It has been a beautiful busy couple of weeks. Spring is here and it is glorious looking at how my newly planted gardens are coming to life, lots of plants to sketch, identify, celebrate, rip out when appropriate, and appreciate.
The 29th of April would have been my late husband’s and my 47th wedding anniversary. My glorious Kwanzan Cherry (yes I know it is not native) did not let me down. It bloomed once again for our anniversary. The tree means a lot to me, because my husband and I planted it when we first bought the house, in 1982, in honor of our wedding anniversary. All of our wedding pictures were taken in front of a Kwanzan Cherry outside of the church where we were married.


I just returned this afternoon from a bittersweet beautiful weekend visit with my mom, who turned 94 on Friday. I say it was bittersweet, because I adore the woman, she has been a constant in my life, for my entire life, kind, supportive, knowledgeable, and the absolutely best mother anyone could have. Each time I see her, or talk to her, I realize that at 94, she is on borrowed time, and every hour is a gift. My middle sister and her husband came on Saturday and we all went out to lunch at a local restaurant.

I brought my cello and played Happy Birthday for her, I know she will never get to hear me play in concert, so I brought the music to her. I’m not very good yet, but determined. And she was so kind and pleased that I brought the cello, and as she napped in the afternoon, I played each day for more than an hour and a half. She said they were the best, most soothing naps she’s ever had.
The trip to just outside Baltimore, from Northern NJ is long and boring, down most of the length of the NJ turnpike. I woke up Friday morning early, prepared to pack, have breakfast and leave for mom’s, and one of the emails that came into my box, was from a woman from Montana, Janet Szabo, who has a sewing podcast called The Straight Stitch. She wanted to know if I would like to be on the podcast, and of course I said yes. We are scheduled to chat in June. So I listened to a number of episodes (there are something like 77 so far) of the podcast, and the trip down to Baltimore and back just flew by. I thoroughly enjoyed the podcast, at least the dozen episodes I listened to, and look forward to my conversation with Janet. Check it out.
I spent all day Thursday volunteering at the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, working on restoring the velvet smoking jacket for the lead character in Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Ernest. I saw this play there a number of years ago and it is hilarious. I get to work on the coolest things when I volunteer there. Last Saturday night was their gala fund raiser, I look forward to it every year. Great food and entertainment and there is always an interesting silent auction. This year I bid on and won a gorgeous pastel/charcoal painting by Edith Moore Hopkins. I had to have this painting because it represents how I feel about the world every time I look at the news. This is my new emoji as I respond to whatever comes across my internet feed.

I continue to sketch most mornings, with the cat patiently watching me. Sometimes he watches from inside the wall unit.


The gardens, like I said above, are glorious. We are getting a good amount of rain, and everything is just glowing. All sorts of critters have taken up residence, including another raccoon, this one unfortunately appeared to have babies, which we didn’t know about until after I had her professionally removed, and we couldn’t save them. I hope the raccoon saga is over for this year, and I’m working hard to shore up the places where raccoons might find residency appealing.



And I’m weaving whenever I can. I finished the two scarves on the leftover warp from Natalie Drummond’s Deflected Double Weave class. They washed up beautifully, and that loom is once more clear.

And I’m almost finished the third of five? scarves on the “cat” warp. These are mixed yarns, all hand-dyed, cellulosic and some silk. Tencel weft. The mixed structure draft is original.

I’ll leave you with my morning view out my music room window, the azaleas, (yes I know they aren’t native) are in full bloom. The Packera has beautiful little yellow daisy like blooms, and is everywhere. That one is native.


And, my first Bearded Iris just opened up.

Stay tuned…