Friday Books: H is for Hawk

I read H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. I finished it on Friday, so that fits my pattern of Friday Book reviews, I guess. This is non-fiction, a memoir of British author Helen Macdonald who as a young girl was fascinated by falconers and especially by hawks. As an adult she obtains a young goshawk and undertakes training of the hawk for hunting purposes. This is a topic I have never paid attention to in my life. It isn't something that appeals to me. Yet Macdonald writes a beautiful book about her experiences with her hawk. Her dad's death occurred early in her hawk journey, so she is dealing with her grief, learning to understand her hawk, taking on her first attempts at hawk training, and pondering what the meaning of it all is and how it affects her life - whether it all helps her heal, hurts her healing process, or if it's something understandable in her life's context. Intertwined is her appreciation of the nature she observes while working with her hawk. The writing is beautiful; her language is exquisite. I didn't like the topic, but she handled it well, and I found it quite interesting.

(I read H is for Hawk while on vacation... I had taken along about this many books, but in my Kindle, so packing was a lot easier than for this family.)

Last History Lesson - All Caught Up!

Want to see some beautiful quilts? Feast your eyes! The women in this guild are so talented. I am sometimes intimidated but am determined to just be who I am and make what I can. I'll never reach the level some of these quilters have attained. This first picture -- the woman decided to work with fibers and bought a sewing machine one year ago. OMG - REALLY?? Anyway, I repeat -- I am determined to be who I am. I like what I make; they're going to be slept under and will never hang in museums or art galleries.

Below: Roscoe. It's a tiny Minnesota town, population 102. My dad's name was Roscoe. When I was about 8 years old, we drove through the town, stopped and took a picture of Mom and us four kids by this sign. I remember my brother (14 at the time) worried about what passing drivers would think of us nerds. I liked it! This time I tried to get a selfie with this sign, but it was way too tall to get both it and me. The town is not thriving, as you can see from this building on Roscoe's main street. The death of small towns makes me sad.

National Night Out: we had a fun event at church. I put a bunch of extra books out by the Little Free Library; several people picked up books to read (= happy me). The fire department and police came to visit, which the kids loved. Lots of neighbors turned out. It was quite fun.

Last weekend we had a fun family picnic which was our official party welcoming our son home from South Korea. The cake got smushed, but it's still cute. My little Buddy, Mr. Baby, made a cameo appearance, and everyone fell in love with him.

Last photo above is our daughter with her 96-year-old grandfather out on the dock. Can you tell that we picked a gorgeous day for our picnic? Nice breeze kept bugs away, and it wasn't hot. Beautiful!

Yesterday I finished this quilt top. It is made of charm packs and mini-charm packs. I love it!

Guess what! I'm all caught up to the present! I'm sad today that I completely forgot to go to a funeral at church. A young woman died of breast cancer. I didn't know her well but wanted to honor her parents and friends. Kicking myself...

The Best Intentions

I had good intentions of writing every day to get myself caught up to the present. I failed miserably. But I forgive myself. I hope you do, too.

Here are more photos to show you what's going on in my life. This is the little boy who sometimes lives at my house with his mama. They've been busy with a family obligation and have been living with her grandma, but they'll soon be back at my house. I babysit about once a week so Mommy can run some errands and just get a break. He and I are best buddies. He is the sweetest baby! I just love taking care of him. Below you see that our cat, who has been afraid of Baby, finally worked up some courage to move in for a little sniff. Cat still tends to keep his distance but seems less afraid.

I finally captured a good smile with my camera. When he smiles at me I just melt!

Lucky me, my baby joy was doubled! My niece had a baby girl on July 24 - her oldest child's 4th birthday! It's great having another baby in the family. This is the sweet baby and my sister (Grandma) holding her.

I spent some time at my cousin's cabin, and we had a mini-retreat. I put together this top. I still need to add borders. In this picture it is not fully assembled, but this is the design. I used Victoria Findlay Wolfe's line of fabric, Mostly Manor. They were really FUN to work with! I love how this quilt looks so far.

My cousin and I went on part of the Minnesota Quilt Shop Hop. You get prizes and patterns for finishing various regions. It's the first time I have actually completed a whole region, and this year I finished three regions (out of a possible eight).

Above is the shop in East Grand Forks which I had never been to before and probably won't ever again, because it is so far from where I live. It is a nice shop, though. If you're ever in EGF, swing by and visit this quilt shop. We stopped to say hello to Paul Bunyan as we drove around the state.

Cousin finished this quilt (above) that was made from lotto blocks that she won. We went to the Cuzzin's Candy Shop in Park Rapids, MN.

Upon my return home I managed to finish these two quilts; both will be donated:

I'll be back soon to continue my photo journal, but I can't promise when it will be. Only "soon." Good night, sleep tight!

Wow, Time Flies!

I have been busy! Time flies, and it takes away from my blogging opportunities. What have I been up to, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Painting fabric, attending guild meeting, babysitting, traveling north to a cabin, sewing, attending a church event, reading, and more. In the next couple of days I will try to catch you up with a photo journal of my comings and goings.

Our son came home from Korea! He stayed there two years, teaching English. It was time to do something different. I thought he had come home to stay, but he is currently working on applying to teach English in another Asian country. Oh, this poor Mama (me) will be sad to see him go. Meanwhile he is looking for temporary jobs to bring in a bit of income. Here he is catching up on some zzzz's. He's a good cook, and Hubby and I have been the beneficiaries of some yummy culinary delights.

Cousin B and I decided to try some painting on fabric. Both of us are total neophytes. We bumbled along and did a few pieces. The last photo is my stuff which I plan to ... what? I don't know. First I have to find them again, then maybe sew them into something useful like a table runner. That's my current plan. It may evolve over time.

That's your sneak preview into the last week or more of my activities. More to come tomorrow!

Friday Books: The Map of True Places

I'm calling this book review "Friday Books," because that's what I have always called it. I'll keep calling it that, even when I post it on a day that is not Friday -- like today.

This week's book is The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry. This is a book I picked up from a Little Free Library in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, Australia. At the time I didn't examine it closely enough to realize that it is a book about and made in the good old USA. It lost its "romance" for me a little (but not completely) when I saw that it is not an Australian book. I still have good memories of being in Australia and finding the Little Free Library from which to take a book. (I left a book about Minnesota for them to read.) So I had fond feelings of the book while reading it, even though I didn't love the story.

The book is about a woman, Zee, who is a psychologist. Zee's client dies by suicide, which throws Zee into a soul-searching depression. She re-examines her own childhood, sorting out who she really is and where she is going (using a new "map," hence the title of the book). Her life, like all of ours, has taken some twists and turns about which she must ponder and make some decisions. Meanwhile, new twists and turns continue to happen, of course.

I would suggest this as a good vacation read - interesting, entertaining, but not great. Characters are a little too pat and predictable, but overall it's a good story.

House Guests: A Story

I have been living a very interesting New Experience. I mentioned a couple months ago that I was cleaning out a bedroom for a friend, CR, who was going to move in. She did move in, on May 5, with her newborn baby. She is someone I knew back when I was a full time working woman. We kept in loose touch over the years, and this year we re-connected in a more regular way when I found out that she was pregnant and homeless.

First I tried to help her find housing. She got into a place, very temporarily. Then we had to search again. You would be amazed at how hard we tried and how many "no"s we had to listen to. There was no room anywhere. (We obviously do not have enough shelters and helpful places for people in emergency need.)

Finally I got her a hotel room and called on my friends, near and far, to help pay for the room. I was amazed at the out-pouring of love in the form of helping to pay for the hotel. We kept her there safe and warm for just over two weeks.

Eventually she ended up in the hospital with early labor. And she actually never left the hospital, because her baby, TR, was born prematurely, at 26 weeks gestation. He weighed only 2 lbs 1 oz!!

TR was strong right from birth. He progressed through the NICU stages quickly. He gained weight, he had very few setbacks and no major crises. It was a miracle. On May 5 he was allowed to leave the hospital, just a couple of weeks before what was his original due date. They moved into my house, because they had no other place, and because I wanted to help keep TR out of foster care.

CR has been a pleasant house guest, and her baby is adorable. I rarely hear him at night, and after only a couple of months he started sleeping through the night. He is sweet, loving, and very lovable. I have had SO MUCH FUN helping take care of him. He and I are buddies.

I have been learning a lot through this New Experience. First I was surprised at how easily one can fall through the cracks of public assistance and find oneself out on a limb with no safety net. I naively thought that offering someone a safe, stable place to live would solve many problems. Well, yes and no. It did, but it didn't. Mostly it has helped ME learn more about the lives of people who can't always count on having a safe place to crash.

CR and TR get help from various agencies. Sometimes county people come to our house to check on the baby and talk about baby care, parenting, and many other issues. The help has been excellent. CR and TR are my friends, and I love them. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and to be part of their lives. I am not telling this story so you can think I'm wonderful for opening up my home. Instead I am telling you this story because I want you to know that people are complicated. Solutions are not easy. What we think might be a quick fix, often isn't. We need to be patient with each other and love each other more.

In these days of terror and unrest, let's just remember that part... accept each other wherever we are in life. Love each other. Don't judge. And give those sweet babies lots of hugs every chance we get.

More Finishes!

I have more completed quilts to show you. I have been churning out bindings like there's no tomorrow. Hooray for finishes! And hooray for catching up on all my bindings... now I can start machine quilting again, or even creating more tops. Too much fun!

A Journal Cover

I made a journal cover. I love how it turned out, but I tell you... I do struggle with sewing things that have to fit perfectly. This is definitely a tight fit! The last ones I made were too loose. This is why I love sewing quilts (among many other reasons). They don't have to "fit"!

The tutorial for this is, I believe, at Wanda's blog, Exuberant Color. However I received it from Julie at Me and My Quilts. Thank you, Wanda and Julie.

These are all batiks except for one fabric which is printed to look like a batik. Can you guess which one it is?