One Lucky Girl!

7:30 AM:

I couldn't wait to get up and outside.  It was going to be another gorgeous day, and I wanted to be in the garden AND in the studio!  I had waxed, discharged, and overdyed these pieces yesterday, so I hung them out to dry and then got busy in the garden.  I was able to accomplish a lot, including clearing another line of that dumb mondo grass in my big project part of the pool patio garden.  I'm about a third of the way done there.  As I clean, I am covering it with a thick layer of mulch, just to discourage ANYTHING from even thinking about growing there, until I tell it to do so!!!

After breakfast (or is it lunch at noon time?) I visited with my Mom.  It was such a pretty day that we decided to sit out in her courtyard.  The birds were singing, the flowers are blooming, and she just loved it.  The director of her assisted living facility is a very energetic man, retired from the corporate world, and he is a true marvel.  He treats his employees very fairly, works a shift on every holiday, barbecues ribs for residents and their guests the first Tuesday evening of every month, AND plants and maintains a huge vegetable garden.  So, Mom and I inspected the garden this afternoon: there are 19 tomato plants, about 30 pepper plants, and beans coming up on either side of an very long arbor (from which the hanging beans can be picked by the residents).  This garden provides the residents with hours of enjoyment as they help Director Neil tend it, and as they also consume their veggies right up until the first frost in late October.  Mom is so looking forward to this...........she loves to snap beans and can't wait for her first 'mater sammich' of the season!

I spent a couple of hours in the studio, finishing up these batik pieces

discharging the red ones that you saw hanging on the line.  I will overdye those tomorrow.  We are having Barker's chair in our bedroom recovered - yes, he sleeps in a chair! - in a denim and I am going to dye fabrics and make a duvet cover for our bed in some coordinating blues.  So I'm making a few samples to see what will work.  I'm also auditioning fabrics for a duvet cover for the guest bedroom and a wallhanging for that room.  Quite honestly, I'd rather be dyeing than sewing.....have you figured that out yet?  I wonder if I'm the only one who feels that way?  I could spend all day dyeing, truly, I could!

Tonight we enjoyed dinner at our church and then a brief videocast about the history of our local medical center, which I found to be very interesting.  Having been employed there for a number of years (did you know that I'm a nurse?), I'm surprised to learn so much of its history that I did not know.  Jeremy, our custodian, was cleaning up after the program, and as he and I were chatting, I couldn't help but notice the wonderful chair rack art:

So, yes,  I am a lucky girl: I spent the morning gardening, some quality time with my Mom, rewarding and pleasurable hours dyeing in the studio, and then the evening with our church friends.....not to mention a few peaceful hours with my man and my doggie!  Doesn't get much better than this!  Hope it's been good for you too!

PEACE