Fiber festivities with friends in the fall

We had good time! I came home with yarn for a shawl, yarn for a vest, and yarn for a pair of socks. My goal is to knit them all before next October.

Fiber in the fall

It's that time of year again - time for fiber and sheep & wool festivals all over the USA. Last year I was in Taos, NM, for a fiber festival. This year I'm heading back to Montpelier, Virginia, for my favorite Fall Fiber Festival. It's small, but always has good vendors, tasty food, and exciting sheep dog trials. The best part, though, is that my Virginia friends go to it, too, so I enjoy delightful fellowship there.

Meeting unexpectedly

Ellen brightened my stormy Saturday by dropping in on her cross-country trip home. It was lovely to see and talk with her in person (and with two members of her family) for a few minutes. What can I say? She's warm, friendly, and beautiful inside and out - and she loves the Lord and knows how to encourage others.

Next time she comes this way I hope we can see each other again.

Quilting and knitting

Penny came for the weekend and we spend three fun days quilting, knitting, and making a couple of trips to antique stores. Now it's back to life as usual, but with happy memories of good times with my friend to brighten my days.

October at the beach

Thanks to the fabulous generosity of one of Steve's co-workers, we spent the final days of October in Rosemary Beach, Florida. Kathy loaned us her lovely house and we stayed from Tuesday through Saturday. It was peaceful and beautiful.



I knit beside her pool...



...and at the beach.



We put together a jigsaw puzzle.



We rode bikes for miles (no hills!).



Every morning I read the newspapers and had coffee outside in the sunshine.



And David, Marley, and Sam made an intricate maze of tunnels in the sand.

It was a memorable and restful end to October.

Taos was lovely

The countryside around Taos was absolutely breathtaking - and we took a lot of pictures.




Our room had a wonderful balcony with two chairs and a small table. We spent as much time as possible out there enjoying the view of the mountains, the trees, and the sky. We ate, read, and knit on that balcony. It was so serene.





Penny and I spent a good bit of Friday afternoon and Saturday morning walking around Bent Street. There was so much to see and do in that tiny bit of town.





(I really liked this truck that was parked on Bent Street!)





While we were there, I worked on this pair of socks, finishing them the day after I returned home. Now they remind me of our time in Taos, New Mexico. A perfect souvenir.

A fantastic weekend

Glenn, Amy and the girls arrived Friday and the rest of the family and friends trickled in around football and mealtimes. Chuck and Kim and their children and grandchildren came to the lake, along with friends of theirs. From Friday through Monday we all enjoyed our time together - Mom and Dad, their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and many, many friends. And many dogs.


Mom and Dad had Chuck's family and his friends stay at their place. We made room for 18 people (including all our children and grandchildren) to sleep at our place. Amazingly, it was never chaotic - and all the right football teams won (except for Navy).

I've missed my knitting group

Our knitting group meets on the fourth Sunday of the month from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. I missed in June because I wasn't feeling well. I missed in July due to family upheavals. I was determined to make it to the August gathering last Sunday.

Our group's name is "K2Tog" or "Knit two together." We are knit together in so many ways: through friendship, fellowship, shared burdens and joys, and by helping one another with our various knitting projects.

After a very busy summer I needed face-to-face time with my fellow knitters. There was happy news from one, funny stories from another, and plenty of laughter and encouragement. It was good for my soul!

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." ~Proverbs 17:22

One woman's thrift find is another woman's treasure

Halima of Old World Knits hosted a give-away recently and I won! The package arrived today and I am so excited about the contents: A Welsh tea towel, a Fire-King bowl, a dish and comb made from Hawaiian wood, a cotton bread bag, glass-topped wooden knitting needles, and a ball of gorgeous turquoise mohair.

It's a happy end to this week and a good beginning to the weekend.

Visiting a friend

A few weeks ago I went to Tennessee and visited Betty. Her new place is lovely, and she is as delightful as ever. We talked about knitting (and she inspected the socks I am working on), books, and news of friends and neighbors back in Alabama. It was a lovely three days.

Friends at the lake

I have been trying to take Sam, Joshua, and Quintin to the lake as often as possible. Joshua and Quintin live next door to us and they play with Sam every day. Last summer we brought them to the lake with us a few times and they loved it, but they didn't know how to swim. This summer we're trying to teach them to swim - at least a little bit. They like being in the water and play well together.

Yesterday they got out with David and he taught them to kick and float. My job was to sit on the beach and watch, shout encouragement, and knit. It was a great day!

Missing Betty

This morning my friend, Betty, moved to Tennessee. For the past nine months she's lived across the street from me, and I've enjoyed walking over to see her several times a week. She's been my knitting and reading buddy for three years, and I consider her one of my closest friends.

She's going to be living near her oldest daughter now, and I know she'll like that a lot.

But I'm going to miss her terribly.

Last day of March

I love having a birthday month - that's when birthday wishes, birthday greetings, birthday presents, and birthday surprises come all through the month, not just on the day of my birth.

Mary the Mail Lady brought packages from Baerbel and Beth today. So on this gloomy rainy day I'm opening cards and gifts and thanking God for friends.


Beth sent a Trader Joe bag and catalog, recipe cards, Taste of Home magazine, and a beautiful bracelet she made of green Swarovski crystals.





Baerbel sent a set of heart-shaped cookie cutters, a heart-shaped box, coffee drinks, a pen and key-chain set, a 2009 Weight Watchers calendar book and a towel she embroidered herself.




The children loved the pig on the envelope:


And now I am ready for April to begin.

San Diego and La Jolla were beautiful

Steve and I stayed at The Grand Del Mar last week from Thursday through Sunday. It was the first time I'd been in California since we moved from there to Tennessee back in 1986.

On Friday Steve played golf on the resort's golf course and I spent the afternoon with Beth. Beth and I have been friends since 1989 and we try to see each other whenever we can. (The last time we saw each other was back in July of 2007, at a 20-year reunion of a church we'd both attended in North Carolina.) Even though I wasn't able to give her much notice, Beth generously cleared her busy schedule, picked me up from the hotel and gave me a tour of La Jolla. Being with Beth was the best part of the trip! And of course our afternoon seemed much too brief.

I told Beth I'd always wanted to see a Trader Joe's - the closest one to me is in Atlanta - and she took me to Trader Joe's! We shopped the store and as we were checking out, Beth said to our cashier, "This is my friend's first time to see a Trader Joe's." The cashier rang a bell, then asked us to wait a minute. He went to the back of the store and came back with a lovely bouquet of lilies and a box of French truffles and handed them to me. What a fun surprise!

Beth also took me to one of her favorite taco shops and treated me to a fish taco - a new food for me. It was delicious!

We both agreed that God has been good to give us a friendship that is easily and seamlessly enjoyed whenever and wherever He brings us together.

Amber's visit

Amber came to stay with us for a week. It was her first time to come to Alabama and I asked her what she would like to do. She answered that she'd like to rest.

So we had a very low-key week. Amber and Sam played some "Zelda" and Amber cross-stitched, read, caught up her blog, watched some old movies and HGTV with me, and rested.

I'm afraid we did not show her much of Alabama, but we did serve her coffee and biscuits (made by the ladies that work at the Piggly Wiggly) and sausage every morning, along with scuppernong jelly my dad made, and apple butter Dennis and Sue made.

Today Amber flies back to Virginia. I hope she enjoyed her visit as much as we did.

Back to business

Four days away made a fabulous vacation. I had a great visit with Penny. We spun wool, went to four yarn stores (one had just opened, too), knit on socks and other projects, read books, bought some more books, ate delicious food at restaurants and from grocery stores, watched two football games (Auburn against Tennessee and the Redskins vs. the Cowboys - and our teams won!), worshiped at Briarwood Presbyterian Church, and talked a lot.

And while I was gone, Steve had Israel here as his guest for the weekend. The children were amazing - they grocery-shopped, cooked, cleaned, looked after one another and made sure everyone was where each was supposed to be, when they were supposed to be there.

It's nice to get away - and so nice to come back home again.

Wedding shower gifts

Laura Dupre (who helps with the Bible study for the high school and junior high girls) is getting married this summer. Tonight there will be a kitchen shower for her. I knit two dishcloths and crocheted two hotpads for Laura. Joan and Sarah will buy her one of her wishlist items from Target, and Joan copied out the recipe for "Emergency Soup" for Laura's recipe file.

Emergency Soup (from Lost Recipes by Marion Cunningham)

4 cups chicken broth

1 carrot, chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup small shell pasta

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Put the broth in a pot and bring to a boil. Add carrot, celery, and onion and boil gently for 10 minutes, then add the pasta and simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper as needed. Serve in bowls, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Makes 8 cups.

Birthday things

A birthday package from Barbel arrived filled with sock yarn, sheep things, chocolates, Haribo candies, lotion, leis, and German Weight Watcher food and a magazine (and the German WW foods taste soooo much better than the American products). Penny, Meg, Karen, and my parents called. Helen and Mimi Facebook messaged me birthday wishes, and over the last week I've spent time with some of my favorite people.

It's a wonderful birthday.

I am well and truly fortified to face AARP things in the mail now, should they care to send them. 47 looks like it's going to be a good age this year!

Layne was here

Layne arrived Wednesday afternoon and left this morning. It was too brief a visit (I'd hoped for 4 days), but it was a wonderful visit. We haven't seen each other in almost six years, but have kept in touch sporadically via phone.

Layne is a talented needleworker and I was able to persuade her to take all the patterns, fabric, beads, needles and thread I had stored for a few years. (I optimistically thought that some day I'd see well enough to cross-stitch, embroidery, and do hardanger again. It's not going to happen.) But Layne can use it - or she can give it way to someone else.

Last night Tom and Karin made Frogmore Stew and invited several friends and all of the family to eat with them. They set up a couple of long folding tables, scrounged chairs and benches from both houses, covered the tables with newspaper, and poured the strained stew on the newspaper. We all ate with our fingers out under the stars. It was delicious, and the conversation was entertaining. After supper we put away the chairs and benches, rolled up the newspapers with the corncobs and shrimp shells and threw them away, wiped down the tables and folded them up and stored them back in the garage. Tom and David washed the pots, and that was it.

Layne and I retired to the living room where I gave her a crash course in sock knitting on two circulars and on double-pointed needles and showed her how to knit the Mason-Dixon Ballband dishcloth.

This morning she left (without Delilah, although she warned us several times that she just might have to take the cat home with her).

David's birthday week

David ended his birthday week festivities with Jackson, Rob, Winston, and Will at the lake. They had a few hours of air-soft battles with Tom, Sam, Joan, Sarah, Marley and Hayley, then the boys all came back to the house with us and spent the night. They had another battle after dark out in the field.