Nebraska Beauty

We have had such beautiful sunsets lately and living here in rural Nebraska we have a good view of them with nothing between us and the wonderful color and I wanted to share it with you all.  The first photo was taken as the color was just starting to show on the undersides of the clouds.The next two photos were taken just a few minutes later and you can see the deepening color.  The sunset spread across a wide area north to south in a riot of pinks, oranges and deep purples.
It is moments like this this that make me love living where I live even more.  It is such an awesome sight that makes the locals and visitors alike want to stop and watch the sun as it sinks in the west causing the sky to fire up during the last minutes before it becomes dark.  John was doing some fall fertilizing several miles away and called me to see if I was watching the color unfold and told me later a neighbor stopped to visit a bit and mentioned the beautiful sunset that evening too. 

I understand that the sunrises are beautiful now too but am never quite with it (or even out of bed) that early to get outside to photograph but will take everyone’s word that they are beautiful as well.

Until Later,
Lynn

Loosing Weight….A Lot of Work

Several weeks ago I decided to join Weight Watchers in an effort to loose those pesky pounds that have invaded my body the last 15 or so years.  As the pounds gradually add up I didn’t notice at first then clothes don’t fit quite the way they should and the next thing you know I have to buy the next size up, and so on.  I am not going to post a before photo and probably won’t post an after photo as that would be just too scary!

A Weight Watcher’s group formed in our town and I didn’t join when they first organized the group the first part of September but after talking to a couple of friends that had joined I decided to give it a try as they were having success.  It has been a learning experience and not too difficult to follow the program.  I have found that I was eating way too large of servings and have cut down the amount of meat I eat but eat a well balanced diet and don’t feel hungry most of the time.  I love the support of the group as well as the new things I have learned and have not missed a meeting.

Weight Watchers also encourages increasing your physical activity to help loose the pounds.  I started walking and now walk around 30 minutes at least every other day.  At first I walked shorter times and distances but have worked up to walking almost 1 1/2 of a mile in those 30 minutes.  Going from a rather sedentary life it took me a while to actually enjoy walking but now I miss it if I can’t walk.  What might surprise you is where I walk.  I walk at our town cemetery….surprised?  It is the perfect place to walk and a lot of local people do walk there for exercise so I wave at friends as we meet on the streets.  It is a pretty little cemetery with paved streets and most of the time there are no cars driving around so it is safe too.  The outside road is exactly 1/2 mile so twice around is a mile, isn't that convenient!  I live in the country along a highway that is just too busy and too dangerous to walk so needed another option.  Was glad when I was told so many people walk at the cemetery as it is perfect and only about 5 miles away and I had never thought of walking there before.

I love listening to audio books as I walk as the time flies while the stories unfold.  I also like to read the names on the stones as I pass and imagine what those unknown people were like, where they lived, who they loved, etc.  The older names are just wonderful - Artha and Floydean, two women who's earthly bodies rest there.

The weather so far has cooperated with walking outside most days and last week the temperatures were in the low 60s but have dropped to mid 40s this week so have to bundle up more.  One of these days it will be too snowy, cold or wet to walk outside so will have to use the treadmill.  Walking feels good, my ankle is more flexible and getting out into the fresh air and sunshine can’t be beat.


Now the good news…..drum roll……I have lost 13 pounds in 6 weeks.  I am absolutely thrilled!  Loosing weight keeps me motivated and hope I can keep loosing a little at a time until I reach my goal.  I have a goal set through the program but I don’t necessarily feel I need to get that low so will just decided when I feel good at where I am I will stop and go to a maintenance program even if it is not down to the set goal.  I don’t want my weight so low I can’t maintain it but will try to keep my portions in check and keep doing the walking to stay healthy.

I have weigh in and meetings on Wed. afternoons so don’t know how I did with Thanksgiving dinner for a few more days yet.  According to the WW points system I think I was OK and did not overeat.  I have not been able to walk as much earlier this week so am hoping I will have lost again when I weigh in on Wed. 

Until later,
Lynn

Happy Thanksgiving

For beauty in nature, Your glory we see
For joy and health, friends and family,
For daily provision, Your mercy and care
These are the blessings You graciously share.
So today we offer this response of praise
With a promise to follow You all of our days.

                                                                             

                                                                              --Mary Fairchild

Guild Challenge Block 2

Here is the second block of the challenge.  One border is added and now I will add the second one.  I choose to add a triangle border with two fabric that I believed were shades of the original but this photo sure makes the background of one of them look gold instead of tan.  It is better in person  and not so gold looking but after I looked at it for a while it is not the best choice I guess.  Hope it doesn’t detract but it really looks a little like mush …I probably should have taken it off and started over…Oh well, that is how it goes sometimes.  I did use a spacer strip to make the triangles fit.  It is a lot of pressure doing something on someone else's block or quilt.
Until later,
Lynn

Fall Day Color

Since no sewing is going on here I will show you some photos I took earlier this fall.  John and I took a ride down to our small river to look at the beautiful color on the trees.  You can see the harvested corn field in the foreground and down the hill to the river.  The yellow trees just glow.We don’t always get pretty colored leaves in the fall if it freezes too soon, too late or whatever reason but this year the trees were so pretty.  Most of them are Cottonwood or Burr Oak trees.  The tree in the photo below is a very large Burr Oak in one of the pastures where we graze our cattle each summer.  You can see how dry and brown the grass is around the tree.  It is not brown just because it is autumn but also because we have not had much rain at all during the summer and fall.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Above are views of the river which is still very low but was beautiful and so calm the day we were down there.  We looked for Indian arrowheads along the shore but didn’t find any.  People find arrowheads here at times so we always keep our eyes on the sandy shore hoping to find one. 

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The sun was just setting when we neared our home but needed to check on two of the horses that have been in a pasture for the summer.  Bart and Sally have enjoyed it but it was about time to get them back to the barn.  Bart is not ridden and I call him the idiot….not a nice name I know but he just can’t remember his training.  John certainly doesn’t need to get dumped on the ground and Bart doesn’t seem to get the idea even though he has been to a trainer more than once.  Sally, the one with the black mane, is not able to be ridden anymore as she had gotten a disease several years ago that makes her not sure footed.  She will stumble at times yet, even though she is cured of the original disease.  This is a disease, EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis), that is caused by opossum's defecating on the hay the horses eat – sounds gross I know but it is not really that uncommon.  It is a disease of the central nervous system in horses caused by protozoal parasites in the opossom gut.

Well, guess that was a depressing paragraph wasn’t it….but aren’t the photos of them both pretty?

Lynn

Guild Challenge Block 1

Each year my quilt guild has a quilt challenge that members can either choose to participate in or not…their choice.  I try to do the challenge each year as it stretches my imagination, makes me learn new techniques, and besides is lots of fun too.

The challenge this year is a border challenge.  We were all to make a quilt block between 8” and 12” and bring it to the next meeting in the brown paper bag we were given.  The challenge leader put a number on the bottom of our bag and put them all on a table.  She mixed the bags up and we all chose one to work on the first month.The leader is keeping track of all the bag numbers so we don’t choose our own bag or one that we have already worked on.  The block above is the block that was in the bag I choose for round one.

The rules also stated that we were to make our blocks in only 2 colors and must use the 2 colors the block maker chose for the borders we add.  We can do pretty much anything we want on the borders but don’t want just a plane strip of fabric.  We have to add borders to all 4 sides as well.Here are the strips I have made for the borders I will add to the block.  There will be 9 patch blocks in the corners with the opposing colors stitched between the corners.All ready to be folded and put back in it’s bag for the next meeting.  Block one done and block two will be next when I add a second border.

Lynn

Sad Faced Me

Doggie Toy from http://dogodesign.com/index.asp

I am wearing a sad face because I just had to change my blog comment settings to not accept anonymous comments because of all the spam I have been getting lately.  Check your settings if you are not able to comment on my blog and maybe you need to change some settings if you are a registered user or you may have to sign up for a free Google account.

I know I have had comments from anonymous readers that are legitimate but the spam ones have ruined that option for the “good guys”.  Sorry about that but I am tired of getting emails with spam links and don’t want to expose any of my comment readers to possible infection in their computers or in mine.

Until Later,
Lynn