Walking Backward

We ended  another month! How does that happen and why am I  always surprised? We are all sheltering from something we can’t see so our activities are limited.

Deep purple Lily on my walk

My walks were getting a bit routine. I usually start up the hill, go around the first left corner and text my quilting friend that I’m on her street. Since she is being extra cautious, she comes out on her front porch to wave and say good morning. We have a little conversation the whole neighborhood can hear from six feet apart and she sometimes shares what she’s been quilting. It’s more fun when you can show your work to someone that appreciates it. I get there early in the mornings. (For her)

Emily likes making smaller things now. She has plenty of big and beautiful quilts

There are 3 panels to this set.

Applique flowers in a pot

Bird houses are a favorite of mine

A gift for my daughter’s birthday in April

Then I walk up another steep hill and finally start down again. I decided yesterday to go the other way since I’d left even earlier and stop at Emily’s last. Maybe she’d be awake when I got there. Changing my routine had me noticing things I had not seen going the other way. I think that applies to life in general. If we keep doing things the way we have always done them, nothing changes. Going backward changed my perspective on the neighborhood. Now I am carrying that idea into other areas of life to see what I can shake loose.

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Today I finally finished the leftover quilt and the binding is attached to the front. I’ll hand stitch it to the back while I watch TV or listen to Ted talks or YouTube. I already have a project halfway done that I can’t show yet until all of our group are ready to share. I’ve also turned over the two charity quilt tops I finished first. Emily gave them to me already cut out. I did make some changes in the fabric since some went missing. It happens.

Quilt for Tech Support.

Very much like the one I made my son 2 years ago Christmas

It’s like wrangling cats to quilt it on a home machine,

Charity quilt top done and passed on to Emily

Faces Charity quilt passed on to Emily

These pillowcases have been waiting 2 years for me to make for my daughter. Done.

I’ve learned how to use Zoom to connect with our PF support group and wave at my sister at her house. We have learned to zoom together since we can’t get together. So many are using all kinds of media to connect. It feels a little backwards too. They kept telling us before to stay off the social media and spend more time in personal contact.

Metal sculpture puppy

While I Zoom, I do what I always do when listening a long time without speaking, I work on my embroidery. I did a lot of this at PF group so I don’t fidget. Embroidery keeps me focused on what I’m hearing rather than what’s playing in my head.

slow work in progress

#6 Hoping to start #7 soon.

The weather dried up enough to get a lot of weed pulling done. I filled the green waste can up and my daughter took it off the hill for me. It gets composted by the city and I’ve worked until everything hurts and yard looks almost nice again. As the rain comes to an end here, my list of outside chores goes up.

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I’ll be posting less in the summer due to other demands. You really don’t want to see the list. Bored is not in my vocabulary. In a given day I go from one thing to the other until sleep claims me. I spend my sleep hours thinking up more things that need to be done.

I am…enjoying the moments

Do you like to change up your routine to gain new perspective on old habits?

From my heart to yours,

Marlene Herself

Observation

I have started walking at least five days a week to get at least 7000 steps according to the fitness tracker my daughter gave me for Mother’s Day. It helps me challenge myself not to spend so much time sitting. Everything I do is sitting. Reading, writing, sewing, heck I can even garden sitting.

No photographic evidence of me sitting but I have proof my sis does.

My walk is one mile up hill and one mile down, minimum. I can add to that by wandering all the side streets. I find that this neighborhood of slightly over 500 manufactured homes has a lot of diversity. I put on headphones, not always to listen to happy, fast-moving music that gets me up the hill, but more often to just keep the wind out of my ear. After the Bells Palsy, the left ear is extremely sensitive to any wind or cool. When I don’t have music playing, I’m more prone to notice things around me so occasionally, I’ll start doing little posts about what I might find interesting on my walks.

I have become so much more observant since I started blogging and even more so since I started walking again. Now that I’m old, I notice what I didn’t have time to see before.

In this political climate, I was surprised to find this sign in a car window. Not being a political person, I didn’t fully understand it and maybe I still don’t.

It was there for a couple of days, then gone. Hmm.

The sign seemed to bother me even though I did not understand it. I guess because they used the words hates and racist in it. I’m glad the sign is gone.

Another morning I was truly surprised to see this as I rounded the corner. Looks like someone was either playing a very good prank or they were delivering a gift. That woke me up a bit.

Was this a joke?

The other side gave no clues either.

 

I like to look at landscaping as I go down each street. There are no sidewalks here. Guess they don’t encourage walking here but I do it anyway. I saw this tree and took a good look. It had a familiar feel to it.

Very large tree with familiar feathery flowers. My son is in for a huge surprise.

As I was coming a little closer to the end of my walk, I observed this tree. I studied quite intently. I’m sure the owner of the house was wondering why I kept looking at their tree. Once I was sure, I photographed it and marched on home.

This one is a little younger

Here is the photo of the tree my son planted last summer before he moved. He saw the tree in Hawaii and fell in love with it so we had to go to a nursery and find one. I thought for sure it had not survived the unusually harsh winter but here it is in all its spring glory. I don’t think we picked a good spot for this little tree. I had no idea it could get that big and he had no idea it flowered.

Albizia is the name my son had for this tree.

First flower on the Albizia

Close up of the feathery flower

Are you more observant when you are walking? Do you find ways to enjoy walking?

From my heart to yours,

Marlene Herself