Ouch!

Okay, maybe not ouch. Casey gave us a pretty gentle hand slap. But she was right. When you are busy having fun it is sometimes difficult to write. For me, the problem is that I don't have my computer with me. Peggie has no such excuse. She has that genius (not just smart) phone.(Peggie says: yes it's a genius phone but still kind of small and more labor intensive than a laptop. Remember, I was on vacation.)

Looking at our previous post, I want to point out some things. That cowboy is my father when he was twenty-something. He spent the first thirty years of his life as a real cowboy. Not much after that. The three brands across the top are real brands registered to my father and grandfather. The copper border on the state is real copper foil that Peggie distressed then sewed on. New York was good, but spending time with family was great. Which reminds me; of the three things I wanted to have happen, only the rocky road pie came true. But that is fine with me. It is always good to have rocky road pie. And when I left, there was still some remaining for Karin.

As always, we love going to Manhattan. For us, just riding the trains is an adventure. As opposed to an "adventure" which we did not have this trip. Yay! We went to the regular biannual quilt show. It is held in a place that is way too small for all the people who come to it. But it is Manhattan, which is also way too small for all the people anyway. This show was only so-so. The Tucson show has more interesting quilts. But after I got tired of looking at quilts, and before Peggie did, I sat and watched people. Boy, is that fun. I was having the best time. Then we had to go to the local fabric shop. DUH! Because it is near the venue of the show, it was also packed with people. Me and about forty women. In a space that comfortably handles ten. Some women were discussing the other big quilt show in town. A temporary showing of a private collection of quilts. From modern to 300 years old, and all in red and white. It was on our itinerary for another day. When we went, we thought it was fabulous. If you are like me, it is hard to imagine that 650 quilts, all in just red and white, could be interesting. You know, "if you've seen one, you've seen them all." Not so, my friends. Not so. First of all, whoever designed the hanging was brilliant. I can't describe it. You will have to get it from the pictures. But I will explain that the building was more than large enough to play football in. And while there was a large crowd, the arrangement gave plenty of room to move around. Secondly, no two quilts were alike. That's right. Actually, 651 different quilts. Different only in the patterns. The colors were all red and white. Not reds. Not whites.

We did not get to go to Storm King to see the sculptures because they weren't open for the season yet. In Arizona we just don't think about things being closed for the winter. But in NY they do. We did take Ariana one day and went for a drive into the wild north lands. We only got as far north as Poughkeepsie, but we were wandering on small roads and seeing the "back country." At times we might have gone as far as half a mile without seeing a house. Or not. We saw lots of private schools. Some boarding schools, some day schools. Very neat old buildings everywhere. All in all we had a wonderful time being grandparents. Ariana is amazing. (What grandchild isn't?) Greg's kitchen is NOT complete. But they were able to beginning moving into it while the finishing touches (paint and tile) are still to come. Peggie wants to add the pictures, but she is busy with other projects right now. So watch this space for the next posting to include photos.