"Strange" Friends

 I have a great friend who walks with me on a regular basis....well as regularly as I can make it happen with all the demands of caring for my parents!  This friend is also one whom I travel with to quilt seminars.  First time was last year and we discovered that we make great room mates, like to walk in the morning, like to keep working on our projects after class, and just generally, enjoyed the same things outside of the classroom.  We walked miles along the California beaches at Monterey and loved every minute of it.  (Except that her camera took better pictures than mine!)

Since getting home we've carried on walking in our local area.  We both have dogs so we walk for probably a couple of hours, rain or shine.  Her background is military and she is a lot of years younger than me, so sometimes it's a bit like going to boot camp when I walk with her!  Last summer we walked when it was really too warm to be exerting ourselves like that, and when we got back to her house, we sat on the back deck, drinking water and just visiting.

Something she said about one of her other friends struck me as odd and I looked at her and said "You have some really strange friends."  She looked at me and answered "Yes.  Yes I do Gladys!"  I laughed at that as I had asked for and deserved her quick retort!

But it didn't end there.  About two weeks later, she came to my house and we were about to go for a long walk on the beach with the dogs.  But before we left she presented me with a gift.  A small art quilt made in honour of that conversation.  It was so wonderful I had to go get Mum and Dad to see it as well. I was complimented by the fact that she used the technique in my book, Embellishing with Anything, C&T Publishing, to represent my hair.  She was pleased with herself for accurately depicting my unusual earring! And the best part.....the pattern she used to quilt it is called "Bananas."  

I was pleased quite touched that she thought to do that for me and it now hangs in a place of honour in my studio.

The "Up Side" of a West Coast Storm

We've officially reached autumn, my favorite season.  But it has come in like spring.....srain, rain and more rain!  Strangely warm temperatures, but strong winds and the sound of the rain on the skylight is constant patter, with the odd interruption when someone up there dumps a whole bucket right over the house!  Or at least that's what it seems like! 

However, remember the back yard that was all dirt in my last post?  It's since been hydro-seeded.  We watered for three days and the rains came.  We haven't had to water since and the yard is such a lush brilliant green everywhere!  How lucky is that!!  Here is a photo where you can see the green if you look past the carpenter's saw on the deck!  He was busy putting trim in the addition as I was going around catching up on my "progress" pictures. 



But we had a break in the rain and our dog needed a long walk.  Without his exercise, he turns into a bad dog.....or should I say a worse dog!  He makes the cat's life hell wanting to play with her and she's a cranky old lady so it's all bad.  Off we go to the beach.  What a delight it was to be there on this post-storm afternoon with the sun shining! 

First of all, I really do prefer the beach during or just after a storm.  It is so much more interesting and beautiful.  This walk was no exception.  As we walked down the path, there in the field were a group of Canada Geese.  They were just standing there and I stood there and watched them.  I wished I had a better camera for this picture, but I took this one with my phone, and then just stood and admired them.  Even the dog snuffling around didn't bother them.  And my error, I was so entranced just watching the geese that my picture completely cut off the mountain range in the background!


When Tuffy and I emerged from the park trails and came out onto the beach it was absolutely breathtaking.  The sky was whipped clouds with feathers on them, the water had all kinds of whitecaps, the sound was delightful......water lapping on sand, mixed bird calls, wind in the trees.....just generally a stunning day at the beach.  My favorite birds are the sandpipers.  They dart about so quickly and usually if you move they pick up and fly off in a cloud of feathers all together, travel 5 feet and settle on a new piece of sand until they feel the need to flit away again.  But this day was not calm enough for them to be darting around on sand and they were playing in the updrafts at the edge of the water.  My walking there and them squeaking and enjoying their play allowed me to be closer to them than I've ever managed, but of course no picture as they are just too fast for me to capture.  The sandbar a few feet out from the beach, actually at the mouth of the river, was literally white with seagulls just sitting on it!  Usually they are up and floating and diving in the wind too.  Here is the view from where I was walking along the trail at one point. 

Even tho I haven't had a chance to be creative in my sewing room for quite a while, I'm still able to appreciate the beauty in our corner of the world.  But I have to admit to looking forward to getting back behind my sewing machine!  

A Beautiful November 7th Walk

Our first day on Pacific Standard Time http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.htmland I woke up earlier than usual!  WHAT is that all about?  However, not to complain, because I woke to an incredibly beautiful, sunny, warm November 7^th.  What to do with such a special day?  First of all I played with some silk rods (more on that later0, but couldn’t stay inside.  It was too beautiful.  So the dog and I went for a walk on the beach.  It was stunningly beautiful, lots of people with lots of dogs, all of them friendly and in just as good a mood as I was. 

I had my camera with me and was happy about that because there was an eagle sitting on a piling in the middle of the bay, with possibly 500 seagulls on the gravel bank behind him, and behind that the water, the mountains, the clouds and the sky…..all brilliantly colored.  I took several shots of this scene, thinking I could crop and paste and manipulate and add some text so that I could post a beautiful picture of what November 7^th looked like where I live. 

It was not to be.  When I got home I somehow messed up a task I’ve done hundreds of times before and I lost the pictures of my silk rod project and worst of all, the picture of the eagle.  The silk rods I can do again but that scene won’t be duplicated just because I want it to when I go back to the beach!  So here’s a post with a totally unrelated picture!  At least it’s the same dog!!!