I haven't been writing blog posts very often, but I have been doing stuff and taking lots of photos. Some of the photos get filed into my blog folder to use in future posts. My infrequent blogging results in a glut of photos in that file ... which means that it's time for another Photo Dump!!
1. I'm no floral designer, but I love to bring small bunches of flowers indoors. The other day, I picked some of Lily of the Valley and a stem of Hellebore, and I dropped them into a vintage Farmer's Creamery bottle.
2. For the past two weeks, I spent my early mornings at the sewing machine making collars to beef up the inventory for events with Greyhounds Rock Fredericksburg ... one of which was Greyhounds in Gettysburg last weekend. A couple of hours of effort over a period of time really adds up, because I was able to assemble 85 new collars! (Each collar sells for $20, and all $20 is donated to GRF to benefit canine cancer research and support.) Volunteers who worked the booth in Gettysburg told me that business was brisk and a LOT of lucky hounds are now sporting my snazzy collars.
Sugar Skull designs continue to be popular.
Alice appears to be doing a thorough quality control inspection on the heap of collars.
3. In the middle of the collar-sewing period, my mom and I jetted to Charleston, South Carolina, for the 2016 annual meeting of the Southern Garden History Society ... a long weekend of touring gardens and plantations, listening to interesting speakers, eating fabulous food, and meeting new friends with like interests. I took 700 photos during the trip, which I hope to distill into a blog post soon.
I love looking at clouds from above!
That blurry blob in the center of the frame at the horizon is Fort Sumter, as seen from the window of our hotel room.
4. It was obvious that Winnie missed me while I was away. She's not usually a lap dog, but she was for the first couple of days that I was home. She just needed some mama time.
5. I love sports, and I particularly love hockey. Since the 1980s, I have been a fan of our home team, the Washington Capitals, through ups and downs, coaching and player changes, winning seasons and depressing losing seasons. They are in the play-offs now, and my husband and I spend many an evening eating dinner on the sofa in front of a hockey game on TV. Last week, we treated ourselves to take-out steak and cheese sandwiches. At one point, I looked up from my plate and away from the TV and I saw this face.
Notice the drop of drool on her chin.
6. I'm still working to donate unused/unwanted things that we don't need and to find places for other stuff in storage that I want to keep. As I was staring into the living room the other morning, contemplating a new arrangement for the furniture, I took this photo. I reminds me of a scene from an abandoned house or, as a FB friend remarked, a Van Gogh painting. Either way, I think it's a pretty awesome image. (My Donation Box is just out of the frame on the right. It's getting full again, which means that it's almost time to make another run to the thrift shop.)
7. Finally, we have this scene from the other morning, which is NOT the breakfast of champions ... a left-over piece of Red Velvet Cheesecake (courtesy of our daughter) and coffee in the mug that I bought at St. Paul's Cathedral in London two years ago.
This year, in addition to all of the normal spring things on our spring To Do list, stuff that we do every year to shake off winter, my husband and I are hosting the Stafford County Historical Society on May 21. The garden will be ready as always, but we have to tidy and declutter the inside of the house, too. A little over a week after this is Memorial Day, which is the day of this year's public Open Garden ... mark your calendar.
It's been cool and rainy for the past few days ... perfect conditions for pulling a LOT of weeds ... which is what I'm heading out to do right now.