June (soon)

 

 

Hi guys!
Ah---June. A time of change, uncertainty, a time of anticipation, of pothole repair crews and traffic jams. Sweaters and windjackets/ shorts and flipflops.
Nowhere, anywhere, to park.

June at the beach has an odd air of frenzy, or desperation...we [they?] just cannot WAIT! to get out there on the beach.
Hurry Up! We gotta relax! Now! 

go awaaaaay! go awaaaay!

LOL.
Anyway I just adore the beachy tchotcka aisles at the supermarkets and beach shops.

 My kids are too old, to blase', now but once upon a time, a June long ago, it seems, we'd pore endlessly over the baskets of sandcastle molds and pails and shovels. So exciting to choose just the right one! (And as if we didn't have washbaskets full of same, from other years or beachcombed. But still.).

I kinda miss all that. Though sandcastle construction is, like kite flying, a lot of hard work and not quite as much fun as you think it'll be.

I do less machine sewing, more handwork in the summer when I can see my stitches in the bright sun. Today I dyed some natural linen green, for June strawberry leaves.

I painted the thrifted pantry boxes. The new-to-me chalk paint is very pretty and easy to work with, great coverage.

 This chalk paint will be great next spring for eggs...

I picked up a few useful things at Marshall's. A huge beach basket hamper for all the beach towels.

I have a zillion towels.

Somehow no matter how often you gently ask guests to bring their own towels and beach chairs---well, they don't. And kids only use a sandy towel once, right. ''EEeew, ma, it's all sandy."

A couple other Marshall's things: Pretty stationary to write to friends who do not use email or text. (Yes! They exist!) Or for the ones who send email but never write back when you respond, one of my little peeves.

A wooden spool of cord, bought mainly for the neat fat flat spool. They had a bunch of them but $$$. No bargains there.

A beautifully colorful Provencal tablecloth, 100% cotton. Maybe for a quilt back someday? How fun to flip over a drab Civil War repro quilt and find this! Authentic in its way, as in the early 1800s India block printed muslin was ''all the rage''.

And I bought a little pot of daisies for my graniteware blueberry bucket.

A little skimpy, but I haven't found just the right thing, and these were cute and cheap.

So. For now.

A visitor. Not Kitty, one of her Twins. Kitty , Smokey and Junior have not been around for months. I hope, as Kelley suggested, they found better ''homes'' during the long hard winter. Only Stripey, the patriarch---and the Twins remain.

Let's hope for a warm sunny weekend!  Any plans?
 
love
 
lizzy

gone to the beach...

 

 

Pictures from the Weekend: Summer

Hi guys! Before I fire up the barbie for today's classic burgers and corn and hotdogs BBQ, I have some first weekend of Summer photos of my beach to share. Just in case you're tired of crafty stuff!

The first beach roses are in bloom.

The long holiday weekend started out rainy. See the sheets of rain, off to the far western horizon?

 

Then it was cold. With a very low tide.

 

 

 

 

 

 Today was breezy and pleasant.

 Look! The crowds came. All clustered around a lifeguard stand at a section of the beach with village access, maybe a 1/4 mile away?.

When the people disperse in the late afternoon, the birds return and begin to feed. Only the piping plovers will run along the shoreline when there are a lot of strange people present.

 

Here's a plover nest, in its cage:

 

 

 

My birdies:

 

Gully.

 

 

A very pretty Laughing gull who did not want his picture taken. I love these beautiful small gulls, rare here.

The pair of oystercatchers who nest on the western dune of my beach, whether the dune is there or not.

 

I was very worried about this pair, they must be 10 years old or more. And I had only seen one of them all spring. Today I found the nest, with the pair trading off to watch the eggs and/ or feed. OCs are very good parents. The male also chased away a group of least terns, which further endeared the OCs to me. (We know how I hate the terns, right?)
One of the western open beach pair, below. They are also quite old, I think, and nest right in their exact spot each summer.

And always a thrill---the US Navy Blue Angels overhead!

Gotta go! Beach-hungry folks await their first summer dinner here at the beach. Hope your holiday was good.

love
 
lizzy

    gone to the beach

sheets of rain, a squall out at sea.

 

 

Welcome Summer!

 

 

Hi! Happy Summer, everyone!
I know it is summer (despite being dressed in jeans and garden clogs and my rattiest cashmere turtleneck---planting dahlias...) because:
I hung my wooden flag out on my deck fence! It goes up every Memorial Day, in honor of those who have died fighting for our freedom, and tries hard to remain there til Christmas Eve. My dad made me this flag because the wind is too strong for a real fabric flag.

 

Green things have sprouted in the deck planters...

 

 

 

 

My little pot of pansies is so pretty! (Next spring I am putting pansies in all my pastel McCoy pots. Love this little guy.) Beach rocks set out to be weights to hold my sewing things.

 

 

And I know it's summer because I got stuck on the farthest beach drawbridge yesterday. It rarely opens and I am not too fond of sitting there high above the water, with the wind howling and my Jeep guzzling gas.
Some guy in a sport fishing boat sauntered through the opening while we sat. And sat, and sat.
I ordered new beach shorts from LL Bean.  And the ugly locust tree outside my window here where I write finally has some sweet little lime green leaves. Grey skies behind, it's been raining for days. No Mr. Mockingbird, I am sad.

And it must be summer because there's golf stuff strewn everywhere....

 And my phone gets photos of baby swans and geese sent from the golf course. So adorable.

 

 

the baby swans are crowded up behind their mama, on the right

 The best part, besides the baby swans and goslings, is that today I redid my house in its summer blues. sigh of relief! I was very tired of the neutrals I loved last January.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little touch of red! For red-white-and-blue...

 

Blue quilts here and on my bed....

 

All the living room quilts are ''rescue'' quilts from the flea market. I found them tattered and very soiled. In need of a good bath and some love.

 

 

 

I bought this blue polka dot star with the oh so good intentions of cleaning it and reselling it. But it's so wonderful, I love it. So far I am not able to part with it.

 

 

 

There's been quite a few blog posts lately, on the quilting blogs, about ''fussy cut''quilt blocks. Look at this, see how the maker cut the big polka dots and tiny pansy motifs to center in each diamond piece of the star. Even the backing, not shown, is a polka dot, baby sky blue with cream dots. It's a keeper, right?

 

I use only blue and/ or old white china in the summer:

 

 

This is one of my best collections! below  These are 19th century ''carpet bowls'' or carpet balls. Mixed in with modern thrifted versions. The antique carpet balls are like giant clay or china marbles. I love their plaid and calico designs. [the flash makes the colors too garish, actually they are wonderfully aged and subtle. I'll try to take the photo with a different camera tomorrow]

This is a bonus shot for Mel who always wants to see real life and mess and clutter, lol! Note the case of bottled water! The slippers under the coffee table, the snuggle-y throw, the wilty but cherished bouquet from Mother's Day.
Do click to enlarge to look for dust bunnies, and sand dunes.

The large flag behid the swan was also made by my dad. It was attached to the side of my parents' grey shingled house on Cape Cod. My brother very kindly  got it down and saved it for me. I treasure it.
The only grey at my house is the sky.......
  .....................wishing you sunny skies!

 

 

 

love

 

lizzy

 

gone to the beach~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



the evil arctic terns have arrived!
They divebomb and poop on innocent beach persons.
Me!

 

 

 

golf course photos from a friend.