Slowly getting back to normal

The pandemic is not over yet but so many in our circles are fully vaccinated (including us) that life slowly feels a bit more normal.

Before we went on our little trip our friend July invited us for dinner. She also invited another couple she wanted us to meet for quite a while but it never worked out that we all where free. Patti and Don are very nice and it was a fun evening. Julie is a great hostess as you can see in the photos.

Since the beginning of May we can more and more enjoy our own outdoors too ... until it will get too hot.

When we sit under the awning we quite often see chipmunks and skinks. The chipmunks are too quick for me to photograph (as are the hummingbirds). But I was lucky to take the following photos. Fun. I googled on them and it says that they are friendly and don't mind being handled but they seem to be shy to me. Can't get very close. Ha-ha, google even had a video how to catch them. I think it is just nice to watch them.

The rhubarb made another flower. Sigh. Probably didn't cut it off early enough. But we had a second spoonful of dessert by now (each!).

Oh yes, with hot weather comes watering. Not a problem since "boys" like to play with water.

Our two rhododendrons were the best ever this year.

And the sweet william too.

And the our new addition, the fuchsia, is not disappointing.

I am trying hard not to neglect the few indoor plants I have right now. The porcelain flower must have been jealous about all the praise the outdoor flowers got.

Yes, busy, busy. Had to try something like pasties. Not bad but I wished I could just buy them in Cornwall.

Yeah, when you bake and eat you also have to exercise. At the moment I am not doing too badly. But somehow my pandemic pounds don't seem to want to come down.

I mentioned trying to get back to normal. I organized my quilt group (West End Quilters) to have a parking lot meeting in April. Our church Saint Martin's is now 'hosting' us.

And in May we actually could meet inside. You should have heard all the happy comments the ladies made. 

And I was asked to give a program about the lone star I had made. Sorry, the big one is laying flat on the table behind. I do write about lace and quilting on my other blog though. See tab above.

The next day I had been invited to a luncheon in our neighborhood. Patti was hosting a birthday luncheon for Emily and Julie. We were 5 and laughed pretty much the whole time.

As dessert we had this assortment. Oh my. Such goodies. 

I had kept thinking about gifts for the birthday ladies and the hostess but had a tough time coming up with a good idea. But luckily the previous day had been the WE Quilt meeting. One lady always brings free ranch eggs. Ducks, chicken and other fowl, unwashed sometimes with the occasional feather in the box.

I thought for ladies who really don't want gifts which need to be stored til eternity to share them would be a good idea. And yes, they loved them and talked about them at length what they might do with them ... including blowing them out and painting them.

And Patti brought this to the table. A glass dome displaying a huge empty painted egg, and a nest with little ones. 

Wow, it seems I have caught up with blogging now. Hope I didn't bore you. 

Blogger and Microsoft seem to make a lot of changes. I have to change my three blogs because I was notified that Feedburner will not automatically email the new blog to those who had signed up to receive it. I am not always good at making changes but I have to look into it. Uugh.