Flower Beds Looking Better

 

Sarah worked and worked on my flower beds and they look so much better.  She even brought some plants with her and went shopping for more.  (Carrye, remember that gift certificate you gave me from Fort Thomas Florist?  It took awhile to use it but I'm thankful to you all over again.   There is a plant or two here from you.)

She put pine straw on the raised beds and mulch in other places.  Pulled out weeds and weeds and weeds.  I'm going to be a good gardener and keep watering the new plants.  (Inspiration from you, Joanne.)

And now she is getting ready to pack up and head out.  Always a sad time.  

I have a book for curbside pickup at the library, so I'll busy myself with that this afternoon.  A real book.  I'm grateful for the library books that come to my Kindle, but a real book is better.  And I'll do a little sewing.  Rain may be coming.

Beach Park

With Sarah here, and with the virus concerns limiting options, I decided it would be fun to pick up a sandwich and go to Bellevue Beach Park, on the Ohio River.  Normally, we would head to one of our favorite restaurants and eat there.  This way, we could support one of those local places and still eat "out."  

Really, I should do this on a regular basis.  It's one of the few "downtown" areas without a flood wall and with an unobstructed river view.  It's a perfect space to watch the sun go down, big enough to have a nice play area and still be a relatively peaceful space.

I think that the area was once an actual beach, with sand, where people would come to swim.  Of course, that was years ago.  For now, note that cottonwood tree, so impressive.  It was an easy place for Sarah's little dog to tag along.

Sarah has been spending some time weeding my flower beds.  She even brought a few plants that she picked up at her local nursery.  I am very appreciative.

Lobster Dinners

Every August my town has the Great Inland Seafood Festival, by the river.  I have to admit that I've never gone, but it's a thing.  This year of course there was no festival, but drive-up lobster dinners were available.  Lobster, corn, potatoes, butter, bottle of water.  Since Sarah was coming for a visit, an outdoor family dinner sounded like a fun event.

Pick-up was smooth.  Orders and payment were done in advance.  Cars came in one flood wall entry, dinners were passed through the car windows, cars went out through a different flood wall point.

 

The only glitch was that as soon as family arrived back home so did a hard pop-up shower.  We ended up moving a table from the back yard to the porch so we were a little closer together than planned but these things happen.  It was a fun thing to do, not that the lobster was so wonderful but just the novelty of it.  In these strange times, it did my heart good to do something totally out of the ordinary and to eat with family.  

Nora and Mask

 

Nora in her new mask.  It fit fine.  Aaron's needs a little elastic tweak.  This style mask needs a good elastic fit but allows for breathing space in the nose area.

The report was that when each kid put on the mask they said, "It smells like Gran B's house."  I checked and this is a good thing.  I'm always trying to avoid that old person smell in my house, but I'm not sure what causes it.

This morning - the dentist.  A good experience.  Someone came to get me from my car and took me straight back to the exam room.  She did the temperature and check-in things there.  Different hygienist than I usually had but she was nice.  Payment was taken in the exam room and I was escorted out the back door.

Last night there was dinner company on my back porch.  Three guests and me - we all had a corner.  It was breezy.  I hadn't had Casual Chinese in forever, well before the quarantine, and it was delicious as usual, we each had our own, no sharing.  It felt like the old days.

I was thinking about a walk but checked the temperature and saw that it is raining, just a gentle rain, making no noise.

Block Arrangements

The cupcake mix recipe #1 blocks are finished and I spent some pleasant time this morning trying out different arrangements.  Taking pictures with my phone.  I think this is the winner, at least for today.

And then, the quilt shop called and said that my order of cupcake recipe #4 had come in.

One of my friends posted this Mary Oliver poem this morning.  It's one of my favorites, and I may have posted it here before, but I hope you enjoy it once again.

I worried a lot.  Will the garden grow, 

will the rivers flow in the right direction, 

will the earth turn as it was taught, 

and if not how shall I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven, can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows can do it and I am, well, hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it, am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing, 

And I gave it up.  And took my old body

and went out into the morning,

and sang.

Recycled Mask Fabric

 

Well, this was fun.  Former pajama pants, now a mask, with more masks to come.  The pajama pants were just too big, with no draw string.  But I loved that fabric.  What's not to like about Life Is Good?

I'm enjoying the Creative Grids mask template and instructions.  So worth the small investment.  The masks come together in no time.  I've started making the masks with different fabric for the lining so folks will easily know which side is the outside.

On my left wrist, my fitbit.  It's been gone since I broke my wrist and had the cast and the brace.  I don't know why it took so long for me to put it back on, but I feel so normal again.  I may need to resynch it with my phone though.  

I'm not happy with the small "normal" font size now available on Blogger, and this next size up seems huge.  I think, though, that I'll be using this larger size.going forward.

Last Cushion

 

The eighth and last outdoor cushion is finished.  Zippers reused.  I am breathing.

I am lucky that the owner was very patient. Tomorrow I'll deliver this last cushion, the owner wants me to see the completed project.  She is happy.

And I am happy.  I did three more blocks on my new quilt.  Practiced a little free motion - how long has that been? Made a mask for Aaron.

And I made potato salad.  One of my goals for today was to cook something.  Anything.  I like to put a lot of veggies in my potato salad and lots of eggs.  But no onions.

No press conference today.  The governor and his wife were sick, COVID-like symptoms but they tested negative.