Apples

This week I was able to work some more on the farm. It is all done by hand, so it is slow going. The applique is done and now I will have to start the embroidery. It is hard to do it from only one picture and my memory. This farm was build on clay and over the years the front part sank down in the clay. This type of farm is called the "body,neck and head" farm In the late 50s, early 60s the neck and head were torn down and a new house was build in the same place. I have lots of pictures of this house, but not of the old. Growing up we did not have a camera, so there are not many pictures. And since I was quite young when this all happened, I really have a tough time remembering. But I do know, that my 90 year old mother in Friesland will keep an eye on me and correct me if necessary. She recently moved to a nursing home and found out that there are volunteers available, who can help her get on the Internet.

We had some more rain in the last week. Enough to be unable to combine the wheat. It does not stop the apples on our harvest apple tree from ripening. The big tree stands between the house and barn and is loaded with apples. I do not like to eat them. For me they are not sweet enough , but they make excellent apple sause, so that will be one off my jobs this week.

We will need only a small part of the apples, so a call will go out to the neighbours. It is" Come and pick your own"

Back to work

A few months ago I had started this landscape of my home farm in Holland. Once I got to the roof I had no idea how to continue, so I put it away. This week it was time to give it another try and up to now everything has worked. To get the idea of the clay roof tiles I sewed with the machine narrow rows of blanket stitch. The piece I used was small, but by cutting very carefull I can get all the pieces out. The next step will be the rest of the barn. Around the farm there will be a lot of trees. The foreground will be grass with a small ditch at the front. And I will have to do a lot of embroidery in the windows and doors to make it come more to life.



I finished the second orchid on my other quilt. The result looks o.k., but I think that to applique 6 more orchids around the center will be too busy. Maybe 2 more in the top corners would do it.
Now I have to start looking for orchids, where the flowers hang down in sprays. Smaller flowers might look better. It is a quiet time around here. Laurence is getting the combine ready and by next week we might be able to do a field of wheat.
We did get the rain, mixed with hail. We were lucky to miss the baseball size stones that fell one concession over. There was a lot of damage with windows breaking and dints in cars.
But things are looking green again and I have to get ready to mow the grass.

Garden improvements

Jeanette and Tony decided a few months ago, that the yard at the back of their house could stand some improvements. One would be to put big rough cut blocks along the outside, fill the space with soil and plant a variety of plants, shrubs and small trees.
Since they live in the Niagara region it was easy for them to go to a local quary and select the limestone blocks. On Tuesday over 13 tonnes were delivered and dumped on the front yard.
Since this is not a one man's job, Laurence was asked to come for the day and run the' rented' Bobcat. I had to come along for the extra jobs, that might pop up and do the driving
Since the way in and out of the yard was 48 inches wide and the Bobcat over 42, it was tough to get the , somethimes,even wider blocks in place.
For a while there was extra help.
But it all worked out and by 6 in the afternoon most of the blocks were in place. The left overs were piled neatly along the front to be used in the future.
Now it is up to the younger generation to do the rest of the work.
After a 15 hour day we were home again.
And we were told ,that in 3 weeks the favor will be returned. I have this bare spot, that needs plants and we need to do a lot of mulching.
Today it is back to normal. I hope to finish some of the orchids I'm appliqueing.

Go West

This is the time of year, when it is quiet on our farm. Time to visit our son in Alberta. We found a beautifull country with the Alberta flower, the wild rose, blooming along the fence rows.

A lot of fields looked very wet and while we were there, thunder storms added more water to the saturated soil. That while at home it stayed dry.
We tried to go a different direction each day.So from a drive to the west to see the mountains it was to the museum in Wetaskiwin with all kinds of old cars ( here is the oldest numbered Chevrolet known to be in excistence) to planes to old tractors.
This was very much to Laurence's liking, but the next day I was in for a treat. We had tickets for the rodeo and chuck wagon races in Ponoka.
Lots of horses and lots of fun. This is a lot different than the English style riding I grew up with.
The next day it was to the south to visit the Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller. It was packed, but the dinasaurs are so big that even with that many people there we could see most of the exhibits.



And each evening we would be greeted by little Abner, one of the friendliest puppies I know.
Now it is back to work. From a very wet part of the country we came home to a very dry farm. The once promising looking crops are starting to look stressed. We do hope for some rain soon.
And yes, quilting was not totally forgotten . I managed to visit 3 quilt stores while away and came home with some nice pieces of fabric. But no time for applique right now. It is strawberry time, so this morning I bought my yearly supply to make jam. Whatever is left will go in the freezer.