Loose threads

Time to catch up after not blogging for a week because (1) I was visiting my family in Los Angeles and (2) my phone/camera crashed.

I had a good visit with my parents, who are pushing 90 but still work out at the gym six days a week. And three of those days are 45-minute workouts on weights, plus my dad does 80 ab crunches! They put me to shame. I'm the one whose check engine light has come on, not them.

This is the sunset from their living room. I had dozens of beautiful sunset photos, but when my camera crashed I lost everything except for a few that I had already texted to my kids. Luckily, they were able to send them back to me. This is the only sunset photo that I have, and the photo below is from the cliffs near their home on Lunada Bay on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

This next one is at Hermosa Beach. I couldn't believe that it was November and sunny and 70 degrees with people flying kites, playing beach volleyball, swimming, sunning, and packing the outdoor cafes as if it were summer.

Back home we had sunshine but it was chilly. Today I walked with the Feet and Forks on the Cushman Trail, then we had lunch at Morso's, with this view of the harbor:

Normally we don't get dessert, but this time we all got mini mousses. Mmmmm.

I'm also working on my Starry Night quilt, doing free-motion quilting in swirls. It's almost done!

 Have a colorful day

Superb fall color this year!

It's not just my imagination that the fall leaves this year are the most colorful in recent memory. It's true! Local weather guru Cliff Mass did a blog post confirming this and detailing the conditions needed for spectacular fall color:
 puget-sound-autumn-colors-are-best-in.html

Here are some photos I took this past week just on one street in my neighborhood.

The colors are the same as in this quilt block that I did last year based on October colors:

Inside the house, the autumn colors continued with roasted sweet potatoes ...

... and a fall place setting. On the menu was a creamy tomato basil soup and sweet potato-cranberry-pecan salad with maple vinaigrette dressing. Yum!

Have a colorful day

Woolies, WOW!

At our last Woolies meeting, the show and tells were so many and so wonderful and came so quickly that I can't remember who made what. So I'll just show them to you and let you know that each maker did a fantastic job!

(I do remember that these first two pictures are of a quilt that Pam is making based on a design drawn by one of her son's friends.)

The last picture is a detail 

from the quilt I'm working on.

Have a wonderful day

Rainy wandering in Port Orchard

When the Feet and Forks set a date to walk, we don't let a little rain stop us! Last weekend it rained a LOT, but we unfurled our umbrellas and walked for two hours along the waterfront in Port Orchard, WA. Kandi's umbrella started out with a white design, but after it got wet it turned colors. 

We had most of the walkway to ourselves, including this pier that seems to disappear into the Puget Sound.

We never know what we'll find on a walk. 

This time there was a totem pole,

...  a Navy boat being hauled out of the water,

... brave sailors out in the rain,

... and Nick at the Nostalgia House Bakery, who volunteered to put custard filling into a donut when I was disappointed that the custard ones were sold out. I've never had a bakery do that for me before, no matter how disappointed I look!

On the way out of the bakery,

there was this sign above the door.

Thank YOU!

Here's an article about the bakery's origins: 96564990

Then we had lunch at Whiskey Gulch and I forgot to get pictures. I had a gyro and a salad and Kandi and Joyce shared two kinds of tacos -- jackfruit with fried avocado, and, I think, chicken.

We keep walking to delay that check engine light from coming on.

Have a colorful day

Getting cozy

It's the time of the season ... 

to turn on the fireplace

and fix hot cocoa

and curl up with some soft wool to stitch.

Here is a peek at the project I'm working on -- wool appliqué on a cotton background. My friend Linda punched out the snowflake, and I punched out the snow circles with a leather hole punch.

Keeping with the night sky theme, I just ordered this bunny fabric to use in a stroller quilt for a gift. The mom likes soft grey and yellow and has a starry night theme going in the nursery. And the bunnies are just the icing on the top for me! 

Here are the bunnies I have in my entry, tucked into fall leaves. Hope you feel all warm and cozy now!

Have a colorful day

Olympia Farmers Market and Nisqually Delta

Yesterday began at the Olympia (WA) Farmers Market. It was a lazy, overcast morning, but the brilliant colors of peppers, apples, pears, carrots and other produce brightened the scene.

But what really caught my eye were the bakeries and chocolatiers. I got so excited making my selections that I forgot to take pictures, except for this sign. I ended up with a slice of Swedish almond cake, an apple Danish, a chocolate cookie and a Kahlua truffle. Only the truffle remains.

There was laid back music by some old guys -- funny how everyone my age looks old now.

Then I walked off the sweets at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. By then the sky was a soft blue around the clouds and temps had climbed to almost 60 degrees. The tide was out, revealing a muddy estuary bottom.

The Nisqually River Delta is Washington's largest relatively undisturbed estuary. The confluence of freshwater from the river and saltwater from the south Puget Sound has created a variety of unique environments and is home to more than 300 different species of fish and other wildlife. 

The cloudy appearance of the river is from silt in the glacier melt that forms the river. The river starts 78 miles away on Mount Rainier with the melting of the Nisqually Glacier.

I saw a pair of bald eagles perched high in a tree, but they were too far away to photograph. I also saw a Great Blue Heron stalking lunch in the water, but again it was too far away for a good photo.

This naked white tree stood out starkly against the sky, with the Olympic Mountains in the background.

It was a very peaceful few miles of leisurely walking through shady glades and along boardwalks through the wetlands. By the time I got home (after lunch at the Ram), I was comfortably full and tired and had a nice nap on the couch.

Have a colorful day