Back to the Buggy Barn

I spent the last weekend in August at the Buggy Barn's Fifteenth Annual Quilt Show

in Reardan, Washington.
After driving down a long gravel road,

miles from the nearest town,
I arrived at the farm.

Overnight, the quilts have been hung on the barns.

And the fences.

And in the air.

The original "buggy barn" on the property
is now a quilt shop.

And is covered in quilts.

Quilts line the gravel driveway to the second barn.

I don't know what this thing is, but it's now a quilt display.

Tents were set up for folk artists to sell their creations.

This barn is where I'll be spending the day,
signing copies of my book, Welcome Home.

In the morning, I'm at the table in the shade.

Behind me, are a few of my other quilts.

It's HOT (about 96 F or 34 C)
so in the afternoon I move to the side of the barn,

trying to stay in the shade.

More of my quilts are displayed here.

This is my view for the two days I'm there.

This little guy seemed to like my quilts.

And this one did too.

Another view of the barn.

And the fields.

Then the wind picked up.

Amazingly, the quilts stayed on the lines.

Proof that you're never too young to quilt--
these two cuties started at age 5.

When it's time to take the quilts down,

the whole family gets involved.

Husbands, kids, and grandkids.

Thanks, Pam and Janet, and your wonderful family and staff

for another amazing show!

Wonderful Whidbey Weekend

We are blessed to have friends who we vacation with every summer.
This year, we drove to Whidbey Island off the coast of Washington state,
about 2 hours south of where we live.
This is the home we reserved for the weekend.

This is one of the bedrooms.
How cute!

And this is the view from our deck, the first evening.
I can feel myself relaxing already.

On Friday morning, the guys went golfing while the women visited this nearby lavender farm.
There was even a lavender labyrinth!

Lavender was being harvested in the fields.
It smelled heavenly!

Bunches of lavender were drying for later use.

The store sells all kind of products made with lavender,
including ice-cream, which we bought for supper.

Then we made our way to Greenbank Farms.

The buildings now house artist galleries and shops.

The gardens are just beautiful.

Before heading back to the cabin, we drove south to the small town of Langley,
and watched this glass-blower helping a child make her own glass pumpkin.

Saturday morning, we drove to Coupeville, another little town,

which hosts an amazing annual arts and crafts festival.

We watched this blacksmith in action.

As well as this basket-maker.

And this potter.

Some tall ships were visiting the harbour for the weekend.

The afternoon was spent beach-combing.

As always, our island retreat was over much too soon.

Till next summer!

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was my parents' 57th wedding anniversary.

They were married August 6th, 1954.

We celebrated with them but this year was different.

We met at the hospital, around my mom's bed.

She fell and broke her hip on July 28th and had surgery the next day.

We're so thankful that she appears to be recovering well and is able to go for short walks in the hallway, but we don't know if she'll ever go home again.

And for someone who has always worked so very hard,

it's difficult for her to sit all day with little to do but wait.

How precious and fragile life is,

and it can change forever in an instant.

I love you, mom and dad, so very, very much.