10,000 Steps

Unusually warm weather and the gardens are waking up.

Ice out was declared on Squam Lake this week, a few weeks early.

Since we had a mild winter and not much rain this spring we are in a drought all ready this year. 

My father-in-law's chives. He has been gone many years now but we continue to grown his chives.

I know this is a bad picture but this is why I do not clean up gardens before winter. The little birds snacked on the cone flower seeds all winter. 

I had some nervous energy so I washed windows and curtains today.

The house just seems fresher somehow.

I did finish the rug I was working on,just ok. the selvage is so large I will not bind it until I hook a stair riser on it.

I started another rug on monks cloth. I use to use monks cloth all the time and liked it, not sure why I changed as I am enjoying working on it again. 

I want to thank you for the prayers, thoughts, and emails.

Husband is home, his poor battered body, he has had much sickness in his life and this was scary, but he came out of it pretty good. 

We are both trying to take it one day at a time. 

I have started back walking, the stress was doing me in.

Today was the first day my phone beeped to tell me I reached 10,000

steps. So the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. I pray this is the first step to may more miles with him. We have been together since we were teens. 

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Wishing you great health and peace.

Life

We were able to get Easter in between hospital stays for husband.

So if you have an extra prayer he could use it. 

(It is not covid)

It's Almost Like Old Times!

We have had a couple of foggy mornings. There is something beautiful about the fog as it rolls through the woods. It is quiet and peaceful. When we get up in the morning there is no TV, no radio, just quiet. I also rarely use any radio or music in my car, just me and my thoughts.  I have said this before but I think the world is noisy, you have to look for or make your own quiet. 

 Sat night the moon was just coming up over the trees.

We will not see the full moon tonight it has been raining pretty hard most of the day. Tomorrow high winds to dry it out with wet snow flakes coming by the week's end. Early spring in NH you never know what you will get. It was 60s this past week.

I have been trying to eat healthy so I dug out my egg coddle.  

Just spray it with some Pam, add an egg, put the cover on...

Microwave for 40 seconds, voila yummy egg with no fuss or muss.

It makes eating breakfast very easy.

I dug out some of my Easter decorations. (We are having Sweet B and family over night the night before Easter just like old times!!!!!) This really is a table of memories. The painting was painted by my daughter when she was 4, and the eggs were all colored over the years by sweet B. While it will not our usual Easter...

With the whole clan! but it is a start,just having Sweet B and family.

I am still working on the same rug. I think it is because I am not loving this rug but I refuse to give up.

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I looked for new running shoes this week I went to 2 shoe stores, none in my size! So as a last resort we drove about 45 minutes south to the city. I finally found hiking boots and running shoes( that I walk in, I like the extra cushion) I like to buy local but they almost force you to order on line. ( am I not an Amazon person)

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Have a wonderful and healthy week. 

 

Spring Fever

 

It's spring in NH and that means muddy dirt roads. This road runs behind us, I have shown lots of pictures over the years as I walk it a lot! We had a thaw and this road got so muddy in places that they just dumped rocks to keep it passable. When we first moved here 30 plus years ago they would shut this road down during this time. 

Then we had some winds and it helped to dry everything out a bit.

It is warm again here 60s which is wonderful for us and for the next 4 days we can expect that kind of weather. 

The sap is flowing!

And the brook is thawing out and running pretty fast. It sounds so lovely while I am walking. 

After my walk this morning I started cleaning again and changed the winter curtains in the living room to the summer ones. My husband walked in and said you know it is only March right? Yes we will still get cold weather and maybe a snow storm. But I am ready for warmer weather with the windows open!

I also decided the rug I was hooking needed a darker background and since I didn't have any(all to light or to dark) I decided to dye.

When I first learned to hook we went to a 1800's center chimney cape tucked at the foot of a beautiful mountain on a tiny dirt road all by it's self. Sorry the memories came flooding back sigh. She insisted we learn to dye. I used to roll my eyes and say I will never dye. She said "You will and be glad of it" If you can hear me in heaven Phyllis "You were right!" I am glad I have the basics at least.

The before is the whitish strip on the left and after is the right. Just right I think.

I made bread again last week and we had a few slices left. Not wanting to throw it I cut it up added some olive oil and some garlic powder and baked it. When I took it out of the oven, I grated some Parmesan cheese over it. They came out perfect crispy on the outside and soft inside. We had it in our tomato soup tonight, very good!

And because gardening is around the corner for us, I had been keeping my egg shells all winter and crushing them up. I use them around my tomato plants. The egg shells are sharp and the slugs etc will not crawl over it to get to my plants.

Last week I told you about visiting my 97 year old aunt. She has crochet as long as I ever remember. But she has had some health issues this past winter and her memory is not as good as it was. (she was so sharp until this health issue)

She has forgotten how to crochet, it makes me cry just writing this. 

And the worst part is she knows she forgot. She is fuzzy on some names in the family, but the minute I walked in she came over and hugged me and said she was so glad to see me. I have not seen her in a year, but stay in regular touch with her. I just know how much happiness it brought her and kept her hands and mind busy. I told my husband I wish she had forgotten me and remembered how to crochet because I can remember for the both of us and she would have something to keep her happy until her time comes. 

So she loaded me up with some of her past treasures and sent me home. I have many of her treasures in my home and now they are all the more dear to me.

On one of the facebook pages I follow this woman showed a birthday crown she made for her little girl's birthday.

oh my word how darling is this??

she used wool and needle felted the animals and flowers on.

I am in complete love with this! I think we all deserve a crown like this on our birthday! 

My daughter got a letter from school this week about Sweet B.

It was from a teacher's aid that holds the door in the morning at school so the kids to not have to touch it and she greets them.

She said that Sweet B was the sweetest kid in the school as she skips in every morning saying "Good morning, and Have a great day!!"

She said what a great job my daughter and son in law have done. While yes they have but I think it is mostly Sweet B's personality showing through. Love that kid to the moon!

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Have a healthy and happy week!

The Beach

It is maple syrup month in NH, how sweet it is! 

Did you know you have to boil down approximately 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup? So the next time you see the price of real maple syrup and then grab for the fake stuff remember that and step away from fake.

So I again was looking through things this week and found this very interesting. 

People twigs as found in the wild. I think it is a fun thing to look for when hiking or just a casual walk. 

I got the chance to see my sweet friend this weekend. 

She has a lovely home at a Maine beach and offered an over night.

Because of the time change I got up and saw the sun rise over the ocean. 

There is a public walk along the water. The color of the water was spectacular, more like topical water, not the usual color of the very cold water on the Maine coast. 

My friend and I have both had our vaccines more than two weeks ago so we felt very comfortable with being together in the same house.

As you can see it is still cold on the coast. There she is sea glass hunting.

A very interesting tree they have it braced to not fall over.

I also got to see my 97 year old aunt for the first time in year. She also has had both vaccines. It was so good to see her again!!!

I also got to see my Roomie!!!! We kept our distance as she is due for her second vaccine so we wanted to be safe. You can find her HERE.

Well I am home and it is windy and we are having snow squalls.

Husband has the fireplace going, PJ time and maybe a cup of tea.

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Have a wonderful and healthy week!

I Like Big.....

Patterns......................what did you think I was going to say? I love working on larger rugs. Why? I have no idea. Smaller patterns are just to fiddly or I should say I just get going and it is time to bind it, my least favorite thing to do in rug hooking.

I found this in "The Rug Hook Book" and decided that I wanted to hook this piece. I had it enlarged to 33 by 46. Yup a big one!

I finished hooking Herb Angel, love the look on her face. Now to bind it.....sigh

Well of course I started another pattern while waiting to get more patterns I ordered. (More on that next week.)Ohhh such a sickness to many patterns not enough time. This was in a primitive quilts magazine.

I added a large bunny and I do think that the crow needs a limb or something to be on. The house has been several colors but I have decided on off white and the light brown on the side. The gray is coming out.

While flipping through things at work I found this. I texted it to my grand and she is all for us making these! Once the snow melts and we can get in the woods to collect our materials we are going to give it a try. She is so excited about it. We saw her today and she has come up with a plan....lol love it!

Do these glasses make my eyes look big? I am trying the cross stitch I talked about last week. Ugg I feel blind as a bat! I will look to see if I can order a magnifying glass to help me out.

Tipping the scales...We have had these scales forever. But when we go to the Dr our weight is about 7 to 8 lbs more. Husband is convinced that it is the weight of the clothing. I take as much off at the Dr as possible in a common hallway without embarrassing myself, and still it is that far off...

Plus I have to wear my glasses to count the little lines on this scale and that adds weight lol..

So we got new scales. But when I bought them I did not know they were suppose to Judge me. When I step on they let me know if I have gained since the last time I was on them! I like a scale that quietly tells me my current weight with no other input. 

Speaking of weight, I keep making bread in the bread machine.

This is Ricotta loaf with my homemade pesto. Another new one for me and another keeper! Next time I would put more pesto in, I put a heaping tablespoon but I would double it next time.

And because I freeze any bananas that have gone by to use in bread later, I bought these. Six Bananas for 41 cents. I made some banana pudding and froze the rest for another time. 

Another week and other magazine. I picked this up at the market today. I am looking forward to a cup of tea and this magazine tonight. 

This also came out of a magazine and I am not sure which one, but I think it is well said or well written. Will we all reevaluate? Have you already? I know we have, I would love to hear your thoughts.

So I will close with one crappy picture. This is a very large red tail hawk sitting in our tree. It was a very cold morning and all of a sudden all the little birds were gone. We looked around and there he was. I tried to tell him there were lots nice, big, fat, gray squirrels to snack on. (they are destroying our birdhouses.) But he kept silent and looked around. I wonder what he did snack on that day? Maybe I don't want to know. 

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Have a wonderful healthy week!