Gone To The Beach

Friday, December 15, 2023

Cooky Day _ Yes or No?

Hi everyone! On good days [sunny days] the low December sun warms us as we sit at the table, sipping tea, waking up. If it's not windy Mo and I can still sit outside for a bit, getting our dose of Vitamin D and salt air. Ice and storms are still to come, let's hope for a mild winter? Six, or 7 months now til summer.

This beautiful book is my morning read. I always have a non-fiction book on the table to read at breakfast. It has beautiful quilts by modern quilt designers who illustrated the classic tale.

We did have a bit of a storm on the past weekend. High winds---37-45 mph sustained wind from the south, from the ocean is strong and slightly frightening. I made all the usual tedious pre-storm preps---un-needed. Monday was sunny, Tuesday sunny, fine. Then for no understandable reason at 5 pm on Tuesday the power went out. The house gets cold fast, though the lingering sunset and stars were beautiful. I had just been heading out to meet friends for our visit to the beach light show and dinner.

No power means no light show and no dinner. It was a sudden disappointment, to cancel a long awaited traditional night out. My friends went on to dinner, away from the backout area, but I'd never leave Mo alone in pitch darkness and cold night, he might be very scared.

The lights are so dramatic on the black shoreline.

The flaws in my storm prep became glaringly obvious: I do have food and candles, but I need more lanterns, flashlights that work, light socket emergency plug in lights, and a phone charger. Maybe Santa will read this blog! The power came back in an hour or two. Supposedly a mylar balloon shorted oit a transformer here.

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Today was intended to be cooky day. But I am out of vanilla having stupidly purged my spices of old opened bottles and vials.

I'm ambivalent about the once beloved chore of baking cookies. I LOVE baking my Christmas cookies, love having a filled tin to offer friends who might stop by. But no one I know eats sweets or cookies anymore.

I'll never forget making fancy [sugar free!, but royal icing] tiny cookies for my parents and a hand decorated cooky plate for their home on Cape Cod. Sure wish I had that plate! I'll never forget visiting months later and finding the uneaten unused cookies and plate in the pantry. My mom shrugged--we don't eat that stuff.

Be that as it may, her hand written cookbook is chockablock with cooky recipes and sweet Christmas and New Years desserts she once made. Strawberries Romanoff, Tipsy Squire trifle! Chocolate mousse.

And maybe six versions of Snowballs, some with brandy or bourbon!

I'll make the simplest original version when I get the new vanilla--$$$--tomorrow.

My mo0ther's cookbook is not just cookies though. It was started for me when I left home for college and had my own apartment. [dorm life, shudder!]Useful things like cooking times and how to make mashed potatoes. Her various pasta sauces, french onion soup, pilaf. Mainstays.

Pickles, scripted from my dad's spoken directions.

Recipes from friends, like my cousin's Southern pecan pie, my friend Olga's Snowball cookies and her cheap meals hot dog recipe. And added by my mother in law, useful dishes like her pound cake, cole slaw, matzoh ball soup.

Such love and happy memories reside in this tiny black notebook. My mom is nearby, if only in my heart and thoughts.

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Lori/ Humble Quilts has her linky post up for Parsonsfield and a lovely post about Maine in snowy winter. My little quilt is unfinished. Instead I made a fun string patched stocking for my little artist friend.

I printed out a few coloring pages for her, but have the idea that they'd be wonderful in redwork, as pillow shams for the Christmas bed.

Instead of baking, Mo and I walked a bit, looking for pretty things in the brilliant setting sun. Winter hydrangeas are so richly colored.

December beach roses.

Glowing euonymus.

The sun set at 428 today, one minute more daylight than yesterday. Thhat signals hope for better days--longer days!---to come. One week til winter Solstice.

Have a good ''last week til Christmas"!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

vintage flower frog, slowly turning purple on the windowsill. I use it to dry flower heads for seeds.

Mr Mockingbird 2015, an established visitor already all those years ago, I think since about 2010.

And here he is enjoying a bounce on a windy branch last week. At night he shelters in the dense euonymus I showed above.

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Bramble Blooms and Snow

Hi everyone! Today, just now, and tomorrow, are the earliest sunsets of the year. The Solstice is later but only dawns are effected after tomorrow. [Earth tilt]. And we had snow! Even though it's 40*. I blinked and missed the first snow, but some cars had a dusting late morning.

It's been getting dark/ twilight at three pm all week. below taken 3.30 pm yesterday 12/6

I'm glad I put up my tiny tree to bring light and joy in the dark days.

Mo wore his Christmas robin sweater today. More bec he has an ear ache than it's cold. The hood is very windproof and stays on.

Meanwhile, Audrey has paused Bramble Berries Improv #bramblebloomsQAL due to personal issues. I am very sorry for her distress and hope things will improve for her. The break works out for me though, as I am sadly behind, mostly in the dithering stage. This is just to remind you of my Tulips in a Blue Jug fabrics:

I did piece together my central square's background. Mine is pretty square--I like square quilts, Audrey makes long rectangular quilts,. Plus i can always trim. Or add. Bad news is no matter how I press or that all the parts measure square, the piece does not lie flat. Why is that? I think it is a remake.

Then I did the assigned scribble drawings. They aren't much more useful than my inspiration painting, but you'll recognize my scribble journal style here. Yes, done on the phone as I waited for appointment confirmations, "Can you spell your name again? Date of birth? And you have insurance? What was that again?" [been a patient there for years.]

My thinking with the tulips---and boy, everyone is doing Tulips, yeesh---is to make a couple of pointy oval templates, cutting inner edges with a pinking shears to create the parrot tulip fringe, plus an egg shaped template for the pink and the yellow tulips. Fusible on the backs, cut a bunch of stems and petals and make my Bouquet. Add long pointy leaves in chartreuse shades. Straight stitch machine applique is current planned mode of applique, bec I won't have time to sew it by hand anytime soon.

I do know I want a pitcher. That will be needleturned. First choice is too pale.

Then I dyed it and another with indigo blue RIT. Colors looked ok until I used the mordant Retayne which drabbed them out to ugly.

So no. These were ideas I had online, another is a black and white modern print.

[yes, I know we're supposed to use what we have but I don't have what I need for this, so why go with muddy ugly?]

If that's all a fail I may do my nautical themed Whale and Flag or I even thought about using this beautiful antique block. It's on my list to be used soon.

Last idea floating around is this wonderful Kaffe Fassett fabric, Beach Balls.

I got it for Mo's ugly down pillow he loves. I gave him a new fresh pillow a few weeks ago, but he refuses to sleep on it, and is shunning his sofa-back perch. He found the old one and sleeps on it instead.

So I got the fun fabric to recover the oldie. Of course he may reject that too, though he seems okay with pillow covers as long as it's HIS pillow. (I don't dare wash it, it's down, plus I am sure he is attached to its scent. I air it out in the sunshine instead.] The fabric got mixed up with BBI fabrics and one day I sat in the little quilt room and thought, "Maybe Blue flowers would be cool?''

Last quilty note: new from Kaffe Fassett--I am in love with this new Spring 2024 grouping. It could make the best summer blue quilt. I want it. [Santa, I was good! Really!]

If nothing else, these will be pillow cases for ME next summer!

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Looks iffy for my annual trip to the Christmas garden center. Wait and see or repost from a long ago year? Will anyone even notice, hahaha--or HoHoHo? Your thoughts?

PS for the kind friends who asked about my much dreaded eye surgeon appointment: it went ok, though the special drops and exams w blinding lights were distressing. I couldn't see much til today at noon. Hence snow miss. This doctor is kind and I trust him, he is not one to rush me off to surgery until it is, if ever, useful. Results are that nothing is worse and no surgery soon [unless things suddenly change, I suppose].

BLOG note: If you leave an anonymous comment, pls sign your name. All comments w no email will be replied to here as best I can. Thank you! And--sometimes Google and always Typepad/ .com blogs that I read to see your updates on Improv, do not always allow me to comment. Pls know I read and enjoy and if your blog has an email attached I'll try to comment that way.

much love and holiday wishes from....