Salon Day

 Since Trish just gave me a wonderful back-deck haircut, Sunday afternoon was time for me to frost her hair.

It was a beautiful, warm, spring, Palm Sunday afternoon, so, we used the screen porch as our salon.

The time-consuming part is hooking the little batches of hair and pulling them through the holes in the plastic bonnet. You need to try to do this carefully and get the amounts that come through the holes to be relatively even in size.

The gloopy part is putting on the bleach mixture.  Though they put a little paddle in the kit for this, I do better by just putting on latex gloves and doing it with my fingers.  That way I can get it to be both more even and more thorough. Once thoroughly infused with the bleach mixture, it is time to cover it all with the plastic covering and wait.

After twenty minutes I thought it was light enough, but Trish thought it should bleach a little more. So, I took off the cover and added more bleach then recovered it fir fifteen more minutes.

This time was enough.  I took off the cover and she headed for the shower.

I must say that the final result was beautiful!  COVID has certainly taught us a lot of new skills!

Progress in the Boatyard

 In 1765 the collier, Earl of Pembroke, a coal hauler, was purchased and refitted as HMS Endeavour to be sent out under Captain James Cook to explore the “parts unknown of the South Pacific.”  It was the first European ship to reach Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, and a host of South Pacific islands. This ship later transported British troops in the American Revolution.

It is the latest model project in my model shipyard.

What is just now finished is the under hull, like the subfloor of a house.  The hull has two layers, the first applied to the ribs and the finish layer like a thick veneer on top of the under hull.  When you get this part done, you know the ship is going to hold together.

This whole ship is going to be quite large when finished, about thirty-one inches long.  The only hard thing is finding a place in the house to put it! But, it is enjoyable to build and look at when all done.

Pizza Night

 One of the great things about being at home this year has been our ability in fully indulge in our favorite of all things: cooking.  Trish and I totally love playing with food in the kitchen.  When traveling we have to eat out so very much that it has been a spoiler to be able to eat at home throughout this COVID year.

Every Sunday night is pizza night.  This is one of the things I love to make.  About five pm the stone goes in the oven on 450 degrees to heat up for at least on hour.

About the same time the dough for the crust is started.  We both like it very thin.  When I make dough, there is enough for two weeks, so, we freeze the excess and don’t have to make it every time.  I also make the sauce in batches and freeze the excess in little plastic bags so sauce only needs to be made about every six weeks.

When the dough is all mature and ready, it gets rolled out as thin as possible.  Then comes sauce and a thin layer of cheddar cheese.

Our favorite is just mixed black and green olives, but, this week we added mushrooms and carmelized cippolini onions (they are very sweet).

Finally it is lots of mozzarella and a slight topping of Parmesan.  Then in the oven for maybe twelve or fourteen minutes and we are ready to eat!  We sometimes think we will have leftovers, but, last night it all disappeared.  We are already looking forward to next Sunday!

National Quilting Day

 For most people the importance of March 20 is that it is this year’s Vernal Equinox, or, more informally the First Day of Spring.  But, it is also National Quilting Day.

Trish and I both enjoy quilting.  She turns them out in all sizes, many each year.  Most of her primary sewing is done on her Brother Sewing Machine.  She in incredibly creative and quick...puts me to shame.

I, on the other hand, like to do English Paper Piecing by hand.  I am both slower and much less committed than she is.  I prefer to make full (or Queen) size quilts and my best finishing rate may approach one a year!  But it is great fun and extremely fulfilling for both of us.  And it is a delight to us that we both like to do the same thing,  We love having the chance to go to quilt shows (in normal times) and have a stopover at the National Quilt Museum planned for later this year.

Right now I am putting together an English Paper Pieced quilt that is a pattern I made up which I call Joe’s Garden.  It is based on my father’s yearly vegetable garden from my childhood.  The idea came when I saw this wonderful variety of fabric in vegetable patterns at the quilt shop in Jonesborough last year.

After the vegetables are finished there will be a little more brown “dirt” around the edges and then there will be a green “grass” border.  It will finish out to a queen size.  

What fun!

Bird Feeding

 Trish and I love to feed the birds.  We have nine bird feeders that we can watch out our kitchen window.  When it is warm enough to sit on the screen porch we will also begin feeding on the other side of the house.

We have a large population of mourning doves around our yard and they love the big open feeders where they have room for their large bodies without trying to keep from falling off.

There are many many red-winged blackbirds who eat with us.  I have counted more than forty at one time.  They eat from the feeders but also eat up what the other birds scatter on the ground.  We appreciate that.  We also have an occasional incursion of grackles that we do not especially appreciate.

There is a new feeder attached directly to the window above the kitchen sink.  There we are face to face with the birds.  The smaller ones seem to like this feeder, but, this morning I had a wonderful extended close-up visit with a male cardinal.  He was enjoying peanuts!  

These little animals add joy to our hearts, especially when the weather is fine for them but too bad for us to be outdoors.

Spring!

 Springtime is beginning to show its head on the island.  Normally the spring season here is a bit like a roller coaster.  Our weather is driven by the meeting of the predominant weather flow that crosses up through the south from southwest to northeast and its meeting here with the warmer Gulf Stream.  Added is an occasional Northeaster backflow that we never welcome. It is a rollercoaster season with a few days of 70’s and a few days of 40’s alternating.

But, more good weather is coming!  The emerging blooms bear their witness.  Our daffodils are in full glory and lots of plants, both set out and native, are showing their colors.  We look forward to the gradual coming to life of the whole island as warmer weather brings not only flowers but our welcome tourists once again.

Opportunist!

 On our recent trip to LaGrange, we spent a night in Durham at our usual stop-over Hilton.  We like this place to stop because it is right across from our car dealer if we need any of the cars serviced, and, because the hotel is attached to a Ruth’s Chris Steak House.  The food is good and the wait staff is friendly and charming.

On this visit, after we had spent the night, we were getting ready to go the next morning when I looked out the window to check on the weather. Our room happened to be located directly above the trash bins behind the steak house...where all of their discards and meal remnants must end up.

Seated happily on the enclosure and celebrating the bounty of his find was perched a turkey buzzard. He had probably sniffed out a feast much tastier than road kill.  We laughed and wished him bon appetit and will think of him again next time we eat there.

Coming Back to Life?

 This past weekend was a very important time.  After a full year without standing in front of a live audience for storytelling, it happened!  It was very controlled and safe, but it felt wonderful.

This year should have been the 25th Anniversary year for the Azalea Storytelling Festival in LaGrange, Georgia.  When it became obvious, due to COVID, that the normal 25th could not happen, another plan was put in place.

The scheduled tellers were rescheduled for next year and a plan was made to have year 24 1/2 this year.

Trish and I drove down to LaGrange where I had two performances, one afternoon and one evening, on the normal Saturday of the festival.  We were in the recently renovated Wesley Hall of First United Methodist Church for their first event there since renovation which included new HVAC filtration.

There was planned spacing with mask wearing.  As each ticket party arrived they were escorted to their assigned spaced seats and instructed to remain there through the program and until they were escorted out.  I did not have contact with anyone except from the distance of the stage.  It was also possible to buy live-streaming tickets for the event and we had a large audience of home viewers.

This event felt so good, and, it kept the Azalea Festival alive and in people’s minds until the real 25th can happen next year.  One wonderful feature of Saturday was that my part was framed by beautiful pre-filmed cameos by the other tellers for next year: Ed Stivender, Kevin Kling, and Josh Goforth.  We were also uplifted by Carol Cain’s marvelous emcee care.

I hope that you will start planning now the the 25th Annual Azalea Storytelling Festival the first full weekend in March of 2022 in LaGrange, Georgia.