Off to the Beach!

This is my newest home project. I've been looking for something to swap out with my beloved grandmother's crazy quilt over the fireplace because I'm concerned that the strong light in the room is fading it too much. So here's what I've come up with -- also from my grandmother.

This is an enlargement of a envelope she addressed to granddaddy, in 1913, before they were married. When Mom cleaned out the house on Van Dyke she needed to decide what to do with a stack of letters from grandmother that granddaddy had saved -- so I brought them home. Guess when my house is cleaned out, there they will be. Anyway, we haven't found anything terribly compelling in the letters themselves -- they are mostly chit-chat -- but the envelope, enlarged and framed, is enticing, I think.

Our young friend Fiona and her dad are gardening this summer. Tomatoes, beans, squash, melons, herbs. Here she is in her Tilley Hat.

We are off to the beach. Duncan's Aunt Emilia from Kansas City rents a house at Holden every year, and gathers as much family in as possible over two weeks. She has three children in three states and this year, a grandchild is bringing his new baby, so there will be four generations.

These are cousins Duncan would otherwise only see at funerals, so it is nice we always get invited and nice that we have always been able to go.

Stray Bits

These are Fire Pinks and they were THE wildflower blooming in the mountains in April when we went for a long hike up the old US 70 roadbed up around Old Fort. What a good, long, but fairly easy walk on a paved road through such wildness it took your breath away. My amazing Mom, a week after her 82nd birthday, kept pace the entire way.

May 5 -- I saw a magnolia tree in full bloom.

I am crazy busy, always working on a list - but all projects are pleasant and interesting, so it is just old habit to complain. Church committees, fiber guild board, a weaving study group, and running back and forth to NC, with some tiny bit of gardening thrown in. Really don't have time to work, but earlier in this very place, I promised never to complain about work again. Ever. So, I won't.

The economy is getting better, the environment is getting worse.

Miners were killed in a mine accident in West Virginia, there's been big earthquakes in Indonesia and Chile,  a volcano erupted in Iceland that spewed so much ash that airports in Europe were shut down for a week and periodically since, and then a BP oil rig collapsed in the Gulf of Mexico and has been gushing thousands of gallons of oil each day into the ocean for four weeks now. Think of it. Thousands of gallons a day for four weeks and no fix in sight. All of this makes me sad and worried for our planet. What to do? Envision a world without cars and air conditioners and WI-FI?

I talked to a woman here who works for NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration)  -- she says she working extra hours on oil spill clean-up and has to track her hours like a lawyer because Fed. Govt. is serious about making BP pay. And Claire left to go to her beach house in Florida, planning to take an EPA class for anyone who wants to help prepare their beach for the coming oil. Last night, she wrote and said there's no oil there yet. Yet.

On a more hopeful note, Adam graduated from Wake Forest on Monday. We were in Winston to celebrate with him over the weekend. Check out the much-loved graduate and check out this awesome cake:

I haven't been able to make it to many of the most recent family celebrations so I thoroughly enjoyed being at this one. It was great to see Jeffrey again, too. He's gearing up to enter his doctorate program at Chicago so I expect he'll be pretty busy for the next few years. Chances to see him may become even fewer and further between.

And while I was in Greensboro I stopped in at the Residential College Reunion. Debbie's class entered as freshmen 40 years ago -- Murray and Fran Ardnt were the faculty couple who lived in the dorm. I came along two years later. Fran is retiring this year, so she was roasted and toasted. She is the last faculty person I had any connection to -- so I was glad I could make it. I enjoyed lunch at my favorite Greensboro restaurant; Elizabeth's Pizza, with several others who showed up from my class -- here's Pat Weathers and me, Helen Harris Cryan who's been in Greensboro all these years, Debbie Jones Kenyon, who I've recently reconnected with, and Carol Densmore who came from Boston..

And here's a nice picture of the dorm we lived in from 1973 - 1975.

It's true, time does fly. Why it's almost Bob Dylan's birthday again. You won't believe this. He'll be 69 this year!!