It's a beautiful morning.....

.... Ahhh,I think I'll go outside a while,
An jus' smile.
Just take in some clean fresh air, boy!
Ain't no sense in stayin' insideIf the weather's fine an' you got the time.
It's your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day.
Either way,
It's a beautiful mornin',
Ahhh,Each bird keeps singin' his own song.
So long!
I've got to be on my way, now.
Ain't no fun just hangin' around,
I've got to cover ground,
you couldn't keep me down.
It just ain't no good if the sun shines
When you're still inside,
Shouldn't hide, still inside, shouldn't hide,
Ahhhh..Oh! (shouldn't hide) Ah, ah, Oh.....






Even dead mountain laurel looks pretty when sunbeams come to play:

Don't you just love ferns?

Evidence of humans.






My son came home from college on Saturday. I think I'll take him out to lunch. I have such a tough life.

Epiphany or Nervous Breakdown? You decide.

The strangeness that was today started after church when I found myself walking laps backwards in the narthex. No, I didn't do that for exercise. I did that in response to a woman who took a step toward me with each sentence causing me to answer with a step backwards.

After church we drove on very crowded roads to a very crowded mall to get clothes for my darling daughter. She's going to a college for a summer study program for a few weeks and needs some new duds. She'll have a great time and study literature and art, too. We're very proud of her for being accepted.

Back to the mall. Too many people on the roads. Too many people in the parking lot. Too many people in the stores buying too many things that they don't need. I sat on a bench while waiting for my daughter to try on some clothes. Within seconds, there were two families worth of children climbing on me. Not next to me but ON me. Is this necessary? Was buying two pairs of jeans and swim shorts for my daughter worth all this? I vote no.

At Steve and Barry's I saw Sarah Jessica Parker's new clothing line, Bitten. Do I really need a dress for $12.99? Agreed, it's not a bad price but do I need another dress? How many dresses do those women in China or wherever have to make in order to make $12.99? It just seems pointless.

After we made our planned purchases, my husband asked if I needed anything else. "I need to get away from these people," I replied. "Which people?" he asked. "ALL OF THEM!" was my final answer.

Now that I'm back home, I plan to sit on the front porch and look at nothing and drink a glass of wine and simply breathe. And plan a hike for tomorrow. Being alone in the woods is the antidote to the ridiculousness of today.

Fair reader, it is now for you to decide. Was today's experience was an epiphany of a sort, possibly leading me away from the consumer culture and toward a simpler and more meaningful existence? OR am I just having a nervous breakdown?

Comments are welcome and appreciated.

How did that get there?

So this morning I was (shock) hiking along, minding my own business when out of nowhere, I see this:





It's obviously long-abandoned and in very poor repair. I didn't go closer to check things out (I'm a rule person and the rules say to stay on the trails). From what I could see, though, it was made with semi-modern building techniques. There were rain gutters, plaster and lathe walls, red brick foundation, and a tin roof. Did I mention that I was an hour's walk away from any road? How the heck did all those building materials get there? And when? The picture doesn't show scale well, but the house is twice as large as the house I grew up in. This is not a 'little cabin in the woods'.

Curious.

I'm being stalked

Playing hookie yesterday was fun but in case you get too jealous, I did work until 10:00 last night. I went hiking again this morning and it was lovely, but I will be burning the midnight oil yet again.

I added a few miles to my total this morning with a fairly short hike. I was about half way through and thinking that this was going to be a pretty run-of-the-mill hike today and nothing much special was happening. But then.......

I met a thru-hiker. Then another, and another, and another! FOUR thru-hikers today, and one was a GIRL. They've been on the trail since Georgia and won't stop until Maine. It takes about six months. All the conversations with them were as we were passing. I guess if you're hiking 2,175 miles, you don't stop to chat with every person you meet.

So once my hike became 'special', it just kept going that way.

There was a lot of this flower. Is it mountain laurel? If you can enlarge the photo, the buds are so incredible! It doesn't smell very much, but it's gorgeous.

I finished today's section of the trail and then hiked back to where the stepping stones were installed yesterday. I sat beside this waterfall for a while. It was so cool and refreshing with a wonderful breeze. Being in places like this make me feel like the me I've forgotten about. It was absolutely perfect! And then a huge water snake zoomed by. Did I say huge? I meant HUGE! So as I was running back up the trail to my car, another snake like the one yesterday slithered across my path. SQUICK! They are so stalking me!

It's 72 and sunny.....

.... so what do you think I did today? I added a few miles to my summer goal of hiking the AT in NY.

Things I learned:

1. Elevation maps don't always tell the whole story.

2. Sometimes we scare hawks, sometimes hawks scare us. Today they both happened at the same time when a small hawk was sitting on the trail. (thus, no photo)

3. Hikers are cool people. (see photos below)

4. Snakes are not cool people. (see photo below)

5. I need to get outside regularly. I feel like I can breathe again.

6. Sometimes the trail isn't marked too clearly and you have to pay close attention.

7. I live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. I haven't been to very many of them, but they can't be much better than this.

8. I should have left those old hiking boots that I found in the closet, well, in the closet.

9. Always carry food to share.

10. Wear insect repellant when hiking. Seriously.

Now for the pics:

These young fellows (and Dora, their dog) were found resting on the side of the trail. They are between college and real life and enjoying their time together. They gave me my trail name, Angel. (Much better than my husband's offering, Hike-O-Path, don't you think?) The name may have been a response to a gift of blueberries. Everyone always complains about 'the youth of America'. Well, these were some wonderful and thoughtful young men and America is in good hands.

These reluctant subjects are Trail Heroes. They work maintaining the trail. I was the first hiker to cross the new stepping stones across the stream. Kudos!

This evidence of my great photography skills is just for my darling husband. He loves snakes but generally hates the outdoors. I'm just the opposite. I think the photo was remarkably clear considering it was taken while I was jumping up and down and screaming like a girl.

Now it's back to real life. Finishing quilts and cooking dinner and cleaning the house. But tomorrow is going to be 77 and sunny. Maybe I'll have to play a little hookie again. Who wants to come with me?

Just in Time!

I've been working on quilts for my son's college friends and today I finished the last one.






This was a quick and easy pattern using all 2-1/2 inch strips. I will definitely make this pattern again.


This past weekend, we went to my husband's family reunion and I got to see my son! His grandparents brought him for the day and then he returned to college for his finals.

Of course, I finished this quilt ON THE DRIVE HOME so I'll have to mail it to the neglected friend.

Why do quilters always wait until AFTER the last minute?

Surprise! More Hiking Pictures

This hot and humid morning, I enjoyed a 3 hour hike with a lovely young lady from my church. We enjoyed the scenery and the company and just had a marvelous time chatting. We shared my trekking poles. They make nice walking sticks, in case you wondered.

We saw four frogs (no pictures cuz they blended into the background too well), a mole (no picture cuz it just looked like a gray blob), four million crunchy millipede-thingies (no pictures cuz ick!), three trail runners (no picture cuz that would be rude), a snake (no picture cuz I was screaming like a girl) and some other good stuff.

We saw this wonderful creature. Maybe a salamander? He stood still for the picture and wandered off as soon as I took it. Kind fellow, wasn't he?

Then we saw these bones covered at the side of the trail. I borrow dvds from the library and watch too much CSI. They looked human until we uncovered them. Maybe a deer? I'd seriously like feedback from you medical-types out there, cuz my mind runs to the gruesome. (The shoe is in the photo to give you an idea of the size of the bones.)

Remember the outhouse from a previous post?

This is the dedication sign inside:

Those hikers spend too much time alone in the woods, I think.

We returned home before the vicious thunderstorms started. Hopefully the temp and humidity will now get out of the 90s. Today was really, really gross but we had fun anyway.

Hiking is like Childbirth?

On Saturday, I thought it would be fun if my husband dropped me off several miles away and let me hike home. Flaws in that plan:

1. I only slept 2 hours the night before. Note to self: don't drink 2 caffeinated diet cokes with dinner EVER AGAIN! Finally going to sleep when the sun is rising is NOT FUN!


2. It was ridiculously hot and humid with a stagnant air advisory. And lest we forget, I have asthma.


3. I'm overweight and out of shape and my knees hate me.

Some pics from the day:




I rested on a rock overlooking this farm while a mosquito devoured my backside. Laugh if you must, but I'm slightly uncomfortable.





This flower is no larger than my thumbnail. It was so fragile and intricate. Each petal is actually a hollow cone. Being plant-challenged I have no idea what it is, but it's cool anyway.






My dear quilting friend bought me these trekking poles for my birthday. I LOVE trekking poles. I saw about a dozen hikers on Saturday, and 100% of them used poles. Try them, you'll really like them.

The good news is that I made it home. The rest is like childbirth...... I blocked it out.

Godzilla versus ........

Yes, Mothra was on my house.

(if you can enlarge the photo, the antennae look like feathers --- very cool!)

Sweet Nothings

My husband has a new term of endearment for me. Darling? Sweetheart? Not even close. I may tell you later.

So, last week I had to respond to a friend's emergency and it kept me away from home for a few days. All will be well with my friend's family. She's terribly worried that she inconvenienced me, but the worst she did was caused me to skip my planned hike on Sunday and finish up a few quilts for a Monday deadline. No biggie.

Today was spent sitting through two classes, so I basically yawned all day and felt sorry for myself. When I got home I loudly said, "No more!" (Forceful, aren't I?) I grabbed my trail shoes and my daypack and hit the AT. I've stated before that I want to hike all 88 miles of the Appalachian Trail in New York this summer, so today I furthered that goal. Since the NY/NJ trail maps are currently out of print, I borrowed a set of maps from the library. There's a full topographical map on one side and an elevation chart on the reverse. I've been saving today's hike for when I was up for a challenge. The elevation chart showed it going straight up -- and it surely did that. If you question that, borrow my calves for tonight.

The first part of today's hike was, as I mentioned, somewhat steep. I could hear running water for quite a bit of it, so I wasn't too surprised that I had to cross it at some point. What was a pleasant suprise was the quality of the bridge. There's not always a bridge and I've shown pictures of bridges that make my knees knock. (I'm not a happy bridge crosser which is odd since I've always lived near major rivers and have had huge bridges as part of my everyday life. I just never enjoyed the bridge-crossing aspects of my everyday life.) So, today's bridge was quite safe secure sturdy lovely.

Wouldn't you be happy to cross this bridge?

Have you every played Jenga? It's this game where there is a tower make of little wooden tiles that you pull out and stack on top of the pile and try and keep it from falling over. Well, this reminded me of a Jenga tower.

I thought the fungus in this picture looked like little butterfly wings.

I know, I'm weird. Yes, my husband bought me a camera for my birthday and all I take are pictures of decaying wood. Sounds like a T-shirt, doesn't it?

I'm still learning to use my camera (wait, isn't there an instruction book somewhere that I should maybe read?) so this picture doesn't do a great job of showing just how GREEN everything was today.

Hiking at dinnertime has it's advantages, and one of them is that the sun is at a really cool angle and you get to see scenes like these:

This next picture is really a part of the Appalachian Trail, I promise. If you don't believe me, enlarge the photo and look at the brown sign on the left side of the road. You should see some white marks. The official AT markers are white strips that are 2x6-inches. The trail goes under a major highway by following this road for a short time.

Since the hike started uphill, hiking back to my car was a joy!

Look what was waiting for me:

My baby.

The weather is supposed to be this glorious all week. I'm going to have to do this again (and again, and again, and again).

Oh, wait! Didn't I start this post by talking about my husband's new nickname for me?

Hike-o-path

Yep, he loves me.

A Tale of Three Books

I just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It reminded me so much of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. They really aren't much alike, since one is post-apocalyptic and one isn't, but something was there. I recommend both books.

I've read all of Clive Cussler's books and was excited to get Treasure of Khan out of the library. After three weeks and struggling to get through half of the book I'm still not sure what happened so far, and I find I don't care much. Back to the library it went. Maybe my 20 year crush on Dirk Pitt has finally ended?

O Punctuation, Where Art Thou?

After nearly wrecking my car due to laughter, I drove back and took a picture of this sign:








If you want to be an author you'd better move out of the Hudson Valley, I guess. Or just maybe there's a book called Hudson Valley Ruins and the authors of said book were speaking at the library tonight?

Imminent Rueage

I mentioned before that my mom asked for a quilted tablerunner. Well, she's gonna rue the day she said that to me. Here's another one:







It's an old Thimbleberries Club Quilt. It hung in the store for a year and then sat on a shelf. I went to mail it to Mom and realized that I had only basted the binding down. Well, I just rectified that situation.



*****
For those who wonder about the title of this post, it's from the movie Twister.




Dusty: He's gonna rue the day he came up against The Extreme, baby. Bill, I'm talkin' imminent rueage.

Happy Mother's Day!

The Appalachian Trail runs through New York state for 88 miles. I covered about 3 of those this afternoon.

There were some wooden footpaths and footbridges on this part. I'm not a happy bridge-crosser, but I survived this and other dangers:



My photography skills did not improve with the purchase of a new camera. What you cannot see is iocane powder are the really cool plants at the far side of the bridge. They were HUGE! And they reminded me of The Land of the Lost. (Sing it with me now... 'Marshall, Will and Holly on a routine expedition......' If you've never seen it, consider yourself blessed.)

I received a comment in person from a lurker (hi E!) about my peeing-in-the-woods comment from a few weeks ago. This picture is just for you:

Life Insurance

Do you ever feel behind? So far behind that you can never afford to die? I'm there.

If you have ever been in a similar situation and dug your way out of it, please share your success with the rest of us. Did you jump in and work until you were caught up? Did you just leave some things undone? Did you find a way to keep it from happening again?

In case you're unsure, posts like this usually come around the time of shows like this and this. When things have been crazy and I've been working non-stop and I just want a break but all I see ahead of me is a huge to-do list.

And what would I do if I got a break? I'd spend lots of time here, I'm sure.

On a Roll

Quilt pictures twice in one week! Will miracles never cease?

This is a gift for my friend's baby who is almost three years old since this same friend is due to give birth again soon. I try to only be one quilt behind per family. It's a modest goal, but I can achieve it most of the time.



The fabrics are all different Moda pinks. The pattern was from a Super Bowl sewing day at Pinwheels. And even though the quilt is pieced in ripples I trimmed it down for a straight binding. I may be foolish at times, but I'm not crazy.

Check this out

Whereas it wasn't the best book I've read this year (The Boleyn Inheritance still holds that title), if you are the reading sort please consider The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. It was an enjoyable journey.

It's Official!

It's spring and I have been bitten by the hiking bug. I live 2 miles from the Appalachian Trail and am considering how much of it I'm going to attempt to hike and in what time frame. I'm a goal-oriented person, so this stuff really matters to me.

I hiked the closest portion of the AT today. My husband drove me down to the next county to leave my car and then drove me back to the trailhead. My dear husband is anti-hiking. He hiked a local trail with me once last year and kept asking if the treadmill wouldn't be an easier way to take a walk. Bah!

The NY AT trail maps are out of print. I ordered what I think are the right maps from the library. We shall see. I have visions of maps and pushpins and coloring in the portions of the trail I've hiked. Georgia to Maine is 2,175 miles. That's daunting. But the 88 miles in New York seem do-able.

The reasons I feel like an official hiker today are several:

1. It was threatening some serious rain today and I went anyway. No pics since I didn't want to risk the camera in the gloomy weather.

2. I signed the trail register. I'm officially part of the tradition now. Cool, huh? They wanted to know my trail name -- anyone have suggestions on what that should be? I hope to sign many more registers and would love to have an awesome trail name. Higheredhands is the name I use for most things, but doesn't seem nearly cool enough for a 'trail name'.

3. Today for the first time, I tended to, um, *cough* personal business *cough* on the trail. Well, not on the trail exactly. Maybe 50 feet back from the trail. Behind some serious cover. Does this make me an official hiker? I think it does. And in case you are wondering, yes, for a short time I wished I was a man.

4. While I was on the trail, I noticed a baggie of trail mix hanging from a tree branch in the middle of the path. One might think that the last hiker dropped it, but no. There's a tradition of 'trail angels' leaving food for the next hiker. Knowing that makes me feel oh-so-official.

I'm looking for hiking buddies. Let me know if you are interested in covering some miles with me.

On a completely different topic -- Happy 16th Birthday, darling daughter!!! And to the rest of you.... stay off the sidewalks. She gets her learner's permit tomorrow.

Finally ...... Quilt Pix

It's been a long, long time, but finally..... quilt pix!

There's a local woman who is sending quilts to babies born to servicemen. I have some spare quilts to donate.

This one was made from leftover fabrics from a Moda University Bound to the Prairie quilt:

I made 5 of these blue quilts. Last year when I wanted to practice a design I had in my head, I pulled this top out and quilted it. At long last, it's done:

Here's a close-up:

I got a phone call from my mom a while back that went something like this

Mom: Do you know what I want for my birthday?

Me: No. Do tell!

Mom: Remember that snowman tablerunner you made me for Christmas last year? Well, it's not snowing any longer so I had to put it away. I put my old embroidered tablerunners on and they didn't look as good as the quilted tablerunner. Could you, at some point, make me another quilted tablerunner?

Me (to myself): SCORE!

Here's the tablerunner I'm mailing tomorrow. Don't tell my mom, OK?

I can't fly, so why must time?

Background information about me: I got married when I turned 18 and moved to NY and lost touch with most of my school friends. I was changing diapers, they were going to Cancun for spring break ... it's easy to drift apart.

After church on Easter morning, I was reading the NYTimes bestseller lists online. I usually only read the hardcover lists, but since I was having a lazy morning, I read the paperback list as well.

I noticed this book:



Gaelen Foley? Wasn't she one of my closest friends in junior high and high school? Why, yes! Yes, she was!

Gaele was very smart and funny and not just a little bit 'off'. She had the greatest laugh and warmest smile. She beat up my boyfriend in the hall at school once when he did something particularly cruel. I have some great memories of my years with her.

Apparently, she writes bodice-ripping Regency romance novels that are very successful. It's such a perfect fit for her! I know she rode horses and I can picture her fencing. I can just see her digging into the history and enjoying inventing steamy love scenes.

I just finished one of her books and purchased two more. I'm going to actually buy all of them -- this is a challenge for a library-type-gal like myself, but I want to support the author. It's also a challenge to eyes-on-paper read them, as opposed to listening to the audio while I work. Her books aren't available on audio, so read I must.

Now that I've finished the first book, I do plan on writing to Gaele to congratulate her. It'll be neat to get back in touch. Maybe I'll even consider going to my 20th high school reunion. I've successfully avoided all of them so far. This just might be the year.

Check her out.

And how about you? Do you know any kind-of famous people?