Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. You can be sure of one thing, I’m inside where it is warm. This weather is insane.

Carol thought I better go get my SunPatiens before they sell out. Those are the flowers I plant in our window boxes along the retaining wall in front of the house. I did go get them and put them in the plastic storage building on the hill. Hopefully the mice don’t eat them before I can get them planted. We are supposed to get rain and extreme winds over the next couple days. 

I’m just glad I’m not responsible for a hundred plus camps and summer homes like in my past. Rangeley is calling for 4+ inches of snow out of the upcoming storm. I hope it warms up after this is over. I’m ready to be warmer.

My stone and drain project I told you about last week was a failure. Other than it looks better it still creates the same path to the lake in a heavy rain. The only conclusion is that they ran filter fabric under the rock most of the way out to the edge of the rock. So even though I spread the water around, when it hits the fabric it runs on top of it. Oh well, I tried.

There are more and more spring wild flowers coming into bloom as the season moves forward even if the temps are still chilly. Carol told you about seeing some lady slippers, I walked up on the ridge today and saw some too. 

On the sides of the driveway these Red Columbine are abundant. 

There are a great many star flowers 

and Canada Mayflower. 

And the ever present wild sarsaparilla. 

You just have to keep your eyes open.

While walking on the ridge I spotted two spots where the beaver have well worn paths between Winter Brook and Mud pond. No picture so maybe I imagined it. Boy was it cold on the ridge, the wind was howling much like it’s supposed to tomorrow. Hopefully no damages will need to be dealt with.

In the studio I am still churning away on #16 for 2025. When almost all the pieces were created just for this quilt, it takes longer. Quite often I am able to pull a lot of the required pieces from my bins of different sized ready to go units, four-Patches, half squares, V- blocks etc.. I did find some usable pieces but most were in the wrong quantity needed so I gave up wasting time pawing through the bins looking. I see a couple quilts in my near future that just use random pieces. Total scrappy, then one of a kind is fine.

Last time I was still in limbo about what size my columns would be. I have decided on two columns of 9” blocks, three columns of 8” blocks and two columns of 4”blocks. As I just typed that last sentence, I quickly did the math and realized that was wrong. I need what I had in my notes, I needed three columns of 9” blocks, not two. So instead of the four blocks I thought I still needed when I sat down to write this, I really need twelve more. 

No, they will now not be completed tonight. Maybe I will be able to lay out the top and see what it looks like tomorrow. Hopefully I like it and do not have to alter it too much. Time will tell.

If you are moving around this Memorial Day weekend stay safe, there are a lot of crazy drivers out there when the roads are dry and visibility unlimited, it only becomes worse when it storms. If you are not doing anything this weekend (me) stay safe as well. 

 I guess I better get busy I have a lot more blocks left than I thought.