Stitching Tuesdays Ahead?

I have mentioned my friend Betty a few times a year. We used to get together just about every week to work on handicraft projects.

She now lives quite near the Methodist Church, and Tuesdays is bell choir right? And the School Forest and Church trails are there, right? And I have to walk before practice now that it is getting dark at 5 pm, right?

So, today, I walked, then visited Betty until bells, and then went to bell practice. Turned out I was late for everything. As I was going into town, gas prices had jumped by 50 -54¢, but one station still had $2.76, so I had to pull in there. Of course, everyone else was too, so there was a big wait. But I got gas. Then my walk was shortened, and my time with Betty was shortened, and I got to bells later than I usually do, so I got out of any of the set-up help, so I stayed till the end of tear-down.

OK, back to Betty. This picture was taken a couple of years ago, but she approved using it. (She is not a fan of pictures)

And we've decided that until they head to their winter location, we'll meet like this on Tuesdays and "stitch."

She asked if I still have a project. Well, the "rule" was it could be anything that was portable.

However, if I didn't have any project in crisis, I was working on a crewel embroidery picture. Can you see what's coming next? I haven't taken a single stitch on this since Betty and I last did handicrafts together. I don't even know what year that was.

But, there's plenty still to do. I'm not in danger of finishing it before she takes off for warmer climes.

Want to see some of the stitching closer? The golden lines are the parts I haven't done yet. They are printed on the fabric for those of you who don't know how this stuff works. Then you stitch the pattern in with various yarns and various stitches. Hope I remember how to do them!

So, I edited and stuff in the morning. Managed to get in a 2-mile walk by moving very fast.

Look what was happening while I was walking! But it won't last. Should be in the 40s the next couple of days.

Miles hiked in 2025: 445.6.

Ludington School Forest, various trails. 2.0 miles.

See Gardening with Betty

Brunch Buddies

 The entire first part of the day was filled with an event at the Bridges Church of Manistee. The "ladies society" (or whatever such things are called now) put on a spectacular brunch. I was the speaker, and I gave my talk about the North Country Trail.

The event was planned by the oldest daughter of my good friend, Betty, who has shown up on the blog from time to time. Wendy did a wonderful job. First of all, she kept on top of the organizational parts, checking in with me often. She'd obviously kept in touch with all the other key players too. They had great food and lots of it. They had plenty of people there to help at the right times. Very smooth.

The decor was so perfect! I had to keep my napkin to bring home.

The centerpieces had camping themes too. I suspect there were more different ones, but I got pictures of two.

So, I gave my media program about the NCT. Then there was a question time, and then I sold books.

Got a picture of Betty, me, and Wendy. Great memories here and hopefully still more to come. Long ago, Wendy spent a couple of months with us when our Steve was a toddler, helping to care for him. Now, she's a grandmother of four.

Got home from that at 2 pm, and immediately went for a walk with Cathy. Maybe pictures of that tomorrow. I'll save the mileage update until I share about the hike. All in all, a great day, and very full.

Have I ever said that Betty was the first friend I made when we moved up here the fall of 1969? Wendy was in grade school!

See Gardening with Betty

More Gardening with Betty

Betty and I spent some more time together today. First we potted up a few more plants.

Then we went out weeding in her big garden. Notice, please, that it has rabbit wire, and the lower half also has chicken wire fencing. This is why she can have nice plants and I can not. She also has decent dirt. I have sand and half sand.

They are about done, but here is the last of some beautiful dark magenta columbine.

And the most beautiful thing blooming curretly is a blue phlox.

This is probably all the time I'm going to have to spend over there for right now, but it sure has been fun.

I keep trying to get a picture of the red morning sun caused by the smoke from fires in Canada. It seemed as if I could even smell the smoke a few times. The sun looked much more red than this photo. And the power pole... well, it was there. I can't make either it or the sun move.

See Gardening with Betty

Gardening with Betty

I have mentioned my friend Betty from time to time over the life of this blog, but the truth is that even though I consider her one of my best friends, we haven't seen very much of each other in the past few years. In "another lifetime," we would get together almost once a week during the school year to work on various handicraft projects. We also both love to garden, although she's had a lot more success than I have. She doesn't like pictures, but approved this one.

She has a cute little green house, built by Roger, her hubby.

I got to spend time with her this morning, helping to pot up some of her bedding plants. I don't think I have any pictures from the way-back machine, but every summer she has a stunning display of coleus on her deck. We fixed up 11 pots of coleus, with 9 different leaf patterns.

We also potted up her herbs for this year.

And there were a couple of other things we potted as well. This is an ideal way for me to garden. She will take care of these plants and protect them from critters. There will be some very nice things to look at later in the season. And we got to visit. We seriously have hardly seen each other in a long time despite how much time we used to spend together.

In other news. It was a collosally gorgeous day, and I couldn't stay out of the dirt. My front flower bed will never look like Betty's, but it is looking much better than I would have thought after being totally ignored for 2 years. I did have wire over the hosta, so the deer did not get to chew on them for those years. I'll show you when I get a bit more work done.

See An Evening with Betty