Almost Finished

Since I started on this project in December, it seemed high time to sit down and finish it. It was meant to be a sort of cozy rainy day project, but if I keep waiting for one of those, it will never be finished. The whole thing is hand stitched, something I find quite enjoyable as long as I have a good podcast to listen to. Today it was about the brother and sister who launched a product called Pipcorn....apparently it can be found at Whole Foods as well as thousands of other stores. Oddly enough, I've never seen it.

John has exchanged his orthopedic boot for a hiking boot and has been hobbling around with his crutches, experimenting with putting a bit more weight on his ankle. One can only hope it has healed by now since he won't have another x-ray for two weeks. Since he has really never had much pain, I fear he may get carried away, but it is always hard to know what is going on in the man's mind....

I decided to finish what I started yesterday on the rocky hillside above our patio and the upper terrace. The gardeners have been spending so much time finishing up the post fire fencing and leveling projects that they have had little time for, well, gardening, and the weeds were beginning to bug me. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the step stool but gave up and climbed up there by myself. Although there are three places for tool storage (one on each level) most of it has migrated to the ground level pump house...except for the step stool.

While I was precariously perched on the hill between the agave thorns and the palm stickers I was hearing a lot of sirens. When I looked up, there was smoke billowing up from somewhere near Spring Lake. This is never a good sign and not designed for peace of mind. I found myself  dealing with PTSD  thinking about how I would get myself and my dog off the hill and John and his crutches out of the house and all of us into the car if we had to evacuate.  Of course there was no need for any of that, and the smoke was all but gone by the time I got off the hill.

Spending the afternoon on the couch stitching was just the thing.....