The Garden

Well, the photos finally appeared in my cloud downloads so I thought I'd give you a quick view of my garden.  Every day I discover new things to enjoy in our new yard.  Below is a quiet space, sadly in need of a good cleaning, also the location of the grinder pump -- not so romantic. 

My private space

I'm hoping to use this little fenced area for raising some herbs and vegetables, safe from the deer.  Notice the rhododendron, one of many in both the front and back yards.  I discovered some other little beauties in this enclosure, too.

Columbine?

I was thrilled to find the first iris bloom ...

... then discovered another variety along the basement wall.

The patio outside my sewing room has a great view of this huge rhody ...

and a bed of peonies ...

Most of them are an ordinary pink, but I especially love this pale beauty ...

I think there is a technical term for the fuzzy/frilly center.

This may be a bed of lily of the valley ...

Lily of the valley?

What do you think?  Maybe they will be in bloom by the time I get back to the house in the morning.  We've spent the weekend at House 1, packing.  No report yet on how the inspections went on Thursday and Friday.

Oh, I did drive up to Bowling Green, KY on Saturday to attend a meeting of the Midwest Fabric Study Group.  We got to see a great collection of antique quilts in the collection of the Western Kentucky University museum.  I'll show them in a separate post.

Have a great week, Y'all!

A Note to My Friends

I haven't forgotten you

And I am keeping up with your blogs.

This moving thing, living between two houses, never knowing where something is has taken over my life, and will continue for at least the next four weeks.  I'm sorry I haven't stayed in touch, just wanted youall to know that things are fine, even great, and I hope I have a lot of fun things to show once I resolve some computer issues that won't download my pictures from the cloud.

The Foot.  It's as healed as it's going to get.  I'm wearing normal shoes without the brace and slowly starting to walk like a normal person.  I still take it easy on rough terrain; I was even able to do an hour of gardening this morning with no ill effects.

The Knee.  Not so good.  The cortisone shot has helped during the day but the ache wakes me up at night.  I'll return to the orthodoc at the end of this month to see what he suggests. I'm thinking a little physical therapy will do the trick.

Quilting.  I actually sewed on Tuesday with the quilt group I was invited to here on the Plateau.  Spent my day working on Loosey Goosey, my RSC project for this year.  I donated 17 quilt tops to the group for their encouragement quilts.  Also did a bit of stash enabling by taking another box of fabric for everyone to pick through.

House 2.  Is now our permanent residence, though we are a long way from being completely moved. We purchased new adjustable beds to be delivered next week.   And I spent Wednesday afternoon organizing my sewing room -- well, at least repositioning boxes close to their final resting place.  We had a visit from the Welcome Committee on Monday, Dinner at the Community Club quarterly welcome on Tuesday, and dinner with neighbors on both sides last night.  If the social scene remains this active, I may never find time to sew again!

I have been discovering new things in my garden every day.  We have some absolutely gorgeous peonies, the rhododendron are in full bloom, and the iris are finally making an appearance.  There is a bed of what appears to be lily of the valley (I'm hopeful) and the Knockout roses have started to bloom.

House 1.  This is the GREAT part.  We have an offer (after two weeks on the market).  But there are two inspections today and tomorrow that could kill the deal.  If it goes through we will be completely out of House 1 by June 16.  I'll keep you posted.

So that's Life on the Lake.

Status Report

At least it's not dead

A very nice and informative repair guy showed up yesterday morning and spent several hours assessing the refrigerator situation.  The good news:  It's not dead.  The bad news: It will be several days for the parts to arrive.

I am so thankful that a second fridge came with the house.  Since Mr. Lakeside was on the road Monday, I had to pull the fridge away from the wall far enough to plug it in.  It worked! So I was able to salvage everything -- almost.  More on that as soon as I can get my photos to upload/download from the cloud.

Fearing the chicken would not take well to re-freezing, I popped the thawing chicken into a pan of shallow water and poached it.  We had it for dinner last night and we both lived to tell the tale.

Wildlife Wednesday

On Tuesday Monday

I just couldn't wait a day to relate Monday's experience!  Especially since the day began with a failing refrigerator and food thawing in the freezer. And a mountain of boxes to unpack and a kitchen to organize.  And me, alone, to deal with it all.

As I sipped my second -- or was it my third? -- cup of coffee I caught an image out of the corner of my eye, something bounding down toward the lake.

I'm assuming it was a juvenile male.  He first surveyed the lake from the moss-covered rock promentory but apparently it did not suit his purpose because he moved on to the new neighbor's yard.

At this point I'm figuring he was looking for a drink of water.

A mallard paddling in the lake seemed to attract his attention.  So he stepped lively down to the rocks.

The next thing I knew, he was heading across the lake.

There must have been a really attractive potential mate on the other side!

A Real Slug

On Saturday I posted that I had become a slug, moving slowly through my life.  

So, what shows up on our deck Sunday morning?

A REAL slug!!!

Now I know what SLOW really is.

I've become a Slug

Time for a change

After being relatively inactive for seven weeks, I find I have become a slug.  I haven't done anything interesting enough to post about, haven't even touched a sewing machine in over two weeks.  Only managed a few stitches on my One Monthly Goal for April, though I did sneak in some stitching time in the van on our last trip up to House 2.

Stitching on the road

At least the yellow qualifies for April's RSC, but I missed my One Monthly Goal by one side.  My goal was to finish the binding by April 14, but the weather was threatening that day so I skipped the breakfast meeting where I intended to gift it so we could leave town ahead of the storms.

Arm-chair sewing companion

My arm-chair sewing companion fit nicely on the arm of my seat as I stitched away the miles. 

I have to tell you a "funny" story about the intended recipient of this quilt.  At an earlier WOC breakfast when I was giving away the second or third quilt she jokingly said, "Just how sick does one have to be to get a quilt?"  Well, I think she went a little overboard last week when she fell and cracked her cheekbone in three places!

The boot has been off for over two weeks.  I spent the interim in a brace.

Brace

The brace provides a surprising amount of support.  Getting a normal shoe on over it is challenging, however.  It is SO nice to be able to wear regular pants!  The only thing I could get over the boot was sweat pants.  Fortunately I had three pair so I could work some variety into my wardrobe, but I think those pants are destined for Goodwill.  I don't want to be reminded ever again of why I wore them!

Good news!  Yesterday the orthodoc gave me the green light to go braceless (except in situations where I know the ground will be uneven).  However, now it's the knee that is the problem 😒  He gave me a cortisone shot and it is already feeling better.

Better news!  House 1 got listed yesterday!  More on that later.

A Mystery

No, not the quilty kind!

A real mystery.  And I hope at least one of my readers knows the answer or can point me in the right direction.

While Mr. Hillside was unloading the rental van at House 2 this morning, I decided to clear my sewing off the kitchen counter to make room for unpacking and sorting. 

Mystery stain

I had left these scraps on the granite (or granite composite) countertop after cutting pieces for my RSC sampler block a little over a week ago.  They were not stained when I left them! 

Both fabrics had been washed before cutting, probably with Gain, and dried with Bounce (please don't lecture me about fabric softener).  The iron on the ironing board showed no signs of having leaked.  The fabric was near, but not ON, the Olfa cutting mat.  The undercabinet lights were not on.  The Keurig had not leaked.  The only potential culprits I could see were a banana and an apple in a nearby bowl.  I know that apples create an off-gas as they "mature."  Could this be what happened?  And what should I do to remove the stain?

HELP!