Snippets

It was a different type of vacation last week, we were in Florida again - really for the first "normal" visit since Dad died. Our other visits since February have been saturated with family holidays and there has been much diversion. This time it was just us and mom at the house. When we got there on Friday night we saw immediately that mom wasn't feeling well and by Sunday AM I had her at the Doctors for a bad bronchitis (she has a tendency towards pneumonia - yikes!). Treated that for a few days and then she came down with a UTI - and had to go back to the Dr. again on Thursday. I stayed close to home as I was worried about her, she really wasn't herself and did alot of sleeping. By Saturday AM, she was feeling better and much more like herself! So we went bike riding.

We went to one of our favorite bike parks which has miles of trails and some are rather complex and challenging. After completing our usual "easy" trails, we decided to do one that is a bit more challenging. I really did well - peddling along a narrow winding trail - and I finally realized that I was having fun. Just at that moment a small dip appeared in the trail and BOOOM - this is what happened.

I went end over end, face first into the dirt (actually my chest hit first which is one advantage of being well endowed) and I had dirt even up my nose! I was covered with sandy dirt and was basically trapped with my legs twisted around my bike. Thankfully a loud yell brought DH back to my side and he freed me, washed me off, and put me back on the bike. I was sore for a few days afterward and have some impressive black and blue marks.

I went onto quieter pleasures.

There is a quilt shop in Sarasota that is small but nice, and in the back there are little old Amish ladies hand quilting around a big quilting frame. They do quilts for people around the country, and their work is wonderful. I could sit and watch them for hours, and feel the quiet entering my soul. I went to that store to buy some thread for some slipcovers I was making for MIL (another story), but ended up with a ton of fabric and a quilt top! Here is the story. I want to make a quilt for a nephew out in California but was stumped on the pattern. Should I do baseball theme, or other sports or just color? Nothing has been speaking to me. But when I walked into this store, I saw fabric based on that sculptor "Wyman" ( I don't know if that is how you spell his name and can't find a link to a site that shows his work...since I can't spell his name!)
who does dramatic sea scenes in bronze. I know that my brother loves his work and here was all this fabric with scenes from the ocean. I was going to buy a kit that they had for the pattern and then got the bright idea of buying the sample quilt (85" x 85") - pieced by those same Amish ladies. And yup, they sold it to me for a very decent price and all I have to do it get backing fabric, and complete the quilting. I hope my nephew likes it, but even if he doesn't I know my brother will - and it might even turn into a wall hanging.

The piecing work is wonderful and while it's a bit busy for me - I would have added some plain squares, I think the California crowd will love it. (I hope).

So...that's some highlights from the week. It was a relaxing week but we didn't do our usual recharging of our batteries which we really needed. DH stayed at his mom's house, and I stayed at mine :( . This actually worked out well, DH wasn't exposed to mom's cold and I got to relax by mom's pool - but still...