Change Apparent

Change is in the air. Again.
Simmy was feeling out of balance with all the changes. In the time frame of just a few days, a brother-in-law had suffered a stroke and a heart attack and had a artery blockage cleaned out... just to have the audacity, yes, audacity, to wink at her and pucker his lips around the tubes in his mouth and...
blow her a kiss.
Now there's an attitude you don't see every day.
Youngest construction son had been approved for an apartment and he was moving out. He was ecstatic.
The picture, above, is the construction state of his room right now.
An hour ago, Simmy had suggested that he may want to launder all his clothes before he moved out because it was now going to cost him to do his laundry... cold, hard coin.
Casually, he had shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'll just buy some clothes when mine are dirty and throw these out."
He was joking, I think.
Now, as Simmy looked into his bedroom she was asking, '...when his clothes are dirty? When? Umm, now.'

Grandpa's Footstool

The Good Friday family gathering had a great turnout as almost all the family living in province drove out of town to visit the old folks.
Four generations under one roof made for a lively and energetic time.
After washing the 40-cup coffee percolator, Simmy went to fetch a chair from the spare room to join the women who were sitting around the kitchen table.
A little groaning and grunting had Simmy turning her head to see Princess lugging a little wooden footstool.
"What are you doing?"
"I need to wash my hands," she said with perfect pronunciation.
"I'll help you," Simmy said.
"Put the stool down," Simmy said as she listened to the huffing of little Princess.
Plunk!
"Oww!" Princess had dropped the stool on her toes which were now scrunched up in her yellow socks.
"Oh dear! Let me help!"
With a swift movement the stool was positioned in front of the sink and Simmy was getting some busy instructions from the little wounded Miss,...
"I want it warmer. I want it colder. Colder. No, really cold."
After the water was running at an acceptable temperature, Simmy snapped a quick picture and just as the old- fashioned story was forming in her head...

Princess picks up the little wooden stool that Great-Grandpa has made. Standing beside the garden door, the stool with the little heart cut-out is sweetly quaint. Both feet, together, are able to stand on one side of the heart and still there is room to spare. As the little yellow socks pose and ...

Simmy breaks out of her sweet story daydream as Princess realizes that a picture has just been taken of her.
With modern inflection she imparts,
"Let's do a video of me!"
Like a needle scraping across a record, the mood is broken and only a good hearty laugh and shake of head is all Princess ends up with...
Oh, and a story and photos on 'Romance Designer.'
Oy!

Quilting Contentment

In this week just before Easter... I think my hairdresser called it 'Holy week,' (she attends a Roman Catholic church), I thought the billboard message on an Anglican churchyard was very thought provoking.
'Fast from discontent!'
When I read that, I thought, 'that's for me!'
I struggle with being content, thought Simmy.
So, when I get that discontentment itch, I make a quilt and that always works out my jitters.
It is an interesting phenomenon, my quilting bee in my bonnet. I often call my quilts, 'Quilts of Birthing,' for each time I make one, something or someone is blessed in a very magnanimous way.
So, this week of quilting bee jitters produced a very lovely quilt indeed.

 I had been 'holding' the orange and 'red-purple' and green plaid vintage piece for a few years, waiting until I could mesh the right combination together.
Sometimes I fall in love with the a fabric and then am pleasantly surprised by the name of it.
Here is the story of this quilt...
Once upon a time in the land of 'Quilting Treasures' there lived a young maiden named 'Cinnamon Girl.' She set her eyes upon the prince who lived in Castle 'Moorish Tile.' Young 'Cinnamon Girl' read the classics such as 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte and 'Molly Goes to Paris.' Finally she met her prince and fell in love and the two remained 'Friends Forever,' living in 'Poppy Passion.' Ironically, 'Poppy Vine Springs' was known for its' 'Buttercups' and here, in this land of love, the 'Soul Blossoms.'   

From hamlet to Asia- Pacific Gateway

Simmy woke to the sound of, of what?
It was loud, annoying, and intrusive. After the coffee beans were ground, and the steamy brew was filling the air with a delicious wake up scent, Simmy slipped on some sandals and went out to the greenhouse.
Burr! The temperature had dipped down, in the night, and the ground was solidly frozen.  Her toes scrunched up in shock, looking for socks, no doubt.
"Good thing we have heat in that little greenhouse," she mumbled.
As she looked up to see what the loud sound was, she was taken aback to see the head of a 'workman' right beside her fence.
She peeked through the fence to see the hedge being removed. Then she noticed that the tree behind her yard was missing.
Sigh! The construction for the noise barrier wall had begun. Thank God that the city was putting up 10 foot high, stacked stone, walls to create a sound barrier. The widening of the street behind her fence was part of the CentrePort Canada Way project. It was threading its' needle behind her back yard and Simmy shook her head in a ironic twist.
Having grown up on Queen Street and then Victoria Avenue, in a small little hamlet, the sound of crickets was the loudest intrusion on most days.
It was just too funny that she now lived next to a street that was expected to become one of the busiest in the city.
From a dusty gravel road to an international hub for transporting goods.
Life has its' twists and turns.

Storybook Quilt

Monday. The sun was shining a warm Spring promise that cooperated with the tulip bulbs bursting out of the soil.
The first thing to do every morning was to go and check the plants in the greenhouse.
So interesting, thought Simmy, even the seeds have imprinted DNA that tells them when it is time to sprout. The intelligent design of the smallest seed had the power to inspire awe.
The 'wave petunia' seed is sliver-small and only hair thick... and yet, it grows to be a huge branching, flowering plant that fills large planters with abundance.
After watering the plants, Simmy gathered together some fabrics for a quilt. There is something very exciting about putting together fabrics to create a patchwork quilt.
As with all art, it takes a good deal of skill and creativity to make a well- designed blanket.
There was a piece of fabric with snippets of 'Wuthering Heights' scripted on it.
At the time of purchase, Simmy hadn't known that the little rolled up piece of cloth was part of a storybook, she had just liked the fabric and the font.
Hmm, storybook quilt. That would be a great name for this quilt. As a writer, Simmy loved naming her quilts to give them personality. 
Sometimes, the name came to her before she started the quilt and other times, it grew out of the design process and sometimes,
...the name changed after the quilt was finished.
The 'Little Dresses' quilt had become the 'Sundresses' quilt when the tiny person who took ownership of it,
... was born in the hot country of Ethiopia.

Magical Energy Pattern Wind Farm

Simmy ran through some of the bits and bytes of news that Carolina had given her in a long conversation the night before.
Most people didn't see the world the way Simmy did but, according to readership, some certainly must or... at the very least, found her musings and juxtapositions of life highly amusing.
Carolina was doing her best to wrap up a divorce that was soon to go on record as the highest level of wind produced towards a 'set upon goal,' excluding the wind farm project at St. Joseph.
One statement, in particular, that just befuddled Simmy was the fact that Magical was still dropping lines like, "You'll just have to trust me that I'm going to do that."
Now, correct me if I'm wrong... isn't a divorce indicative of the fact that two people don't trust each other anymore?
Simmy had snapped a few pictures of the wind farm, a few days ago, and the 'parallel approach understanding' was just too ironic and suggestible to resist coupling with.
Now, if there had been a more reliable energy pattern blown into the romance of his marriage, Magical might not be whispering sweet nothings into the ear of his horse instead of his wife.
A reliable energy pattern where wind blows in clear, predictable patterns is really what is needed in any healthy marriage.
Garland, CEO of San-Francisco based Pattern Energy, described the process of the wind turbines as magical, as it takes only a slight brisk wind to turn the turbines' huge turbo blades.
So, Simmy thought, if Magical had just employed a little magical energy, then his marriage would have become more magical?

Simmy sighed. Too many divorces end up with someone having to live in a sad little shack in the middle of a big field.
Looks lonely, doesn't it?

Double Duvet Cover

In a strange twist of oddity,...
Simmy had been looking for a 'double' sized duvet. More and more they were becoming obsolete as the manufacturing industry was trying to streamline their products to keep up with rising costs of producing and a more and ever more 'squeaky- cheap' customer.
She had settled on a 'queen' sized duvet, just to find that it was actually a 'double.' 
When shopping for anything at a discount store, make sure what you are buying is what is in the bag or...
be surprised when you get your product to your little factory of making things.
So, this little factory of making, colloquially called El's, would set to making a duvet cover for a double blanket, as originally planned.
This time, it turned out,...
in a strange twist of oddity.

 Well, a whole day of work and one duvet cover is ready for an elderly gentleman. It looks great!

To Africa With Love

Oldest construction son was gathering up 'gifts' to send to Africa. The Church of the Cross was filling a container, a big container, seaworthy by the looks of it and sending it to Africa as a little leveling the ground (that phrase is from the Riverwood Church) attempt.
Simmy wondered, "Hmm, what can I give?"
She went through her post- Christmas bargain bags and found she could give...
Peace
Hope
bags of Joy
10 churches
2 homes
and three wise men
and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Giving just feels right.
Give a little bit, give a little bit of your love to Africa,...
Now's the time that we need to share...