It’s spring break here, and with that My daughter and family are here from Texas! I had been hoping that we would still have good snow for their visit and my wish was granted!
Jerry is almost 13 and hadn’t been here in the winter since he was a little guy. He and Liam made fast friends again and made the absolute most of yesterday,
The most quilty thing that happened was that I picked up my two rolls of batting from http://bordergiant and having both Liam and Jerry with me they each carried a roll into my studio for me.
The rest of my day involved food…and watching boys have fun!
Jerry is a fast learner and after a few runs through the trails with Liam driving he was off on his own machine. They snowmobiled for 4 1/2 hours!
After Bison Burgers for supper there were nerf gun wars, some serious rough house play, Jerry teaching Liam self protection moves and so much laughter!! It was a full, busy day ending with the boys having a hot sauna, hot chocolate and no complaints about heading to bed…the grandparents weren’t far behind.
I cut the grass yesterday for the first time this season. One of the many perks of my life with Erik is that I have a nice little lawn tractor to cut grass…it’s a task that I enjoy!
This years winter was exceptionally long and stretched well into what should have been spring.
May held many challenges.
I learnt a lot about sump pumps and am extremely thankful that Erik already knew…so one morning early in May when I said that the pump sounded like it was humming he flew into action replacing it!
With that under control we breathed a little easier, however a day or so later I discovered water coming into the cold storage room. Thankfully we work well as a team, and between the two of us we were able to prevent any damage. I am an early riser and Erik is more a night owl so we worked shifts. It was a week of shop vacuuming every 20 minutes for a few days and loads of towels on and off the line or in the dryer being rotated.
The sump pump ran non stop for 3 weeks. We had a lot more snow than usual this year and with several rainstorms and frozen ground many people had destroyed basements. We were lucky!
I still continued to work away on customer quilts though not very much time for personal piecing.
So I was happy to celebrate the beginning of June by cutting grass! It’s time to plant some flowers and make some plans!
Liam has one serious plan and it looks like this summer we can make that happen!
This mornings view from the picture window! There is still some snow on the ground most of it in the yard is what remains from plowing…aka snow mountains. The grass is turning green and there is that slight tinge of green leaves on the poplars. Spring seems to finally be here.
Erik and I walked the back paths to our pond yesterday, it is huge! Between the heavy rains this week and the snow melting and the ground still being frozen….
Our sump pump has been on constant duty for the last couple of weeks.
The robins have been busy rebuilding their nest under our deck…it’s always so much fun watching their process and can usually see the babies from the pool…. Summer is coming! Erik has taken advantage of our well being too high and has the pool almost filled!
We were also able to dine on the deck this week and Liam was more than happy to join us!
My morning view from the picture window is looking more promising that spring is on its way!
This has been an extremely long winter, with more snow this spring than anyone can recall. We have had warmer weather which has meant full time work for the sump pump and careful monitoring of basements!
This weekend we took Liam to check out a close by river which is usually very low and easy to walk over as it leads to a swimming hole.
We had meant to get ice cream cones but we weren’t able to get what we wanted so Liam and Erik ended up with Shakes. These two guys share a true love of ice cream!
My Dad and Katie held a Mother’s Day brunch yesterday. Katie is not only creative with paint but also with food. Her crepes were such a treat mixing both sweet and savoury including one of my Dads specialties of smoked tenderloin!
Liam was so excited to have extra special gifts for his Mom.
We also had a good visit with Eriks Mom, she was thrilled that her gift from us was that Erik replaced her clothesline that had been struck down by a tree during one of our spring storms. Hanging laundry on the line is something she and I both love to do. She also had visits with all of her children.
Another Mother’s Day without my Mom. She really did love family and get togethers, her granddaughters and great grands were near and dear to her heart. Family is not always easy and as the years pass it teaches me as a Mother many things.
This was recently shared with me and in this season speaks loudly.
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Spring May finally be arriving! We still have a ways to go before the snow disappears, the ground is still covered the yard with more than a foot in unplowed areas and the bush is still heavy with the stuff.
The good news is the weather forecast is for sunshine and warmer temperatures and no overnight freezing temperatures.
Onto Quilting.
I have quilted many quilts for Cathy and always enjoy our visits. When I first met her she was still working as a community nurse and had been my Moms Nurse after she had cancer surgery. My Mom really liked her and it wasn’t long before they discovered their link of quilting. This led to Cathy meeting me.
Cathy’s latest quilt really helped to brighten some very grey days around here.
I have always loved scrap quilts, they are so much fun to make and to look at!
I chose the pantograph Helix which really adds motion to the kaleidoscope.
A little research about robins led to some understanding about the one that kept banging into our windows. Apparently the male arrives first and stakes out it’s turf and seeing his reflection and thinking it’s another male he needs to attack! I noticed a second robin yesterday and the two were flying around the yard. The female apparently arrives a week or two after the male.
Hopefully they will build a nest in their usual place again as we really do enjoy watching the process and it’s really fun for the grandchildren to witness.
The first half of Saturday was so nice and Liam and I enjoyed a 4 km walk, it was such a nice chatty visit. He is getting so big and is so smart. We had a good discussion about critical thinking and propaganda and how important doing your own research is…
We had a lot of rain over the weekend and milder temperatures so the snow is melting…as much as I want to see it go we really need a slow melt! Our sump pump is running non stop and there is still tons of snow in the yard. Crazy for the beginning of May!
I think everyone around here is holding their breath as we have had two days of sunshine and today it’s raining and so far no snow. The temperatures are still hovering around 0C
The snow is finally beginning to recede and we can now see the top of the well and a little more ground.
Every spring I look forward to the robins returning…so far there is one and early this morning he began banging on our windows!
I sure hope his friend arrives soon or is around already.
On the quilting front I have been busy and will soon have quilts to show…I like to wait for the maker to see them first. Here is a peek though…
Cathy’s kaleidoscope quilt. I always love her quilts and this scrappy one makes my heart sing!
Travel is looking much more possible in our near future and this week Liam was thrilled to find a Wisconsin Dells catalogue in our mailbox…that required some serious study!
We took Liam to the Dells in 2019 with a plan to return the next summer and the next which of course couldn’t happen. Hopefully this summer!
March can be such an interesting month. This March certainly has been.
I have been quietly working away on my customer quilts, I did get waylaid a bit by a cold that forced me into a few days of rest. This allowed time to also hand sew some bindings.
My Flock quilt top is completed and I have a quilting plan but will need to decide both on the backing and then when it will fit into the longarm que. I absolutely love the colours and pattern of this quilt. I may have mentioned before that I let the blocks land where they may…I placed them on the wall as I made them and for the most part kept them in that order.
Last week we had some really lovely weather that allowed for some coffee and for Erik reading on the deck. Then this!
I put the ruler in the snow at noon March 23rd this was in the driveway that the day before was almost bare.March 18thTo be fair the head had melted off of the snowman but still! That was a lot of snow!
The sun has returned this morning and the temperature will be above zero all day, hopefully that was this winters last hurrah though somehow I suspect we haven’t seen the last spring storm for 2022.
Wendy’s Quilting and Life 