Still hanging on to my waning moments of bliss

Hey there. The clock is ticking away on my time here in fantasy land. It can't be over! I tell you it just can't!!! I haven't bonded with the hammock yet. I haven't spent nearly enough time chilling on the swing (hmm, must remember to take a picture of My Swing!) on the porch of the guest house. Did I mention the guest house? It has a quail door knocker. Ya'll know I love quail, right? I mean is this destiny or what? A quail door knocker? It was obviously meant to be -- me, on that porch swing, admiring the quail door knocker. Sigh.

Isn't he great? As an impressionable and easily distracted child I spent many long hours in the deserts of CA counting quail (not at all like counting coup, I promise) and sometimes road runners while we drove for hours and hours and hours to meet up with other pigeon breeders/racers and/or train birds. Ahh, the good ole days. You know what, we used to do it all without air conditioning either> I guess I used to be tougher. lol

As I mentioned, I had a stitch fest in honor of a buddy from way out of town dropping by. Here's the crew:

that's Jenn (the Queen of the Needlepoint Tallis), yours truly who is standing sideways to cover the pasta spot she put on her shirt during dinner, Julie (visiting after too-long an absence), and Judy who likes to harrass people's stitching. Julie, Judy, and I used to work together (Judy is still my lunch-time stitching buddy) and Jenn, Julie, and I went to grad school together.
We gossiped (I could keep you shocked for hours with the sagas, just suffice it to say Julie deserves a much cooler family-- well at least parts of it-- for those of you who know, it's not funny like when the "car was stolen" -- someday I really must tell you that, it is VERY funny -- it's just shocking and annoying and makes you wonder if people really think their brians are best left curbside in a pool of bitter vindictiveness); we noshed (veggies, chips, dips, hummus, and pita followed by a stunning pasta fest from our fave local restaurant): and we crafted (Jenn worked on a tallis bag and a dimensional turtle; Julie had the softest, coolest yarn she was making a scarf with; I ornied; Judy ornied; adn Allison, Judy's daughter worked in her trademark shades of purple on a Celtic plastic canvas piece); and much frivolity happened throughout the afternoon. Oh, and they let me finish watching Wimbledon without me having to lock them outside to watch in peace. I'm serious about Wimbledon (sorry, I can't get into the French -- tennis should be played on green, not orange. I can stretch it to blue, but no way can I get all the way to orange. It's just not attractive.)

This is us (with Allison) noshing al fresco at the big-people picnic table--

I'm taking the picture of course. For the record, I had the wood-shaved pasta with spicy sausage and tomatos. Since it's the best, there's no need to explain the others.

I have two more finishes to report in the Ornie Campaign --
The St. Ruth's (ya gotta love it) Designs piece from JCS 1998 got finished at the stitch in:

Despite the debate that raged at the stitch-in this weekend, that is Santa's legs WITH BOOTS on them stitcking out of the top of the chimney with his bag dragging off the side. My "dear friend" Judy insisted that it looked lame and that those were like no boots she'd ever seen and what was that big red splot off to the side. Hmpf.
For the record he's on opalascent lugana in DMCs.

And, look, Julie, your ornie is done!

LK's flip-its ornie from last yearwhich Julie saw in my excessive packing pile and wanted me to stitch for her. It's in DMCs on Wichelts hand-dyed jobelan "Summer Sky"-- I love that stuff. I'm thinking I'll do the whole set for myself as one large piece on the Summer Sky. All I will need to do is change the borders of the squares which are all called to be white in the patterns. But that's not hard for an inveterate changer like myself.

You know I can't leve without sharing more of paradise with you. How about some horticulture? I feel especially close to the garden since with the holiday the gardeners have been MIA and I've been bonding with the hoses.





This isn't so much a plant pic, but I think it's too darn cute--

See him?

Doesn't he make you at least think "awwww?"

Some asides:
Courtney -- Duncan says that's properly pronounced "quack"-- as in it "quacked you up." It is the one punhe tolerates.

Kedra, back away from my resort. Go get your own! lol

Linen, you'd think in all that excessive stash I hauled here I'd have an appropriate star, but no. I even hauled back to the hovel and could find one I liked. Sigh.

Chris, I'm glad you're keeping track. I'm scared to count, but then again I'm not sure all my piddly little finishes should count. lol

Svenja, Sharon, Sandy, Sonda, Barbara, Maizey, Sally, and Dani -- thank you for saying such nice things about my ornies/my house sitting reverie. I wish you all could be having this much fun ---- say, did I tell you how the house locked me in yesterday. lol Honest. I'll tell you tomorrow. It's really pretty funny.... unless you think about it too hard and read the occasionaly Harlan Ellison short story/book about large, inanimate objects eating people.