Color...

This is a Tromboni squash plant. It is not supposed to be susceptible to the squash vine borer that has "bugged" me for years. I also am growing " eight ball" squash- round suckers! They may not take the shape of traditional zucchini but are close enough for me. I'm growing them in containers and hoping if I take good enough care if them that I'll get a few to pick! But what about the color of that flower? That is my new favorite! If only MaJules could help me nail that in a Sherman Williams paint,,,,

Grateful....

I know this sounds sappy but sometimes I am just so grateful for the incredibly beautiful world around me. Last Sunday the kids and their children were all here. The little boys were so precious - my favorite thing is watching them run around together. Al and sons took over the kitchen and fixed the Moms a wonderful dinner....is there anything better? I think not.
Later on in the week Al and I took a bike ride down in Fairhope. Beautiful day- as we rode along the bay your senses were assaulted by the world around us. Gorgeous bay....the magnolias and confederate jasmine are blooming- the scent is truly southern:-)
The African iris and all the other southern perennial bedding flowers are we're really showing off! The earthiness of fresh cut grass and spiciness newly planted marigolds- Don't you love spring?

Good Times

One of the most special treats was meeting up with our dear Aussie, Suzanne Wray and her friend- visiting all the way from Down Under! While we had incredible meals in our condo- the last night was an extra big warm fuzzy with great friends. And check out that pile of our purchases!!! It's a good thing we took my van- LOL
And remember- what happens in Paducah- stays in Paducah!!!!!!

Carol Bryer Fallert escaped

We stopped at the Bryer Patch Studio in the hopes of taking a tour of Carol Fallerts house- no luck but we did get to talk to the incredible quilt artist who did this quilt of her grand daughter. They Lunar Moth is one of Carols works of art. Amazing.

Quilt Man and Bobbin Boy...

Just when it couldn't get any stranger.....new personalities in the form of SUPER HEROS!!! Quilt man whizzed around on a motorized scooter thing towing Bobbin Boy on a skate board.....capes flying!!!! no I don't make this stuff up.

Ricky Tims got into it!!!

Ricky Tim's asked for a feather to wear for his photo opp! This is a fantastically talented man - and so gracious. Unfortunately, his partner on crime, Alex Anderson was having lunch so we couldn't coerce her into a group shot.... That's ok- Ricky made up for it.

Marti Michel - Next victim!

Template queen Marti Michel willingly gave it up- she's been to Mobile in the last few years and spent her 70th birthday teaching at our retreat. She is the master of marketing and made sure to ask if we were doing her "Marti and me" at Susan Baskins quilt shop- I told her I was ....kinda white lie... Haven't attended recently but who's taking attendance?

Eleanor Burns and the Yellow Feather...

Our first victim was "Quilt In A Day" - Eleanor Burns. She is crazy and always super entertaining! "Throw those scraps over your shoulder"- guess you have to be a quilter to truly appreciate it....it's a quilting thing! I actually was talking to her before I realized who she was....when I looked at her face I nearly fell over:-)

The Yellow Feathers take Paducah

Last week four of my dearest friends and I took off to the Paducah quilt show- Mecca for everything quilt related - and them some. It is a wonderful place- the whole town gets involved in making our stay the best it could possibly be - from the Boy Scouts making AWESOME strawberry shortcakes to the Rotary exhibiting antique quilts that bring tears to your eyes.
As you can imagine it is quite crowded - lots of people - In order for our group to pick each other out in a crowd I made yellow chicken feather hair clips. Sounds innocent doesn't it? Well let me tell you- it was truly amazing what happened - EVERYONE was telling us how much they liked them , and it went on and on. We really couldn't go 20 feet without someone acknowledging us - greeting, brief chats, telling us where our fellow feather wearers were. Even the men got in the act- except they thought we were Indians...."what tribe are we in?" The result was so cool- we got to meet SO many people from all over - share a smile and a few words.....Every day it got better and better - the culmination was 2 of our group being interviewed by a newspaper reporter and being in a front page article of the Sunday Paducah paper.
We decided to have a little fun and have our pictures taken with the quilt world "celebrities" - what a HOOT! They are really good sports and we had lots of fun with them- the following posts are the results of accosting some of the major people in the quilt world... I think they are still scratching their heads wondering what happened to them:-)
And it all started with a silly yellow feather hair clip!

Paducah

In Paducah, Kentucky at the quilt show with friends:-) awesome dinner at Patti's Settlement -love the pork chops!!!! This handsome drake was saying hello!

Here we go again!

Here are the next group of eggs going in the incubator! They are Olive Eggers from Louden Farms. Don't you love the colors?

Chicken update🐔

Here is a picture of my 2 beautiful Black Copper Maran chicks. They are about a week old in this picture. They are very sweet birds with no fear of the human hand.

Rosie - the fastest beak in the south!

Grandson Alex and I had a very " crafty" week. One afternoon we spent sewing a pocket he filled with flowers and gave to the little girl across the street. Yesterday he decided he wanted to decorate and fill a foraging activity box for Rosie. He filled this little compartmented box full of seeds and nuts- then we spent quite a long time decorating the sides - it was a pretty elaborate deal that took us the afternoon. I hung it in her cage and after a couple minutes of wariness, she hooked into it and demolished it in 30 minutes....but she had a great time doing it!

Chicken Butt

With 3 beautiful grandchildren - 2 under 2 years old it is safe to say we've cleaned up our fair share of poopy butts.....Well- I can now add this to my list of accomplishments- cleaning a chicken butt! My sweet RIR Lulu had developed a pretty ugly looking poopy clump on her rear end. Since her eggs pass over that nastiness and her lovely fluffy butt was very unbecoming, something had to be done! Here you can see me soaking her butt in warm water to loosen up the ugly clump. She was quite calm and tolerated this indignity quite well. I happy to say she is once again her beautiful fluffy butted self- clean as a whistle. Can you believe I soaked a chicken butt?????

Learning to communicate

This last weekend we had our grandson, Hank, overnight. We took him to the park and for dinner we whipped up yummy meatballs and gravy. Hank LOVES balls and LOVES to say the word "ball" which being a southern boy, comes out as "bawls". So we taught him "meat balls" with an Italian accent.... "Meat-a-bawls"! Can it get any cuter?

A Kodak Moment

After grandson Joey had dinner he decided he wanted to go outside. With Al following, he went right down to the chicken coop, climbed up on a bench and just sat and watched the chicks❤. Our girls are pretty social so they always come over so say hello and hopefully score a handout. He sat there for a good while communing with the "chickies" - now all he needed was a cup of coffee or a glass of wine...heaven on earth.

Taste sensation!!!! Whipped Jack

Want to have a refreshing drink???? Get yourself some whipped Jack and fresh squeezed orange juice - yum yum yum! Oh, and the oranges are from our tree but no I didn't brew the Jack....

Another Taste Sensation!

Here's a lovely spring time pound cake.....The Barefoot Contessa's Lemon Yogurt Cake - oh yum! Seth made this for his Dad's birthday and it was a hit. And what's even more cool? He used our homemade yogurt, home grown lemons and eggs from our chicks:-). I love it when a plan comes together❤

Progress

I am embarrassed to admit that I finally finished Grandson Joey's quilt.....he is 20 months old😁 ..... I'm a bad Nonnie!

Introducing......Ollie!!!!!

After incubating 8 Olive Egger eggs we only had one little chick hatch - but oh what a beauty he/she is!!!! After seeing no movement or real embryonic growth in any of the eggs, this little guy hatched after only a few hours in lockdown! We were smitten and named her Ollie❤. Since no other chicks hatched we ran out and got a few more for Ollie's brooder mates. 2 Dorkings and an Ancona.