Sightseeing Saturday: Wilson Arch

The other night I knocked over a near empty cup of tea that just happened to fly in the direction of my laptop leaving a wet trail across my keyboard.  I went into quick action to clean up the mess and dry things up but the touchpad stopped working and then it wouldn't turn back on.  Yikes!  I was afraid it was kaput, but thankfully, after a half day of drying out, we are back in working order.

I breathed a big sigh of relief knowing I hadn't lost years of photos stored on my laptop, so thought I would get back to a quick road trip post from the summer.

Our first stop in Utah was completely unplanned but just happened to be on our way to Moab.

I mean seriously, if you saw this on the side of the road, would you be able to pass it up?

This sign tells you about the area.

College boy and I climbed to the top while senior boy stayed in the car.  Hiking, he says, is not his thing.  Little does he know that hiking is exactly what we will be doing nearly every single day while in Utah.

Spectacular views from the top.

I do miss such beautiful scenery.  Our weather has continued to be unstable with another day of school cancellation on Thursday as a precaution.  It's been overcast, muggy, windy, rainy, dusty ... hoping things will start to improve so I can get back to my morning walks.

Happy Halloween!

Abuzz With Activities

We had a heavy downpour early this morning that caused lots of flooding around the country.

This unfortunately is my view across the street now that someone bought the property and has started construction on a new house.  You can see the flooding that was around us.  That blue thing just to the left is a trashcan that was swirling around in the middle of the street.

The tarp protecting my plants fell and both balconies were like wading pools, they had filled with so much water.

Needless to say, I did not take my senior boy to school and we haven't ventured out the entire day.

Prior to this wacky weather, there were many lovely days of activity at The Secret Garden.

This past Saturday, in addition to planting and general cleanup, there was free Arts & Crafts for kids which was so much fun.

And on Sunday and Monday, I helped with two First Grade Field Trips to the garden.

We taught them about composting and let them rake and plant seeds.

Much squealing occurred when I picked up the beetle.

I read them a wonderful book about leaving a zero footprint wherever you go, then had them pick up garbage and their reward was a crocheted heart. 

On the first day, one boy exclaimed "This is the best Secret Garden day ever!"  And on the second day when the kids were lining up to leave on the bus, another boy told me "I wish I could stay at the Secret Garden forever.  I don't like school."

Hands-on experience is so much more meaningful to the kids and nature is a great classroom.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

From Wednesday to Wonderful

On Wednesday I spent 3 hours cleaning both my balconies.

The weather is changing and I want to be able to enjoy sitting outside as much as possible.

My friend, Melissa, over the years has always teased me that when I clean my balconies, there's bound to be a dust storm.  We even joked about it Wednesday evening.

So when I got up Thursday morning to a rather darkish day, I said to my husband, there seems to be fog.

To which he replied, "Are you crazy?  That's not fog, that's dust.

Sure enough, Melissa's prediction rang true once again.  But fortunately, a light rain shower appeared in the afternoon that cleared the air and the weather has been absolutely beautiful ever since.

I've spent the past two mornings out there with coffee, crochet and magazines.

With company, of course,

Melissa even joined me today.

We have this thing of giving each other smile themed gifts so rather ironic today that she brought me a smile pillow and I gave her a smile bracelet.

Sending smiles your way and wishes for a wonderful weekend.

The Palm Tree Project

Palm trees from my walk the other day.

 

And palm trees off my hook.

I was asked to crochet palm trees to decorate a booth at a Slow Food Festival next month in South Korea.

 Mimi who is a chef and the creator of The Secret Garden Project and Shakshooka, a pop-up farmer's market, is representing Kuwait at the festival under the name Slow Food Salmiya.

She asked a friend to design the backdrop for the booth to incorporate Sadu design with a modern twist.

 

I completed 12 palm trees for the sample board created this past week.

The pink will most likely be changed to red on the final boards.

38 palm trees required in total so I've been crocheting on them when I can.  Because I've been using thin cotton and a smaller hook, I had to take breaks due to pain in my left thumb from an old injury.

I just finished the last of the palm tree grove this morning. 

(Palm tree pattern can be found here.)

Now back to yarnbomb preparations.

Have a fabulous Friday!

Surprise Storm

We'd been having nice, cooler weather for a little while so on Saturday it was a little disappointing to feel heavy humidity in the air again.  Even the crochet group was questioning when we might actually see winter.

That afternoon I noticed that the light inside changed drastically and looked outside to see this.

I even posted to Instagram that it was an unusual cloud formation, not what we typically see.  

My husband read the weather report that said a chance of rain at 6 p.m.

There was thunder and lightning but what we really got was a very fast moving sand storm.  These types of storms don't happen often, but when they do, they are like little mini tornadoes that sweep through and then are gone within 30 minutes.

The first day of gardening and kids arts and crafts had taken place at the garden from 3-6 and unfortunately some of them got caught up in the storm with no place to hide.

When I stopped there the next morning, there was lots of garbage, downed branches and craft supplies strewn all over the place.  I was able to get one section of the garden mostly cleaned up and picked up all of the craft stuff before heading off to a meeting.

The branch there in the bottom right fell where two of the girls had been crouching for protection.  Fortunately, it didn't crack and break while they were there.  You can see also that it's a branch that had some of our yarnbombing on it.  

The branch is gone, but the yarnbombing is still there.  I couldn't pull it down and didn't have scissors to cut it down.  Proof that whoever took the other 4 pieces had done so with purpose and intention. 

What's really crazy is that some of the wind chimes the kids made that day were still hanging despite the storm.

Thankfully the garden was quickly cleaned up and everything is back in order again.

I've been lax in yarnbomb planning as I've been working on another big project that I'll tell you about another time.

Have a terrific Tuesday!