Designer Daffodils

I thought these double daffs deserved portrait mode with stage light. John planted the bulbs months ago and it was exciting to see them when they finally opened. They seem quite able to stand up to the rain....

We went to coffee this morning where Tobi and Gail and I shared tomato stories and book and movie recommendations while Dan, Bob and John sat at the other end of the table talking about who knows what. Since we watched Bob skip down the street and into the Trail House, it really could have been just about anything. You never know with Bob....

It was frosty this morning...is it usually this cold at the end of March?...but by the time we all finished it was warm enough to contemplate The Spike walk. It's a steep enough hill that even in the shady bits we were well warmed up by the time we reached the meadow. There was a group of mums with toddlers exploring the newt pond. Considering the fact that it's a stiff uphill walk, I'm always impressed to see the little ones so fascinated by the pond life. The newts are a big draw.

Neglecting the really dusty, muddy dirty floors (why bother, I thought...there's more rain coming) I cracked on with the heart quilt. I completed the rest of the squares and tweaked some of the ones I didn't like. Now I have to appliqué the hearts onto the squares. This can be done by machine, but I think it looks better to do them by hand, and I like the final floating effect better. Besides, I enjoy handwork.

I discovered the store called Passdoor which carries Ittala glass, beautiful jewelry and some interesting paintings as well as pillows and other home goods in the Barlow in Sebastopol. I got to know the owner and enjoyed hanging out amongst the beautiful things and talking with her. When the Barlow flooded in 2017 she moved to a bigger store on the square in Sonoma where we went last week to look at anniversary rings. She has now opened a second store in Santa Rosa and I'm looking forward to going and checking it out. 

Santa Rosa can use a few nice shops like hers as the city fathers have managed to turn the downtown square into a totally uninviting and unappealing place, install parking meters and completely put off not only the unhoused, which I think was their aim, but also shoppers, strollers or anybody else. The unhoused have thus been forced into shop doorways and freeway underpasses in search of some shelter. If the city put together all the money they have spent breaking up and clearing tent encampments, they could have built hundreds of tiny homes or some more reasonable shelter. Instead they just keep doing the same thing and hoping, I suppose, that there will be a different result.