church camp

I like to drive by this "Gospel of the Kingdom" Campground.   It has been here since the late 1930's.

 It intrigues me mainly because of all the little houses surrounding the main building.  There are dozens of them, mostly painted white and squeezed in every which way.

Some are a little bigger....

Some are really small...

So cute, like little playhouses! I always wonder what they look like inside.

Looks like they all have electricity running to them. Could they have bathrooms and plumbing too?

This one is not only getting ready to do battle with this tree...

...it's also perched on the edge of  this hill! 

Usually there's no one around but this week there were a lot of people gathering...bringing in campers,too.

Big tents set up...

Excitement in the air and people all around...

It's an uncommon sort of place. It truly has an old timey feeling about it.

 Amazing that it has been here so long...waiting for people to congregate for camp week each year.  Hope the tradition continues for many more years.

should have known better

This has happened before so I should have known better than to leave a bag of birdseed in the Jeep.

At first I thought maybe a raccoon had climbed in through the open back window and tore into the bag, but there would have  been a lot bigger mess.

There must be mice living in there because they found this bag of sunflower seeds pretty fast. I have had mice in the Jeep before... It's  a dry safe place not too far from the bird feeders in the yard.

Well, it won't be safe for long! I'm setting a trap out there!

At least it's not a groundhog  like Junior had in his truck!

making progress on the quilt

I am moving along pretty good with this quilt. I have all of the small units attached to the larger plaid units and a couple of the rows sewn together ( the ones closest to  the wall).

I have already had to partially take apart the rows I did put together...somehow two blocks with the same fabric ended up right next to each other. I thought about leaving it but it kept bugging me and it didn't take  long to redo.

I had hoped to finish this one by Fathers Day (ssh!) but I realized last week I just wouldn't make that dead line, so I have slowed down on it now - being more careful about trying not to get the block points sewn up in the seam but a few of them just seem to disappear no matter what I do.
 
I am already thinking about a border. Pretty sure I will use a darker blue.


With the yard work and sewing and quilter activities, I got behind on house cleaning and I started noticing these coming out from under the furniture!  Whoa!

There are some rainy days in the forecast this week. I can catch up on cleaning and maybe squeeze in some sewing too. You have to take breaks, after all !

Junior makes cornbread

My younger son has been happy with his new toaster oven...especially the good results he gets when baking cornbread in it. He offered to make some for us to try with Sunday dinner.

We said "sure, why don't you bake a batch and bring it over".

But he wanted us to try it fresh and hot...so he brought his oven, his cast iron pans and the cornbread mix!

He preheats the pan as the oven preheats.

His favorite baking pan is this one that bakes wedge shaped servings. Lots of crispy edges.

It's a good thing he baked two batches. They really came out good! He used the convection feature on the oven. The cornbread gets crispy outside but stays moist inside.

He also brought along another cast iron dish for serving. He heated this one in the oven too, to help keep the cornbread warm at the table.

I like the wedge shapes...easy to eat. They were good plain but we also ate some with butter and honey.

Nice job, Son!

broccoli salad

I made some changes to a broccoli salad recipe I found online. I used grapes instead of raisins and left the bacon out.  In my experience, bacon soaks up too much liquid in this type of salad and gets soggy and rubbery...almost like eating raw bacon. Bleh!

Broccoli Salad

1 head fresh broccoli

1 cup grapes,halved

1/4 cup red (or white) onion, diced

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup Miracle Whip

2 Tbsp. sugar

3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

Chop broccoli into bite size chunks. You can peel and chop the stems too.

Toss with diced onion, halved grapes and sunflower seeds.

In a separate bowl, stir sugar and vinegar into Miracle Whip.  Pour over broccoli mixture and toss until dressing is mixed in well.

Chill until serving time.

I usually don't add extra salt since the sunflower seeds are salty. You may need to add extra sugar if your grapes aren't very sweet or your broccoli is strong tasting.

This holds up well for several hours but starts getting a bit watery on the second day.

fun quilt group meeting day

Every summer, on our June meeting day, the Mt Washington Quilting Bees have a pot luck dinner. Everyone brings a dish to share. This time we invited ladies from a group in Fisherville, to visit with us at our meeting and share the meal. The more the merrier!

Here is the food table being set up...

I brought deviled eggs .  None were left afterwards. I am always glad to bring the container home empty!

There was a separate table for desserts and I forgot to get a photo of it. 

Before the meal we played "strip poker" . It's not what you think! We play to win each other's strips of fabric!  It is played with special dice.

One other unusual thing at our meeting...a man! One of the ladies arranged to have him come and sharpen our sewing scissors. He had to set his work table up outside since it generates a little dust.

We were told about this ahead of time so those that wanted their scissors sharpened would be sure to bring them. (we could also bring knives but not pruners or hedge clippers)

He charged $5 to do scissors. I didn't need anything sharpened but one of the other ladies said her scissors cut like new again after he worked on them.

It seems like our group has been doing everything but sewing lately!

what I am reading

The Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong.

In this memoir, the author recounts the difficulty she had getting adjusted to life outside a convent after being a nun for seven years, during the 1960s.

I have to admit that after reading a couple of chapters, I just started flipping through and skimming the pages for any parts that seemed interesting to me. 

I enjoyed reading about about her life in the convent. During her time in training, or novice ship,  her life was strict and sheltered...every hour of the day planned and controlled.

She described the physical and emotional toll it took on herself and other young ladies around her...eating disorders, depression, etc.

After she left the convent she lived for a while with an eccentric family , acting as a part time nanny for their mildly autistic son, while she attended college.  This part was interesting to read as well.

As the book goes on though, there is just too much about the author's health issues (later diagnosed as epilepsy). Boring to read about each blackout  and fainting spell.

Ms. Armstrong has a style of writing and storytelling that is just not appealing to me. Lots of references and quotes from poetry and literature that I am not familiar with and basically just not interested in.  It seems that she finds deeper meaning in that sort of thing than I ever will.

So, I just skimmed and skipped around in this book and found that things turned out pretty well for her in the end.

I wouldn't recommend  this book and I wouldn't read other books by this author, but I would like to read more about what it's like to live in a convent.