Still sheltered in place

The days are starting to run together a little.  I find I am less able to tell the days apart.  Last week was one long running crisis...well, the company thought it was a crisis.  I thought it was an opportunity to shine, so I did. 

I'm glad to say that I'm seeing more and more encouraging signs and symbols in the neighborhood.  Below is one of my favorites, but other people are taking advantage of their sidewalk chalk to extend a lot of uplifting messages to the walking neighbors.  When we walked yesterday, we saw lots of neighbors outside, playing with kids, washing cars, visiting and they all spoke and waved and we spoke and waved.  I guess not getting to see many people makes you long to make a connection, no matter how brief, with anybody that we're not living with. 

Rob found this and I enjoyed it so much that I keep sharing it.  It's so me! 

One day last week, I was really feeling stressed, so I took my lunch out to the garden and sat in Linda's chair and enjoyed a bit of sun.  While I was sitting there, this friend came and landed on my leg, then fluttered to the ground, then wafted off on the breeze in search of a flower.  All my stress melted away as I took a couple minutes to watch and enjoy. 

If you're thinking about making home baked bread, I'll warn you, it's easy to get spoiled.  I'm making two loaves every ~10 days and Rob and I are loving it.  It's a lot of work, but the rich creamy taste and texture is very pleasant as toast or a sandwich or just sliced and brought to the table for a meal. 

And, of course, I strolled through the garden, pausing to pull a weed or take a picture every so often.  In Austin, we have a short season when it rains every weekend.  The weekdays are beautiful, but the weekends are damp and chilly.  It's been that way since the 80's and while I know that Mother Nature doesn't do days of week, it's still uncanny that it happens.  (I had a friend with a boat when I was younger and we would get so frustrated when we'd make plans for an outing during the sunny week, then have those plans dashed by weekend rain, several weekends in a row.)

These are pictures of the garden path, as the plants fill in and grow beside it.  It's filling in very nicely back there. 

I've been quilting on the arc quilt.  I'm still playing with thread and learning what works best on the actual quilt. 

I know it doesn't look like much, but that's about three hours quilting, to ditch around the section, then between all the points, and then add the echo.  That echo will be filled with a row of pearls, then more echoing existing lines to fill in some of the blank space.  I suspected that as I worked on the actual quilt, it would tell me what it wanted to be...and sure enough, it has.  I start with just a bit of a plan, and then let my mind wander as I work.  It helps to look at pictures of other beautiful quilts for inspiration, so I joined instagram as a looker, not a poster...yet.

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 (8 hours later and I realized that I went too far and said things in anger that I did not mean, so this has been edited.)

I am appalled at a few of my fellow Americans.  The ignorance and hate and rage that we are seeing on TV is not representative of all of us.  It's a small number that are too stupid to save their own lives.  Of course, the orange toad is egging them on because the last thing he cares about is people. 

I'm not too worried about them.  They are the vocal minority, and I think being the minority is about to backfire on them.  They're going to be the ones that society leaves behind. 

Be well everyone.  Support the mayors and governors that are out there keeping us safe in the face of the orange menace.  They're about to become our warriors and they deserve all the support we can give them.

Lane