In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

I didn't get around to posting this until after lunch, but it was initially written at 6 a.m. this morning....  Our grandsons are visiting this week, so blogging time is curtailed. It's still dark outside, yet frogs are awake, croaking like their lives depended on it. They are quite loud at night; my eldest grandson likes falling asleep to their rhythmic songs. Eldest grandson fashioned this space plane with additions to origami, lol.   My life as a grandmother is SO DIFFERENT, and because these interludes are far and fewish between, I tend to let my being absorb that realm, which before we moved to Humboldt County wasn't so altering, in part the kids were little and they napped, lol. Also that we saw them more often, at their residences, whether it was for several hours at a time or over a few days. Yet who I am has changed too; the sewing isn't paramount, though my youngest grandson wants a turn at the machine, and the writing is less. Less what, I'm not prepared ...

Yesterday morning I woke with a rather SORE right shoulder. A pinched nerve kind of shoulder. Sigh.... So the Rainbow quilt has been folded and taken to the office, where it will stay for the next week or two. No hand stitching of any kind for a while, as I let the upper right side of my neck and shoulder rest. It's a drag, but there's worse things in life. Like having a special supper with several friends while fully aware one is going to betray you so viciously, yet there's not a dang thing you can do to prevent it, IF you want the best outcome for everyone else. Hence today is Maundy Thursday, the day when a couple thousand years ago Christ ate the Last Supper with his disciples. So yeah, not hand-sewing for ten days or more is a bummer, but again, not the end of the world. So few safety pins left to remove! My poor hubby is actually in worse shape than me; his back has been iffy for days, then yesterday he lifted something heavy and.... A muscle relaxer has helped, so w...

Quilt is coming along and Ruthie wasn't still in a nesting box tonight! I had wanted to title this post Almost done , but that's just not applicable. I can't sew for hours like previously, and not every night either. I'll sit with this again on Thursday, then put it away for a few days, as family is visiting for Easter! Yet, this beautiful rainbow quilt has definitely turned a corner. One of the perks of going round and round from the perimeter inwards is that every row gets shorter and shorter and shorter. Slowly, of course, but little by little.... I've been threading six needles per session, but this evening I probably used eight or nine, and my shoulder feels it, lol. Thankfully my right thumb is fine; it's been bothering me in addition to my shoulder. As sixty years old gets closer, I'm truly starting to notice changes in my body that weren't there previously. Moving on from that, Ruthie the broody hen also made progress tonight, putting herself on ...

Hens in the garden; the Broody hen condo, also known as the dog run, is to the upper left of the photo, taken on 17 March 2026.  Ruthie Chicken is again broody. She spent the morning in the Broody Hen condo, then was good to be outside for a few hours. She took a twenty-five minute dustbath, not that I'm keeping tabs on her, but I am, lol. She's still laying eggs, so until she either 1) Stops laying or 2) Stops being broody we are allowing her time in the nesting boxes. She prefers box #1, but will use box #3 if #1 is taken. Today is Palm Sunday. Holy Week begins tomorrow. Those are sentences; the meanings behind them are significant to me. I have several Scripture readings for the upcoming days, time to ponder all that Holy Week entails. Today Christ entered Jerusalem as victorious.  By Thursday he's celebrating Passover with the disciples, fully aware that Judas will betray him before the day ends. What does this mean for us today? A man's death, violent and cruel. Fo...

  Humboldt Bay sunset from 21 March, 2026. Photo courtesy of my husband. Well, the actual writing of, say, thirty-four hundred words might take upwards of three hours. That's what I accomplished today. But it's not merely writing. There's the clean-up, then the read-through. And the Metamucil break, the check laundry break, the texting with my husband about adding food to the chicken feeder break.... It's a process longer than it used to be. When I was younger, writing ate up the morning. In those days, my better half was off to work fairly early, leaving me plenteous hours to write, and I did so with great joy for the sense of doing something I truly loved. How well I did it, that's debatable, lol. When he retired and we moved to Humboldt County, no longer was I alone all day, but we found a rhythm to my writing, not that chickens or Metamucil was involved back then. Oh, and stretches. Well, I might have done that, but not as often as I should. But now I do them ju...

And...two weeks of caffeine-free living! As well as a week since I last blogged, lol. Hosting grandkids will do that to a person. But the lads are home and I've had a good night's sleep, and now it's time to jump back into my other life, that of an author who quilts and keeps chickens.... But before I get into that, let me say that not imbibing in caffeine has been an overall good experience, albeit not truly alleviating my tinnitus as much as I would hope. But I'm not exhausted at night, nor do I need a lift mid-morning. I'll continue to avoid caffeine as long as I feel the need.  So, grandsons visiting: Our eldest chap made scones with Grandpa, while I taught the younger grandson how to use my sewing machine! Both boys enjoyed the chickens, as well as trekking around, and I played a lot of card games and did plenteous art. My youngest grandson can read EVERYTHING, that was marvelous, while the elder received a calculus lesson from Grandpa, lol. I didn't do any...