A Sky High Adventure

 Our weather has been spectacularly beautiful lately.  Very mild temperatures for October and the colors are peak right this minute.  I have been feeling very guilty about not being out there in it so yesterday PH and I drove three hours north to Boyne Mountain.  It's a ski resort, there's golf and there are trees. Between two of the highest hills/mountains they built this:

Can you see that bridge strung out there with people walking on it?  It's called the Skybridge and you don't get much closer to feeling like you are walking in the sky than this.  

I suggested it to PH for a day trip and thought he would say no because he is very uncomfortable of heights and being out there on something like this, well, it would take all the courage he could muster. BUT he doesn't tell me no.  So we went.

It was a Monday so we thought weekend crowds might be lessened.  Nope.

You go up one ski lift to the top, walk across - everyone going in the same direction, and at the end take another ski lift back down.  

The bridge wobbles a lot. You are walking down then it evens out they you go back up.  Not a lot, but when it evens out in the middle it's also a glass floor.  I kept telling PH, who was concentrating his mostest to get across at all, not to look down.    I thought this would never be something I'd do but lately I've been talking about a hot air balloon or sky diving and so in PH's thinking this was small potatoes. And for me, I was surprised at how easy it was, how short it felt and how quickly it was over!  The views? Spectacular.  Do it again? Absolutely.  

Our son, who grew up on the Indiana Jones movies and can recite every single word of the dialogue of all the movies and relates just about anything to a scene in the movies sent this to me after I told him what we did. He thought I would have the problem with the crossing, not PH.

I don't know why I felt the need to go somewhere else because this is the view outside the door right next to where I am sitting now.  Our forest goes on and on with hills and the trees so golden the glow changes the whole inside of the house to golden.  Sit out there and the leaves fall on you like feathers and you can hear them rustle against each other as they come down.  Everyone says they love fall but hate what's coming.  But you don't want to hurry this.

 

It's Tuesday and these were my reads for today.  I didn't bring absolute Halloween books with me this time but stuck with the night and with a bat.

Stellaluna has been a favorite for 25 years.  I remember when I worked in a bookstore and it first came in I was won over with the illustrations, they are gorgeous.  

Stellaluna is a fruit bat.  One night she is separated from her mother by a hungry owl but falls into a nest of birds. Well, talk about being confused!  Birds eat yucky bugs and don't hang by their toes and don't fly at night.  She adapts, though she will never like the bugs.  Eventually she finds her momma who promises she will never have to eat a bug again.

This one is silly.  The animals are afraid of some night noise and thus afraid of the night animals the perceive are making the noises.  This one needs close examination of the pictures because the expression on this opossum's face when skunk demonstrates his way of dealing with a threat is hilarious. Not a lot of words in this one, the pictures tell the story so a little one who is learning to read can pretty much handle this one.  I love this one!

Tuesday Titles

 It's Tuesday!  Here are the two books I read to the kids today. One is silly, one is sweet.

It's coming on to Halloween, if you can push Christmas aside to buy your Halloween candy. I don't know about you who live outside the U.S. but here Christmas started creeping in in late July and its full blown out there now.  

This is the silly one.  The most important ingredient in a witch's favorite soup is a spoonful of frogs. If you can catch them. 

This is the sweet one.  When it first came out it was almost impossible to get a copy because quilters were buying it like crazy. Who wouldn't want this one if you are a quilter? Lucky for me I follow publishers very closely and knew it was coming before it was published and had my order in.  Little ghost wants to be like the other ghosts, light enough to fly easily.  But he is a quilt and so he is heavy. As he tries to enjoy Halloween like the other ghosts his life takes a turn toward an adventure the other ghosts can't experience.  There is a big "awww" factor here.  

Friend Laurie and I went to Shipshewana yesterday. I wanted to find what I needed for new pillowcases for the grands.  I found some really good ones!  I thought of each of the kids and found something that fits them.  We then had lunch and went to the bulk food grocery and stocked up with great prices.

Update on Elizabeth's BA.  On zoom the other night I made the comment that sometimes I struggle with a square so much that I just tear off the applique when I finish, or don't finish it at all.  Sometimes I just didn't like the colors when they got together so I tear it apart and pick new colors.  Sometimes t's something else.  After we zoomed I continued the struggle with the current block and ended up tearing it all out, back to blank background.  I struggled with it so much I was just plain tired of it, didn't like the way it looked, so- gone.  Yet the next block went together in two evenings and its perfect.  I am now going to start on their house and am not sure how it's going to go.  I took a nap today so will hope for the best. 

A Party

 We had a party.   We were gifted the use of the Showboat for a day and decided to cook dinner for our immediate circle of friends, the ones we see on a regular basis, the ones who live in our stories.  

I cooked.  We served chicken, kielbasa, sauerkraut, German potato salad, applesauce from the wild apples we picked in the Upper Peninsula, squash, corn cut from the cob, rolls and PH's mom's famous apple cake.   I would rather plan and cook a feast than dinner every night...anytime. 

Our lovely daughter made sure she took lots and lots of photos of each table.  A few were home with sicknesses but we had 32 here.

 

And when everyone left, we gave them their own little apple pie to take home.  

It was a lovely day, we had such fun. We are so grateful for our friends and know we are very lucky.

It's Tuesday so here are the books I read to the kids today.  These are the last of Ryan T. Higgins' Penelope Rex books.  As I said last week, Ryan T. Higgins is a genius, a grown man with the mind of a six year old.  He gets it. 

I really am not sure if these books are available outside the U.S. but if they are, even if you don't have littles around, they are a delight for any one.  

Chookshed and books

 It's October first and there is only one Chookshed Challenge left.  I had to give up on doing the challenge per se because I needed to concentrate my time on Elizabeth's BA quilt.  Boy, did I.  Boy, DO I.  It has been an adventure so far.  There are 11 blocks done and some of them really give me fits. I'm probably going to be arrested for how I am approaching the blocks but believe me, I'm changing and rearranging them so much they would be unrecognizable to the original.  Like the one I'm struggling with now.   I get an idea, try to execute it, get part way through and change my mind either with the fabric I chose or the design and rip it apart.  Soon I will get them out, lay them out and see how they look.  My ideal goal is to have them finished by Christmas so I can start quilting it in January. Until then I keep on. The whole idea and concept is fun because I'm doing things that relate to her so it's a lot of time inside my head with memories.

It's Tuesday and I went to school to read to the kids today.  They didn't want me to leave and begged for a third book. I always only read two because they have other things to do besides listening to me read stories. But teacher said ok.

This title ALWAYS stops the fidgeting. Always.  Achilles is a little crocodile who decides one day he isn't going to eat what his mother fixed for his breakfast. And no matter how much they try other foods (sound familiar?) or beg he says what he really wants is to eat a child.  I like this one so much I have two copies!

Ryan T. Higgins is a genius.  Or he never grew out of a five or six year old's brain.  He knows kids. 

Penelope Rex is starting school and she is a little nervous but excited, too.  What a surprise when she gets to school to discover the classroom is filled with CHILDREN.  Children are delicious and she eats them.  She can't help it.  There is some comeuppance, and she learns her lesson when she finds out how it feels to be nibbled on.

The next in the series (and to get his humor I think they need to be read in order) Penelope is very nervous about her turn to bring the class goldfish home for the weekend.  Everyone takes turns and she works herself into a lather over the anticipation.

Now, Ryan T. Higgins IS a genius, he gets into the minds of little kids but to adults his illustrations are laugh out loud funny when you really pay attention.  I'm not sure how much kids really, really notice but when I first read one of his books and turn a page, I will absolutely laugh out loud.  Me, this grey-haired grandma laughs out loud at the humor in his illustrations.

I always tell the kids to pay attention to the pictures.  These aren't called picture books for no reason. The words tell part of the story, the pictures tell the rest.  Ryan T. Higgins is a genius.

Therapy

 Our retreat weekend has been cancelled.  I'm still processing that.  Our group is down to six.  One chose a different activity for the weekend, and two have injuries that are severe enough they couldn't even think of going. We are all at the age where a sneeze could make us fall out of our chairs and break a hip and that's too close to the truth!  We are all devastated to miss this very anticipated time together.

Now, I fully realize there are far worse things happening in the world and within our blogging community right now so having to cancel a retreat seems like small potatoes.  And it is.  But that doesn't mean it isn't disappointing.  

So this morning I went out for some book therapy. 

Have you read the Thursday Murder Club books?  You haven't???  Oh, my. Do.  This is Richard Osmun's newest, it just came out last week and is NOT a TMC book but I don't care.  I'm hooked.

Yes, I still buy picture books.  At my age. But since I am reading to first graders now, I choose even more carefully than ever.  I have to love the art, love the story, love the concept, love the telling, and especially love the author's work.  This one is new to me but it ticked all the boxes so it came home with me. 

I am an author follower.  When I go to used book sales I look for authors hoping to find some of their earlier work because if I really like them I already own their recent work. 

I just finished this a night ago.  It was really quite good, and I say that like I'm surprised, but I bought it because it's been getting good reviews from everywhere - that's important.  It came recommended by a small bookstore owner - that's important.  And when I am in an independent bookstore I ALWAYS buy something but I didn't know this author, so I was taking a chance. This is a mystery set in the Adirondack mountains at a summer camp for rich kids, owned by rich people.  One day the camp owner's daughter disappears from camp. But the thing is, 14 years earlier her brother also disappeared from the same camp.   And so it begins.  

Now, this one was on my library list.  I took it with me when we were on our trip to the Upper Peninsula thinking it would be a good light read.  And it is.  But underneath there was more to it than the occasional giggle. 

   Lauren returns home from a hen party to find her husband Michael waiting for her.  But she isn't married.  She hasn't got a clue who this Michael is but clearly, he is her husband.  The apartment is decorated with their wedding photos, decorated in a style she doesn't recognize, the refrigerator filled with food she isn't familiar with. She discreetly asks her sister and her neighbors about him and finds out he is indeed her husband and is she feeling alright?   He goes up into the attic to change a lightbulb and down comes a completely different husband.  Behind her the apartment decor, photos, food, clothes....it's all changed in this marriage.  She is, of course, trying to figure this new one out.  Her family all recognizes these husbands.

    As an experiment, she sends him back up into the attic and down comes the third different husband. And there are more.  Many, many more.

    What's fun and funny is the description of these guys. Their weirdness can be taken care of with a trip to the attic so the attic becomes convenient for dealing with large and small weirdness.  And so it goes.  I kept wondering how there could be so many weird guys out there and ARE they all strange and what's normal and to whom? And I kept side glancing at PH and telling him he really was quite normal - to me.  And then I started staring at the people on the street and wondering how weird THOSE guys might be. I was hooked.  And I kept wondering how she was going to get herself out of this mess.  

    Yes, it was funny sometimes, but the underlying theme was far different.  

This is usually the first book I read to the first graders every year.  It sets the tone.  It's funny, shocking and they can see themselves in trying to deal with patience. There is nothing wrong with this one!

Betty Bunny doesn't even know what chocolate cake is till she tastes it and then is obsessed with it. 

    We question:  patience, what it is to 'be a handful', which Betty certainly is, the No Thank You Bite (you have to at least take one bite before you can say 'no thank you.') 

There are a few Betty Bunny books and they all deal with something any child or adult can relate to. This one is self control.  Betty fills the shopping cart at the toy store with everything, even though her mother said she can have ONE new toy.  But she wants it all.  And of course, when they leave the store with nothing there is the temper tantrum.  The kids always relate to Betty Bunny, and again, there are many talking points. 

OK, that's my book therapy, my salve for missing our quilt weekend.  Sigh.

Felt Book

 My felt book has interested some people and so I'm going to do a little show and tell.  People use felt to hold their pieces and shapes but it was the netting between on each page that was different.

The netting isn't easy to see but it does help hold things in place on the page. I'm still thinking on this one so not everything is here. I'm thinking wreath with the fruits she loves but so far it's not exciting me.

I peeled back the netting so you can see.  I think the point of it is that the pieces stick just to the right hand page and so when you open or turn the page the pieces stay on the right hand page.

I load up everything I think I'm going to need as I think through a block - since I'm not going to be home with my stash.

This book measures 19.5 long by about 9.5 wide.  This is the middle.  What Friend Marilyn did was layer a piece of felt, then a piece of netting, felt, netting, four times.   Stitch it in place down the middle for a seam. It's really simple, you have eight pages and with the netting separating it all stays put. 

Brain work

 I am exhausted with thinking.  I am on a personal time crunch to get Elizabeth's BA quilt under control and it's happening from dogged determination. But the Thinking Bed is covered in fabrics, bits of cut acrylic applique pieces, photos of the planned squares, fabric auditions, my felt book that holds each page in place with finished and unfinished square plans - it's all part of the process and it's ok, but I'm exhausted.  My brain is tired. 

The weather has been hot by September standards, thankfully it is NOT humid right now, but just plain hot.  So, the planning and cutting is taking place on the front porch table under an umbrella.  Now, some of you would say, "then move inside!"  But this IS September,  this IS Michigan and these warm temperatures aren't going to last so I am taking advantage of it, even if it means carting my supplies in and out of the house.  And keeping the ice water flowing. We will all be locked inside soon enough.

I am trying to get several of the squares prepped for retreat next week.  Each retreat I usually take just one thing to work on and really dig in.  Usually it's something that needs to be quilted but this time I'm taking this BA project.  I have five blocks prepped, fabrics chosen, applique pieces mostly cut, the photos folded in for guidance. I certainly won't finish five blocks but I can dream.  Wish me luck I get at least two done.

 I keep each block in this felt book Friend Marily made for me several years ago.  It's simple.  Inexpensive felt and netting so each project has a page to lay pieces on the felt but the netting lays over the top to hold everything in place.  Sew down the middle for a seam and voila! I use this thing CONSTANTLY.  

Now to sit with my threads and choose what I'm going to take.  I pack minimally when I go to retreat because I don't take a machine.  I take a basket or tote with my hand project and my light and a chair. Yes, we have been taking our own chairs because our old behinds can't tolerate sitting in a folding chair for 4 days.  

On Tuesdays I go to the elementary school the granddaughters went to and read to a class of first graders.  When the girls were there I followed them through to the grade they were in each year. But when they left I didn't want to stop.  Their first grade teacher didn't want me to stop either so each week I go in, read two books and get hugs from the littles.  I started yesterday with this new group.

For those of you who are grandmas and read to littles when they visit, I'll post what I've read each week.  Being first graders they want funny books, nothing TOO serious but I like to mix things up with thinkers once in awhile. I have hundreds of picture books here at home so can usually just choose from my shelves. 

Here's what I read yesterday:

Every first day of school can be apprehensive to the littles.  Whether it's kindergarten or any year.  New teacher, new classroom, different classmates, new classroom rules, new lessons.  But what does the actual school building think?  Especially this school because it's brand new and has no idea what's about to happen and whether it will like it. 

Coincidentally, yesterday was the first day for show and tell in the classroom I was in so this one was fun.  Sometimes something seems like a good idea but isn't.