There was nothing crafty done yesterday. It was a beautiful outside day and we took full advantage. Ian and I got a start by heading out early to kayak the length of Long Pond. It was about a 2 and a quarter hour round trip keeping a pretty steady pace. As we headed out this was my view. It was about 8 am and the pond was like glass. We weren't along on the pond. Chris took this photo of us from the deck. I'm the right speck. About half way down I got this great mirror image. By the time we got to the end a breeze had started and we had a few ripples in the water. This was our view when we started back. Chris got this photo of us heading back in. I'm the one with the straight wake. I'm not sure where Ian was going but I was on a mission to get to my breakfast. After breakfast I relaxed on the porch in the sun and watched the hummingbird feeder.
The afternoon was filled with sunning, floating, reading and lobster for dinner. A perfect vacation day. Today we have a nice long hike planned and then maybe I'll do some sewing. Ian and Laura leave Friday. I didn't post yesterday simply because I didn't have the energy. We had an absolutely fabulously day Monday but things made a turn right after dinner when Anne got a call about her dog, Ginger. Ginger is one of my favorite dogs of all time. She died suddenly and unexpectedly Monday night. Anne flew home Tuesday morning to be with her family. Ginger was one of the sweetest dogs I've ever known and I'll miss her. RIP sweet Ginger. The weather has been really beautiful the past 2 days and we had lots of indoor and outdoor activities. I'll start with the indoor. Laura made this baby quilt top for her niece's new baby. She used Mary Quilts' Quick Strippie. It's a great go-to pattern for baby quilts. Here's a closeup of the fabrics she used. We were in another fabric store yesterday and she found the perfect Minkie-type fabric for the backing. Anne is working on a mandala applique quilt called Harmony. I can't find the pattern but, trust me, it's going to be stunning. She travels with the pieces to glue the edges down to prep for the applique. I even sewed more blocks. I'll get a count once I have them ironed. Monday started off with me, Chris and Ian taking a hike on Beech Mountain. We love this trail. It's never busy because it's not in the main part of the park. It's the closest trails to the place where we stay. (I almost said it's the closest to "our house". LOL), it's not too long, has good viewing points and has a little of every type of terrain. It's our go-to "first hike" trail. I love these bare granite slab sections. This exists throughout the park. This one was one of the steep areas and there were other areas with granite steps and others with large rocks to scramble over. There are some easy sections. Some big granite slabs. There are areas where you can see that someone did a lot of work to move big granite slabs in place to be steps and bridges. You have to admit, that's a pretty fancy bridge! I can't imagine how they move these slabs through the woods and up the trails. Sometimes the granite can't be moved and the trail has to go around. In some sections we walk beneath giant rock walls and ledges and occasionally see a rock that may fall at any time. We spotted this interesting little plant that we have never seen before. I assume that it's some sort of fungi but I don't really know. At the top we were rewarded with this beautiful view over Southwest Harbor. In the afternoon Chris and Anne floated while I waited for the car repair place to call me and tell me I need TWO wheel bearings replaced. I'm so glad I was able to get it to a shop and get the repair scheduled before we return home. It was getting louder as the time went on. Most shops up here have a minimum two week wait for repairs. It's also fortunate that we have 2 cars here! These chair floats are the best! Ian, Laura, Chris and I floated again today for about 2 hours. It was glorious. I seem to be really popular with the dragonflies. Monday they were hanging out with me on the dock and yesterday I had at least a dozen of them land on me while I was out in the water. One even brought it's dinner and used me as a dining table. It was kind of gross and fascinating at the same time. Just before dinner Monday night, Anne and I took a nice kayak paddle around part of the pond. It was a beautiful evening and then it all went to hell after dinner.
Yesterday after Anne left we were all a little morose. We took a 3 mile walk in the neighborhood and spent the rest of the day reading and floating. The night was clear so we went to the dock around 10 to see the Milky Way. Today Ian and I plan to kayak the length of the pond and tomorrow we will probably get back on the trails. First I have some news! When I get back from vacation, Mom and I will be organizing her move. She's done a ton already but we will still have to get her internet set up and take care of any other details in prep for the move on the 7th. I've decided not to stress about the blog or shop that week and, instead, will have a week of giveaways! I've got all the packages lined up and ready to go so get yourself ready for 6 days of giveaways coming soon! Back in Maine, I've yet to turn on the sewing machine but I did add 8 more rows to the baby blanket. 8 rows in an evening seems to be about my best rate and it will be done in plenty of time for the shower in October. Yesterday we had a pretty warm day with a mix of clouds and sun. I took a day off from hiking so Anne and I got out on the lake to do some kayaking. It was a little breezy but in certain areas there weren't many waves. We headed into one of my favorite areas of the lake where it outflows toward Somes Sound. There's a series of fish ladders from Somes Sound and into Long Pond. One of those ladder systems is here. This part of the lake is full of Water Lilies. This was the first time that I've ever seen this plant in bloom in Long Pond. I'm sure it's been there before but I've never noticed or seen it. I did some searching and found out that it's called Pickerel Weed.
If the forecast holds, today is supposed to be beautiful. We're going to take a short hike this morning to test out my toe issue and, after I get my car fixed, we hope to spend the afternoon floating in the lake. We left Greenville, ME Friday morning with this view and it rained the whole 3 hour drive to Mount Desert Island. We spent the afternoon in Bar Harbor while we waited for the house to be ready and we arrived to this view. Let's be honest, it's still a pretty spectacular view even on a gloomy day! the day wasn't a loss because we had lobster for dinner. We woke yesterday morning to this view. Now we're talking! Everyone's mood lightened instantly and we quickly planned and set out on our first hike. We usually do a "warm up" hike and this time was no different. We started in Thuya Gardens and hiked through to reach a carriage trail that went around and over the Amphitheater trail. It was about 6 miles but almost all on smooth surfaces. It was just what we needed. Here are a few photos from the day. Thuya Gardens is not officially part of Acadia National Park but is adjacent and connected through trails. If you are ever visiting Acadia try to visit Atiscou and Thuya Gardens. It's a beautifully maintained property with lovely gardens. The trail we took has some pretty mossy areas and you can get a glimpse, on the left, of how well manicured the trail is. There are miles and miles of carriage trails in Acadia. They were developed in the late 1800's by the barons of industry (Rockefellers, Fords, Vanderbilts, Morgans, etc). This is where they chose to summer and the developed these carriage trails so they could travel to the tops of the mountains and enjoy the beautiful views. Now they are used by hikers, cyclists, runners and horse drawn carriages. Most are many miles long so they are good for a long, relatively easy, walk. They aren't flat so there's a lot of up and down hiking to keep the blood flowing. I love that they are mostly all lined with granite blocks. Besides timber, cod and lobster, granite mining was a major industry here. Even the park bridges are made from granite. This is a small one. This is one of the large ones, the Amphitheater Bridge. We hiked under this bridge on the Amphitheater Trail last year and it was one of our favorite hikes. Yesterday afternoon we started getting more settled in and I got my sewing corner set up. I love the view from my sewing room at home but it pales compared to this one. Before we left Greenville I got close to 60 more block corners sewn along with the offcut mini HSTs. I'm ready to start sewing these into blocks. I have about 80 blocks cut out and once they are sewn I'll need to do some math and see how many more I need. I'm out of light fabric so I might go shop for some light blue batiks to finish off the blocks. I don't think anyone would notice batiks mixed in as long as they are mottled and not printed. On the crochet front, I finished these two hats for donation. I had a skein of this dark green yarn that I wanted to use up and a pattern I wanted to try out. It's the Crochet Baby James Beanie and it comes is all sizes. I like working a hat in this way and will use this pattern again. Laura finished the second veterans quilt top Thursday night before we left Greenville. She's now moved on to knitting. This is a sweater project that she started in May, the last time she visited the US and it will be her US project until she finishes. She wanted to cover a mistake for the photo.
That's about all from here. I'm hoping for kayaking weather today. It was way to breezy for that yesterday. I have a toe injury (long story about me being a klutz) that I keep reigniting so I will take today off from hiking or even walking much. Plus my friend, Anne, has arrived and we'll plan something that she wants to do. The boys will get to take one of their hard hikes today. I won't go on hikes with cliffs or rungs to climb. Today is our last day in Greenville. Tomorrow morning we will head to Acadia for our last 2 weeks. Yesterday we each went for our own exercise in the morning and then Laura and I visited The Crazy Moose for Laura to get some fabric for a new baby quilt. I haven't made a stitch in 2 days and that's because I've been reading. This is why I listen to my fiction instead of reading it. Once I start a book I can't put it down. Ian and Laura brought this one with them and I picked it up Tuesday. I've finished it now so I might actually sew a little bit today. I chose to kayak yesterday morning. It was a little overcast but there was no wind and it was a lovely day on the pond. The water here is so clear! I saw a couple of Common Mergansers while I was out. They didn't appreciate me being in their area so I didn't stick around. I found another tree that has successfully rooted on rock. This one has been particularly successful!
I probably won't post again until Saturday. We'll be packing up tonight and traveling/unpacking tomorrow. This is the full extent of any craftiness that got done yesterday. I didn't stitch one thing but Laura got this veterans quilt top ready for the last border. I believe that today we are going shopping for her to get fabric for a baby quilt using Mary's Quick Strippy Quilt pattern. It's her go-to baby quilt. The reason that nothing else got done is because, contrary to weather predictions, yesterday was a spectacular day. We woke to a forecast of clouds and sporadic rain. We decided to risk it and head to Mount Kineo for a hike anyway. This is why we do this particular hike every year. The view over Moosehead Lake is spectacular. Mount Kineo has 700' cliffs and is known for it's rhyolite deposits. It's the largest known deposit of rhyolite. Rhiolite was used by native tribes for thousands of years to make spear heads. You can read about the interesting history of Kineo here. To get there you take this water shuttle from Rockwood. That's Kineo in the background and the white arrow points to where I was standing to get the photo above. The shuttle runs perfectly on time. On the hike we came across this little guy that looked suspiciously like a rock. We also met a Burmese Mountain puppy that was absolutely adorable and lovable. Sections of the trails were still very muddy and slippery from all the rain this area has received so far in August. It's been unseasonably wet. My new boots got well and truly broken in. The new hiking pants too for that matter. I saw one lady coming up the trail in white sneakers. I expect that she didn't make it far and that she ended up having to throw out the sneakers when she got back. You can see from this shadow that by the time we got to the end of the hike (about 3 hours total) that the sun was out. There's a 9-hole golf course on the island and a small clubhouse that sells snacks and beverages. We waited there for the next shuttle departure and had this lovely view. The clubhouse even had an outdoor water hose so we could rinse the mud off our boots.
When we got back it was about 74, sunny with no wind. We all gathered on the porch with our books and had a lovely afternoon. Today is supposed to be cloudy with some rain. I hope it is as accurate as yesterday. I finally won another Cribbage match so the score is Ian 6, Vicki 2. Yesterday brought us better weather than we expected but we still didn't' feel that the trails were dry enough. We are planning to get out on one of our favorite trails today if the good weather holds. I did get the next batch of 40 blocks done for my blue quilt so I have a total of 99 out of 256 done and the pile of tiny HSTs is really growing. Laura is almost done with her second veterans quilt top. We might have to go to the quilt shop today and get fabric for another kit for her. We've picked a simple pattern and the local shop has some nice woodsy themed fabrics that would work well. Today's crochet was the baby quilt and I got about 6 more rows done, finishing off a row of dark blue squares. If I crochet today it will be on the sweater. I like to alternate the projects. The weather was much better than forecast yesterday. Weather forecasts here are really just a total waste of time. I did a pretty hard workout this morning so I was not interested in the 8 mile walk that Ian and Laura took into town. Chris and I drove in to pick them up and make a trip for groceries. While we were having dinner I looked out and realized that last night was our first real sunset since the night we arrived. I rushed down to the pond to capture it. After sunset I convinced Chris that we needed a fire. After all, we had bought all the makings for s'mores and this was our first opportunity to use them. It was a lovely calm evening for a fire. Isn't the moose cut-out on the fire ring cute?
Here's hoping for a nice hike today! Yesterday was kind of perfect. It had a morning of recreation and and afternoon of reading and crafts. I'll start with the afternoon activities. I didn't finish any more blocks for the blue quilt but I chain pieced parts for about 40 more blocks. We are expecting bad weather today so I might get this set done today. Laura started the second veterans quilt kit that I brought for her. I think I'm going to have to go to the local fabric store tomorrow and get more fabric for her. She's got another week and a half here and is about out of sewing projects! While she was sewing, I added two more rounds to my hexie cardigan and finished listening to Yellowface. I will have a lot to say about that book in my book review at the end of the month. I did not particularly enjoy it and got a totally different message out of it than what I've read in other reviews. I also finished reading this book and I don't recommend it either unless you are a scientist or mathematician or just want to make your brain hurt. It was a difficult read. I'm digging into a new Michael Koryta mystery tomorrow for something easier. The one thing that you cannot rely upon here is the weather report. The day rarely turns out to be what's predicted and today was no exception. We did get clouds and a little rain in the afternoon/evening but the morning started out beautiful. Laura and I got in a 4 mile walk and then Chris and I headed out on the kayaks and it was absolutely beautiful on the pond today. This pond has yellow water lilies. We had not seen yellow ones before and I was shocked to be able to get the bloom and dragonfly in the photo together. We also saw a few loons. The photo is a little blurry because I had to zoom in so much to get the photo but I was thrilled to get a photo at all. They usually dive just as I'm about to snap the picture. They are such beautiful birds and we just love hearing their calls in the evening. I've become really fascinated with trees growing on and in rocks. These trees seem to be perched on top of the rocks and have created their own dirt mound within the roots.
The tide has started to turn on the gaming. Ian and I had a puzzle race which I won by 5 minutes, then I finally won a Cribbage set (he's still ahead 5 sets to 1) and I beat him and Chris at Scrabble. I made two separate words off the "z". We'll see if my luck holds tonight. We do expect rain/clouds today but it could change. We'll make the best of whatever it is. I didn't post yesterday because Friday was an all-rain day here and we used the opportunity to read and sew. I just didn't have enough worth sharing yesterday. But last night Laura finished this quilt top and I made some progress on my blue blocks. The colors in this photo aren't accurate. It's a lot prettier in real life and you will see it again after I get it quilted and bound later in the year. It was a good use of the box of leaf printed fabrics. I finished 30 more blue blocks. I think I'm really going to love this quilt. I have 40 dark blocks and 19 light blocks done for a total of 59 out of 256. I also have 118 mini HST blocks. This was our view on Friday and will likely be part of today too. With rain coming on alternate days we are starting to give up on hiking. The trails here are steep and have lots of areas that collect water. They will be too slippery unless it stops raining for a couple of days. But we can still kayak. Chris and Ian did a long kayak but I decided to do a long walk and a 40 minute HIIT routine. By the time my opportunity to paddle came around I was spent. Today may be my day, depending on the weather. The Cribbage tournament continues and I still haven't won a match. I (red) was way ahead in this game but Ian came from behind to whip me again. After Cribbage we drag Chris in for a game of Scrabble. I did win one of those games but Ian won this one with his judicious use of the J, Z and X. The weather isn't perfect but we are having a lovely time.
We had lobster for dinner last night and it will be our last until we get to Acadia this weekend. It was outstanding, as always. I didn't actually sew yesterday but I did iron some blocks that I finished Wednesday. These are 19 light blocks. Now I have 30 of 256 blocks made. The color in this photo is bad but there will be lots more photo opportunities to get it right. Last night I was just too tired to spend much time on it. Laura got the first border on her scrappy veterans quilt. We were so excited to have the sun back yesterday. We had a high temperature of 73 and it was wonderful. We decided to hike Little Wilson Falls because it's kind of a short hike (2.4 miles). It's been so rainy that we didn't want to get stuck on a slippery long hike. It was a good decision. If you go to the link you can see that LWF is usually a low flow stream. Yesterday it was roaring. All of the rivers around here are very high. The hike was wet in parts but easily passable. The hike ends at a point on the Appalachian Trail. There was anote there for AT hikers to tell them to take the LWF trail down to another intersection point because the AT crosses this "stream" and it was completely impassable yesterday....and probably for a few more days. We enjoyed the hike and Laura said we walked 8000 steps, although it didn't feel like it. It always amazes me to see trees growing right out of rock slabs. On the way home we saw a bunch of cars on the side of the road and that can only mean a moose jam. Laura got to see her first moose! This is a young one and it was quite far away, hence the bad photo.
We were going to float in the pond after we came home but all the rain we have had really chilled the water and we retreated to the deck instead for some sunning followed by a relaxing afternoon of reading. We will wait for a couple of dry days before we do one of the longer hikes so that the trails have time to dry out some. Luckily, we have another week here! |
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I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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April 2024
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