I haven’t been keeping up with my blogging duties lately. No great excuse - I’ve just been busy, travelling, and haven’t produced a lot of photo-worthy stitching.
The garden keeps me busy. I filled two yard waste bags last week with tall grasses (Heavy Metal) that kept falling over, and the remains of our Siberian iris. It’s sweaty work and I don’t like to sweat. Fortunately the three major heatwaves have broken so it was quite a bit more comfortable working outside. There is a lot more to cut down but I’ll resume that activity the week after next - the next yard waste pickup week.
I had the urge to do some crocheting and had crochet cotton in my stash. I cranked out a dishcloth. It’s a bit wonky but I liked the activity.
Yesterday was our monthly guild stitching day. About a dozen of us spent most of the allotted time working on our projects, sharing ideas, and having pleasant conversations. I had kitted up this little project from Shannon Christine Designs - “Polar Bear Wreath”. It was one of the many freebies she shared on her Shannon Christine Facebook page under the Featured tab. I had the fabric in my stash and substitute for any floss colours I didn’t have.
I got most of it stitched while there, finished it up last night, and added the bling today. It is very “wee” as Jen1 would say.
A couple of weeks ago I drove to Indiana to visit friends, Todd and Shingo, who live in Japan but were stateside for a month. I was really pleased they could fit my visit into their busy schedule.
I wasn’t too concerned about driving the almost 800km by myself. I planned to break up the trip - basically driving as far as I could stand the first day and going the rest of the way on day 2. This was my progress:
I had a good audiobook to keep me entertained. I took frequent rest/comfort stops and quickly got back on the road. My crossing at Windsor/Detroit was surprisingly quick. Most of the construction is done on the US side and it’s very easy to get onto the interstate once through Customs. Traffic was much less busy than I’m accustomed on the 401 so I whistled though southern Detroit and Toledo. I had hoped to get to Fort Wayne but at my rest stop in Defiance OH, I was ready to stop for the day (indicated by the red arrow). Also, there weren’t any hotels on Fort Wayne’s southern ring road. I had a comfortable stay at the Super 8 and drove the rest of the way the next morning, arriving at Todd and Shingo’s by about 10:30am.
We had a fun time catching up. We follow each other on Facebook but it gave us an opportunity to reminisce about Skip and previous visits.
Of course, we enjoyed some Mexican food,
and Thai food.
My meal was so huge, I brought it back to Canada with me. I had cleverly brought a cooler bag and loaded up on ice.
On the way home, I stopped at my niece’s place for the night and to drop off some things. It was a hot day and the temperature in her pool was perfect for a dip. The angle of the sun had the umbrella shading the centre of the pool. The filter motor created a vortex in the centre so I spent a good chunk of my ‘dip’ lazily circling on my floatee in the shade.
On the way home, I had my last comfort stop at the IKEA at the 401 and 407. I enjoyed Fika (Swedish coffee break; cinnamon bun and coffee) and stocked up on frozen Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, Swedish pancakes, and lingonberry sauce.
I really enjoyed getting away for a few days and was likewise glad to get home.
This is my harvest so far (I admit I have been eating a few cherry tomatoes right off the plant).
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