Thursday and It's 83 degrees and I am talking about wool!

  I can't believe this is the end of March and the temperature is suppose to  get to 88 degrees in inland San Diego which includes Crest. I love warm weather but 88 seems a little too much like summer. I worked on my Wool Crazy quilt last night after class trying to get ready for my wool border.There are several ladies going to wool events this weekend back East how lucky can you be!

I am going to sprint down to the mailbox this afternoon to see if the wool from Heavens to Betsy is here for our wool  giveaway. I know you all are getting excited!

I have a list of of things to do today.First and foremost dig a big hole so I'll have to run and get some planter mix. I bought a beautiful climbing Rose and I need to  get it in the ground. My Morning Glories are going crazy and of course their being invasive on my deck.  Next on my list  plant some old seeds and see if they grow. I have gone through at least a dozen weed wackers which end up with burned up engines so I have to pull weeds instead until my hubby gets the big wacker out. So as you can see today is a busy day. The sun does feel good I must admit and Morris is enjoying laying on the rail of the deck surveying the park. The weeds in the park are getting tall so I wonder if were going to have goats arrive to munch.The last couple years the park gets a herd of goats to eat all the weeds for wildfire prevention. I love when  the goats arrive and I can watch  them all day while I garden.It's  also interesting watching the dogs that herd the goats and how protective they are of them . I am rambling time to get to work. Cheri


  









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Wool and sheep on my Crazy Quilt mind

Smiling about wool all week,

                                            I keep having to add more and more wool so
                                            I can make a wool border.Yes I am still working on it!                

I am counting down the days until the wools from Heavens to Betsy comes, while I wait I am going to focus on my passion and yours wool, anything to do with wool. I am definitely a wool addict! As I go through my house I look at all my prims and anything doing with sheep and realize I have a lot of wool related items who'd a thought. I look at my Ashford spinning wheel and think I need to spin some wool for a good friend instead of it gathering some dust. I enjoy looking at my shelf where my girlfriend gave me a flock of sheep.I don't have the real ones but this will do for now.
Tonight I am going to work on my wool crazy quilt since I attend a once a month group that meets tomorrow at Country Loft. I need to sew on more wool to the sides so I can add a big border.I think when I finish with this Crazy Quilt I am going to be an old old woman.Sometimes the only way I am going to get something like my Wool Crazy quilt done is to go to class with no distractions except laughter. Sometimes seeing others work being done gets me moving.


I am so behind because I have been busy gardening which I love! I met a women who is crazy about heirloom tomatoes and I think you might call her a tomato snob! When I was introduced to her I explained proudly I planted a Hawaiian tomato plant she smiled but was not impressed this
gardener knows tomatoes!
I was totally jealous she was getting some worm bins for her garden.I chatted about 
chickens, she talked about tomatoes.In this world everybody knows something.Lol 
She was really friendly and I look forward to seeing these special tomatoes she grows.




I am going to hang up my wool sign I bought years ago. So as I succumb to my wool addiction and face the fact that it started with my Ashford and ends with rug hooking

Sheep
 weathervane is up on the roof

With using wool in everything I do I face the fact that some addictions aren’t bad in fact I think their therapeutic!
I talked to Heavens To Betsy today and the wool should probably be here by the end of the week.
I can hardly wait to take a picture when the wools arrive and start the give away.

I have decided that Morris will pick the winner!Cheri

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Wool Smiles!

                                              Sheep Weathervane soon to be back on my roof.  
                                               
Sunday in California and it’cloudy and suppose to rain again. So here I sit with a smile on my face. I am one of the most appreciative persons I know. I don’t take things for granted . So Friday when I called up Heavens to Betsy to order my wool to finish my rug. I was surprised to hear she had heard my name before . Well there are several Cheri's I explained to her I am one of the Cheri's that she follows on her website and maybe she knows as Back to Larkrise, Lol.


So this wonderful stranger with the nicest voice offered to give me FREE WOOL for a give away from Heavens To Betsy. Isn’t that exciting! The wool has never been seen yet it’s all new and the  wool samples have not even been sent out yet! As soon as the package arrives I will take some pictures and start  the official give away. Isn’t that funny how when you least expect it you have a big smile on your face and a happy moment is here for all of us to share. I have never had a give away so this is kind of exciting. My mail is up the street since were on a dirt road so I will be sprinting every day to see if 
it's here. I can hardly wait.

On a Cat note Morris my Big Orange Kitty has been hunting again. Morris  caught a big gopher yesterday but this morning he caught a bird.My husband rescued the bird by releasing him from Morris's

mouth and he flew away! Morris was trying to bring the bird in the house. I know it was a gift but he got a scolding No Birds! with a fluff of his tail Morris gave an angry face and sulked outside. That Cat at least he is not getting into any more cat fights. Cheri

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The country life of Grandma Moses

It’s Farm Friend Friday and I am enjoying all the blogs with pictures of animals, gardens and anything Farm related. My post is about an artist that show’s her love of the country life she lived in Grandma Moses. Years ago in our San Diego art museum we had an exhibit of Grandma Moses and her wonderful paintings and embroideries. I could hardly wait to see all her simple primitive paintings! There were hundreds of paintings that depicted her early rural life.I have never loved an exhibit more.I have been to many art museums and seen Rembrandt's and the old masters but this simple primitive painter caught a slice of a world that was truly heartwarming.

I have loved the simplicity of this wonderful folk artist who began painting at 76 after arthritis stopped her from her hobby of wool embroidery.Grandma Moses was born in 1876 and lived to be 101.



 Anna Mary Robertson or Grandma Moses is the best known primitive painter with her wonderful scenes of farm life and the memories of her childhood. There is a little bit of Grandma Moses in us all if you think about it.Grandma Moses vision of country life is so enduring and sweet. Did you know she was friends with Norman Rockwell?I look at all the Farm blogs and think if you were able to try to depict your Country Life I wonder if you could be a little bit of Grandma Moses.Depicting our way of Life in art is something all of us can do simply with a little bit of  effort using whatever we enjoy to work with.I like rug hooking and quilting but even if I am not good at painting
I draw hope from a simple painter who just put her hand to the brush and created.

   Grandma Moses was put on a million things in the 1950's
This is a can I found at a thrift store.



 This is a part of a copy I have
of a Grandma Moses painting. There was too much
of a glare when taking a photo but it gives you an idea of
her paintings. 

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Hooking away on one of my rugs when..........

Oh dear!



What is it about rug hooking that you start to hook away, your on a wonderful roll. Your rug is finally looking how you envision it when Oh No! you ran out of the color your using for the rug background. Once again because I can’t make up my mind on my background I need some more wool. Then I can’t find the name of the wool so I can reorder it from Heavens to Betsy. I know God is teaching me Patience. Lol

Well I found it today, Yes after days of looking everywhere. I had taken the samples to show a friend and I stupidly put them in my rug hooking drawer where I put my samples. I can’t believe I was organized it totally threw me off. Lol!

So what do most hookers do?

I tend to hook the main parts of the rug and acquire my background color along the way sometimes. That way I can ask for suggestions from hooking friends on color choices when I am stumped. Am I the only hooker not having all my wools ready to go before I start a rug? The color was Mississippi catfish.
Now I hope she has it. Lol

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Sunday Morning and playing with my prims.

                                                         The Easter Rabbit

                                 This is one of the wood projects my husband has made for me.

Last year a girlfriend who has since moved was having her home put in Country Sampler Magazine Home Tour Edition.  My husband had made this for Elaine.
So Lo and behold there it is on Page 26 against the wall next to the apron.
It doesn’t say his name but it’s his and I was surprised to see it.
I can't afford antiques all the time so I look and see what my hubby can make for me.

That is the essence of Country collecting, refurbishing,creating.Well I had better get to
work on my Rug. It's getting close to binding! Oh Happy Spring!                                       
                                                 

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From San Juan Island to my Friday morning

 As I wake up this morning I look out my window and realize how lucky I am. Yesterday I visited my daughter  and on the way home stopped at some  wonderful plant nurseries. I bought a beautiful Rose and an interesting Geranium. I love cottage gardens and so Geraniums are a must. I need to get working  on my rug hooking . I have been a little distracted.My rug hooking group meets Tuesday and I really want to have something done.

I have been running back and forth to visit my daughter because she needs a little help. Megan is having a baby shower in April. Yep I had a big secret. My daughter and son in law are expecting a baby! It's been touch and go and boy am I getting some new grey hair. Lol !I have never been a grandma and I laugh at my self I go from being excited to just not believing it. I wonder can I Love a baby more then my Maulie! Lol I am Teasing! Having MS brings more complications but I have been educated that there is no reason a woman can't have children just because she has MS. So it might  be a little challenging at times but I know what strong people they are, they'll be great parents. So as I look out my window I think I have to plant my geranium,plant my rose and count my blessings and that's a good way to start the day!

                         
                                            more photo's from San Juan Island by Megan.

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Looking through his eyes

As I drove down the 15 freeway on Thursday in Southern California for a visit with my daughter I thought when did I get in a NASCAR Race? Seven lanes of freeway at times and it’s clearly posted 70 miles and hour. I was being pushed to go 80 by my fellow travelers. I had a great visit with Megan and her husband and was able to see some great pictures of her trip to the San Juan Island last October.



Who'd a thought a camel on San Juan Island?



                                        Isn't this a beautiful picture of a Fox!


My daughter Megan is a fanatical Knitter. I don’t know where she gets it she loves sock knitting. I can only knit a plain scarf and I am totally purl challenged.Lol!


So last October Megan was off to a Sock camp with Cat Bordhi on San Juan Island. Megan had gone to a Sock Summit a year before and had a wild time in Portland. Who knew Socks can have Summits it doesn’t have to be world leaders. Maybe this world would be a better place if our world leaders had to knit a pair of socks while they discussed getting along with our different countries. Just a thought.

Here are some of the pictures Megan took. What struck me as I sat looking at her photo’s on the computer screen is how her pictures were so interesting. The Pacific Northwest is beautiful as I looked at Lighthouses, Otters, bald Eagles.  The old cemetery in the middle of a forest was so unusual I thought of my late Dad. My Dad was in the civil service repairing planes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War . He traveled at times overseas from the Philippines to Hawaii. My father loved photography and he always was taking pictures especially when he retired.  After retirement my father had a part time job as a photographer taking head shots for aspiring actors wish he enjoyed. My dad with his camera was a constant occurance. I remember being in his darkroom as he slowly developed  his photo's and the smell of the chemicals.  As I looked at Megan’s photo’s I thought Wow my Dad would love these pictures!
It was like a kiss from the grave realizing how our loved ones interests touch us and live on with the hobby’s or values we treasure. As I take pictures with my camera I think how hard it is to take an interesting picture. I wonder about us all and what do we remember that we carry on subconsciously that carries on from the past to the present touching our daily lives.

       Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse

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Japan

Japan and their sorrow,    

                                                  


As I turned on the computer this morning I saw the sadness of the loss of life climbing. Disasters in all parts of the World seemed far removed sometimes and yet I know there are those in our blog world who have experienced disasters in their part of the world.

My Prayer goes out to Japan and all the places being affected. In San Diego we had a child and some grandma’s needing some help from a wave surge. We had a bait barge broken that’s about it.

Crescent city in Northern California got it’s boats and docks ruined millions of Dollars in a town that makes it’s living from the Sea . We are so Blessed that this is about all that happened in California but for the poor people of Japan my heart goes out at such massive loss. So as I work in my garden today remembering when years ago we had a wildfire destroy over a two hundred homes in Crest I feel for the Japan and their loss of Life and homes and feel for Julia and her flood and those I don’t know that were touched by an unfortunate

Experience with a disaster.

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Farm friend Friday at Verde Farm from my Little Larkrise

   It’s Farm friend Friday at Verde Farm , this is my Farm related posting.

   This spoke to my heart. To all the real farmers this poem says it all.
   I saw this poem at the Writers Almanac   by Joyce Sutphen

                                                                             I know it's just a little tractor.

Girl on a Tractor

I knew the names of all the cows before

I knew my alphabet, but no matter the

subject; I had mastery of it, and when

it came time to help in the fields, I

learned to drive a tractor at just the right

speed, so that two men, walking

on either side of the moving wagon                

could each lift a bale, walk towards

the steadily arriving platform and                                                     

simultaneously hoist the hay onto

the rack, walk to the next bale, lift,

turn, and find me there, exactly where

I should be, my hand on the throttle,

carefully measuring out the pace.

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What does Rug hooking and the Wizard of Oz have in Common?

  The Wizard of Oz


What have you learned, Dorothy?



Dorothy: Well, I - I think that it - it wasn't enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em - and it's that - if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?


What does Rug Hooking and  the Wizard of Oz have in Common? I was relating to  the characters of this Wonderful Movie and how they think 
they're missing something in their life!

What kind of a Rug hooker are you?

A Dorothy Rug Hooker who doesn’t appreciate her Hooked Rugs until she see’s them with fresh eyes through friends. Someone who gives her rugs away before she realizes how good her Rugs are.  A hooker that appreciates her rug now that is hanging somewhere else Lol! As Rug hookers we need to appreciate that our rugs do improve each time we Hook and each is special.

A  Scarecrow who thinks he has no brains.  Try something  new in your hooking . Why not try a rug that’s not your usual hooked Rug. Think outside your rug hooking comfort zone.Rug Hookers create in many styles
maybe your loops are never perfect but those loops are yours!

The Tin Woodsman who wants a heart . You don’t have to be famous to put your thoughts and memories and  hook them on your blank burlap and create. We all enjoy looking at a rug that someone has retold a story in their rug of their life. Those rugs are truly special.They are the essence of what Hooking is about.

The Cowardly Lion who is afraid of everything including his

Tail. Maybe your afraid to experiment with color in your Rugs because it might turn out different then you originally wanted. To be creative you have to risk doing something that others might think is odd

Or not understand.

So as I have my Wizard of Oz moment I realize I have to be the Horse of a different color. Remember when they were in Oz and there was a Horse of a different color? SO

Does a Cow have to be brown or black or white?

My Cow I am hooking is soft purple check with light pink markings.
I am trying to create a simple rug that speaks to me.

 So Which character would you be in The Wizard of Oz?

Hmmmm ,It would be nice to be the good witch Glinda.
Glinda who is so good and pretty and is the big ball of niceness but also
able to dole out wisdom.As long as I am not a flying monkey I am doing fine.Lol
Cheri
A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.





                                                                               

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Spring Garden Show,Lunch and a wonderful flock of Pelicans!

                                                                      
                              I love the country Life but sometimes for fun I go from this

                                                                     
                                                               and this

                                                                To this for the day.

           


I did like this outdoor shower made with a surfboard.
Isn't that Crazy! 

 Thirty five minutes inland is like night and day. There are so many different lifestyles in San Diego County so going to the beach which is about 35 minutes on the freeway is a fun change of pace from where I live on top of the Hill in the East County of  San Diego.The  beach towns  fun to see what’s happening in that part of the World their shops are always different and artistic. Since I have been so busy it’s been awhile Since I have been out with friends for a whole day. It was a great Day!. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you have been on your own doing your own thing. I am so lucky to have good friends. Linda and I share our love of gardening so we were having a delightful time thinking up projects to do.




Today was the Spring garden show in San Diego so my girlfriend Linda and I headed for the coast. The Del Mar Fair is near the Ocean and so there are lots of cute shops and restaurants to eat in Del mar, Encinitas, Solana beach. Our plan was to go the garden show and then go lunch and hit a plant nursery or two.

Here are some pictures of the Show but I was kind of disappointed there were not many flowery old fashioned plants since Southern California water prices are so high. So their pushing succulents at the show. I bought a yellow Hawaiian Tomato plant a Big Mac Pumpkin plant and  Geum with a pretty yellow flower.
My garden is cottage so I am always looking for old fashioned favorites that will handle the heat.

I use grey water for some plants which helps with my water bills in the summer. But water is a big issue. We can get heat waves in the Summer months where the temps are over 100degrees.




                                               Enough with succulents give me a hollyhock !                                                  


  




 Isn't this crazy you can make water come out of anything!



   This is a Wedding Cake made out of flowers.

 
 
 
 
 

                               See what I said about all the succulents.
 

 

        . 
 
 
As Linda and I putted over to Solana beach I told her let's go eat at Las Olas. It’s a Mexican restaurant across the street from the Pacific. So we had a good lunch walked across the street and walked along the Pacific Ocean. It was an empty beach we were on a roll. As we were walking I noticed a flock of birds coming closer and closer . As they flew overhead They were Big Brown pelicans. It was beautiful to see. I had never seen Pelicans in a formation. So between the smell of the Ocean The pelicans and the peace of the Ocean it was such a relaxing day.

              Driving to Las Olas to have Lunch



 Las Olas in the background. It's where the Palm trees are.



                                          
Here comes the Pelicans(click to see how panoramic they looked)

           Pelicans as they're over us,So pretty the picture doesn't show how neat they looked.(click to see them better)

 (Click for a great long shot of the Pacific Ocean)

Dog enjoying a beach walk

The Day ended with a stop at a Quilt shop..The end of a perfect day

Cheri. 

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Udderly New Idea for my Hooked Rug

For all those that wonder what is Back to Larkrise doing on Farm Friend Friday.Lol! I Know I don’t have a true farm but I use to have chickens and I am going to be getting some in the future!But to me a Farm is a state of mind A love of Animals the Country Life.I can't have a true Farm but I can show Farm animals in my Rug hooking and Quilting. There are so many enjoyable hobbies that display the pure Farm Life that all of us wish we could enjoy everyday. So my Farm In Crest California  is filled with My critters . A crazy Orange Kitty and a loveable Shitzu. I enjoy waking up to the sound of Hawks, blue jays, woodpeckers and I do hear all sorts of chickens and Roosters in my neighborhood. My neighbor does  raise a pig for the fair every year. Oh and I did Spin wool at The Del Mar Fair one year. Lol..

MOO!

Hooking my Rug!
 I have been perplexed on what to do with an area which I had ripped out. I looked at some old appliqué patterns since I can’t draw and I realized when all else fails Hook a Cow!


It would be perfect for my hooked rug. I have my black angel, My hearts, Church and a cow would be my animal. I am so relieved. Sometimes you have to put a rug away for a couple days to rethink what you want to do to it. Because frankly it makes you crazy!

                                         My 12 Days of Christmas Quilt I am still working on!

The Cheri Fan club met last night which is a group of ladies that love Cheri Payne quilts. We had such
laughs and worked away on our Cheri Quilts.There is a lot of handwork but I love her primitive quilts
so it's worth it.
Last night I was working on my 12 days of Christmas. It has a lot of hand work. Cheri does alot of wool applique so what I don't use for Hooking I can use for my Cheri Quilts.
New fabric at the County Loft  had come in and I found a perfect blue homespun for the border!

It’s like all the stars aligned for me.I still have to do my hand stitching and sew the blue border but it's getting there.

So I am udderly Happy Today I am going to plant a Lavatera bush and a Butterfly bush and work in my garden!

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