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Amaryllis, A short story

29 May

My first experience with Amaryllis bulbs was a gift from a wonderful neighbor November 2019. Blooms emerged January, 2020. It rebloomed April, 2021.

My mother loved all flowers. She had a special fondness for peonies, iris and day lilies of all varieties. She had a Christmas cactus that thrived over decades usually blooming just in time for the holidays. One can never have enough blooms :).

Mom requested an amaryllis bulb for the holidays. I ordered one shipped to her Christmas of 2020. In spite of being carefully watched for signs of life…NOTHING happened. The next time I was home, she instructed me to “take it back”.

I decided to repot. To my wondering eyes, I beheld FIVE bulbs in one pot. There was no room for any of them to grow.

For me the next step was to round up five pots to replant and give all the bulbs their own space. In the months that followed: Two did not thrive, Three grew beautiful foliage….

ONE of the three developed TWO blooms.

God bless Mom and Dad this Memorial Day!

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Book Reviews: Prayers that Shake Heaven and Earth plus Advanced and Extreme Prayers

12 Jun

Author: Daniel Duval 2018, 2019 and 2021 respectively

Riveting!
Extraordinary!
Many blessings!

Seeking a solution to problem/s? This series of books will stretch your imagination and bolster your faith. Collectively they offer explanations, organization and structure that build on each other. Kindle suggested these. Great transitions between many subjects.

Amanda Grace and Robin D. Bullock both have powerful spiritual ministries as prayer warriors.

Yesterday I got a message to Watch “Tim Bence In Conversation Rob Skiba on Canaanite Altars & The Federal Reserve… Part 1” on YouTube starting @ 55 min mark https://youtu.be/HcYw3bkB_pg This personal account by Tim Bence is riveting and well told. The conclusion is well worth hearing.

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Strawberry 🍓 Surprise

2 Jun

2021 we had aspirations for planting a fair size strawberry patch. After hearing the passion wildlife has for ripe berries, we scaled down, planted what was already ordered near the breeze way. We netted three of 20 plants.

2022 we let the survivors stay in place near a retaining wall. Surprise! Surprise! We have had enough ripe berries to have parfaits for two….five days in a row.

Runners have stretched out to start several more plants.

Great flavor!

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Observations from the sewing room with Days for Girls International

6 Apr

https://www.daysforgirls.org

Color/pattern: My strategy for purchasing fabric has been to maximize variation in color and patterns within the Days for Girls guidelines. The goal is to keep it interesting for “me” as well as the recipients of the kits. I photographed three combinations from my latest work…

Apples paired with “quilt shop” prints for pockets
Southwest abstract with pockets that match colors

Contrast of “calico” print with boldness of “poppy” + a “batik” with “quilt” fabric in similar color tones.

By the yard disappointment:

This winter I chose to order flannel online to “save the wait at cutting table” and a trip to the fabric store. Presently there is no option to order fractions of a yard (for shrinkage allowance). As I work through my online purchase of four different cuts of flannel…I came up short each time expecting (16) 9″X9″ squares per yard.

My preference in store is to buy the end of bolt (when it is close). Strange, that feels like a “gain” rather than “loss”. If the shortage is at least 6″ wide it can be used. (I missed that 4 of 4 times ordering online.)

Bundle for chapter to assemble kits:

Supporting 30 kits at a time works well for my space. 30 kits contain 60 shields with wings + pockets plus 240 reversible tri-fold pads. Ah Ha. Rather than using 30 gallon bags plus shopping bags where the contents become topsy turvy or boxes that are never the best proportions…It occurred to me to try 13 gal drawstring kitchen bags. Works better! Delivery time.

Elfcroft completed work in process, ready for team assembly
Easier delivery, Denser storage

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Legacy Quilts

24 Mar

FLASH BACK:

Gifted to baby Embry at the baby shower for her parents April 2021 in Huntsville, AL

Pink Dogwood by Mam-ma Hall
Dutch Girl by Mam-ma Tuggle

Gifts for Birkholz baby girl were hand made in the 1960s by TWO of her Great-Great-Grandmothers. Both quilters are Maternal and Paternal mothers of her great-grandparents (Grandmother on father’s side). Both are made for double size beds.

Hopefully there will be opportunities to share these heirlooms with cousins of the new generation who have the common legacy.

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Book Review: The Winter Harvest Handbook

24 Feb
GREAT READ on the potential and possibilities of four season gardening with unheated greenhouses.

Imagine scrolling Instagram posts and being grabbed by a Martha Stewart post referring to Eliot Coleman’s long time enterprise: organic gardening in Maine year round using unheated greenhouses. This beautiful book has many photos to support the reveal of his family’s passion: life and times growing vegetables for restaurants and markets within a 25 mile radius. Ingenuity emerges in every chapter. Crop rotation, green houses, tunnels, developing custom tools, historical research of Paris in the late 1800s, importance of facing south in the northern hemisphere, custom seeding applications and much MORE. The illustrations are outstanding.

Several years ago my curiosity was peaked by Instagram posts of a longtime friend on the launch of vegetable and flower business supporting the Jonesborough, TN farmers market. Planning involved minimal acreage and a three season planting rotation of most areas. Closed for winter months. Tilling the long time pasture area was challenging. I only briefly saw a map designating plan for plant location and seasonal rotation. Starting from scratch, I wondered how one planned compatible combinations and timing of planting/harvest…so, this Winter Harvest Handbook answered many or most of my questions and more (given the different growing zone). EF

Do you remember when “Keep on Truckin” was trendy?

20 Feb

Let’s celebrate trucker convoys

to restore personal freedom and liberty in Canada and around the world.

My long career in manufacturing engineering for Allison Transmission served “on and off” highway vehicle markets at home and around the world.

Hybrid bus
Semi cab
Two of a couple dozen “show” vehicles for Allison Transmission, Global headquarters in Indianapolis, IN. Yours truly was one of a team of drivers available to work “Ride and Drive” experiences for customers specifying automatic transmissions for their fleet of TRUCKS, buses, etc.

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Book Review: The Card Catalog

18 Feb

The Card Catalog is also a book!

Published by the The Library of Congress this book chronicles the challenges of library science over centuries specifically focusing on early American History.

More than delightful memories of classic books, this short and sweet book pairs well with The Library, A Catalogue of Wonders (reviewed 5/15/2019).

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Drum Roll

29 Dec

Seven years–>10,000 sewn @ home items–>have supported 1000 kits for Days for Girls International. I thought I may reach this milestone. I did not realize how close I was.

I started this journey with the goal of making the the entire kit as well as providing the purchased items of wash cloth plus two pairs of panties. The first run was for 45 kits. The attic space over our garage does not support “spreading” work out. One small table supports a serger plus another supports a standard sewing machine. My sewing cabinet with drop leaves spreads out to support cutting board. Ironing board is set up under the skylight. After developing layout for my workspace, I decided deliver tri-fold pads (8/kit) and shields with pockets and wings (2/kit) to accommodate packing individual kits.

My first shipments were to the headquarters in Washington State. Several years later, they suggested I ship to a local chapter in Iowa. Most recently I have had the opportunity to support a Days for Girls International Chapter in my home town in Indiana.

240 pads plus 60 shields
My goal: Maximize colors and patterns of each shield. Happy!
240 folded pads plus 60 shields

These boxes were picked up yesterday.

https://www.daysforgirls.org

The most recent DfGI newsletter told of a fabulous event in Kenya.

Bridgit and Alice reached 1,000 Maasai women and girls with 1,000 DfG Kits that day, and were warmly invited back to serve more villages in the region. In future distributions, they hope to train a Maasai woman ambassador to help break through taboo-based barriers in the community.
“Through volunteers, through enterprises, and through public and private partnerships, Days for Girls is working to shift how women and girls see themselves and are seen by their communities,” reflects Alice.

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Dual Book Reviews: Priestess of Pompeii (2020) and The Intuitive Warrior (2011)

28 Oct

I just finished reading these books back to back…so very different in the narrative and very similar with the theme of developing intuition. Obviously a look at the book covers readily reveals Sandy’s feminine approach and Michael’s masculine approach.

Congratulations to Sandy Hurt on the publication of Priestess of Pompeii! I know Sandy personally…over 25 years. She put her heart and soul in her book. In my humble opinion, it is a master piece and classic set in Julius Cesear’s era over 2000 years ago. The narrative immerses the reader in the way of life including traveling by ship on the Mediterranean Sea, being house guests in foreign Greece and Crete, basic vocabulary Italian and Greek, farming, customs, family life and more!

I am looking forward to reading Book 2!

What could a warrior’s story possibly have to do with a priestess? The important and personal stories of developing intuition!

Michael has an extraordinary resume. He came to my attention in interviews on various YouTube channels as the interviewer and interviewee. There is much to learn from is personal story.

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those denied the opportunity shall come to enjoy it in full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities, that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

President Eisenhower 1953-1961 excerpt from speech in 1961

YES! I recommend BOTH!

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