Sunday, August 20, 2023

I’ve been working on my Anna project for a long time. I managed to finish the centre and, although it wasn’t great, I thought it might be okay to move on to the borders. I got three of the four borders on when I realized it would be a waste of time and thread to proceed any further so I pitched the whole thing after removing the borders. That fabric will show up somewhere else down the road.

We enjoyed the Blackberry Festival street party although my overall impression was there were a lot of people, very few that we knew, and the vendors hadn’t changed or gotten much better. It was a long walk; I didn’t have my counter with me but Pat registered over 4000 steps. I barely made it back up the hill at the end of our outing but was able to stay awake for the fireworks. Our trees have grown up a lot and it is getting more and more difficult to see them from the deck.

Although yesterday’s Celebration was sad there was a good turnout of quilters. I also connected with a woman and her husband who we met when we were all staying at the Lodge in Vancouver. Turns out she (and I still don’t remember her name) is a good friend of one of my quilting friends. I gave my neighbour a ride home; we were having a good catch up and chat and I totally forgot to stop at the store. I was barely in the door before realizing I was going to have to go out again. While I was shopping I stopped and chatted with a woman who came to quite a few of our house concerts. It is nice to be out and about again!

Pat headed over to Texada on the noon ferry but I stayed home. I think our neighbour is getting tired of watering for us and I don’t blame her one bit. We should be nearing the point where we only need to water every couple of days but on the hot days you keep watering. I have my mystery quilt to try to get together, as well as a lot of September cards to get ready.

For the rest of the afternoon I’m going to work on my Pixie Lane cross stitch.

Friday, August 18, 2023

I had a good few days on Texada. I accomplished a lot; I finished a cross stitch project and the bonus chicken project as well as putting together a quilt top. Along with some reading and a few cross words it was a pretty relaxing time.

We were really looking forward to the Perseid meteor shower and had the hammocks set up in the yard as well as chairs set up on the deck. We saw lots of stars, lots of satellites and a few meteors on Sunday night and about the same results on Monday. We had a comfortable view of a wide section of sky but apparently not in the right directions or else we didn’t stay up late enough.

I spent yesterday sewing with Stacia and Deloise. I was continuing with the project I worked on the last time we sewed together. It is a difficult pattern (even Deloise says so) and although I made progress I’m still working at it. I thought it would go relatively easy today but I didn’t make much headway this morning – too much reverse stitching plus I had to cut more fabric.

I was going to go out and do some weeding this morning but it is a very cool and windy day so I decided not to. Our gardener is coming by again tomorrow. She thought once a month would be sufficient but we noticed a lot of bindweed coming up so we asked if she could come again. Sophie said she had driven by the house and had also noticed how fast the bindweed was growing so she was fine about coming tomorrow.

Tonight is the Blackberry Festival street party. They didn’t have the event during Covid of course but last year Pat was playing at the Boardwalk on Friday nights so I didn’t bother going down on my own. I’m looking forward to some blueberry shortcake provided by the Townsite Heritage Society as well as some bannock from the Tla’amin nation. There are always lots of other dessert options and a few places that have more main course options.

I have a Celebration of Life to go to tomorrow afternoon. I expect there will be a large turnout as Al was quite well known in the community. He made a couple of signs for the Hall, and he was almost an honorary Guild member. I am lucky enough to have one of his treasure chests. The thought when I got it was that I would limit my keepsakes to what would fit into it but clearly I need a much larger one or I need to do more divesting.

I haven’t decided yet whether or not I’ll head back to Texada on Sunday. The things I most want to get done are here in Powell River but it is hard to resist the thought of doing not-much-of-anything on Texada.

August 15, 2023

The pickings are rather slim in my birthday card bin but this one turned out quite well. The balls in the bowl make me think of summer fruit – maybe a lemon, some strawberries and limes (if you really use your imagination)!

Saturday, August 12, 2023

We’ll be heading over to Texada tomorrow morning for a few days; we’ll be back late in the day Wednesday. I have a sewing date with Stacia and Deloise on Thursday and Pat has an appointment at the lab.

We had a lovely day with Peggy (Elliott) and Bill. We made reservations for lunch at The Laughing Oyster but shortly before we left to pick them up at the ferry we got a phone call that they were out of propane and weren’t going to be open until dinner time. We took a chance on being able to get in at the Boardwalk in Lund. When we got there we thought we might be driving back to Powell River as their sign said closed. Pat went in and checked (he knows everyone as that is where he plays every week) but they were just a little late opening. We had a good lunch and a good visit when we got back to the house.

We also had company yesterday morning. Our friend Grant came over to pay Pat for the recording he did a couple of weeks ago. He has always been asking after me so Pat invited him in for a chat. We figured it had been since before Covid that we had last seen each other face-to-face. We had a good catch-up. I napped in the afternoon (after doing some yard work) and I didn’t sleep well at all last night. I’ll try to stay awake this afternoon but it may be an early night for me.

I had a fairly long walk this morning to pick up the remaining three chicken patterns for the set we are working on. The person I bought them from was in Powell River to teach a class so I was able to get them without either of us paying postage. There were about eight people in today’s class, a mixture of quilters from Texada and our Guild. I think there were a few other people missing though. It was my second time to walk up the hill and, again, I made it. I took a different route and I think it was easier than the way I went the first time. I have one more path to try and then I’m certain I could manage a walk-off from the ferry to home.

I won’t be taking much with me to Texada but I have plenty to work on over there. I’ve packed my chickens but I’ll leave both my mystery quilt and my cross stitching behind. I have a quilt top on my design wall over there that I hope to get sewn together and I have a cross stitching project there that I need to get done for Christmas. I started a new book so that will be going along with me, and if I finish it I know there are some in the cupboard that I haven’t read.