R & R weekend on the coast..........

Out of the heat.......

We escaped the heat for 5 days while the A/C was out - just over the coastal range 80 miles the temp was in the 60's with a breeze...…..rather a stiff wind.  It was a wonderful getaway and just what we needed.  The A/C was fixed as of yesterday, ice maker also working again and computer files retrieved from the beginning of time to August 2017, I can live with that.

In the next day or so I expect to get the hanging sleeve on my gingko quilt so it can be hung over the couch - photo to come once done.  I have some napkins to serge, a shawl finished while on the coast to block and then hopefully back to the looms.....also some yardwork/garden to be tended which I started on this morning.

Photo is of the labyrinth we walked Sunday morning while on the coast in Bandon. I didn't get a good pic of the entire thing. For those of you who get the AAA magazine there's a photo of one of Denny's labyrinths inside the back cover.

Beach time out.........

Last weekend we had a beach getaway planned with friends who would be camping over there. We knew we really needed the getaway so in spite of so much to do here at home we headed west to the coast. We were celebrating Kathy's birthday over the weekend and one of the important parts of it was watching the labyrinth being drawn and walking it - it was World Labyrinth Day. Denny Dyke regularly draws them on the beach in Bandon along with his crew of rakers - Circles in the Sand

We're standing up above on the cliff watching the drawing - here it is in one direction......

.....here looking the other direction. It's huge, as usual.

One of the drawings within the labyrinth we pass by as we're walking.....

....a great sentiment - "We all belong to each other".......

.....folks walking the labyrinth, even horseback riders came to see although it would probably be frowned upon if horses walked it.....although I'm sure they could as the tide started coming in and others were done walking. There was one dog walking it but he got frightened so he had to be picked up and carried off.......and he wasn't a tiny dog to pick up.......not sure what spooked him.......

......ying yang we passed by......

Life is a labyrinth

and we are all wandering

searching for ourselves

Coming down the home stretch......

At the end a place to write our names. There's ours in the heart.......

.....and Bill wrote this for Kathy

After our walk we went down the beach a little ways to have an incredible picnic lunch I put together - it was a lovely day on the coast. Off in the distance you can see people still walking the labyrinth. It was a perfect weekend - life is good......

R & R

This past Friday we decided we needed some R & R. Life has been too busy lately and we have not gotten over to the coast much the past 3 months due to snowy road conditions on the passes or commitments connected to daily life. We pretty much did nothing other than walk, sleep, nap and eat out..........did us both a world of good.

These pictures were from up on the bluff where we were walking Bailey - it was a picture perfect day, high 50's, blue sky, only a bit of wind. Here's looking to the left down the beach.......

.....here's looking straight ahead......

.....here's looking up the beach to the north.

The quilt top I pieced and then had a long arm quilter do the quilting for me is finally on the bed. I got the binding on recently. We don't have much on the walls in our bedroom at the beach cottage yet and I can see that something is desperately needed over the bed. I'm considering making a wreath with shells and sea glass..........will give it thought, I never rush into decorating decisions.....

And in closing we watched a labyrinth being drawn in the late afternoon of the sunny morning, the clouds were moving in but no rain so the drawing went off as scheduled.  It was pretty windy and chilly by afternoon so we didn't stand out on the bluff too long too watch. Check out the Circles in the Sand website to see some of Denny's other labyrinths.

The beautiful Oregon coast

Peace and other things..........

Peace - don't we all wish for it these days, and tolerance and kindness. Such sadness with the latest attack. I love this peace sign fence along the harbor in Bandon - what a creative way to fence in the yard. We spent 5 days on the coast, the weather couldn't have been more perfect - we left coastal temps in the low 70's yesterday to come back over the coastal range to 92 in the valley, today it's forecast to be 98. What happened to spring this year???

 I started a new shawl while over there. The colors start out dark burgundy and progressively gets lighter until it reaches a hot pink.

 We (mostly Sam this time) did some work on the guest bath - it's now finished. I should have taken a before picture. I painted the vanity and a mirror, we put in a new sink, faucets, lighting and pulled out the sliding glass doors on the tub/shower and put up a shower curtain very similar to other curtains in the house, a sheer with shells and starfish on it with a shell trimmed valance. I haven't painted that shelf on the wall yet as I'm not sure if I want to and if I do, what color.....so it stays for the time being. I can see those coral seahorse handtowels have to move elsewhere in the house, I've got some handwoven towels that will match perfectly.

Here's another view. I found this mirror at a second hand store, it was originally part of a dresser. I painted it to match the vanity that I painted. The knobs on the vanity are starfish. Sam built the new countertop with formica and a wood trim that was painted. I should have taken a close-up of it, it's sand colors with a bit of teal in it. The sink has a rope look trim, it's so pretty. It took me a long time to find lighting that I liked, something simple and not too expensive.........we are doing work on this house on a budget. Now we're working on the master bath - sink is pulled, drywall fixed where the big mirror was removed. I've started priming the linen closet and vanity.  The new floor and new baseboard had been the project before we started on the bathrooms.

The inside of the house will be completely done after the master bathroom is finished. I can't believe it. We'll eventually move on to extending the front porch a bit and adding a deck area to the front of the house - we do have a big older deck already across the back. Then finally yardwork. This will take a while as we like to play when we're over there too............

Earthquake, weaving and the beach......

This morning shortly after Sam left for work I felt a jolt, it was 6:50am. I jumped out of bed because I was worried that someone kicked in the garage door, that's what it felt like. I turned on the outside lights and bravely, with Bailey standing behind me (that coward), we walked down the deck steps to look at that door. Once I could see all was secure I assumed one of the big firs fell somewhere on the property. But then on the news I heard of a 6.5 magnitude earthquake 100 miles out in the ocean west of Eureka, CA at exactly the time I felt that jolt - I'm taking a wild guess the location is around 200 miles SW of us. So, that's the exciting news of the morning - no tsunami reported along the coast.


Back in 1989 on our way to our acreage in SW Oregon we spent 2 1/2 years in the San Fran Bay area - we arrived from the east coast 3 months before the Loma Prieta quake which was centered 20 miles south of us - rude awakening to California. We were fine as the house we bought was newer and built to earthquake standards..........devastation elsewhere.

We spent 4 days on the coast over the past weekend. I got back to the towel warp I put on the loom over there a couple months ago. I didn't weave much as I was busy with other activities but I enjoyed throwing the shuttle a bit.

........come on Mom & Dad, the beach is waiting...........

.........wait a minute, did I see Dad putting his shoes on..........

........big stick in the scary ocean.........better keep an eye on it, would love to grab it but I'm a water dog that doesn't go in the water above my knees........

........it's close, maybe I can grab it before a wave comes and gets me........

.........there it is for the taking but wait, there's a good smell here............

.........success, got that stick............

..........oh but wait, Dad had a better stick I could steal...........ah, life is good..........

Basking in the sun

No, it was not me basking in the sun although we did have some sun the past 4 days in-between squalls coming in off the ocean and even a big thunder/lightning storm one evening. We escaped to the coast for some R&R.......walking the beach, a lot of reading, making some ornaments, going to a community concert and dinner out with friends. Of course as always 're-entry' sucks - so much to get done in the next week with finishing up gifts, getting some mailed, putting together our holiday cards, etc. I'm anxious to get back to the loom and perhaps I'll start having some creations to share on the blog but right now everything I'm working on are gifts which can't be posted.

So, back to the basking in the sun - these two sea lions were enjoying using a rock in the water as an anchor to relax in the sun. They were less than 20 feet from us on the shoreline and didn't seem too concerned although they did keep an eye on Bailey opening a slit of an eye to check on what he was doing every once in a while. I think they figured out pretty quickly that Bailey, although a water dog, is afraid of the water and wouldn't be swimming anywhere close to them. If I had brought my camera along I would have gotten a better photo than with my phone.

I think this week is the one where we should be buying lottery tickets as we saw 7 rainbows in 4 days - that must be a record. And when driving home yesterday we chased the end of a rainbow and drove right through it. I'm thinking seeing all those rainbows must be a good sign hence buying lottery tickets.........but will I actually go to the store and buy them is another thing..........

Slowing down.......hah!

Trying to slow down life and find more time to be creative just seems to elude me. These next 2 weeks area jammed packed and very little of it is earmarked as creative time. Some of it is fun but I will still be a grump-head by the end of the month.

We spent the past 4 days on the coast for some downtime. It was great. I did get the loom over there warped up with some more cottolin towels in a basket weave/herringbone pattern. After this warp there will be only bits & bobs left on around 70 cottolin spools........they'll be good for future inkle or card weaving. I've never used cottolin for either of those weaves so it will be fun to see how the bands feel made out of cottolin.

Does anyone out there watch Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel? Well, recently they had a spin off show called Deadliest Catch: Dungeon Cove. This show is all about the dungeness crab fisherman off the Oregon coast. These fisherman are based in Newport up the coast from us but they fish up and down the coast from there. This past spring there were a couple tragedies just 20 miles up the coast from us with lives and boats lost - those are talked about on the show. While the season was airing in September we had a tragedy right in Bandon with 3 lives lost and shortly after a boat couldn't find it's way in the fog and ran aground - we were there that morning but didn't hear any commotion when it happened. In this picture, which I took Friday morning, at low tide, you can see the waves coming in, they were huge and no boat could get in or out in-between those jetties. That's where a boat went down the later part of September where 3 lives were lost. The boat that ran aground was just on this side of the jetty. I sure wouldn't want to have to go in and out in a fishing vessel. I think of the fisherman that do this on a daily basis to make a living for their families and provide us with yummy crab and other delicacies - stay safe out there.

Many thanks for the comments and numerous emails about continuing my blog. I still have not decided if I will give up blogging, in the meantime I'll just slow the posts. I have no deadline where I have to make this decision so I won't be rushing in to it.

Will everyone else be as glad as I am after this election is over? I am so done with it, so tired of the negativity, so tired of the coverage, the commercials. I'm hoping my candidate wins as it scares me if the other one does what will happen to this country. No matter who wins there will be unhappy people in a country which is now so divided - there will be a lot of healing needed............

Life is good..........

A bit of weaving on the coast - I finished up the false damask towel warp (now awaiting washing and hemming) and put on another cottolin warp in a 2 block twill pattern.......off white warp, oatmeal weft. If my oatmeal cottolin lasts all towels will be woven using it, if not I'll choose another color to finish up the warp. I love neutral elegant but kitchen worthy towels and have nothing neutral for sale at the moment. Will get back to weaving on this warp next time on the coast.

Bailey sure enjoyed the temps in the 60's & low 70's on the coast - what a relief from the weather here in the valley which will be back up in the triple digits in a day or so - ack. I keep telling myself "at least there's no humidity" but it really doesn't help when it gets up over 100.

Life is good

Circles in the Sand

We spent 4 days on the coast for a long weekend. The highlight for me was watching Denny of Circles in the Sand draw a labyrinth Sunday afternoon. I'm currently working on gifts so no photos to show from the studio so I hope you enjoy the labyrinth journey.

Here is the start of the labyrinth. We were up on the cliff watching the entire time, chilly, windy time. Seeing Denny drawing I think you can see just how massive it's going to be.

Now to link all the parts together. The sun is getting low in the sky.

Almost done with the basic labyrinth

Now the volunteer groomers/rakers come in to help

Groomers hard at work - we're going to check into volunteering at some point

It's really taking shape

 

Finished

 

Now everyone can walk the finished labyrinth

 

Walkers moving along the labyrinth

 

It took just over an hour for this huge labyrinth to be drawn in the sand - it probably took around an hour for it to be washed away as dusk fell.  I heard one of the groomers say how many steps it was although I don't remember the exact number but it was over 2000 steps - just a bit over a half mile. I'm not sure if you can spot it or not but there's a drone up in the sky - it went up all around and from different heights capturing this temporary piece of art.