Friday check in: some editing required, OMG success, and reading

 

The weather cooperated yesterday with sunshine and 45 degrees.  We enjoyed a forest preserve walk at McDonald Woods (2 miles)   

I've been working on the homespun quilt.  There's a piece of green tape to mark the misplaced unit (fourth row, second column).  

The fabric for the setting triangles was a serendipitous find on the shelf.   I haven't decided whether or not there will be a border.  

When I make scrappy quilts I try for "no two fabrics touching."  It happened a lot with the second half of the quilt because I hastily put the blocks on the design wall without checking and re-checking.  "Editing" sounds better than ripping, doesn't it? 

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My One Monthly Goal(s) for March:

(a) Quilt and bind the Villa Rosa blog hop samples.  DONE

(b)  Tidy up in the studio and dust/vacuum.  Partially done.   I consolidated the contents of a couple of boxes.  I mailed a box of fabric and notions to my friend who upcycles textiles to make totes and pouches. (Here's her FB page)  I sent a box to the winner of my blog hop drawing. 

(c)  Start something new just for fun.  See above -- despite the irritation of editing, I enjoy working with homespuns.

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In a small Indiana town on a summer day in the early 1980's this happened, and that happened, and then that happened.  Fourteen people, fourteen stories:  Candy forgets the paprika for the deviled eggs she'll serve at the card party.   Turner helps a long-time buddy before he plants the zinnias.  Teenagers Della, her boyfriend Sugar, and their friend Greg each come closer to finding their places in the world.  Toby picks up his Ronald Reagan placard and greets all passers-by.  Meanwhile Gladys loses herself in the cornfields.  After the card party Myrtle goes to visit her former schoolteacher in the nursing home.  The sheriff recalls his kindness to a young troublemaker.  Cubby takes in two strangers from out of town.  Irma is remembered by many.  And at the periphery, but never far away, are Zorrie and Noah, the central characters of previous stories.  

"There's life a lurk behind us," Myrtle remembers her grandfather saying to explain why a gift wasn't acknowledged. (156)   "The more you learned about a person the more you wanted to learn," Cubby realizes. (176)

Laird Hunt's beautiful prose reminds us that no one is an island.  Like Wendell Berry's Port William Fellowship, there are infinite connections among the townspeople in their past and present, and surely in their future.

My reviews of Hunt's earlier novels:  Zorrie and Neverhome.

The great hurricane of 1938 walloped the northeastern seaboard just as young Woodrow Wilson Nickel arrived from the Dust Bowl-ravaged Texas panhandle and just as a ship with two young giraffes docked at the port of New York.   The giraffes were bound for the San Diego Zoo.   Woody found himself in the unexpected position of serving as the driver of the customized truck to take them, and the zoo keeper, across the country.   Along they way they were accompanied by an intrepid young woman photojournalist.   Near-misses, last-second escapes, would-be giraffenappers, swindlers and genuinely good people, and enough adventure to last a lifetime.

And now Woody is 105 years old, living in a VA nursing home, and remembering -- writing down -- all the events of that memorable season.  Author Rutledge adapted a true story for this heartwarming and memorable book. (This is the April selection for our AAUW Reflections on Reading group.)   

 The Boston Post Road was the first interstate (inter-colony) road in America, connecting Boston and New York first for the post--meaning mail and newspapers--and then for transportation and commerce.   The Post Road meant the development of towns in interior Massachusetts and Connecticut and along the Long Island Sound.  Indian trails led to rocky, muddy horse paths.  The route was critical during the Revolution.   In the early 19th century railroads paralleled the Post Road, important for new industries and to transport supplies and troops in the Civil War.   The bicycling craze of the late 19th century brought road improvements, just in time for the advent of the automobile.  Cars meant more and better pavement, suburban sprawl, and major changes to cities.  Jaffe's thoroughly researched history is engagingly written.

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Linking up with  Finished or Not Friday  OMG March Link Up 

P.S.  Spring haircut. Who is more deserving of the halo?