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The last time it wasn't raining (Saturday, I think) I hung my latest quilt to be finished from a door frame on our porch and took its picture for the quilt gallery I keep at right. I loved this view of it hanging alongside one of the geraniums we kept alive in the south window through the winter, with the hanging basket of glorious impatiens, a present from Doug, in the background. It all just says "summer is here."
We thought Sam would be going back to Edwards- ville on Sunday, so Norm gave him a good combing out on the porch on Saturday. I figured I should give Norm equal time with Sam on the blog. As it turned out, Sam stayed with us until Tuesday night so Matt could rest up from a stressful IT project.
Sam and Matt will be heading for Florida this upcoming weekend, probably. Doug is doing some research related to his book on Southern Gospel at a university archive in Nashville this week, and he'll attend a conference in Indiana before heading for Florida, too.
Norm and I are relaxing for a couple of days, after a hectic weekend setting up, helping to staff, and helping to take down our church's booth at the 2009 Gypsy Caravan sale. A report with pictures is on the Compton Rising Blog if you are interested.
Everything is so green, so blooming, it's not hard to say that summer is here! We have had 4 straight sunny days in the low '80s which is about perfect. Now the humidity is rising, a tropical type storm in the Gulf is supposed to trigger showers over the weekend. Of course. It's Memorial Day Weekend. It always rains.
We are really enjoying our visit from Sam, except for his habit of "alerting" us to a couple who take their morning walk about 5:30 a.m. We used to just sleep right through it before Sam took up residence at the foot of our bed!
I've been trying to finish up my allotment of Gypsy Bags for the church booth on Monday. Plus I've been pricing items people have donated for the sale and trying to create a computerized inventory of them. Last night I took off and went to quilt guild and enjoyed seeing someone else's perfect work on display. I'll try to post more pictures as soon as I can process some.
Sam the grand dog (and our grand- dog) is visiting from Florida for a couple of weeks and finally, after he spent time with everyone else, he has come to spend a few days with Norm and Judi. It has been almost a year since we had seen the little fella, but he got just as excited as he always does when Doug pulled into our driveway!
Doug came for lunch, and we had a good time talking about some of his work and his upcoming publi- cations. As soon as they are released I'll put some links to them. I just took a good look at this photo, and the items in the background. Linvilles will recognize the "little green man" made out of railroad spikes that Dad L gave to all of us as a gift one year. The statue of St. Francis was an *ordination gift for Norm from Linda and Amos eons ago. And yes, that really is a blooming white poinsettia. I got it at the retiree's Christmas party in December. It must really like its spot on the desk getting only morning light.
(*this corrects an error in the original post.)
Our dining room as well as our neighbor's garage are filling up with items people have donated for our church's booth at the Gypsy Caravan, coming up on Memorial Day. We are doing it again this year. Somehow on Sunday afternoon we will truck it all to our little rented space on the UMSL campus. If you are coming to the Caravan, stop to see us in C-94.
Meanwhile, Sam is here until the weekend. We are going to try to arrange a playdate for him with Ava, but he is kind of afraid of her. He has already been upstairs to check out the bed. He always sleeps at our feet, which is nice and comforting since he isn't big enough to push us out of bed.
The news about Heather and her baby continues to be good. Korey was born on Monday afternoon via a C-section. We pray for the little guy (he weighed in at 4 lbs, 12 ounces, born 4 weeks early) to gain strength and outgrow the preemie nursery soon, and for Heather to have a smooth return to good health. Proud grandparents Mike and Sandy will return home later this week.
Iris week is winding down, but we were heartened this past week when the lovely white-and-blue iris that we received from Norm's mom bloomed underneath our lilac. This variety made the journey from western Kansas to our old house, and then to this one, and still delights us.
This pale lavender beauty is a charmer that we treasure each year, also. It's in a bed with day lilies and we aren't sure that we remember its origins with us. Both varieties are tall, and we need to stake them before it rains or they will be horizontal.
The hostas and the little violas continue to grow and fill the planters in the new wall. Norm mulched the plants with spent oak flowers that fell in such amounts that they otherwise would have suffocated the yard.
Our lawnmower died a couple of weeks ago, and our neighbor Barb has mowed our grass twice since then. Today she proposed that we just share her mower instead of buying a new one. It makes ecological sense and we'll split the cost of gas and upkeep with her, and take turns mowing when Norm's allergies let up.
Good news: little Sarah got to go home from the hospital yesterday, after 40 days. We are concerned for Heather, whose doctors decided to induce labor today. We hope and pray that she and the baby will both be well, and that Sandy and Mike will hold up to the stress of travel and sleeping in strange places.
Norm and I drove to Dexter, Mo. (for a Disciples Women's conference I was attending and presenting a session for) on Friday and back home on Saturday, about a 3-hour drive each way. He was able to drive longer than he has in several years, with improved vision after his cataract surgery last year. It was kind of a test run for our trek to Texas and Oklahoma in a couple of weeks. Sib reunion, here we come!
There is an update on the storm damage at the camp, Orchard Crest, that I wrote about last week. So many trees (and power lines) are down that it is too dangerous for work crews to visit right now. One report said that the group of volunteers from Fredericktown that were trapped there overnight spent over 6 hours sawing through 154 trees to clear the road so they could leave. Photos can be found by clicking on THIS LINK if you want to look at nature's power against the puny buildings put up by humans.
While all that was going on last week, I was taking photos of the blooming plants in the yard. The red columbine at the top technically aren't ours; they belong to our neighbor Barb. But I have loved them every year we have lived here. Because I like to collect columbines, this year we bought the plant at left at the Farmers' Market and it is planted in the front bed, next to a yellow one and a purple and white one.
Norm's yellow rose is in full bloom this week (another photo is in the camera still) but last week it was covered with these perfect golden buds. Norm just loves yellow roses.
Another find at the Farmer's Market were these miniature pinks. At least we thought they were miniature. After getting a couple of inches of rain they are 5 inches tall and rising. We'll see. They are in the back near the driveway. We haven't tried pinks before but we have admired a permanent perennial bed of them at a house we pass on our walks around the block.
I thought about calling this 'suddenly salad' but I think that's a trademark for something in the supermarket. This is our window box of mixed red lettuces. The leaves add color and variety to our salads and we are enjoying them while the weather stays cool (as in below 90 degrees, which in St. Louis in the summer, defines cool.)
On Wednesday evening we had a lovely time at dinner with Matt and Doug. We introduced them to Oscar's Cafe and from all reports, they enjoyed it. This morning Norm volunteered at Isaiah 58 and then visited Sarah Jane in the hospital, where he was rewarded with one of her dazzling smiles. I spent the morning at a funeral for one of my friends in Deborah Circle who died Monday of complications following a fall and chronic liver disease. Our circle fixed and served the family a luncheon after the service so I stood up a lot today. Tonight a group of us from church met at one member's home and worked on our bags for Gypsy Caravan. I'll post photos this weekend.
Tomorrow evening Norm and I are going to Sikeston for the night and then driving a few more miles over to Dexter, where I have a conference and a presentation to give on Saturday. We'll be home Saturday night. We are keeping our neighbor Barb's cousin Steve in our prayers as he has left the hospital and gone home under hospice care. He has been fighting leukemia for a couple of years and right now, looks like the leukemia is winning. The title of my workshop is "answered prayer." I don't have the answers, but will rely on the stories of the women attending and whatever the Spirit divulges. That's all I have left at this point.
Visitor #3600 is, I think, Carol and Walt in Irving, TX. Your ISP doesn't give a location but I'm pretty sure the IP address is yours, since it has corresponded with some comments you've made in e-mail from time to time. We can't wait to see you in a few weeks at the sib reunion! So thanks again, as well as Maxine, Don, Kay, Jan, Sandy, Debi, and Doug for being such regular viewers. I do have lovely springtime pictures to post...soon, I hope.
Good news that Sarah Jane is out of ICU and in a regular room. Michelle continues to recover at home and Lily is thriving. Heather went home from the hospital but is back in--more prayers for her health and her yet-to-be born son. Her parents Mike and Sandy went to Chicago for Mother's Day weekend and are back home. Doug's nephew Luke at age 1 month had surgery today and is reported to be doing well. We will pray for Elaine as she travels from Virginia to Tulsa mid week for what she is hoping will be her last chemo treatment.
Friday morning was merely rainy in St. Louis, with a little thunder. But 100 miles to the south of us, the weather turned destructive and even deadly. Word came on Saturday that winds up to 100 mph had struck Fredricktown and surroundings in Madison County, and that the church camp called Orchard Crest had sustained major structural damage. The initial reports said a volunteer work crew had been readying the 10 cabins for summer use when the storm struck. All of them escaped injury but were forced to stay overnight because the road out was impassable with fallen trees blocking it. We have heard that only 4 buildings were standing: the dining hall, the director's house, and two of the hilltop cabins. Perhaps we will learn more soon, but our area church's plans for summer camps, as well as weekday retreats, are now on hold.
I have written before about my own good experiences at Orchard Crest on my other blog, Thursday's Child. The most recent entries, with pictures of the grounds, can be found here and here. In 2007 I shared some of my reflections from an annual fall retreat there and those can be found here. Many people will miss Orchard Crest and we can only hope, as our area church struggles with declining income, that our leaders will find a new vision and a new mission for this place in the country that has been inspiring to so many.
This is turning into Iris Week, and before last night's rains came I took some photos of old friends who have reappeared in the garden. I'm not sure where the pink-and- maroon iris came from. My mother? Norm's mother? Our Ferguson yard? Were they already here? All I know is, they didn't bloom last year, and I thought we might have lost them. Apparently they were just resting.
We have a lot of purple iris. Some are darker than this one and I think we have some kind of pale lavender ones in bud--we will know in a few days. This one grows at the back of the border next to a low ground cover that right now is covered with yellow flowers, making a nice contrast.
It was a wild morning, with all kinds of thunderstorm warnings. Last night I drove through a real gully washer on the way home from a knitting fest about 10 p.m. Our rain gauge shows we got an inch in the last 24 hours. The severe storms were in southern Missouri and affected communities where we have some acquaintances. We hope they are all OK.
Tomorrow some women from my church will be here for a sewing workshop. We are going to make some items to sell at the Gypsy Caravan event on May 25. It will benefit the accessibility project at our church. Our goal is to make 50 "gypsy bags" as well as a bunch of potato baking bags, and I think I have enough fabric here (some of it donated) to crank out 20 at least. It will be interesting to see how well we can turn our house into a sewing factory for a day.
Before April is only a distant memory, I thought I'd upload a few photos of the lovely flowering trees and bushes we enjoyed this spring. The dogwood above, complete with a bee on a blossom, was captured by our friend Mike with his new Nikon. It was growing at Powder Valley Nature Center, a field trip I still need to post about.
The lilac we trans- planted 8 years ago from Ferguson was full of blooms this year as well. The only problem with it is its proximity to the cable and phone lines over head. Not to mention the power line farther up. We are going to have to trim it back, which I hate to do since it will reduce flowering next year.
We have two azaleas, one in front of the porch on the west side and one around the corner on the north side. This one, in front, always blooms first. I've found that a good dose of Miracid when it first buds helps the blossoms, as well as another dose or two during the summer. That's a tricky proposition, since planted next to it is a lovely blue hydrangea that prefers alkaline soil. We'll have to see how well it does later in the summer.
We are still keeping Ava, who has settled in like this is home. This evening Norm was planting some hardy perennials we bought at the Market, and I was sweeping up the Oak tree trash from spent flowers (lots of acorns this year, probably). I went inside to check on Ava and found her nested in front of Norm's recliner on his lap robe, watching The Biggest Loser on TV. But I couldn't get her to tell me how it all came out!
Doug is working on some journal articles and staying in Edwardsville. His sister-in-law, Michelle, continues to struggle with challenges following Lily's birth and subsequent surgeries. This coming weekend we will house sit for our friends Mike and Sandy as they travel to Chicago to see John and Kim and Heather and Corey. Heather is still in the hospital and working on keeping the baby from coming early. Sarah Jane is improving at Children's hospital here, much to the relief of her parents Sandy and Dave, but has a long recovery ahead. Elaine, wife of Norm's cousin Joe, is continuing her chemo in Tulsa every three weeks, making the round trip from her home in Virginia. So our prayer list is still quite long!
Well, it looks like a new friendship has bloomed between our house guests. Doug barely had sat down in the recliner to drink his morning tea and tackle the crossword puzzle when Ava had to help him. Hope Sam doesn't see this photo. I've heard he sometimes looks at this blog back home when Doug is asleep.
Today was the long-awaited season opening of the Ferguson Farmers' Market. Earlier predictions had been for rain but it was sunny and pleasant, about 60 degrees, when we arrived. Many previous vendors are back. We purchased organic green onions and radishes from Cascade Farms booth. We bought perennial plants--hardy geranium, coral bells, and a lovely red and yellow columbine--from another vendor. From a third we got two 4-packs of pinks and a pot each of cilantro and parsley. With our allotted $20 spent, we wandered around some more and looked over the new vendors that we will want to visit in the future, including a farm from Hermann that had soft spun wool yarn from their own Alpacas.
We always see someone we know at the market. Today we ran into Josh, a former student of mine who now works at the Post-Dispatch, with his wife Yoli and their three girls. Josh and Jadzia posed for me while Ludi looked away and Yoli was busy moving Josie's stroller so she wouldn't cry.
This little guy was riding in a market cart and was the center of attention for four ladies who were comparing notes on the shopping. There are always lots of dogs, well behaved, on leashes at the market. Somehow, we don't think we could get Ava to dress up like this to go out in public.
It took Doug's skills with my camera to capture that "look" that Ava uses to get everyone to adore her. She had decided I was spending entirely too much time at the computer this afternoon.
We are enjoying a visit from Doug for a couple of days before he moves on to visit other friends and his family in this area. He and Matt and Sam will be in greater St. Louis for the next three weeks and we are all happy about that. We can't wait until Ava meets Sam!
The last time it wasn't raining (Saturday, I think) I hung my latest quilt to be finished from a door frame on our porch and took its picture for the quilt gallery I keep at right. I loved this view of it hanging alongside one of the geraniums we kept alive in the south window through the winter, with the hanging basket of glorious impatiens, a present from Doug, in the background. It all just says "summer is here."
We thought Sam would be going back to Edwards- ville on Sunday, so Norm gave him a good combing out on the porch on Saturday. I figured I should give Norm equal time with Sam on the blog. As it turned out, Sam stayed with us until Tuesday night so Matt could rest up from a stressful IT project.
