Maui here we come

All packed. Hope I haven't forgotten anything. On the plane at 0'dark hundred. Eating saimin tomorrow night for dinner. Aloha

Maui Tomorrow

I survived Wild Women's Weekend. Actually it was very relaxing and rejuvinating. I was with women who just wanted to have fun and learn about themselves. The Drum ceremony was awsome. As we gathered several flights of Canada geese flew over. The forest inhabitants feel the energy of the drum (or so I'm told). I tie dyed a shirt, went canoeing on the lake, played cards, and danced my little feet off.

Wild Women's Weekend

It's off to Wild Women's Weekend today. I'm not as enthused as I have been in years past. Guess I'm geared up for the trip to Maui next week and haven't given WWW much thought. I have packed the table cloth and candle sticks (we can't be wild all the time) so I guess I'm ready. It should be rather cool up there in the woods so I don't think I'll go skinny dipping in the lake at 6 a.m.
Looking at the pictures of my nails I am noticing how old my fingers look. Well they are nearly 65. Old happens.

Beautiful Nails

There is a girl from the Ukrain who paints nails - dah. I mean she really paints little designs on them with a little paint brush - not nail polish. She did both my hands with little flowers. on my ring finger is a little yellow butterfly. I'm all set for Wild Women's Weekend.

Bummer

Had to cancel the Red Hat club meeting for tomorrow for lack of interest. Actually, every one who responded had a very valid reason for not being able to attend. I hate not to have a monthly meeting but what can you do?
On the other hand, here are a couple of pictures from my garden. The rose really is quite cute, small, gentle. See how tall my sunflowers are? They look great from the street.

Sewing class

I opened the sewing room at the church. I invited women from the Women's Hearth and another center that caters to low income people. Last week (before the invite) I had no one come - duh. This week there were four ladies. What fun. They loved going through the fabric closet, picking a project and thinking ahead to what they can do in the future. One is challenged but she did great. I am bushed. I have a list of what to take with me next week. I obviously cannot take a project to work on. They take all my time. But it was very fun. (Remember that in a few months.)

Week ahead

And so the fall begins with meetings most every day. Sunday was first day of the new Sunday School class I lead. Monday is Evening Fellowship (I'm president of that group). Tuesday is Sharing Team meeting (I'm chair of that group). Wednesday the singing group I'm in begins rehersals for performances at nursing homes around the area and I will again open the sewing room for any takers. Haven't received word yet as to whether or not Yoga will be on Wednesday or Thursday evenings. Thursday morning is United Methodist Women meeting (I'm the secretary for that group). Then we pick up the grand girls after school and watch them till mom comes home at 6:30 ish. I finally have a bit of a breather on Friday (maybe time to study the lesson for Sunday). I'll finish off the week with a Red Hat meeting (I'm Queen of that group). Who said I'd have lots of time to sew when I retired? Oh, well. As my mother used to say, it keeps me out of the bars.

At the Fair

Yesterday was opening day at the Spokane Interstate Fair. Since I had entered four things (2 red ribbons and 2 Blue ribbons), we opted to take the girls to see how they did.
Casey did quite well with her pottery work, handmade doll, and costume (blue dress with vest). Remarks were about closer attention to detail.
Sydney got the blue for the quilt she did last year and a third place for the laprobe she did this year. Difference? The quilt was professionally quilted the laprobe she did entirely by herself. Her comments were about better control of the fabric under the needle.
Then it was through the animal barns and then one ride. That's Sydney in the pink with Casey flying in right behind her. They had fun. I got tired and Jerry just came along to watch.

Sewing Wednesday

It's my fault that no one showed up. I didn't advertise except in my own comfort zone. Today (and hopefully the rest of the week), I'll take my flyer to the House of Charity, Salvation Army, and other women's shelter type places.
I did get a bag finished. Spent a lot of time trying to find a tape measure, pin cushion, and empty bobbins. (I'll have to bring said supplies next week).

Summer's end

Summer here in the Great Northwest is gracing us with one last glorius weekend. I am finishing up projects to be entered in the Interstate Fair and getting ready to open the sewing/quilting room at church.
For years the ladies have meet weekly to sew things for our Bazaar. But of late their numbers have dwindled to a pathetic few (most cannot drive anymore and are too frail to hold a needle). Rather than let the room and machines go to waste, I have decided to keep it going (if only myself in attendance) and inviting the downtown, street/underpriviledged women to come in and use the area for projects. That starts Wednesday. Pray for me.
Sunflowers are starting to bloom. I love this one as it is being groomed by an industrious bee.

Sunday school

Next Sunday starts the resumption of Adult Sunday school for which I am the facilitator. I am not the teacher, as each adult in the class has something to teach. I only keep the class rolling. Ours is an eclectic group; retired accountant, retired teacher, retired business owner, and three special needs persons. I must say they are the most loyal of the group. They are always prepared for class. One does all the work on the assignment and is invaluable when the class slows; I can always count on him to give the "right" answer. But Ed is my favorite. I think he is autistic but can't be sure. He is a scruffy looking guy, wearing faded torn cloths most of the time. He follows what is going on in the class and knows his Bible, volunteering correct Bible verses in other books that "fit". This morning I passed him in the hall and said, "Next week starts Sunday School." He got the biggest grin on his face, his eyes lit up, he raised both hands and said, "Yeah!" Why wouldn't anyone enjoy leading a class when there are eager students in attendance?

Winding down

August is in it's last week. Our temps here are in the 90's during the day and 50's at night. Very bearable.
Had a teeth cleaning appointment today. Why do I dread this so much? It doesn't hurt. The hygienist is very gentle (chatty but gentle). But I 'white knuckle' it every time. No cavities. Hooray.
A friend sent me a website in which you enter your name (or any name) and it finds people that match your search. There appears to be another Leonna Bowers in MO. What are the odds? Same spelling of both first and last. Wow. Then I looked for a former pastor in Hawaii. Left a message with my name while in Hawaii (he wouldn't recognize my current name) and soon received an email from a solicitor in Nigeria trying to "clear an account" of a deceased Chinese National. Hello. That message was immediately deleted.
Completed another little project to enter in the Fair. Have to get a couple more ready by the 5th of September. Piece of cake.

Today was the 'Cat' party. We played pin the tail on the cat, painted pet rocks, blew bubbles, played balloon stomp, broke a Cat-yatta and ate cat cupcakes.
I think they all had fun. Lots of giggling. No fighting. Success!
Sydney didn't have a guest but Casey had two, so she shared.

It's all about Sydney

Here she is, our little actress. She had one line in the play "Newsies", so her name was in the program.
Being on the small side, she was most always in the front row.
I videoed the whole play (33 minutes) so didn't get any still shots of her on stage.


She is very proud of the Quilt (lap robe size) she made this summer. She saw that I had some 3" squares cut out and has just been plugging alone day by day. She even did the quilting. We laid the top out on a piece of polar fleece and she stitched over the top of all the seams. Then turned the white edges under and top stitched all the way around. She even cut all the fringe. Way to go girl.

Cat Party plans

Today Sydney will be presenting a little play with the rest of her drama camp. They have been working on "Newsies" so it should be lively.
Next Thursday we will be having a Cat Party to celebrate the first anniversary of Ben Ben the cat adopting them. We are working on "Pin the Tail on the Cat" (I drew a cat & a separate tail); Catyatta (have to get a balloon and fashion something resembling a cat); we will have cupcakes decorated like a cat's face (haven't figured out how to do the ears yet but that will come), and maybe we will draw cats on the sidewalk. I'll take pictures next week.

Anniversary

Today I celebrate three years of being married to the kindest man I know. I can honestly say we have not so much as had a cross word between us. It is truely a joy to be in companionship (especially in my later years) with my soul mate. Happy Anniversary to us!

Bonsai

I've been reading up on how to start a Bonsai tree. In none of the books does it really give specifics like guage of wire to ancore the tree, type of screen to cover the holes in the pot, age of the tree when training begins, season of growth to begin. I went to several nurseries and found one lady who was into Bonsai who gave me some great tips like get it out of the ground now so as not to encourage root growth but put it back into the one gal. pot after triming it's roots and then wait a couple of weeks to trim the top back. I was given a card at another nursery (Spokane seems to be very lacking in Bonsai gardeners) of a couple just this side of the Idaho boarder who run a nursery with Bonsai emphasis. He was great! He too told me to get the tree out of the ground but only trim the roots three quarters of an inch and put it back in its one gal pot. In the spring take it out of the pot and trim another three quarters of an inch off the roots and put it into a one quart pot. Not until two springs from now do I put it into its Bonsai pot. They offer classes at the Idaho community college in October. I intend to take their class.
I have also sent in my registration to the Inland Empire Bonsai Society. Maybe I have another way to keep busy (lol).

Busted

Living in a Condo I should have realized that before one plants anything one needs the OK of the group. I knew that. I ignored that. I figured everyone would love to have an ancient Ginkgo tree growing in their yard. WRONG! One resident is very anti tree. Where I planted mine will distroy his view (in 20 years or so). Big time fuss. Condo meeting next Tuesday. I have appologized to him for my thoughlessness. He has agreed not to distroy the tree until the meeting.
In the mean time I am thinking "Why not just Bonsai the tree?" So, I went to the Library and picked up several books on the subject. Mine may not look as pretty as the ones in the books but it will still be mine and I'll grow it on my porch, in a pot where he has nothing to disagree or grumble about. I'll get that done before the meeting on Tuesday. Wish me luck on this project. I'll post pictures of the finished project.

Ginkgo is planted

I finally got the hole dug and my little plant in the ground.
You can see how much river rock is at the street side of the condo. Thats our place on the lower level.




I want to show you how my garden is growing. Those are sunflowers in front of the ugly gas meters.



The roses bloomed nicely once and have not been producing since.
It does look like a little secret garden tho, doesn't it?

Fast week

My this week went by fast. Nothing really happened, just stayed busy. Still do not have the tree in the ground - maybe tonight. Did finish a sewing project or two. Still more of them to go. Started thinking about what I should enter in the Fair. Entry forms are due next Tuesday. Nothing quite like procrastinating.
We had a broken sprinkler head that the repairman came to fix. I wanted to talk to him so I slipped on my clogs and walked across the river rock which covers a great deal of our street side property and stepped down a small incline of lava rock. Twisted my ankle just enough to be annoying. Also threw out my whole allignment. I can feel it as I lay down to relax and this sholder "yips" and that leg "yowls" and the middle of my back "growns". Ahh the fun of aging. One cannot just jump down a small rock incline like one could when but a child.
My swim group of ladies (8 of us) have been attending the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre this year. Our fourth and last gathering is tomorrow - "The King and I". We shall probably be comparing to the movie but still enjoying the event.