December 7, 2021: “On my mind” plus more “Boston Museum quilts”

Greetings dear readers! I’ve been wanting to mention something for a while. Some time ago Barb Vedder (“Fun With Barb” blog – link on the right side of my blog) wrote that discovering glue basting for applique was ”life changing” for her. That caught my attention! I had always thread basted and never tried glue. Barb recommended I try it and she gave me a bottle of what she uses when we met at the quilt museum in Lowell, MA this spring to see our friend Wendy Reed’s exhibit.

This is a great little container for applying tiny dots of the glue and you can buy it from her if you’re interested. I used the glue basting technique for the last 2 borders of leaves for Maple Leaf Rag and now am using it for the leaves for the 4th border for Stormy Weather. I’M HOOKED!! It is definitely faster, very little glue is needed, it doesn’t create any significant stiffness, and there are no basting stitches to remove. I glued 50 leaves and 42 berries on a border (iron after gluing) and not one piece fell off during 2 weeks of stitching with lots of handling and twisting of the fabric. Even when one has been quilting for years, it’s good to try different/new techniques. It’s good to be open to possible improvements in technique and to new creative ideas. Thank you Barb!

I’ve been working on the Christmas quilt for my granddaughter, Svetlana:

The pieces are all cut and I’m slowly sewing parts together. What you see above is all of it except the outer solid blue border; it’s small – about 48 inches square. I’m pretty sure she’ll love it!

Fall color is gone🙁. I see mostly browns, grays, and piney greens, but they have their own beauty and I seek out that beauty during the winter. It’s been getting colder and yesterday the pond had a thin layer of ice on it:

On a recent walk, I finally got a good photo of my new neighbor, Molly 😊:

I’ve had a subscription for several years to ”The Quilt Show” with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims – well worth it, much to enjoy. Every year they have a BOM project that lasts the year and the patterns are free to subscribers. I’ve never participated, but the new one just announced for 2022 is tempting. It’s by Irene Blanck. Here’s a shot from her Instagram account:

There are classes on the show periodically throughout the year, led by Barbara Black and she also gives instructions and tips on her blog throughout the year. Here’s Barbara’s quilt with her own fabrics – a bit brighter:

Again – very tempting!! BUT – I don’t think I want to take on another project with a lot of applique right now🙂. I definitely need to focus on finishing some of my current big projects in 2022 and I’m itching to do some machine piecing – probably FPP – but not sure what yet. As a ”Quilt Show” subscriber, I at least get to download this pattern and hold it for some time in the future!

The Christmas tree is up!

A couple of my favorite ornaments are the piano and accordion. The ”book worm” is new and a gift from my son and partner:

Today I’m sharing several more quilts from the ”Fabric Of A Nation” exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts – up until mid January. Let’s start with this vibrant one from the 1930’s:

This was a fascinating one made of movie camera film; the film images are part of the art:

Molly Upton’s iconic piece is in the exhibit; I don’t think the photos convey well the large size of the piece which adds to its impact:

And here is Molly’s friend’s work:

Another of the Gees Bend pieces:

This one was exhibited a few years ago at the museum when they showed quilts from the Pilgrim-Roy collection. I love the bold colors!

Here’s one of 2 lovely coverlets in the exhibition:

Somehow I forgot to photograph the information card, but here are some closeups:

I’ll close this post with a gorgeous red, green, and white Carolina Lily – the colors are right for the Christmas season:

This was one of my favorite traditional quilts in the exhibit. If I had another lifetime, I’d love to reproduce it! At the very least, the holiday season has got me feeling like I want to make a red, green, and white quilt…..no guarantee one will get started in the near future😊.

Hoping all of you are enjoying the holiday season!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

November 30, 2021: Monthly Mini – the ”Baggie Challenge” – plus Books and Earthly Delights

Greetings dear readers! We had a lovely Thanksgiving with a 4 day visit from our son and his partner who live in Brooklyn, NY – so nice after just being by ourselves last year!

I hope you were all able to spend some time with loved ones.
Because the latter half of the month was so busy, it’s a good thing I started my monthly mini at the beginning of it and essentially finished half way through. Not last minute this time! Janet at the excellent blog, Rogue Quilter, challenged the monthly mini participants to make a mini from a bag of scraps before the end of the year so I did that this month. Here’s my baggie of scraps:

These are scraps from my current ”Stormy Weather: Shine A Light” project, using largely Tilda fabrics. I’m not really a ”scrap quilter.” Even though I often use dozens, if not hundreds of different fabrics in my quilts, those fabrics are usually carefully chosen and not from a scrap bag. I separate my scraps into 2 bags as I go. The really small ones are given away every several months or so to someone who uses them for dog beds. The larger ones are often eventually bagged up and left on the give away table at my guild meetings. Anything large enough to be folded goes back into my stash. In this case I had been keeping a bag of scraps because they could be used to make the hundreds of leaves needed for the borders of Stormy Weather.

The scraps here were odd shaped and I decided to do something with flying geese, figuring I could get small triangles out of them:

I drafted a small paper pieced block, foundation paper piecing being a favorite technique, especially for small pieces.

Another example:

I cut a bunch of triangles:

Then I decided to arrange the little blocks in groups of 4, creating a larger block of 8 geese traveling in different directions. We were allowed to add a ”neutral” to the scraps so I chose a gray metallic Essex linen – really hard (impossible?) to see the metallic in the photos:

One block:

Nine blocks sewn together:

Sashing or no? I decided ”no.”

We were also allowed to add one other “color” not in the scrap bag. I interpreted that to mean one other ”fabric” and, after looking at lots of options, finally chose a vibrant floral for a border. I managed to squeeze out a narrow orange inner border from the scrap bag. So here it is!:

It’s machine quilted and 16.5 inches square. In lieu of piping, I added a row of orange embroidery stitches just inside the binding.

Another close up:

During the time in early November when I was working on this, the global conference on Climate Change was going on in Scotland. I was thinking we have a lot of hard choices to make in order to meet the challenges posed by this major issue for our planet. The ”geese” going every which way on the quilt symbolizes changing directions and the hard choices we face. I’m calling the quilt ”Hard Choices.” I found a colorful and fun fabric for the backing:

You can see the simple quilting in squares. I like the idea of the rain on the back too! Water is such a big issue with climate change – too little and there’s draught, too much and there’s flooding. These extremes are big problems the planet has to deal with. A final shot of the quilt:

I’ve always been a lover of stories and an avid reader and still make time for reading. Here’s what I’ve been reading recently:

I read ”Hamnet” a year and a half ago, but am rereading it for my book group – fantastic, literary writing and an excellent story about the death of Shakespeare’s only son – highly recommended and I’m finding it well worth reading a second time. ”Cloud Cuckoo Land” is the new book by the author of the wonderful book ”All The Light We Cannot See.” This one isn’t as good, but I still really enjoyed it. The writing is good and I found the stories of 5 people in 3 separate time periods (and what ultimately connects them) to be interesting. The Ken Follett book has been around for a while; a colleague gave it to me to read about 8 years ago and I’m finally getting to it! It’s not great literature, but it’s decently written, the story is compelling, and I love historical fiction and this takes place in the 12th century – great escapist fare. I probably enjoy this type of book in the same way that some enjoy murder mysteries or police procedurals, neither if which entice me.😊

Let me close out this post with a few earthly delights. The trees are mostly bare and winter approaches.

A few leaves found on the ground:

I like the textures of the leaves against the lichen in the background. Found this nest in the woods:

I’m lucky to live near the ocean. Here’s a marsh with the ocean just past those trees, seen on a recent walk. Late autumn:

More quilts from the Cocheco show and the Boston Museum coming soon!

Go to Wendy Reed’s blog, The Constant Quilter, to see all the minis from this month!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

November 19, 2021: It’s all Red and White!

Greetings dear readers! This month and this year are truly flying by! My sewing room has become a ”leaf making factory” as I choose fabrics for and make the 229 leaves for the 4th ”Stormy Weather” border. Lots of fabric scattered about!

Placing the leaves so I get a good color mix:

Turning the edges under in batches of a few at a time whenever I have a few free moments during the day:

Today I’m sharing photos of only red and white quilts! There are 11 from the Cocheco exhibit that celebrated my guild’s 40th anniversary and I’ll also show you two quilts from the Boston museum exhibit that fit this category.

Here are the photos of quilts from my guild, in no particular order and I know I didn’t get them all:

And my own:

Here is the entirely red wholecloth quilt from the museum exhibit:

Some of the amazing quilting:

And last, but not least, one of the 3 Gee’s Bend quilts in the exhibit:

I hope you find these quilts as inspiring as I do!

I’m not sure I will get another post in before the holiday as I have a busy few days ahead. If I don’t, here’s wishing all my USA readers a peaceful time with loved ones, full of gratitude on Thanksgiving.

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

November 12, 2021: Project Updates and More Quilt Photos!

Greetings dear readers! It’s a gray, rainy, and windy day here and the remaining leaves on the trees are swirling and falling, bringing to mind the snow that is sure to come within the next several weeks. Most of our color is gone, but I’ve been enjoying the last bits of amber and copper:

I’ve had so much to share of other people’s work in my last few posts, that I haven’t posted about my own work so I think a quick update is in order! I’ve been working on 4 projects, my mood determining which one at any given time. I am determined to finish hand quilting ”Golden Glow” within the next 1-2 months and am making good progress!

I am quilting the last of the 9 center blocks and recently finished the 3rd border and all the corner blocks. The end is in sight!😊

I have been working almost every day on Maple Leaf Rag borders:

In the photo above, moving left to right: The first 2 strips are the left and right borders and are completely finished – all the applique and embroidery. The third strip is the upper border and all the applique is complete; all the embroidery needs to be added. The 4th strip is the lower border and all the leaves are basted on and awaiting both applique and embroidery. Great progress! I will still need to design something for the corners and have started playing with some ideas. Here are 2 closeups, the first without, the second with, the embroidery embellishments to show how much the latter adds:

I recently finished adding the vines to the 4th border of Stormy Weather:

It looks like I have more done than I really do because the applique is complete on only about half of the 3 borders with the leaves, but there is slow progress! I’m going to start choosing fabrics for and preparing the leaves for the 4th border before finishing the applique on the others.

The 4th thing I’m working on is my November Mini. It’s Janet’s (Rogue Quilter blog) ”Baggie Challenge” and I’ll tease you with a photo of the baggie of fabrics I’m working with. All will be explained and revealed at the end of the month!

Today I want to share a few more of the photos from my trip to Rochester, NY. My fabulous host, Christine Wickert, shared one of her prized possessions with me – a special quilt she had admired from a show vendor for a long time and was finally able to purchase. It’s beautiful and meaningful! Sorry I didn’t get a good full view, but you can enjoy the lovely details:

I find it fascinating that mushrooms/fungi were found in some areas of the quilt – this culture recognizes their ecological importance!

What a truly gorgeous work of textile art; the photos don’t quite do it justice!

I also want to share the Genesee Valley Quilt Club’s new raffle quilt revealed at the meeting at which I spoke:

An original design by their own members and the quilting was wonderful – sorry, I don’t remember the name of the quilter, but it’s likely on their web site:

And here are 2 photos of fun quilts I snapped from the show and tell portion of the meeting:

Here are 3 more quilts from the Cocheco show – all blue and white:

Maybe I can get around to showing all the quilts from the special red and white quilt exhibit in the next post!

I’ll finish this post with 2 more wonderful quilts from The Fabric of a Nation exhibit at the Boston MFA. Take time to enjoy the details!!

I still have many more quilts from the exhibit and the Cocheco show to share. Hope your November is going well!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

November 5, 2021: More from the Museum Exhibit and Cocheco show and some ”Earthly Delights”

Greetings dear readers! This post is full of photos from the Boston museum exhibit, a few more from the Cocheco show, and more fall foliage. It’s a visual feast and I hope you take your time and enjoy the colors and details. The museum exhibit was full of excellent information about our cultural connection with quilts throughout the centuries – not just the beauty/appearance of the quilts – and, though I’ve included some of the information displayed next to the quilts, it’s beyond my ability and not my intention to cover all of that here. If you can’t see the exhibit in person, there’s a book on the exhibit available. I didn’t buy it, but now wish I had and may order it.

One of the highlights of the exhibit was seeing the 2 existing Harriet Powers quilts side by side – the first time they’ve ever been together for an exhibit!

There was a small section of the exhibit on indigo, dicussing its importance and also acknowledging the history of its growth on plantations by slaves.

Many of the makers of the very early quilts were unknown:

Details:

I am in love with this next piece and would love to consider making something like it some day in my Spirit of Japan series:

This next piece was very interesting:

The next two are more traditional applique pieces, starting with this one by Florence Peto:

And then this drop dead gorgeous Baltimore Album quilt!:

Such a shame that the maker is unknown!

The last one from this exhibit for today – more next time! – is this wonderful, but sobering piece. Unfortunately I was unable to get the photo with the background info on it downloaded to the blog – maybe next time.

It’s Billie Holliday singing in the upper left corner and the title refers to a song she sang. Obviously the subject of the piece is racism, violence, and oppression.

An excellent example of quilt as art and social commentary.

I have a backlog of photos from the Cocheco show to share so here are a few more quilts from it:

I think that’s enough quilts for one post! I want to finish with some autumn earthly delights since it is such a lovely time of year. Enjoy the COLOR!

The path to the bog:

My street:

More color:

I still have quite a few more quilts from both the museum and the Cocheco show to share. I’ll eventually share the progress I’m making with my current projects. The days and nights are getting colder – I even had to wear a hat and gloves on a couple walks this week! Soon the trees will be bare. Hope you are getting to enjoy the season!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

October 31: October Monthly Mini; A visit to ”Busy Thimble”

Greetings dear readers! As of October 17th I had no idea what I would do for my monthly mini or even if I would get one done during this busy month. It was the second day of the Cocheco show and I was browsing the vendors, one of whom had a selection of precuts. It occurred to me that with square pieces already cut I could potentially make something pretty quickly so I purchased 3 mini charm packs – 2 1/2 inch squares – of these black, white/cream, and tan fabrics:

I bought 3 packs since I wasn’t sure what I’d make and wanted to be sure I had enough. The next day I laid the different pieces out to see what I had:

I quickly decided to use the squares ”as is” and not cut them up into smaller pieces. The idea was to keep it simple and quick! So I started arranging 9 patches, varying the location of the lights and darks:

Then I decided I needed to add a little bit of color. I looked at cheddar, but decided red was better!😊:

And here is my mini, called ”Square Deal”. It’s about 16.5 inches square:

To liven up the squares, I found the ”circle” fabric in my stash and appliqued smaller squares inside 2 light squares in each of the four 9 patches and also used it for a narrow border:

I separated the 4 nine patches with narrow red sashing:

For more pops of color, I embroidered a line of red between the center and the narrow first border and added another red border. I found another fabric in my stash for the binding:

I also found a perfect fabric in my stash for the backing and used my black batting again:

The piece is machine quilted – simple outlines and straight lines in the borders:

The quilt was easy and fun to do and finished days ahead of the deadline. Best of all, I actually like it!

My very busy month included what has become my annual pilgrimage to Cyndi Black’s shop, ”Busy Thimble” in Lichtfield, Maine where I meet Cyndi and Wendy Reed (The Constant Quilter blog) for lunch and shopping.

Wendy brought her completed blocks for her ”tile” quilt, each piece with a bird in the center and a different toile fabric on the back. See her blog for photos; it’s going to be a spectacular quilt! The shop is loaded with Cyndi’s fabulous small quilts:

It was wonderful to visit with friends and talk quilts. Cyndi’s shop is a mecca for lovers of reproduction fabrics and the 2 hour drive for me is well worth it! Of course, I bought some fabric, but forgot to take a photo – maybe next post.

Before I forget, I want to share 2 items I treated myself to at our quilt show:

On the right is a beautiful hand turned wooden awl with a nice little plastic sleeve for the tip. I’ve been using it to turn the edges for leaves for Maple Leaf Rag and it works really well and feels great in my hand! A few years ago when I gave my granddaughter Svetlana a sewing machine for Christmas, I also gave her one of my smaller cutting boards, a rotary cutter, and my one and only 3 inch by 18 inch ruler. I’ve noticed that I really miss that size ruler and have been wanting to replace it for some time. This Quilters Select 3×18 ruler was available so I got it and I have fallen in love with it! This is my first time buying this brand and I love how it grabs onto the fabric and doesn’t slip. I may just have to eventually replace a couple more basic size rulers with this brand.

The quilt exhibit at the Boston MFA made the cover of the arts section of the Boston Globe recently:

It was a fabulous review! I love, love, love that quilts seem to be more appreciated and accepted as ”real art” these days and I really hope that continues! I promise many more photos from this exhibit in upcoming posts!

Be sure to visit Wendy’s blog, The Constant Quilter, to see links to all the monthly minis!

Happy Halloween!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

October 27, 2021: A Wonderful Quilt Exhibit at Boston MFA and more Cocheco show quilts

Greetings dear readers! What a month it’s been for me re quilting – the trunk show, our guild’s show, and a great quilt exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts too! My dear friend Liz and I went to Boston last Friday to see ”Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories.” Liz has been a friend for 37 years and plays autoharp and recorder in our band ”Tutto Bene” – she’s in the center of the photo below. That’s me with the accordion🙂.

So fun to have a museum and lunch outing with a friend! The exhibit was fabulous and I’ll be sharing photos a few at a time over the next several posts.

We had a beautiful, warm, sunny day for the trip. The diverse nature of the quilts was pretty amazing – the curator did a great job!

The information provided was excellent:

The first 2 quilts used flag/patriotic imagery

Closer:

Gee’s Bend:

I liked the special edge detail on this:

In the next room was this fabulous Bisa Butler quilt! Sorry I didn’t get a photo without heads obscuring some of the piece, but it was popular! Also didn’t get the more detailed info on the piece. Butler is a wonderful artist and I’m sure we’ll all be seeing more of her in the future!

What an absolutely marvelous use of fabric and color and composition!!

Many more photos from this exhibit in future posts, but now I want to share some more quilts from the Cocheco show. First up is this quilt:

Isn’t it fun?! I actually made the center many years ago using fabrics I had painted in a class. It languished in my closet for years and I donated it to our guild’s silent auction a couple years ago. Guild member Cindy got it and finished it beautifully!

Love the classic traditional style of this one; I love quilts with pieced centers and appliqued borders:

What a great job Martha did with this cat pattern!

Nice piecing and quilting on this one:

Great interpretation of this pattern and meaningful to her!

Lovely applique work here:

Gorgeous colors on this quilt!:

I think that’s enough visual stimulation for one post! I’ll be continuing to post photos of both of these events in the next several weeks. There is nothing, however, as good as seeing quilts in person, so I highly recommend that if you live within reasonable driving distance of Boston, you go see their quilt exhibit. I believe it is up till sometime in January.

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

October 23, 2021: Visual treats – Quilts and Foliage

Greetings dear readers! Today I am filling my post with photos of just a few quilts from the Cocheco Quilters Guild show and some of the lovely foliage we’ve had lately here in southeastern NH. Take time to absorb the beauty of the colors and designs and appreciate the creativity in each realm.

The Best of Show was a lovely rendition of a Wendy Williams pattern in wool applique:

Enjoy some closeups:

Here is my guild’s raffle quilt. The ladies on this committee did a fabulous job with a challenging design and we raised a lot of money for charity!!

Here’s a nice rendition of “Stars in a Time Warp” from the Barbara Brackman sew along a few years ago:

I really liked the use of the kaleidoscope block – playing with color and value allows 2 alternating designs to emerge:

My Spirit of Japan quilt was awarded a blue ribbon:

My ”2020 Cancelled” was given a red ribbon (I’ll comment on the judging in a future post😊):

I have a lot more photos from the show to share, including the ”Red and White” exhibit, but I want to share some foliage so will get back to those quilts in future posts. Autumn color arrived later than usual this year and has been more subdued overall, with less ”red”, but areas and spots of beauty can still be found easily if one is looking.

The bog:

A view of the elk farm fields:

My deck covered with leaves😊!

Lots of raking and sweeping in our future!😐

Embrace beauty and joy wherever and whenever they occur, no matter how brief or seemingly inconsequential.

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

October 19, 2021: Christine Wickert – Hostess and Quilter Extraordinaire!

Greetings readers! It’s been a great week and I’m happy to finally have time to write about it! The trip to Rochester, NY was a huge success. Al and I stayed with Christine Wickert and she was a marvelous hostess! She graciously shared her lovely home, which is filled with her gorgeous quilts and her father’s wonderful art work, with us and she cooked a delicious meal for us and provided a delicious breakfast each day – way beyond expectations! Christine and I met several years ago at the Vermont Quilt Festival – at which she has won Best of Show 3 times! – have kept in touch, met up there several times over the years, and it was great to spend time with her again!

Christine treated me to a tour through her house and a close look at many of her award winning quilts, starting with this red and white silk quilt she is currently working on:

Christine is known for making quilts with silk fabrics and threads, for her beautiful hand applique and quilting, and her lovely embroidery and bead embellishments – all hand done:

I was amazed by the beauty of her latest finished creation, ”Betsy’s Blanket”, the name being wordplay on the designer of the pattern, Irene Blank.

She is giving the quilt to her friend Betsy and here are some detailed photos so you can appreciate her hand work:

That quilt has already won an award – last month at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza! I also got to see her recent multi award winning “Boutis” quilt, covered with hand done stuffed or trapunto work:

Just amazing! I didn’t get a full shot, but you can see it in full if you go to the Vermont Quilt Festival web site where there is a link to photos of their winning quilts from this year.

More of Christine’s lovely work:

The above is all silk and here is the back, though it is green and I couldn’t get the color to come out right!

The front of her basket quilt and some shots of the hand quilting on the back:

We discovered we each had made a log cabin quilt to help us get through the pandemic🙂:

Here are some details of other work. I’ve shown full views in previous posts over the years so did not take time to get full view photos again:

I have some more photos of Christine’s work and photos of a special quilt she purchased which I’ll share in a future post.

My trunk show went very well! The Genesee Valley Quilt Club was very welcoming and a pleasure to be with! They are a large group and have about 250 members. Their meeting hall is large:

I had to present from a stage and was able to have 2 of my quilts on display up there with me:

The folks that held up the quilts for me did a fabulous job and the quilts were laid out on tables afterward for members to be able to see them close up when the presentation was done:

After the meeting, I was treated to lunch with Christine and Peggy Braitsch, the club member I worked with in planning the program. The restaurant overlooked the famous Erie Canal:

The weather for the whole trip was excellent, warm and sunny! Christine and I treated ourselves to ice cream afterward:

Al and I were able to see some glorious fall foliage driving back through southern Vermont and NH, but we didn’t stop for photos. I’ll share some local fall foliage photos next post and will begin to share some photos from our quilt show then too.

Thanks again to Christine Wickert for being a fabulous host for our visit and to the Genesee Valley Quilt Club for the invitation! And thanks to my wonderful husband for doing most of the driving – 8 hours each way! – and all the unloading and reloading of boxes, and for wholeheartedly supporting my quilting obsession!❤️

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi

October 11, 2021: Busy week ahead!

Greetings dear readers! Thought I’d get a quick post in today as I have a very busy week ahead. We leave tomorrow for Rochester, NY for my trunk show on Thursday, drive home all day Friday and am back in time for my guild’s (Cocheco) annual show the 16th and 17th in Rochester, NH. Two ”Rochesters” dominating my life for the next week😊! So happy to be able to do these kinds of things again! I should have lots of good photos to share.

I have started hand quilting border #3 of Golden Glow:

I also have all the leaves basted on border #3 for Maple Leaf Rag and will bring that with me for hand work on the trip. I tried something new with this border and will talk about that soon in a future post.

My quilt bee met last week and here is some of my friends’ work:

I’ve been asked by readers what kind of camera I use for my nature photos. It’s just my iPhone! I do play a bit with the editing options both on the phone and on the iPad after downloading the pictures to it, but in almost all cases, I try to adjust to get closer to what I’m seeing in reality, not necessarily to enhance. The phone tends to make things look more washed out than they really are and I try to fix that when it happens. The main downside to the phone is it’s not good for distance – the enlargements look grainy. Here’s a perfect case in point. Yesterday I had an amazing encounter with a heron at the pond. She almost completely circumnavigated the pond slowly over about 10 minutes and I was able to quietly follow her around from a distance without her flying away. I’m sure she knew I was there. I’m guessing I was within 25 feet at one point. Because I don’t have a telephoto lens, my pictures are unfortunately grainy, but I’m sharing them anyway!

I am still enjoying the mushroom explosion😊! In fact, I bought this book and so far it is really good – one of those science books that the general reader can enjoy:

And I’m planning to watch the movie, Fantastic Fungi on Netflix soon – I’ve heard it is excellent!! Here are some of my recent finds and some other earthly delights to enjoy:

Forest Still Life:

Milkweed pods – love the way they are attached to the stalk!

I’m closing with something I don’t do often – a picture of 2 and 2/3 year old Ursula in her Halloween costume! Her town is right next to Salem, MA, the Halloween capital of the world, where they start the month off with a parade and celebrate all month. Ursula went to the parade all decked out in her outfit:

Hope you all are having a lovely October!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi