Around OakMeadows

The top is my latest Quilt and the bottom is a baby girl wall hanging. 

(I have a great niece or nephew on the way so if it is a girl, the wall hanging will be for her and if it is a boy, I have a baby boy quilt already.)

Around OakMeadows 

The oak pollen this year is the worst I have ever seen it. It has covered our patio and table under the trees and most of the garden pathways. JMM has been taking a daily non sedating antihistamine because he is outside so much. I have been running the air conditioner fan just to keep it out of the house. I wonder if this portends a bumper crop of acorns? I guess we will have to wait and see. 

The milkweed that was frozen back over the winter is coming back very nicely. In fact it is coming back so nicely that it is being eaten back by the Monarch caterpillars. JMM counted 12 Monarch caterpillars the other day and it is apparent where they have eaten the milkweed leaves down to the stalk. Other butterflies in the garden have been a couple of Queens, Cloudless Sulphurs, a Little Sulphur, and a couple of unknown skippers.  We are planning a trip down to the Rio Grande Valley in two weeks to the Butterfly Center and to do some birding. I want to go before it gets too hot. 

I am reading Climate Change and the Health of Nations by Anthony McMichael. It is excellent. It is very informative about both the natural causes of climate change and  those caused by humanity.  It is interesting to read how climate change has historically impacted the health of civilizations by affecting crop yields, nutritional status, and resistance to disease.  (Today's drought in Syria leading to crop and pasture failure causing migration to the cities, social calamity, and mass movement of people out of the area is a story as old as humanity.) Anyway, it is excellent. 

A second excellent book that I am reading is the latest Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, In This Grave Hour. This is the 13th in the series and all have been very good. 

My Sampler Quilt is being machine quilted for me. JMM is going to take my trusty 50 year old Singer sewing machine in to be cleaned and the tension adjusted next week. (They sure don't make them like mine any more!) So while my machine is out being serviced, I am going through my fabric stash and getting the fabric cut for my next Scrap Quilt.  I have a pattern in mind and hope I can make it work. 

I am still sending my emails and making my phone calls as my bit for the Resistance. I don't know if it is doing any good but my Congressman and Senators know they have at least one disgruntled constituent.  I am 69 years old and have been voting since 1970 and I have never, ever done anything like this before.