I Like Thursday: Springing Spring

It's been a while since I've written:  good stuff, bad stuff and just plain life stuff.  A few recent photos reminded me of the things I like.  The snow has melted (and we even have a bit of green grass in our front yard!).  

Rob took me out to hike around Buffham Falls.  As you can see there's plenty of water!   (You can also see Rob is less than thrilled I'm including him in the photo.)

I Like Thursday: Happy Boxing Day

 

Another year nearly over.  One last I Like post for 2024.

I've been enjoying the wood stove in our sunroom.  Still learning how much wood to put in and when.  I've spent a few relaxing afternoons watching the birds and the fire.  Ahhhh... very zen.

Some Art and a Spillway

We went to The Clark a week ago.  The trip was primarily to see the Munch exhibit which was interesting.  There was a lithograph of The Scream, dark prints and oddly colored landscapes.  We wandered through the other exhibit halls as well (in which I snapped a few photos).  

I knew Sarah Bernhardt was an actress, but had no idea she sculpted, too.  This is a self portrait of herself as a sphinx.  It's an inkwell.  Such an unusual piece.  I loved the details.

 

Andres Institute of Art

I met a friend on Monday and spent the day at the Andres Institute of Art in New Hampshire.  It's an outdoor sculpture park located on a defunct downhill ski slope.  Visiting the park was a bit like being on a treasure hunt:  map in hand we headed out to see what we could find.

Most of the trails were in the shade of the trees.  The sculptures were a mix of stone and metal.  Each piece was a surprise.  Some were easy to spot, dominating a clearing.  Others were tucked under rocky overhangs or embedded in the ground.  We happened to use the paper map, rather than the interactive app, so we didn't know what the sculpture would look like until we found it.  Some had a name, artist, origin and date next to it (sometimes painted on badly-faded or rotting board).  Most had a little numbered medallion tacked to a nearby tree for reference - it's how we confirmed where we were on the map.

A Trip to MASS MoCA

We went to MASS MoCA and Mount Greylock last weekend.  It's been years since we've been to the museum and I've never been to Greylock.  We managed to get a museum pass from the library and off we went!

I loved the sunlight streaming through the huge old glass windows.  

You never know what you'll find:  some of it's pretty, some of it's strange.  I got a kick out of a table that had instructions to sit at it, put your elbows on the table and hands over your ears.  I could hear sounds, but there was no sound standing near it.  Very cool.

I Like Thursday: Ice Cream and Art

The bummer with a long weekend stuffed full of fun is trying to return to work.  <sigh>  I have so much I need to get caught up on.  

So let's start off with this week's prompt for I Like Thursday, which is: what's your favorite ice cream?  Oh!  Ice cream!  Anything with chocolate makes me happy.  This was Wednesday night's dinner.  I have Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl topped with something called Boston Blackout (chocolate ice cream with brownies and fudge).  The cup has Moosetracks, which is also pretty good.  I've recently become a fan of S'mores ice cream (especially when paired with the Chocolate PB).  Whatever ice cream I get, it definitely needs to go with a waffle cone.  I love the different textures.

I Like Thursday: Celebrating May Day

Nothing to share last week on I Like Thursday and this week I had so many photos I had to combine them into collages.  Feast or famine I guess.

First up are my May Day flowers.  Aren't they pretty?  I was really taken by the calla lilies.  My mom convinced me to get the big red flowers.  I had to add in a tulip, some roses and a carnation.  

The flowers came from the Montague May Day celebration.  My sister and mother came again this year.  Music!  Morris dancers!  A May pole!  There was also buckets of flowers to choose from to make garlands.  As you can see below, I decorated my floppy hat.  It went quite nice with my flower dress. 

I Like Thursday: Contras, Quilts and Cheese

For this week's I Like Thursday I'm going to kick off with the latest addition to the neighborhood.  This guy appeared in my neighbor's yard yesterday - he must be five feet tall.  Quite striking!

NEFFA!  The New England Folk Festival.  I've written about this in the past: a weekend filled with music and dancing.  This year, alas, I only got there on Sunday.  It was a challenge finding a balance between catching up with people I hadn't seen in years and dancing as much as possible.  One day was not nearly enough (although my pedometer claimed I did 12 miles of dancing).  Next year I'll attend more of it.

Since I didn't attend NEFFA on Saturday, I attended the Hands All Around quilt show in Amherst with my sister.  So many amazing quilts.  I'm only showing a few photos of the beautiful items.

I Like Thursday: Artistic Eggs

Our neighbors invited us over on Friday afternoon to make Ukrainian eggs.  My sister came with me.  There were six of us, engrossed in eggs, wax and dye.  What fun!  I haven't done this in a long, long time, but the process came back pretty quickly.  I got to know my neighbors better, which was lovely, too!  The smell of the beeswax lingered all evening bringing back good memories.

I Like Thursday: May Day

I had a fun May Day!  And lots of good things to share with LeeAnna and friends over at I Like Thursday.

I found out my town celebrates May Day with a maypole.  People gathered in front of the post office with flowery outfits and instruments.  There were several groups of Morris dancers, too.

They paraded the short distance to the village green and erected the maypole. 

I Like Thursday: Flowers, Rock Fort and Toast

Ooh - it's been a fun week.  Good things to share with I Like Thursday.  Thanks for hosting, LeeAnna!

Said goodbye to a coworker on Friday.  She helped land me my current job, of which I am grateful!  That was sad - but we our group together for lunch, which was great.  I also got the chance to deliver some of my Easter candy (which is always a hit).

Stopped off at a friend's on the way home.  He had these daffodils by the front door.  Look at how frilly they are!  They were beautiful.

I Like Thursday: Seasonal Stuff

 

Fall has been pretty in the neighborhood.  The leaves are starting to change in earnest.  We always find fun things on our walk.  The horn is suddenly sprouting a big flower. 

I Like Thursday: Chocolate Tour and Quilts

Ooh - lots of photos this week.  So much went on!

This may look like wood, but this is a mushroom.  I love the color and the pattern.  Beautiful!

Went to Newburyport to celebrate my mother's birthday and attend the Chocolate tour.  My sister and nephew came along, too.  So much fun!  I love bringing home the chocolate, but the shops are fun, too!

I Like Thursday: Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend was lovely!  We were halted as we headed out to run errands on Saturday morning.  We had a parade of ducks cross the street in front of us like they didn't have a care in the world.  I managed to pull out my camera to catch the tail end of the second batch.  

I Like Thursday: Happy New Year!

I've been wrapping up my end-of-year posts and don't have a whole lot left over for this week's I Like Thursday.

I love the cards I got from my sister for Christmas. These cards are all prints from her original watercolors.  It was fun going through them saying, "I know where that is!"

I like that I finished the braid quilt (still yet unnamed).  I just need to think of a name to label it, then figure out how to get good photos that don't involve Rob balancing atop a tall ladder.

I like that 2020 is ending.  Amen.  The last few years I have come to the end of they year hoping the next year may be a little easier, a little less stressful.  Good grief - they were walks in the park compared to this year.  But this year I seem to feel a bit more anticipation of better things being just around the corner.  Fingers crossed!

I have very much liked being part of LeeAnna's I Like Thursday group.  I hope you've liked reading them!

I Like Thursday: Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve!  I love this year's card.  Didn't my sister do an amazing job?  Those guinea pigs look like they're about to ask for some carrots. 

I've said it before, I'll say it again - I like Jeeves and Wooster.  We're watching it yet again (I've started to read the books, too).  Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are SO YOUNG.  Always good for a laugh.  Now that I'm reading the books, I appreciate how well the TV show captured the characters of the books. 

I Like Thursday: Pigs!

The highlight of the week was guinea pigs.  Coming.  Going.  Staying.

Charlie and Wilbur arrived on Friday, but were so damned cute online that they were immediately scheduled for adoption.  Just before I was to bring them back, Dakin asked if I'd foster two more?  Sure!  So we came home with another two boars (I'll post photos of them tomorrow).

I Like Thursday: Sewing and Sunny Weather

I've been sewing a lot of small projects lately.  It's been nice!  Some of them had been pushed to the side as I worked on Golden Orrery.  Others belong to my long-term cleanup projects that I always pick up between the bigger quilts. It's been great catching up and making progress on things.

In the process of shuffling my design wall, I was reminded that this quilt needs a home, to be loved and used.  I love it (especially the back of it, oddly enough), but never intended to keep it.  It's sad sitting on the shelf and has languished too long on Etsy.  Would you like it?  Know of a charity that will use it?  Message me.

I Like Thursday: Time On My Hands

We're going to start out this week's likes with a throwback: Bertie and her hay rack.  This is this month's calendar photo.  This little guinea pig was a character and we ended up in a battle over the hay rack (I didn't want her in it, but she loved sleeping in it).  The love affair lasted over a year, and eventually I lost.  She was the most stubborn, determined little guinea pig I ever had.  You can read about the beginning of Bertie's love affair here.

I Like Thursday: Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day. 

I finished my sister's quilt!  Just in time to bring it to our family's Christmas celebration on Monday.  So I was under pressure to get good photos on Sunday before giving it away.  The photos of it took some creativity and work (thanks, Rob!).  I should be posting more about it in the next few days.  (There's always a flurry of blog posts at the end of the year.)

Needless to say, my sister is thrilled!

Christmas finally guaranteed me a few days off from work.  Huzzah!  I certainly like that.