bloglovin

Follow on Bloglovin

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

2nd day of road trip, recalling the first too!

Day one: drive from Fayetteville to Clark County, AR. ---- mostly on back roads, through small communities and national forest.

Along the western edge of Arkansas I was delighted to see a field of Indian paintbrush and coreopsis .....looking something like this...

The woods here, south of Fort Smith, were laced with white dogwoods and wild pink phlox grew in the ditches near the hardwood forests.

Later there were more tall pines, logging trucks and areas both of clear cutting and replanted pines. Lumber, southern white pine is a big industry in Clark County....there is a Georgia Pacific plant there..

Farm fields, pastures were covered in yellow buttercups.

Five hours later, I reached my brother's farm....where cattle grazed in a field of buttercups as the late afternoon sun made everything even more golden!

My sister in law has a real country garden....lots of repurposed and cluttery cute containers...here is a bed of iris which came from my mom's house in Little Rock.

I really enjoyed spending time with them while waiting for the storms in Tennessee and Georgia to subside.

*************************

Day 2. Today Gurdon, AR to Franklin, TN, just south of Nashville.

Overcast and cloudy until just after Jackson, TN. Very rural. Lots of trucks for hours on I-40!

As I approached Exit 172, the sign of up-coming attractions in Dickson said "Sewing Super Store", did I imagine that?.....I took the Exit....LOL! Sure enough, more signage reassured me..."Sewing Super Store" 3.8 mi. Turn right.

I did...drove and drove...4 lanes wide, hard to watch both sides....I pulled over. That is when I spotted the WALMART.....hmmmm. Have to say, I am not a fan of theirs....BUT when I am on a road trip in strange (to me) areas, I know I will find a good place to walk and feel OK when I enter...so I did. I did notice a sign of a business hidden by the way it was down the hill ....for a vacuum cleaner shop with FABRIC! But I went on in to Walmart...

 

[Had I gone to the vacuum store, it would have been the sewing super store I was trying to find.just Googled it here on the IPad... I guess I will be stopping there on my way home....I'm sure I will need a break! ]

 

 

Then, after 6 hours of driving, and 40 minutes of cruising Walmart on foot, i took my goodies to the car and drove until the next exit and turned onto the newly opened 840 which by-passes Nashville.

Peaceful! Blue skies, rolling hills, trees again laced with dogwood.....very little traffic.

 

A wonderful change after hours of sharing the road with semi trucks and drivers in a hurry!

From I-840 I took the first exit for Franklin, a slow, meandering two lane with moderate traffic.

Suddenly, a deer bounded out from trees along the opposite side of the road and into the front of the car ahead of me! The car struck the deer, which slid under the moving car....and came to rest, quivering in front of my car. Scary and sad....!

 

It was surreal, in the "late afternoon, going home for the day" traffic....We all kept moving, swerving around the poor deer....I don't know if the car that hit it sustained any damage....I was intent on locating my motel and getting out from behind the wheel!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Note: I was busy driving, not stopping to make photos so I have shamelessly pirated images from the Internet to illustrate my observations....however....here are two photos from my own IPad ...
Above: clear jelly shoes for the twin grandaughters...
Below: a crafty inspiring magazine for me to read in my room tonight....like I need more inspiration for crafts! LOL!

Off to curl up with the magazine now!

 

Monday, April 28, 2014

Postponed departure

Due to severe weather hanging around the Southeast...through Wednesday.....[what a terrible weather event near Little Rock last night! That gave me second thoughts, for sure!]


I am waiting before "casting off on my voyage"....to see these two, and my other two fabulous grandchildren!

Oh, and it will be my darling daughter's birthday on Thursday, the day I hope to arrive!
Meanwhile, I have plenty to do here!



I have been quilting this 3 generation quilt . The blocks were made by my grandmother.....who saved every scrap and even pieced some of the little hexagons. This is a box of her scraps which I still have, ...... it means a lot to me now!


The dark blues and reds are from the early 1900's, the aqua and red from the 1940's! I will use some of her dark blue to repair a worn place on a couple of the blocks....see the safety pin?


My mother did the blanket stitch appliqué the last year she was with us. Once finished, I think this special quilt may go to Mom's namesake, her great granddaughter , Ella!

Also, now ready for hand sewing the binding.....my strings and selvedges pink Parisian quilt....machine quilted by Kathy Turner with loops and pink thread.

Love it!

***********************************************
I have a little bit of a garden....I took these photos so that when I return, I can compare and see growth!

I had to try a new hybrid tomato...just because of its name, "Indigo Rose"! This photo is what they could be...

Very dark outside, sweet and bright red inside...

My quiet corner in the garden......( I dream of a real brick patio here, small but neat...someday!)

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Easter breakfast

Photo through the glass door of the new oven...a oven pancake.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Blend together -- 3 eggs, 1/2 c. gluten free flour, 1/2 t. vanilla, dash of salt (optional), 3/4 c. milk, 3T. butter-melted and in the baking dish. ( you can use a pie pan or a cast iron skillet )

Pour batter on top of melted butter. Place in preheated oven and bake at 450 for 15 minutes.

Turn,the oven down to,350 degrees as the pancake continues to bake.

 

While it is baking, prepare sliced fruit. I used fresh strawberries which were then warmed in a glaze of raspberry jam mixed with orange juice....beautiful!

The original recipe calls for lemon juice and powdered sugar to top the pancake before adding fruit.

Remove puffy pancake from oven...

It will collapse and can be sliced like a pie.....

Top with strawberries and enjoy!

This is one of my favorite spring time breakfasts.....Today I had to work quickly to get to church for Easter mass at 9:00 a.m.

It was a great service, so many families, children dressed up little girls with hair bows and pastel dresses...longer service than normal of course! I enjoy seeing many different ethnic faces in the congregation,which inspires me to want to paint faces!

 

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Heavy frost and new kitchen range....

Monday night we had a heavy frost warning......I covered my plants...

Tuesday morning at 9:00 before going to work, I went out to uncover and see.... First of all, the water in the birdbath was frozen over. Frost was on the cloths covering the plants.

 

 

Lots of little flower sprouts survived, I will have to thin these, LOL!

Tulips were not damaged! In fact they look better than ever this year, they were planted several years ago!

The lilac bushes are wonderful! For years, they did't get enough sun and never bloomed. After an ice storm several years ago took out a couple of trees, the lilacs are getting better each year, too!

So, I found a bouquet this morning.....maybe a painting soon....

#########################

Remembering back to Saturday, I had a wonderful b'day celebration with my good friend, Sally. [It was Sally's birthday we were celebrating.]

Sally, I and 2 other friends went to lunch in Siloam Springs, AR. The restaurant is 28 Spring. Very nice!

I had my friend, Liz took a photo for me, of my Thai beef salad.....which was gluten free (buckwheat noodles) I think!

It was such a warm sunny day, windy though.....we walked around the historic downtown exploring a couple of flea markets and some shops. We had heard, though, that the frost was coming...

 

********************************************

Out with the old.....has this range been here since 1970? Maybe. I finally bought a new one....and ....

I'd say there is enough dirt here to be from 40 some years ago. [Don't look if you only like clean and shiny!]

After a quick cleaning.....they tried to install the new range yesterday when they delivered it. Of course the last century cut off valve didn't fit this century's hose for the gas line.....so as I write today, a plumber is fetching the right valve and will soon have me "cooking with gas"! [ which of course brings to mind " fracking issues" ....sigh...]

 

I have a feeling that my spring project will be to repaint the cupboards inside and out.....and maybe give away some dishes!

Here it is finally installed!

 

 

Let's look at those lilacs again....enough dirty kitchen talk!

 

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Sunny and warm..at last!

Photos from around the neighborhood this afternoon...

Someone has a young tree in blossom and lovely tulips, too!
A tulip tree in full bloom behind a vine covered mail box....and a red bud "bonsai"?


Then a whole line of springtime glory...red bud, forsythia and daffodils! I like the shadow of the bare tree branches too!
At home, my little garden angel stands near a newly opened miniature iris...

And a group of "pink" daffodils.....see the peach/apricot tones in the trumpets?
My main goal on this walk was to get a photo of this old truck.....to reference while I add a truck to the foreground of this watercolor....again, I see shadows of bare tree limbs.....
Here is the aqua truck to add to the art work....

Back later with results....? Hopefully!
***************************************************
Meanwhile some of my grandchildren are on spring break at the beach.....in Florida.
Little Nina looking at the big ocean......


.....photo by my daughter ( whom I recall finding the beach at the same age...)

This little mermaid is now a travel agent. Find her at www.caribbeanjourney.com !

[I just posted some of my quilting history to my quilt blog...1980's Scrapbook  ]

Related Posts with Thumbnails