and so it begins....summer that is

Summer is here in all of its humid glory. Ok, the mornings are nice and cool so far. We've had quite a few thunderstorms, too. Actually, I really love thunderstorms as long as the lightning isn't too jagged and scary. We've only had one of those so far. Thunderstorms remind me of my childhood. I was petrified of storms as a little girl. My dad used to sit in "his chair" and hold me in his lap. We'd unplug the tv and wait it out. I loved it. Looking back, I'm betting my dad did, too. So thunder storms make me feel a bit like a little girl again. We sit in our sun room and count the seconds between flashes of lightning and booms of thunder. Nolan, my not-so-little-professor, loves to calculate the distance. Thunderstorms and birdsong are the harbingers of summer to me. And ice cream cones, of course.

But I digress. This message was brought to you today by the letter Q for quilt. A wonderful friend of mine is having a baby any second now and I had been procrastinating on her quilt. It is finished and gifted now, luckily before the baby arrived. The birds were hand appliqued years ago while I was sitting at the school table with the boys. They've been in my closet for years, nesting. I didn't realize what they were waiting for. Now I know. I'm so glad I saved them. I added some reproduction feed sack fabric, a little machine quilting and plain pink flannel on the back. I'm pleased with the result.

Today the boys are having a garage sale. We cleaned out their room on the last day of school and they have been purging their childhood. It is bittersweet to me. On the one hand I am proud of the young men they are becoming but it also pulls on my heart strings to see their childhood floating past. **sigh** So today we will sell a few bygone treasures for a quarter, they will count up their loot and plan for their future.....or at least a new video game or two.