A week of ups and downs

This was a beautiful weather week.  Temps were in the mid 60’s and Bill and I were able to ride our bikes and sit in the sun.  It always feels soooo good.  On Sunday we rode 14 miles from Bill’s house to the Dunkin Donuts in No. Berwick.  We checked out a craft shop but didn’t find anything we really needed to take home with us.  From there we rode back on Rt. 4 to Bill’s house.  It was a spectacular day and we felt blessed to be outside in October feeling the warmth of the sun.  Not only that, we are blessed to be healthy enough to exercise on a semi-regular basis (as time allows).  We spent another day with Bill picking up leaves with the tractor and I cleaned up the gardens.

On the down side, my best friend, Su has spent the week in the hospital after surgery.  She is doing well but isn’t expected to return home for another couple of days.  She has suffered serious illness for the past several years and this is another bump in the road.  I am considerably blessed with good health, even though I’m approaching 60 (yikes) which is the opposite of Su.  I am always supportive and attempt to help her fend off the overwhelming depression that accompanies another health problem.  I am also blessed to have Su as my best friend.  She is such a wonderful person and I consider her my soulmate.  It is difficult to understand why she is faced with illness over and over again.  I pray that this time the final news is positive and she can look forward to some good years ahead.

On the quilting front, not much time to sew; however, I have been doing some background stitching on the butterfly picture.  I am using a technique from Diane Guadynski which she has termed Diane-shiko.  It isn’t difficult but time consuming.  After 5-6 hours I have completed maybe 1/4 of the background.  ti doesn’t really matter, this wallhanging was for Greg and Vanessa last Christmas.  As they say…better late than never.

I also did a some border quilting on the red oriental flower wallhanging.  I stitched a flower in variegated black and white thread.  I still can’t get the hang of doing it without a pattern so I have traced the flower on tracing paper and use that to follow.  The down side is taking all of the paper off when I’m done.

Two other good things happened this week, I listed my condo for sale and Bill and I finished my sewing room at his house.  We painted the ceiling and I chose a very light blue for the walls.  Bill pulled up the carpet and put down a laminate wood floor.  It looks so nice, clean and bright.  I still need to decide on curtains and blinds but I bought a new 6′ sewing table and it is set up in front of the window.  We moved a small bookshelf from my house.  It is holding fabric right now but will eventually hold children’s books and toys for the grandkids.

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Bicycle, bicycle

Today we had an opportunity to go for a bike ride for the first time this year. The sky was partly cloudy and the temp was near 70*. We are usually out a couple of times in April or May. We always try to ride from Ogunquit to York before the traffic gets crazy but this year it never warmed up. So, today was the day. We rode for about three hours stopping for lunch at Richards and then again at Gray Farms to look at all the wonderful flowers and plants. Bill had attached new odometers which read 10.9 miles but he thought that was about a mile too high, so we rounded it off at 10 miles; not a bad first trip.

I told myself earlier this spring that I was not going to spend as much money on plants as I have the past couple of years. I have done pretty good but there are a couple of bare spots in the shade garden that need a little something. I picked up another astilbe and a Jacob’s Ladder.

There is a chickadee nesting in the gourd house that Bill hung in the tree by the front window. Today we saw what we think was a Great Crested Flycatcher.

I used up a lot of calories today, starting with the gym right after work. After the bike ride I did some of the Wii fit program, then went to yoga. I was asleep on the couch by 9:30 and once I got into bed I slept like a rock the entire night.

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