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New Year’s Resolutions in August

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!

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BeeHive? Chickadee Nest?

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.

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Remembering Judy

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

Remembering Judy – with Tom’s feet
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A Glorious Evening

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.

Paco

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 ……..

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Rock Harbor Flats at Sunset

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.

setting sun, summer of 2021
Patterns in the sand
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Yellow is one of my favorite colors

And this is the reason why. Yellow is such a happy color. The sun is shining more now that the days are longer — yellow. The warmth of the sunshine has made the daffodils spring forth from the ground — yellow. I’ve been doing a lot of quilting in my studio on the Cape — Totally Tulips, with yellow tops! Yes, yellow — a happy color.

Daffodils on the kitchen island at Heron Cove.
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Happy New Year – 2022

I feel I should be saying “Happy Ground Hog Day” since: 1) it is just two days after 2/2/22 and 2) I am about to write post about how I’m going to pick up the blogging, AGAIN!

So:
1) Happy new year!
2) Happy ground hog day!
3) Happy “year of the tiger”
4) Happy opening day of the 2022 olympics

No photos here, but will hook up a camera soon – or transfer some from my iPhone (if I can figure out how). So much has changed technically since I used to do this easily. Apple, in its ongoing effort to make things more interesting, has actually made it harder to grab photos randomly from my iPhone and put them on my MacBook. Go figure!

And, if I weren’t so tired, I’d put in a haiku here as that’s one of my “resolutions”. So, nothing profound here; nothing new either.

But, begin as you intend to go forward, or something like that.

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Life is an Adventure

Hubby and I set out today to go out to lunch, each of us in our respective convertibles. His (a 1951 Crosley) and mine (a 2005 Mini Cooper). I was following him down the road when he rolled to a stop on the low bridge over the swamp / Norwalk River about a mile and a half from home. Assuming the car was out of gas, he sent me back home for the gas can. But even when the little “yella fella” was fully supplied, he wouldn’t start. An antique car enthusiast stopped by but all he was able to do was use his pickup truck to successfully protect the little car from traffic while they tinkered with it.

We pushed it onto a convenient parking area alongside the road and I took Hubby home for the truck and trailer. As you can perhaps tell, it was a beautiful day. Facebook photos for documentation purposes.

Yella Fella safely tucked into trailer.

Still smiling

Yes, an adventure, but I would have rather had the lunch on the deli’s patio that we had planned.

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Macro view of my garden

The Olympus digital SLR camera came out of the case to receive some freshly charged batteries and start recording a view of the world or more particularly, my gardens. Today’s excursion outside included photographs of the peach lilies in the pond.

peach lily – August 29, 2021

The way that the lens softened the top of the water just fascinates me. And note the fallen oak leaf sneaking into the photo on the very right edge. Just like fall — getting ready to sneak in here and end our glorious summer.

There are actually two lilies blooming out there, but the light and the angle I had to stand to photo the other one just didn’t work. If I had actually been IN the pond, it would have worked fine. Maybe later this week.

And, the real reason for getting this good camera out and back working was evidenced in the prior post — I wanted to get some good sunset photos at the Cape. Well, it was a bit cloudy there in early evenings the past two weeks and there wasn’t much of a sunset to photograph. But this past Thursday, at the Chirp concert in Ridgefield, the sunset wasn’t bad.

sunset in Ballard Park, Ridgefield, August 26, 2021


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Walking the flats — August 23, 2021

One of the most peaceful, squishy, pleasant, awe-inspiring things to do on the Cape.

We headed into Orleans for takeout — took it to First Encounter beach where we “watched” the sunset, or what would have been sunset if the cloud bank had not been so thick. However, it was low tide and you could walk “forever” on the flats or as far as you wanted until the returning tide would chase you in. We walked out a bit – nice to be out away from shore — no mosquitoes out there. This is absolutely one of my most favorite things to do here. It’s something about walking out far enough to turn around a look at shore and be standing where you wouldn’t be able to with the tide fully in.

First Encounter flats after sunset Aug 23, 2021
Hubby on First Encounter Flats August 23, 2021

And hopefully, this is the beginning of a new year. I always make new year’s resolutions on my birthday. Going to try blogging once again — as I enjoy looking back at this electronic scrap book.