Mom & Pop Trees

The two fruit trees we planted in memory of my parents on Mother's Day are doing quite well. This is Mom's grapefruit tree.

Dad's orange tree isn't growing quite as fast, and lately it's been plagued by swallowtail catepillars, but we're giving it extra attention and checking for pests every day.

One of the oranges that was on Dad's tree when we bought it survived the planting, and there are a few new blooms promising more fruit this winter.

This past week Mom's tree has been flowering like crazy, so we're also hoping to see some grapefruit at the end of the year or the beginning of the next.

Garden Cleanup

I'll apologize in advance for the steaminess of these pics; it's so hot and wet here that my lens fogs up the minute I step foot outside. We'll just call it bokeh if anyone complains. :)

Since we're on the cusp of the fall growing season my guy cleaned out our little gardens yesterday. We're giving the strawberries their own bed because we're afraid they'll sneak in the house and take it over while we're sleeping.

We decided to save the chives, oregano and parsley from the herb section, and transplanted them to their own pots.

Right now only a little bit of basil is left in the veggie garden, but we're going to plant pole beans, radishes and cucumbers again when the temps drop a bit more next month.

Naptime

The boys like napping under our dining table best.

I think it's because the tile floor is cool, and wearing a fur coat in summer means you're always hot.

So cute. :)

Practical

I have a lot of smaller quilts that don't get much use, like this art quilt I picked up at a show some years back. No one in the family wants them, so when I head off to the next place I imagine they'll be donated to Goodwill.

As you can see I've started putting the sturdier ones I have down as play mats for the puppies (this discourages them from chewing and tugging on the carpet.) I also use some of the old ones that are softer to line their crate. I like that they're finally out of the closet and being used. Just seeing them around the house makes me smile.

Novel

I haven't opened a fortune cookie since the pandemic began. I guess the novelty wore off, or I was too depressed. Anyway, this one was taunting me.

"The aim is useless without the way." I'll take that under advisement.

Future Journaling

This is my current desk journal, which is almost full. It's basically a school composition book covered with a lovely quilted jacket by Sonya Anderson, one of my favorite Etsy artists. This year I haven't been journaling much other than recording what I eat every day and keeping important stuff tucked away in the back pages, and I want to change that.

The next journal I use will be Paris-themed blank book by Punch Studio.

It's pretty, I love the page colors, and it will prompt me to be more forthcoming.

While I was straightening my office closet I came across an art journal I kept eleven years ago, and saw this page. I remember that was a tough year for me; Dad's health was spiralling downward, we had serious problems with two family members, and I turned 50 and started menopause. A colleague I respected died at the very beginning of 2010, and I ended Stardoc with the publication of the tenth and final novel in August of that year. Yet somehow I had the courage to write all these positive things.

I haven't been feeling very positive, and at this point in life I'm more cautious about what I write, which is probably why I haven't been putting much in my journals. That's what I want to change. Even if it makes some future reader sad, I should at least let myself be honest and write about what I'm dealing with in my private journals.

And Even More Puppy Pics

Beau smiles while he naps.

The size difference between the boys -- Shadow is starting to catch up to his brother now.

The first time the boys obeyed my sit command. They're still not sure what the camera is. :)

Twigged

My guy was out in the yard picking up tree debris before he mowed the lawn, which is his weekly chore. Lots of trees + summer storms = plenty of falling twigs and branches, some large enough to cause harm to our mower. While he was doing that I came out to walk the boys and saw this moss-covered stick in the grass

I don't know why it struck me as something I had to pick up; it's not exactly beautiful. The twig part snapped the second time I handled it, too. But it grabbed my attention.

There's something about it that's got my gears whirling, too. This happens to me a few times, and usually with things other people don't notice. Anyway, I stuck both pieces in a little jar and I'm going to look at it for a while.

Future Works

Once the puppies are house-trained (we're almost there now) I can get back to quilting, so I'm looking at my pending projects now and deciding what I want to do. This is the time of year when I usually decide what to make for Mom's birthday, so I'm a little sad. This modern quilt kit will be my winter project for sure; I'm making it as a Christmas gift for someone I love.

I also want to do one more art quilt, probably lap-size, with these recycled hand-dyed fabrics. I might do a quilt-as-you-go project.

For the puppies I want to make these bunny blocks into a quilt I can put in their crate. Three seems like a reasonable number to finish before the end of the year.

Puppies Again

One more pic of our new puppies. My guy took this one.

The boys have very different personalities. Our sable Beau seems to be fearless; he throws himself into everything whole-heartedly. He barks at everything and gets in your face and can be grabby with toys and food. Whether he's eating, walking, or playing, just get out of his way. That's why I gave him Bulldozer as a nickname.

Our tri-color Shadow is the exact opposite: quiet, standoffish, and sneaky. He's only barked once since he came to live with us. As the runt I thought he would be scared of everything, but he just watches everything for a bit before he decides what to do. Then, when he jumps in, he's fast and precise. That got him the nickname Baby Shark (also he loves it when I sing him that song while we play.)

They're both really lovable, and each in his own way is very affectionate. It will be so much fun to watch them grow up.

One-Night Stand Life

The premise behind the romantic supernatural Korean film The Beauty Inside is really provocative: what if you fell in love with a man whose body changes into that of a different person every day?

Woo-jin (played by 30+ actors) is a custom furniture designer with a very odd condition: he transforms completely every time he goes to sleep. After he wakes up in the morning he changes into a different body that can be of any age, appearance, race, gender or nationality. It's completely random, and he can't control this change at all. When he becomes a new person his eyesight, body size and language can alter as well. Switching nationalities, for example, leaves him able to understand Korean but only speak in his new body's native language (which he doesn't understand.)

Despite his complicated life Woo-jin manages to get along okay. He works alone, does everything via the internet, and has the support of his childhood best friend and business partner. He even dates, although every girl he sees is destined to be only a one-night stand. Then he meets and falls for Yi-soo (Han Hyo-joo), a furniture store sales woman. He stays awake for two days to have a chance to romance her while in his current tall, handsome male body (played wonderfully by Park Seo-joon.) Of course he can't stay awake forever, so just as things get interesting with Yi-soo Woo-jin falls asleep on the subway, and wakes up as a different person.

Woo-jin can't give up on Yi-soo, and approaches her again, this time in the body of a pretty young woman. He manages to convince her of his condition, and Yi-soo agrees to date him. Their relationship grows from there, and every time they meet Yi-soo never knows who Woo-jin is until he holds her hand and tells her. They seem to have fun with it, too, but gradually the stress starts to get to Yi-soo and affect her job, and she has to go on medication to cope. I don't want to spoil the whole film, so I'll end the description there.

This was a marvelous story, and whoever did the casting for the many faces of Woo-jin gets a gold star from me. There were a lot of very famous actors in this film playing the role of Woo-jin, including Lee Dong-wook, Lee Beom-soo, Go Ah-sung, Park Shin-hye, Seo Kang-joon, and Yoo Yeon-seok to name a few. Despite the fact that most only got cameo-length performances they all did a great job in keeping Woo-jin's character cohesive no matter who was playing him. I did think Park Seo-joon did the best job with the character portrayal, but I'm rather biased there.

There are no special effects in this film, and the supernatural aspects are kept wisely to a minimum. There is a bit of an explanation for Woo-jin's condition toward the end of the movie, but the emphasis was more on what it's like to live this kind of mayfly life and try to have a loving relationship. How Woo-jin manages things like ID cards and passports when he never has the same face is not explained, either, but I was willing to believe he'd find a way. Available to watch on Viki.com for free with lots of commercials.

To Date

I was looking through my photo archives last night to see how much quilting I've done so far this year. There's not a lot, but I'm pretty happy with what I managed to accomplish while going through all the changes in my life.

I'm glad I finally finished the Election Night quilt. It reminds me not to get caught up in hatred.

I started working on this crazy quilt tote back in April as a gift for my mom for Mother's Day; I was going to fill it with sugarfree candy. She died a few days later.

A month after we lost Mom Katherine left home to work as a scientist in the Pacific Northwest, which made me happy but stressed me out, too. My Summer Dreams art quilt brought a lot of much-needed peace back to me.

I loved working on this vintage patchwork, and finishing it for the original maker.

I haven't done many little pieces this year, but this is the last thing I sewed before our new puppies arrived. Tonight after the babies go to bed I'm going to start a new project. Stay tuned to see what I make next. :)

Adjustments

The Delta variant of the Covid virus has swamped hospitals here, so we're taking a few steps back and self-isolating again. My guy and I were still wearing masks in public anyway, so nothing changed there. Since getting our second shots we had dined in at local restaurants a few times as a treat for ourselves, but because the variant is infecting vaccinated people we're nixing that.

I don't mind the extra cooking or taking extra precautions; it's only sensible to avoid getting sick (if possible) at our age. I'm just tired of all the bickering and misinformation about the virus, the vaccines and how to stop the spread. My disabled nephew (he's the one with a heart condition) chose not to get vaccinated, no doubt because of the idiotic crap people are saying. When he visited us I politely let him know I wasn't happy about it, but other than conking him over the head and dragging his unconscious butt to the vac site here I couldn't do anything about it.

My nephew lives in a densely populated area in South Florida, and of course he then got Covid. Fortunately he's recovering without having to be hospitalized. He's also told us that he's going to get vaccinated as soon as he can, because in his words "I can't go through that again. I could hardly breathe." This boy is like my bonus son; I don't even want to think of how I'd cope with losing him to the virus when it could have been prevented.

Anyway, whining wasn't actually the point of this post. I hope if anyone needs more masks they'll let me know. I have plenty of fabric and supplies, and I'm happy to make them. Mine are washable, which makes them more eco-friendly than the disposable kind, and they're free and full of love. :)

Garden Update

I've been so busy with the new puppies that this morning was the first time I've gotten out to check the gardens in a couple weeks. The strawberries have finally stopped burying us in berries.

The oregano and the chives are fighting. Obvious to see the chives are losing. Meanwhile, the parsley is getting huge.

The basil grew a foot taller and bolted.

So far the artichoke is hanging in there, too.

Pressure Relief

Due to various stressers I have been struggling with writing for the last six months or so, and (not for the first time) considered giving it up. My partner is almost ready to retire, and financially speaking neither of us really need to work any more. The state of the world has been hard for me to deal with, and my health issues and depressing empty-nest home life haven't helped. I like to work, and there will never come a time when I give up writing entirely, but the temptation to stop writing for a living has been strong. Here's what I discovered while wrestling with all that:

Writing stories for myself helps. I've always written stories I've never shared with anyone, but I got away from that when I went freelance. Lately I've written about a dozen short stories; I'm currently working on a for-fun novel that I'm writing a page or two a day.

I can't write well or happily without dogs in my life. This kind of surprised me, but I now realize that ever since we lost Cole and Skye I've been creatively lost, too. Now that we have the puppies I can see the difference it makes with my mood and inspiration and productivity.

I've let too many toxic family members get between me and the page. I'm done with them, so that's over now, but it was a long, drawn-out painful process of letting go.

I've become more forgiving of myself. This ties in with the self-love quest I've been on for a while now; I no longer beat myself up so much for being imperfect and unable to do everything that is expected of me. I'm still working on this, but I'm making good progress.

Focusing more on being happy than hurt is the primary pressure relief. Wallowing in pain feeds depression; reaching for light doesn't.

Battles

On our last run to the Russell Stover outlet store I noticed they were selling sugarfree semi-sweet chocolate baking chips. Once I come up with a diabetic-friendly low-fat version of the classic Toll House recipe, I can make my own cookies.

Thanks to being on steroids, extreme stress, and not watching my diet closely, my A1C went up a full point, which makes me officially diabetic (though still low on the danger scale.) My doc was not pleased, but gave me three months to bring it back down. Since I don't want to go on medication again I'm back on the very strict diet I followed right after being diagnosed the first time.

After resolving it and being declassified I thought I was in the clear, but it's obvious that I'm always going to be in danger of slipping back into diabetes. I'm not happy about that, but it's better to accept what I can't change and sacrifice what I can't have to live healthier and medication-free. I don't want to end up having to inject myself with insulin every day just so I can live. So, battling on.

Fall Storms

August is usually the worst month of hurricane season, and by today Fred will reach us, probably as a tropical storm. I'm not as worried about that as I am what comes in the next couple of weeks. Andrew hit back in 1992 on August 23rd; Katrina landed on August 29th. Even when we get into September and October we're not in the clear; Irma arrived on September 10th; Matthew on October 7th. Storms are also the reason I'm not terrible fond of fall -- it means cooler temps and pretty leaves in other parts of the country; here it means monster hurricanes.

Although it's always a roll of the dice whether or not we'll make it through storm season without a direct hit, I'd still rather deal with hurricanes than blizzards, droughts, or wildfires.

Puppy Update

We're house training our new puppies, and it's working out well. Beau and Shadow have the run of the house during the day, and only go into the crate when we're sleeping or if we have to leave the house to shop or run errands. They've already learned to wake us up in the morning when they need to go outside. Accidents in the house are minimal now, too.

Shetland Sheepdogs typically aren't biters, but I discourage the puppies (who are teething like babies) from gnawing on me. Kisses are fine, biting is not.

The pups stay with me most of the day in my home office, which I've transformed into a play room for them. They nap there whenever they're tired. When I leave the room they always come with me.

Because we're in a rural area with lots of wild life we always take our dogs out on leads. They're a lot faster than we are, and there are a couple of farms around us with working dogs who might attack them if they get loose and trespass. I also think it's part of being a responsible pet owner and neighbor.

Training very young dogs takes time, but it's fun and rewarding. The work we do now will also pay off in the future.

Beholding

Life has been so gray for the last year and a half that I've forgotten to look at the little universe of beauty in my corner of the world.

Like wild flowers. I don't even mind them when they're yellow. Yet this is the first time I've noticed them since the pandemic began.

Maybe it's the new puppies, or just the old me waking up. Anyway, it was a beautiful morning.

What Inspires You?

I made this fox-themed crazy quilted block to indulge my love of orange and turquoise.

A peacock feather inspired this piece, so I added it in as an embellishment.

Sometimes all it takes is an interesting pendant or bead to get my gears rolling, like this rose.

Roses are definitely a recurring theme in my crazy quilt work.

I don't often do pictoral quilt pieces, but this one was an exception.

What inspires you?