Living on the edge
Walks on the Cape Cod Rail Trail are a favorite thing any time of year. And are actually a “must do” for any week to be complete here. Hubby likes the noise of the crunchy fall leaves underfoot, and the last few days have provided the sights and sounds of fall.
A couple of photos to illustrate the point.
While I’m bemoaning the end of summer and yet still celebrating the colors of fall and the beautiful warm weather we’ve been having — I found two photos on my laptop from this past summer that need to be reviewed.
Looking up Cove ….
… and looking down Cove (both from my quilt studio deck)
Both were taken July 7 right in the start of the glorious summer weather.
Tomorrow? Maybe a post with some late summer or fall colors.
A beautiful day for a walk — up to Fort Hill. And a beautiful reward once we got there
Life should be so simple and everyone so compassionate that “you’re such a bleeding heart” is not an insult but instead is a compliment and an everyday occurrence in our acquaintances. But, not so much, I regret.
However —- in the garden — oh to be a bleeding heart! Determined, hardy, early to rise (in the spring), arms reaching out with beauty. Yes, these plants grow with their hearts on their sleeves. When I drive in front of our house toward my garage, I am greeted with these beauties in mid-spring and they do not disappoint.
And, because I was getting set up to photograph a rug show for my guild, I did a dump of what was on my Olympus’ memory card. Not in the current season for sure, but here’s a summer photo from First Encounter beach (I think) and Nauset Light decked out for Christmas (in 2022)
There is more from an earlier camera dump. I cannot wait to see what I find in the “blast from the past” that my camera memory card provides.
Yesterday’s early afternoon rainbow out over the Atlantic was a real treat. Rain showers had been everywhere, just not directly overhead. But the showers out over the ocean provided us with some beauty as the sun was getting ready to set.
And then Sunday morning a raking light highlighted the dining area with the new table runner (made of Nantucket Summer Moda fabrics) and the new luminara candles purchased specifically to go in this setting.
I particularly love the yellow background outside the dining area windows — yellows curtesy of the daffodils that line the bank and the forsythia that are blooming just below the edge.
Ahhhh………..spring on Cape Cod
My birthday is at the end of August and usually causes quite a bit of reflection on the year just past and how quickly it passed. During those reflections, I also take the opportunity to make “new year’s resolutions”. So stay tuned, dear blog, as I document some of them and attempt to make some progress too.
One interesting note about the 2022 resolutions was that one of them was to pack up and get moved to the Cape. Well that one is done and dusted as they say. We’ve had all our “stuff” here since the 26 foot dropped it off on June 1st and considered the move really complete when the sale of the Connecticut house closed on August 4.
I’ve spent the past weeks as I drive my Audi out and about on errands and meetings (it’s only been her since June 1) thinking to myself and often saying out loud “I cannot believe that I really LIVE here and that this is now home”. It’s been a crazy busy summer, tourist wise, so we’ll see how this feeling lasts into the dreary months of January and February.
But here I am and here we are and here we go!
Such a dilemma. I am unpacking (FINALLY) the quilt studio at the Cape house, our full time residence since the moving truck dumped the last of our stuff on June 1. It’s been like walking down memory lane opening these boxes, many of which have been packed since April. A lot of projects are coming out of hibernation as a result and I’m working on yet-another pile of stuff to donate to the quilt guild. In my current “to be quilted pile” are the two quilts below –Halloween and Christmas. So these are ready for the sit-down quilting machine, the Bernina770. The Halloween quilt has been basted for about a year and the Christmas Sampler a little longer. The Christmas top is the second oldest quilt top that I have. It was finished in a 2000 quilting class at Homestead Quilts in Bethel. It’s about time it was done and on display. While I’ve gone on to complete many others, this one has never made it to the finish line. So now, 23 years later, its time has come.
So now — the question posted in the blog post title? What to call this quilting space at the Cape. My Connecticut studio was called the BeeHive and I am tempted to keep that name. However, this studio is on the second floor with a “bird’s eye” view of Heron Cove, the ocean to the east and Snow’s Point across the cove in Orleans. So, I’m tempted to call it the Chickadee nest and since the Chickadee is the Massachusetts state bird, it seems appropriate. Guess I’m going to think about it for a while.
In the mean time, there are some boxes in the bathroom (about 7 of them) that need to be unpacked and lots of stuff that needs to find a permanent storage place.
This quilt was constructed from a kit purchased at an Omaha quilt shop when I was last in Nebraska (2016) for the court guardianship hearing for Judy. I had moved her to Connecticut and was back in our home state finalizing the legal details. The pattern, named Remember Me, came with supplied batik materials which were all very pretty. I brought it back to CT, got busy and didn’t work on it until a quilt retreat a couple of years later and I believe Judy had actually passed away at that point. So, its name is Remembering Judy. It’s been an easy quilt to piece, but a though one to work on because of the association. But in the past few months, as I’ve been sewing, I’ve been remembering Judy and telling Judy stories. And I have dozens of them. And Facebook has been very recently bringing up some touching memories of my last visit to our middle sister in Des Moines. So, this truly has been a “remembering” quilt.
I quilted it on my longarm and have submitted it to the Bayberry Quilt Guild show here on Cape Cod. Tomorrow when I see it hanging for the first time, I will learn whether or not it’s really square and if it hangs well. Here it is on the deck railing outside my Cape Cod studio,
And out in the yard with Hubby holding it up
Last Wednesday’s sunset was found at First Encounter Beach in Eastham. I do like the summer time schedule — you can eat dinner and go out for sunset after. It was a glorious night at the end of a nice warm day and for once I was organized to get dinner cooked, served, and cleaned up after with plenty of time to get to the bayside for sunset.
We spent some time looking at Paco, talking to his owner, and trying to get him to say “hello”, which he eventually did as we were walking away.
And we also spent some time watching an absolutely beautiful sunset.
Heading into Orleans for a coffee, we drove by Rock Harbor and discovered, as is often the case, that the sunset “afterglow” is sometimes more fantastic and sky-filling than the actual dropping of the sun below the horizon.
And across from the Hot Chocolate Sparrow where we were enjoying lattes while sitting outside at the end of a wonderful day ……… along the bike trail ……..
One of the distinctly Cape Cod things to do in our area is to go to Rock Harbor in Orleans and view the sunset. If the timing is correct and it’s low tide, you can walk the flats. The wet sand goes out forever and ever. It is so interesting to walk where the water has just been, looking at what’s left laying by the receding tide and watching the glorious oranges, yellows, purples, and blues of the dropping sun. A glorious summer activity that never gets old.
