high school, not for any class, just for fun. Then he asked me if I had ever read "The Death of a Hired Man", by Robert Frost. I had not. Imagine my surprise when I discover the famous line------------- "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in.’------------------------ My Dad had memorised a lot of of this poem, too. And retained it since the 1940's!

I won't assume that I know ALL about anyone again. This revelation changed my perspective of my Dad, ever so slightly. It made me even MORE proud of him.

a busy time

Life gets in the way of blogging. Here are a few glimpses of my life, in no particular order.

Preparing for our annual retreat. Teaching at the retreat. Partying at the retreat. SINGING at the retreat

Spending time with family and friends.

Helping out at the Farm, here's my Dad on his first day home from the hospital, ain't he cute?

Wildlife at the farm, including wrangling a stray calf, no photos of that.

Attempted to clean up my studio

Knit a PAIR of socks

Whew, I am tired!