Calm

Calm

Stillness; lack of agitation or excitement; tranquility; serenity.

This morning as I ate breakfast, I looked out at the birds visiting the feeder on our deck.  I was trying to decide if there was one word that I felt would describe how I want my life to be.

Kelly of "Charming Chatter" (Home of the Charming Girl's Quilt Club) has proposed that we, "Choose a word that identifies what we'd like to see more of in our lives in 2011 - what we want to cultivate in our lives!  It's a word to reflect throughout the year." 
In choosing my word, I have been guided by the writings of St. Francis de Sales. You don't have to be religious to appreciate what he has to say. 

"Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.  Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset."

I think we all crave calm in our lives.  I often find myself stressed because someone else's  lack of planning has caused an emergency in my life or because I can't say, "No!"    Resolutions come and go so I won't be making any this year.  Instead, I hope to  establish a new way of approaching life and developing a calm spirit.  Will I be successful?  I think just making the attempt will make a big difference.

Christmas Swaps

I have been trying to get myself back in the groove of posting, but I keep falling down on the job.  I did manage to finish 2 charity quilts that were presented to the Veteran's Hospital by members of  the charity quilt group I belong to, the Quiltniks.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of them.

I did manage to take pictures of the items I made for a Christmas swap sponsored by the Sew Delightful Designs embroidery Yahoo Group.  This is the first embroidery swap I participated in and the only thing I knew about my swap partner, Leola from VT, was that she likes Sunbonnet Sue.  I sent her a hot pad and apron with Sue designs,  3 FSL ornaments, and 2 hand towels.  All of the designs are from Embroidery Library.  Sorry for the quality of the pictures, they were taken using the new Fuji camera I got for Christmas.  My old camera did not have 1/10 the bells and whistles of this one and I am struggling reading the manual to learn what I am doing.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the front of the hot pad which was the same color as the apron.  It had a red work embroidered Sunbonnet Sue building a snowman.

My swap partner Leola sent me a lovely Christmas fat quarter, 5 FSL ornaments and a bar of Lemon Verbena soap made by a local company where she lives in Vermont.  The ornaments now hang on our Family Room tree.

Everyone posted the swaps they received on the Sew Delightful Designs group photo pages.  I was delighted with the results and feel more confident about participating in the future.

Happy New Year!!

In spite of all the goodies our family has been devouring over the holidays, I still felt the need to make something special for our New Year's breakfast.  When my children were younger they liked to make Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls.  They loved the way the tube popped when you opened it and it was something they could make by themselves.  I decided that cinnamon rolls made from scratch would be the perfect start to the New Year.

If you haven't visited Suzanne McMinn's blog, "Chickens in the Road," you are really missing something special.  She has a wonderful take on rural life, crafts, gardening, and recipes.  I used her "Overnight Cinnamon Rolls" recipe and the results were terrific.

The batter was easy to mix.

The dough only had to rise for an hour before rolling out.

You can let them do their final rise in the refrigerator overnight or pop them in the oven after a second rise of 30 minutes.

Every roll disappeared.  

Fabric Giveaway

Corrie at Retro Mummy is giving away 14 yummy fat quarters of Sweet Broderie fabric by Rosalie Quinlan.  The giveaway closes on Sunday, November 21st, so hurry over for your chance to win.

Where has the summer gone?

I can't believe I haven't posted since July.  Although I've taken lots of pictures of our mildly amusing summer adventures, I haven't finished even one of the projects I promised myself I would work on.   Now that my children are back at college and our life has resumed its quieter pace, I'm hoping I can get back into the groove.

This is the first time since we moved into our summer house in 1976 that we have spent the entire summer there.  My Viking daughter loves the lighthouse at Montauk Point which is at the end of the South Fork of Long Island.  She climbed the tower twice this summer.  She would have visited more often, but at $8.00 to visit the lighthouse and $8.00 to park it adds up to an expensive hobby.  When you are at the point, the next stop across the Atlantic is Portugal.

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This is the view from the top of the hill outside of the lighthouse.  The cement guardhouse was part of the Coastal Defense System during World War II.  A Nazi submarine actually dropped off a few soldiers who were planning acts of sabotage in New York City just of here in Napeague.  They were detected by some local fisherman and picked up before they could do any harm.  Just beyond the bluff is Camp Hero which still has the cement bunkers that housed large canons ready to defend the East Coast.

This picture was taken from the window at the top of the lighthouse looking out toward Block Island Sound.

This view from the same window looks toward the Montauk State Park.  The building on the hill to the right of the parking lot is a concession stand/gift shop.

The lighthouse is still an important navigational aid for ships on the East Coast.  This is the light in the top of the tower.  The original lamp was fueled with whale oil.

This is the view out of one of the windows in the tower.  

When we visited Cape Cod in May, I was enthralled with the lighthouses.  It's wonderful to know that we have this fantastic national treasure commissioned by George Washington right in our own backyard.  Well, it's about 20 miles away.

Day Lilies in Bloom

The perimeter of our pool is planted with perennial flowers. At this point in the summer, the day lilies dominate the garden. The highest concentration of blooms is usually the third and fourth week of July. During that two week period we average between 85-100 blossoms everyday. This year many of our plants are flowering about two weeks earlier than usual. Unfortunately, a few of the lilies that usually bloom in August are starting to open. That probably means that garden will have bloomed itself out by the first week of August.
It definitely makes me happy to wake up each morning and greet the day by checking to see which of the lily blossoms  will spend their one short day with us.

Russian Sage

I bought a small Russian Sage plant many years ago after reading that it was named plant of the year (I can't remember which year).  We planted it in our perennial border next to our lavender, but it soon grew too large for the area and started to choke the lavender.  It is now in our herb garden, although the owner of our local nursery told us it was not edible (according to online sources the flowers and leaves are edible but do not have the same flavor as regular sage, I have never tried it).  It requires no special attention and is very tolerable of dry soil.  The leaves are feathery and the delicate flowers are light lavender.