- Quotable quotes

Judy Martin has done it again ... this time posting a wall-full of unfolded vintage handkerchiefs that triggered an "Aha!" moment.

There's some backstory on all this to be found in the Retrospective I wrote today and added to the original post for April 16th: http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/04/take-to-highway-again.html

And here's the actual list of self-ish quotes I've been accumulating ...

Judy's post prompted me to see my stash of handkerchiefs as leaves in a book of quotes ...

Recalling the conversation with Don, with its unintended double entendre, I came up with this as the title ...

Patch #123

And subject as I am to magical thinking, I counted the number of quotes and the number of handkerchief pages. Would you be surprised if I told you there are 16 of each?

P.S. Speaking of Quotable Quotes, Nicole Throckmorton, a good friend from Eastern Virginia Writing Project days, is going to be a contestant in the Jeopardy Teachers Tournament this Tuesday night. If I had to guess, I'd say she'll do really well. Take a look and see if I'm right.

- Bowled over

We had our first taste of Acai Bowls when we went to the Outer Banks, but not our last. Acai (pronounced ah-sah-ee) is a South American berry that can be purchased in frozen purée form. Blended with frozen bananas, fruit, nut butter and/or almond milk (among other things), it makes a healthy, non-dairy base for granola, nuts, fruit and other (more decadent) toppings.

We were hooked. Upon returning home, I tried to find Acai at the food store, to no avail. Undaunted, I looked up alternatives online and came upon multiple recipes for ...

Patch #122

the ingredients for which I had readily available ...

with this happily free-styled result ...

Yes, that's dark chocolate ... it has lots of antioxidants you know. Not to mention it goes extremely well with almonds and homemade granola.

On a related "knocked my socks off" note, I'm belatedly reporting that Don has discovered he can paint ...

He calls it color-by-number, claiming he just follows the lines in weathered wood ...

Hmmm ...

whatever you say, dear.

By the way, I'm writing this from the breezeway, following a report that something has taken up residence in the hammered copper pot we bought last month. Patience was rewarded with a sighting of our newest neighbor ...

who scolded me no end for disturbing the peace.

- Goin' to Carolina in my mind

Retrospective (5/1/2016)

Patch #121 maps the road from Ocracoke to Corolla, about 100 miles as the crow flies ...

which bears a striking resemblance to the Sandhill Cranes depicted on February 26 http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/02/deep-knowing.html. I take this as a good omen.

And though I have no doubt that my heart has two homes, I find a perfect symmetry in the fact that beach road 12 ...

and ranch road 12 ...

mark the east and west boundaries of our upcoming journey.

Original Post

Another week, another month of Texas Hill Country weather patches ...

7 inches of rain in April, far above the average 2 inches ... harbinger of both wildflowers and mosquitoes in abundance.

Eighteen rows of one-inch patches ...

a pattern of days and how they went. The biggest challenge has been recording the Hill Country weather when we aren't actually here to experience it. True, timeanddate.com gives a sense of what we missed when we take off for a week or so. And the rain gauge (usually) has enough capacity to hold a week's worth of rainfall (although we pushed the limit during our St Louis jaunt).

Still, I wonder how I would manage the weather patches if we were to go on extended road trip ... for two months, say. So it is that the seam of this week's patches is stitched in Carolina blue ...

What if ... ?

- Plant peeps

Retrospective (5/21/2016)

Patch #120 Ripe dewberry

Original Post

Grace calls them my "plant people" and I'd like to think I get their names straight more often than not. Corrections are always welcome however.

In any case, after a couple of travel weeks during which rain fell, there were some new folks in the neighborhood. Please allow me to introduce you to:

Stonecrop ...

Wine cups (so bright the camera couldn't handle it) ...

Rock lettuce ...

Skeleton plant ...

Nerve ray ...

which was one of the first plants I learned when we moved here, but I still think of it as the "present plant" because of the unusual square bud ...

Ratany, which is my newest flower friend ...

Mexican feather grass ...

Beautiful, but unwelcome Malta yellow star (a prolific invasive and a source of much weeding activity on my part) ...

Two-leaved senna ...

Skullcap (I think) ...

And while the butterflies move too fast for me to photograph, the caterpillars left some lacy traces on the mountain laurel ...

I saved the best for last: ripe dewberries ...

seven of which I ate, one by one, with just a bit of dark chocolate ...

What a treat!

- Planes

Retrospective (5/30/2016)

Patch #119 Four-part memory ...

Original Post

Two pictures taken while we were away that I want to remember.

From the ground ...

From the air ...

- What it is ...

Retrospective (5/29/2016 and 5/30/2016)

Patch #118 Stacked stitch cigar box, take 1 ...

Take 2 (the one I used) ...

Original Post

I found a very curious block of wood at Class and Trash when we were at the Outer Banks ...

Prising it open (the perfect word, as it resisted) ...

I discovered it to be a cigar mold (so named on the price tag) ...

Calling Don over I asked, "What do you think?"

Needless to say, it came home with us. What it will become is anyone's guess.

- Bookends

Retrospective (5/29/2016)

Patch #117 Wood block "printing" ...

with fabric marker and a little elbow grease ...

Original Post

Our travels included a stop at Class and Trash on the Outer Banks. The scene of some darn good buys in the past, C&T did not disappoint, as Don picked up a cigar mold (picture to follow after we unpack) and I scored this ...

Meant to be a mandala-ish hanging, it is composed of what look to be ten carved textile printing blocks (plus one piece of wonky wood molding). So hmmmm ... wonder how I can return these lovelies to their intended purpose ...

We made one last stop at Tortuga's Lie for lunch (tuna for Don, oysters for me this time) and reminisced about how we've been going to the same spot for over 30 years and 3 name changes. 

So I googled the original restaurant name and sure enough, found something ...

and better yet, this ten year old post, the first two sentences of which were almost verbatim what we had said to each other moments before ...

45 minutes was the standard wait time for an omelet at Gandalf's ... and it was worth it! 

Too soon we were on the road and the trip ended much as it began ...

a 6 1/2 mile backup on the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Fortunately, we turned off I-64 before hitting the tunnel, and are now sitting in the airport contemplating a rough ride ahead. Storms full of potential tornadoes lie between us and home. 

Addendum:

Any of you who are frequent flyers know what this means ...

I smile ...

- The Rundown

Retrospective (5/29/2016)

Patch #116

Looking for cloth, I was delighted to find stripes that reflected sunset and clouds in a blue sky, the yellow of the Rundown Cafe sign, green grass and a patch of road.

Original Post

We had just one more night in paradise (aka the Outer Banks of North Carolina), so where better to go than ...

I have long ordered Rundown soup and/or Fish bites ...

which are the first two items on the menu for good reason http://www.rundowncafe.com/mobile/menu. Better yet, we ran into some folks we hadn't seen for nearly ten years. What a trip.

Then we drove back down the beach road ...

wondering how many more storms it will take before the houses on the left fall into the sea, making the houses on the right waterfront properties.

Barrier island living is a risky business ...

just ask the turtles.