Simply Norma

My husband, bless his heart, wanted to give me a couple of kayaks for my birthday this year and when he asked me if that would be okay, I already knew the answer.

No thank you.  It’s not that I don’t want to kayak although I’ve only tried it once in my life and enjoyed it, but …

I just didn’t feel that we would use them very often since we haven’t been on a kayak in the almost five years since we moved to Minnesota.  We do have access to a lake but, thinking logically, I surmised that once we went out on the lake a couple of times we probably wouldn’t head out to discover what we had already discovered.  hehe

So, I asked for something I knew I would thoroughly enjoy: getting rid of 26 trees. I know that seems like quite a few but in actuality, it wasn’t very many.

This summer, I’ve felt like I’ve been living under a dome of trees. Darkness encompassed me (literally) and made my normally cheery self feel blah.

The small maple and oak trees that were babies when we moved here 4 years ago grew to over 12 feet or more.  I felled a few of the smaller ones using loppers but injured my elbow and shoulder by pressing too hard to get the trees down. Then my brother came over and tried to fell some with his gas saw but it broke and my husband’s electric saw wasn’t strong enough.

To the rescue came our nephew, an Eagle Scout, who felled about 15 of the smaller trees and cleared a lot of brush for us. My husband then took down about five more “smaller” ones.

Still, it was too dark. So my husband agreed to my suggestion of felling 26 trees from large to medium to small (in addition to the ones he and the nephew already took down).

Here’s a picture of the contractor using his equipment to cut large branches off before cutting the trunk.

Here’s a view from afar.  He was pretty high up.

These trunks represent a small portion of what they felled.

We only felled one large dead tree in this area.  Unfortunately the one that is leaning towards our house is not on our property so we didn’t have it felled.  (It’s quite expensive to fell trees …)

Now we can see partial sky in the back of our house.  Unfortunately it faces north so we don’t get sun but plenty of light streams into the family room.

Here’s another view from the back deck looking north.  I can see sky!!!!

It’s amazing how much difference a little light can make in a person’s disposition.  I was so happy I could call myself giddy.

There are about 5 more trees that need to come down.  Next year.  Next year.

After living in Minnesota almost 5 years and on an almost all forested property, we were able to plant and grow tomatoes.  Three cheers for us!

You need to understand that the majority of our property is shaded ~ we have a little bit of sun in our front yard and a little bit of sun in the back yard. Between fighting for sun and deer eating everything in sight, having two tomato plants that actually have tomatoes on them is, well, almost miraculous.

There is just something about biting into a home-grown tomato that has flavor that brings my person a little closer to heaven.  No?

Next year, I’m hoping to grow tomatoes and cucumbers if I’m able to make a raised bed with some wire mesh around it.

It reminds me of a poem I once read called “It Couldn’t Be Done” by Edgar Albert Guest.

It Couldn’t Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so til he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that
At least no one ever has done it”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

So ~ I encourage you to keep trying until you get it just right.  Indeed, home grown tomatoes will grow in a shaded property if you find “just the right spot.”

This summer we ventured back to the North Shore of Minnesota.  This is a beautiful area to relax and let the mind meander. Although, I have to say, too much meandering makes me overly sensitive. (More on that in another post.)

So, take your shoes off, relax, pretend you’re on vacation for a few minutes and enjoy the photos below.

This is Cove Point Lodge which is on the shore of Lake Superior.  Our room was on the first floor and had a deck.  (If I wouldn’t have been taking the picture I would have waved for you.)

The view from our room was stupendous! Breathe in, breathe out. Fresh air and sunshine. Enough to give the capillaries something to talk about.  (hehe)

Imagine waking up to this every morning.

There was more than a gentle wind today. It reminded me of how life’s circumstances push us this way and that and we’re always forced to bend but always seem to straighten ourselves back up.  Although sometimes we don’t straighten all the way back up.

Right here ~ I’d like to have a cabin right here with this view. No?

These rocks seem to have been positioned for this picture.  Now, how did that happen?  The ebb and flow of the water has put them there without asking for their opinion. They didn’t fight they just “went along.”  If rocks could be “at peace” then these rocks would be the epitome of that.

A drive around the area brought us to Lax Lake.  Where oh where are all the people and why aren’t they out on a boat, canoe or kayak on such a beautiful day?

Further into our drive we stopped at a place called Sugarloaf Cove.  Sugarloaf is working to restore and preserve the North Shore of Lake Superior. A very cool place to visit.  The staff is very well informed of the area and of what it will take to preserve it.

Hmmm … Beach or Trail? How about both?!!

The puffy clouds mingle with the blue sky and hang over the deep blue water causing the mind to find rest.

We took a different trail back to the visitor center which led us through majestic trees.

On our way home we stopped at the Split Rock Lighthouse which is in Two Harbors, MN.  We were a little disappointed that the fee they charge to get into the park doesn’t include the tour to the lighthouse. Our choices were to pay for the tour or find a trail that leads to the lighthouse that is a tad bit longer.  We chose the latter.

The walk to get a picture of the lighthouse wasn’t too bad …

Just a little closer …

Unfortunately we didn’t get much closer than that as this was the way “up” and we didn’t want to spend more time here …

Well, would YOU have gone?

My enjoyment of trees, especially birch, was not denied on this trip. Something about these trees clumped in a group gives me a sense of awe.

Here the birch trees reach high into the blue sky as if reaching for heaven.

The three days we were gone seemed like a week to me. Taking in so much beauty in a short amount of time really does revive and elevate the senses.

On a very warm day in St. Paul, we headed to the Como Park Zoo. I was glad that it is a small zoo so we were able to stroll through and take our time.

The animals seemed lethargic ~ perhaps the weather affects them more than I thought.  Or maybe they simply weren’t happy.

They didn’t seem to move very much ~ even the sea lion just lay there.

The gorilla seemed pensive ~ what do gorillas think about, I wonder?

I was able to get pretty close to the zebra. It is quite a fascinating animal with all the stripes and it’s large muscles.  Did you know that the strip pattern on every zebra is unique? Check it out sometime.

The giraffe was the most active out of all the animals.

Did you know that a male lion’s roar can be heard up to 5 miles away?

This tiger just lay on its back ~ too hot to move?

Most of the other animals were “hiding.”

The zoo has a few places to pick up some goodies and drinks.

Hopefully the next time we go the animals will be a little more active (chipper).

I am still a beginner when it comes to quilting. Perhaps it’s because I don’t quilt every day. I usually do one project every 3-6 months and then spring/summer roll around and I’m back to the stress of yard work.

The lap top quilt I recently made is called Candy Squares and is quite pretty.  I bought the kit on Craftsy which came with all of the fabric material except for the batting and the backing.

Unfortunately, the first kit I received from them which had both off white Kona yardage and 100 5″ colored fabric squares had the wrong size colored squares so I emailed them and they sent me another kit and allowed me to keep the first one.  That actually made sense since I hadn’t measured the fabric material when I received it and had already cut the off white material by following the instructions.

Lesson learned.  I’ll make sure to measure the fabric before I start a project.

The instructions said I should press the fabric first so that’s what I did.  It does not recommend washing as the fabric pieces are quite small.

I started the project by cutting 70 of the 5″ squares into 2.5 x 2.5 inch squares.  This is time consuming because I needed to make sure the cuts were precise.   The remaining 5″ squares (all 30 of them) are cut into two pieces each ~ 2½” x 5” rectangles for the binding.

I’m considering getting a Cricut which, although a little expensive, is supposed to cut a lot more accurately than I can.  I thought perhaps I was the only one having problems cutting precisely but many experienced quilters say they have had the same problem.

I love the vivid

Next I cut the 3 yards of Kona White fabric into 13 2½” strips and then sub cut it into 200 2½” squares.  Then I cut 9 6½” strips and sub cut those into 49 6½” squares.

That’s a lot of cutting for sure!

The quilt has a pattern as such:

Row 1 = color – white – color

Row 2 = white – color – white

Row 3 = color – white – color

The colored fabric is chosen randomly and is sewn to the white color as stated above.

You need to make sure you have lots of pins for this project and a pincushion comes in handy.

I pinned each set of two squares and sewed them together.

I continued feeding the sewing machine the sets of squares with a little space between them and later snipped that thread off.  Then I added the third square.

Next I put 3 rows of squares together to make a 9 piece square.

If you’ll notice, I made two different sets ~ the first had white on each end with a colored fabric in the middle and the second had colored pieces on the ends and a white piece in the middle.  I then put those in separate piles.

I simply love the vibrant colors in this quilt.

Eventually you’ll be using 3 of these to make a larger square.

It is VERY important that the fabric is cut precisely or you’ll have problems later on trying to match pieces. But, don’t worry too much over it. I’m still trying to be a perfectionist at quilting but more and more I read of how it’s okay to let some of these things go.

Below is a picture of one large square that is not lined up very well.  Blah.

Here is one that is much much better.

I made 50 of these blocks and I starched each one. Whew!

Since this is a lap quilt, I used a king size bed to put the sewn squares on.  This allowed me to see how the colors were lining up.  As you can see, one large white square is sewn in between the color combination ones.

After all the rows were completed, I was able to step back and look to make sure I didn’t have colors that were next to each other to give it a more random look.

For this quilt I used a very light batting since I wasn’t sure who it might be given to (any ideas?) and I know folks all over the U.S.  I also decided not to pin the top, batting and backing together but used a basting spray instead which worked quite well.

To reiterate, this is what the kit came with and what is needed:

• 1 Charm Pack of Fossil Fern fabrics – 100 5″ Squares (included in the kit)
• 3 Yards Kona Cotton in snow/white
• Backing: 3 5/8 yard (need to purchase)
• Batting: 62″ x 74″ (need to purchase)

The finished size is 54″ x 66″.

For the backing, I asked a couple of friends what color they thought would work and I used a burgundy color but any color would have worked.

After I checked to make sure everything was pieced together correctly (it wasn’t ~ I had a few pieces I had to hand sew as they had separated for some reason), I washed the quilt on delicate and in cold water. Then I checked again to make sure all the pieces were still together. I noticed that a few had come undone.  Blah again!  So, I hand sewed those and it was finally finished.

Here’s the final product which is quite pretty.