Rosie

She was the best little dog and such a loyal and faithful companion.  I miss her so much.  They are just always there, paying attention to you, wanting to know where you are, what you're doing, where you're going next.  If she saw me getting my purse and coat, she wanted me to open the door so she could go outside and 'chase' my car - behind the fence of course, and do her funny little spins as she raced beside the driveway.  She was one of a kind and brought such joy to everyone who knew her.  Some animals just seem to have such a gentle spirit.  She was my soulmate dog, for sure.  When my aging Mother lived with us, she adored Rosie and was her 'doorman', opening and closing the kitchen door at every little bark of command from Rosie.  I buried her next to a miniature rose bush that Mom gave me years ago.  Rest in peace, you sweet Rosebud.

Quilt Retreat!

Every year my quilt group, the Mendocino Quilt Artists, rent a house on the coast, plan some kind of project, organize meals, who stays where, etc.  This year we decided we needed a bigger house.  The one we rented had 5 bedrooms and 3 baths and was comfortable, but what was most spectacular was the view from the living room, where we worked every day.

We looked slightly left to see this beach.  The view to the right was the green coastal hills with cows grazing here and there.  We walked down the street to steps that led down to the beach.  This is definitely the best house we have rented because of the beach walk and the view.  Also, the house faces north, so no problem with bright western sunlight which can be intense.

In the months leading up to the retreat, we kick around ideas for the theme of the project.  Once we have consensus, it's up to each of us to gather supplies and be ready to start work at the retreat.  It's a bit of a madhouse as we all get started, but this year we decided on a new strategy - silence for the first 2 hours.  It made a huge difference to me.  I know I'm easily distracted, so this really worked for me.  Here is a view of some of us at work.  You can't see the beach, but we can.

And we are, Friday night, all present and accounted for:

More mushrooms

I'm still finding lots of trumpets, but also some lovely hedgehog mushrooms, aka Hydnum Repandum.  They tend to occur in clusters and seem to glow with their cream and slightly peach blush.  They are small and somewhat fragile and hard to clean, but delicious nonetheless.  I think they taste a little like chanterelles.

You can see how these would be hard to spot.  The hedgehog mushroom, on the other hand is hard to miss because of it's color, though it is small, perhaps the largest of these is only 3" across.

 

The underside of the hedgehog mushroom has spines rather than gills, hence its name.

Leap Baby

Our nephew and his wife had their baby very late on the 29th - a Leap Baby - Maxwell Calhoun Apfel.  All is well and all are extremely happy.  Congratulations Josh and Jen!  Note this photo is a later one, but it's so sweet.

Black Trumpets

No, it's not a musical instrument, though you may wish to sing its praises.  It is variously known as Black Chanterelles, Trumpets, Trompe de la Morts (trumpets of death - those Frenchies have such a sense of humor), and officially Craterellus Fallax.  By any name, it's one of my favorite wild mushrooms.  I love the slightly pungent and spicy flavor, especially good with eggs and pasta, and the fact that it loses very little flavor when dried.  When there is a good trumpet year, you can come home with bags full, dry them and enjoy them all year long, until the beginning of the next rainy season.  For us in Mendocino County, they are close to the last wild mushroom we'll pick before the dry season.  Happily, it's a good year for black chanterelles, as it was for white and yellow chanterelles.  Here they are ready to be washed.

A Little Quilt

This weekend is the Anderson Valley Alsace Festival put on by the AV Winegrowers.  They have generously offered the Anderson Valley Housing Assn. one or two tables of silent auction items.  We get the donations and organize the auction, and they collect the money and give it to us.  I've gotten some very generous donations, as have Bill Sterling and others.  I came up with a donation of my own: a little quilt.  It's a spinoff of a larger quilt I made last year.  The center of the quilt was one of the photos printed on fabric that I decided not to use in the original quilt.

So here's the Little Yorkville Shack quilt.

 

And here's the larger quilt I did, called Yorkville Shack.  Keep in mind that the small one is 12 x 15

and the larger one is 36 x 40.  Yes, the color of the shack is different, which is one of the reasons it didn't make it into the larger quilt.  And the other thing is that the photo below is bad.  But I've got new lights and will try and get a better photo of it.

 

For those curious folks, here's a photo taken recently of the Yorkville Shack, unaltered.

 It is going, going, going.  I wonder every time I pass that spot whether it will have collapsed.  There are more Yorkville Shack quilts to come.  I will need to visit it again when the magnificent dogwood comes into bloom, and the old lilac and the old apple tree.

Happy Valentine's Day

We're leaving on a jet plane later today.  Mark has a conference in San Diego, so I get to play while he works, then we'll have some days together at the end.  We're planning on visiting Joshua Tree National Park.

Here's a not so recent photo of my sweetheart doing something he loves, and I love the finished product.  Cheers!

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