This Quilt is a Mystery -

This was a mystery quilt that our guild began in June. The teacher got permission to use a pattern called "Radio Flyer" as a mystery quilt, using quotes from Sherlock Holmes' mysteries. We had a great time beginning this top - it has taken me this long to finish it. I call it my "Better finished than perfect" quilt top. It was made from a bunch of scraps and small pieces that I had on hand - I didn't purchase one piece of fabric to make this top. I was surprised that it turned out to be red, white, and blue, with a little pale yellow. I just found pieces that were dark and light - and it seemed to work into a color scheme. Fun quilt to do. First we sewed two blocks that looked almost like a snowball block, then put darks and lights together, and sewed two seams down the middle - after cutting, we had the blocks shown here - joined together, there is a pinwheel or an hourglass block composed of triangles.

Full Moon Over the Bear River Range

After seeing Dwight's posting on the Curmudgeonally Professor of the full moon rising over the Wasatch mountains, I decided to post this full moon over the Bear River Range. We only live 125 miles north of Riverton, but, as you can see, the sun goes down a little later. Can you see the Man in the Moon?

Thistles in Steve's Yard - A Few Years Ago

The only time we were at Steve and Mary Lynn's home in upstate New York was a few years ago (to say the least). I loved the bees on the blossoms, and didn't realize until later when I uploaded the pictures that it was a thistle blossom. Did they grow it deliberately for it's beautiful blossom? (We do have a bit of Scottish blood in our family - and if you don't know the connection between thistles and Scotland, well....) I had waited to put another posting on the blog, hoping that Mandy's posting about the possibility of a family reunion might stir up some comments, but I see that you are all either ignoring things, or are asleep???

Ideas

Hello family! I thought I would take a turn on Grandma's blog. My post has a two-fold purpose. The first is to tell you all that it is really hard to go 9 days without my cute kids!

Most of you haven't even met Mia yet! That has to be really hard. Don't worry, though, I have a solution. I have schemed to hold a Family Reunion. That's right. I've decided that I'm going to at least attempt to get us ALL together. So Dad has agreed to do most of the planning, and since my husband's families have a reunions every year, I'll be borrowing liberally from the better experiences there. That's not to say that they'll work with our family, just that I want to try. I would like to shoot for next year. I know that's a little ambitious, but I think a year's warning is pretty good for just a weekend together. 3 days is what I'd like to do: dinner as we all get together, one FULL day together, and then breakfast (and possibly lunch) together before we all scatter. I'll need help with much of it, since I am going to propose that we hold it in Washington and I live in Arizona. I'm thinking June 22-24, 2012. Anyone interested? To get you interested, I've got some great pictures of my children, Mia and Dallin, below with their grandpa (Ken) in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. My husband recently went up to their cabin the mountains to help Dad lay a flagstone patio. Now who wouldn't want to get to know these gorgeous babies? :-)

P.S. Check out more pictures of the family at Phillip's blog. He is getting to be a great photographer. http://phillipfloresphotography.blogspot.com/

Get-well Flowers for Ron

I can't equal Dwight's pictures of Velna's flowers, but here are the ones that my siblings sent to Ron to help him heal. We were in Logan, meeting with the doctor this afternoon, and learned that the average recovery time will be around three months. Such is life.

Beautiful Presents - Poppies

A few years ago, when we were in Washington, we visited Andrea's garden, and she had a big patch of these incredible, fluffy poppies. I begged for some pods so that I could plant then in Preston. The seeds were sprinkled in two beds, fairly far apart from each other, and some flowers began to come. However, this plant came up in a bed far from the other beds - perhaps a bird present? The plant is stunning! Seeing a gorgeous flower like this brightens anyone's day. Picture a miniature rose, and you would be correct about this little rose bush. It doesn't know it's tinier than the other roses, but continues to present us with perfect buds and blossoms all summer long. I'm so glad that people take their time to produce plants like this one for our little gardens and the beauty that enhances the summer months.

Mandy's blog

I hope you'll take time to check out Mandy's blog (see the blog list at the side), because there are some really wonderful pictures - but the one of Mia asleep on Mandy is a real winner

Summer Gardens, Gage Style

Ron's pride and joy - at least, now that they've begun blooming. The garden is slow, because it was planted so late, but the architectural qualities of the trellis for the pole beans and the cucumbers and melons add to the beauty of the garden. Carrots and beets are doing fine, thank you. Another view - this year, I left places to do some August plantings of late crops, like lettuce for fall. This kind of gardening is much easier than the much more intense kind that we used to do.

There still is something lovely about being outside early in the day, pulling a few weeds, or hoeing, or just checking the growth of everything.

Ron's Newest Addition

The front - The back. This model is true to size, and tells you some of the particulars. Ron was told that this is the Cadillac model of debfibrillator-pacemakers. We are very thankful to be this far!

Summertime Joys

Benjamin is lost in the sheer bliss of being in the spray of water at the water park. How often do any of us, stuck in the everyday cares we have, experience joy like this?

Iris and Flowers

Lavender iris from our neighbor's yard. They looked like a huge froth of color in the vase. This is the bouquet that Dorothy and Sara sent to Ron for Father's Day. The bouquet still looks nice, except the yellow roses gave out. It amazes us how long cut flowers last.