Fall Afghan, Books, Flowers and More

Another afghan completed.  This one went through quite a transformation.  Again using yarn from my stash, green, orange, and black I mixed the yarns as I sized the squares.  In some cases I unraveled a few squares to redo them to get them to fit.  I used both orange and black to join them together and used all 3 colors to do the final boarder.  Am pleased with the final product, as I was pretty skeptical when I started on this one because the squares were so many different sizes.
 

This was early on, you can see the middle section had been worked on a bit.  Calling this one Fall.  It will be donated to Homeless Families Foundation, like all the others.  In the previous post you can see the very beginning of this project.

We spend the winter, or at least a good chunk of it in Hilton Head, so on one of my walks, I decided I needed to take a picture of this beautiful bush.  Isn't it gorgeous!  We don't have pretty blossom yet in cold Ohio.

Another day I spotted this painted rock.  I assume that's the name of the person who painted it?  I enjoyed it for a day, then took it with me on another walk to place elsewhere for someone else to find and enjoy.  This is the 3rd painted rock I've found while walking.  Found one last year at Hilton Head, and one in Williamsburg.  It's a fun thing that people do.  If I could paint, I would and place some around, but I'm no good at painting.

Once back home where they're aren't pretty flowers yet (too cold), I spotted this on one of my walks.  It was pretty windy so it's hard to see the flags, but the 1st one says deport elon, the 2nd one says America doesn't have kings, and the 3rd of course is the Ukrainian flag.  I appreciate seeing people standing up, even if the current administration isn't.  

I have been very disturbed by the actions of this administration.  Many of those deported were not criminals, and even those that perhaps are deserved to have due process.  Kilmar is not a criminal, and he was not here illegally.  He was not undocumented.  Despite knowing they made a mistake, despite being told by two courts (including trumps court), he remains in a concentration camp in El Salvatore.  People are being kidnapped off the streets, car windows being smashed to drag people from their cars.  I've seen many video's and read many stories about this happening to people who are here legally.  In all cases thus far, they are people of color.  

I know often when I post books I've read I see a fair number of comments that say I can't read that it's too much of what's going on now.  For me, that's the exact reason to read them.  I've wondered multiple times about The Orange Felons ties to Russia; but after reading this book...I have little doubt that he is, in fact a Russian Asset.  The detail given in this book is astounding even as much news as I've followed.  Truly astounding.  Please put it on your to read list.  And when you do read it, please let me know what you think.

Sometimes I have to clear my head and read a book just for fun.  I've read many of Jean Grainger's book and they're always a good read.  This one is a good mystery with lots of small town Irish flare.  Mags is the police sergeant and deals with being a woman in a mans world while still trying to solve a murder case.

World War II rages, the Nazi's are not only trying to take over other countries, but they're stealing treasures.  Art, money, and cataloguing art to steal the worlds cultures.  They're also destroying art they feel is unclean.  But, in the middle of all of this is a small very dedicated group of British and American soldiers who were museum directors, art historians, curators and the like who go behind enemy lines, often without arms to document, and move art to protect it from the Germans.  Their work focused on the period between D-Day and V-E Day.  I found the book fascinating.  I knew Hitler had an art collection that he had stolen; but did not know the hard work being done to protect the worlds treasures.

I was a young child when John F. Kennedy was President, and when The Situation Room first began.  George Stephanopoulos a former advisor to President Bill Clinton with 20 years of being an anchor of This Week and wo-anchor of Good Morning America brings lots of background and first hand experience of 12 different Presidents and how they used or didn't use the Situation Room.

March was a good month for me stepwise.  333,826 (up from 290,232) averaging 10,244 daily (up from 10,365).  Miles were also up 139.07 (from 126.03), averaging 4.48 miles daily.  I doubt April will be up, as we started having iffy weather while in Hilton Head, and once home nasty weather.  Planks were down as were leg lifts.  Planks 17 (down from 19), Leg Lifts 5 (down from 6).  Have not done well in April thus far, playing catch up with stuff around the house, and appointments.  Argh.  Must try to do better.

I'm also having a hard time being motivated, reading the news makes me not want to do anything.  Anyone else feeling this way?

 

This and That, Pieces Parts, Bits and Bobs, Deportation

 

This is the prettiest Chocolate Martini I've ever had.  It was also the most tasty!  A real work of art, don't ya think?  This was my desert a month or so back when hubby and I and good friends Elizabeth and Kevin enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Coastal Capri Restaurant 

These hideous pamphlets were distributed in Dayton, Ohio by The KKK.  Yes the KKK is alive and well and very active, as are many obnoxious White Supremacist Groups.  I've posted pictures of a march with White Supremacist that took place not far from my house recently.  The Orange Convicted FELON has green lighted this horrible behavior.  They yell anti Black, anti-Semantic Rants.  They take over streets, they bully and strike fear everywhere we go.  Currently this horrible Administration has deported people without trials, some that are people with green cards and some are US Citizens.  This should anger and frighten everyone. 

This is my 6th afghan project since January of this year.  I've had tons of squares, rectangles etc donated to me for years.  I had a grass roots charity called Bridge and Beyond for 14 years that benefited the Homeless Shelters in my area.  Several years ago I had to disband the charity; but have continued to work my way through my stash and donated pieces parts.    You see small squares, and large squares here.  This will be more tedious to work on than some of my more recent afghans.  Sizing this will be a challenge, and I don't have a lot of an appropriate color of yarn to pull this together.  Orange, Black, and Green, and not a full skein of any of them.  It's not a great picture, but turned it so it would be oriented the same as the picture below.

First thing I had to do was unravel several rows of the very large variegated square (3rd row in 2nd from the left side of the picture.  I was able to use some of that on a few of the other squares.  Likewise I unraveled the too large square top right 5th row in, as it wouldn't fit and was misshapen.  If I had more yarn to size, I might have left the large squares and made the others as large; but ...that's not what I have to work with, so adjustments are needed.  I've made headway, and see the need to unravel a row of the large orangish squares first row, 2nd square.  It's a process!  Might call this Autumn, or Fall, or Halloween, or Trick er Treat.  Will see how it comes along to determine.

The latest beautiful bouquet of flowers darling hubby got me.

Same bouquet, but the other side so you can see all the pretty colors, and the variety of the flowers.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.  I don't want to say much, as I don't want to give away much about the book; but fun, interesting, sad here and there.  Strong women often have a hard time of things.  Not all women were born wanting to be housewives and mothers.

A true story, lost at sea on a secret mission.  Was it so secret no one knew where they were?  A battle of wills, who's in charge.  Full of suspense and courage and desperate measures.

Vietnam Vet, living off the grid.  An abusive situation for both the wife and daughter.  How does one find their way under such horrible circumstances.

I may be one of a few who has NOT seen the show.  I purposely avoided it wanting to read the book first.  Not sure why I waited so long to read/listen to this.  Frightening and the parallels with what this current far right swing is trying to do to our country should make everyone wonder why anyone would have voted for The FELON and JD Vance.  If I hear Vance say one more time women should stay in an abusive relationship, women without children aren't an important part of our society etc.  I'm going to scream from the rooftops.

Crafting, Flying Flags, Audio Books and more

 

Desert Nights is the name I came up with for this one.   Colors change in the desert based on the light and time of the day, oranges various shades of dark dark red,, brown and sky.  I;m pretty sure I don't have enough of any of the 3 colors that go with these squares/pieces parts.  On the left is a very dark maroon, a teal-ish blue, and tangerine.  There are 30 squares, so my plan is to edge for size 10 squares in each color, and then join with the teal-ish blue, as I have the most of it.

The plan of 10 squares with each color worked.  It's now drying/being blocked after being laundered.  I ended up laundering it twice, as some of this yarn wasn't all that soft.  Figured laundering would help to soften it a bit.  This is the 5th one I've put together since January.  I brought one more pile of squares to work on while we're wintering away.  

In these crazy times, I had to get this picture of hope.  The American and Canadian flag being flown at the same establishment.  This is a small bike shop here on Hilton Head Island.  With all the crap The FELON has been doing, some of our Canadian friends were feeling very unwanted here.  They've been coming here for many many years and typically spend about 5 weeks here in the winter months.  They were bad mouth by a couple of loud mouth MAGA cult members during one of our wine and cheese socials a few weeks back which upset many of us.  When it was time for them to return home, they indicated they might not return next year.  This makes me very sad.  The MAGA cult people are very narrow minded and bigoted in my opinion.  I spotted these flags just a few days later.  It made me smile and gives me hope.  So, I sent the picture to my Canadian friend.

I want to encourage you all to read this book.  The audio version is read by the author, Tia Levings.  This is her true story.  A perfect example of how horrible the far right is, is my opinion.  Her escape from Christian Patriarchy.  She was physically and mentally abused in a cult disguised as religion.  In this terrible times of the far right trying to take over our government, our daily lives, our media etc, the book is quite compelling.  It made me wonder if this isn't part of the reason The FELON was elected.  Some of these far right cult groups do not permit their wives to vote, or only permit them to vote if they vote the way the husband tells them to.  I can't help but wonder how many women fall into this category..  I also wonder how anyone feels this is any different than men controlling woman in the Middle East.

Another Kristin Hannah book to put on your list.  A shaky marriage is tested further when the wife is deployed to a war zone.  The husband has never been proud of his wives service, part of the reason the marriage has gotten of the rails..  Also, another example of how men are deemed heroic but when a woman does the same thing, they're not treated equally.

While I've known the name James Patterson, I've not read one of his books before.  Also, mysteries aren't my usual choice of genre to read.  However, I really enjoyed this book.  A good who dun it, within struggles of the rich and famous and those who aren't. 

Walking in February:  290,232 steps total (up from Jan 266,463).  Average 10,365 steps per day (up from 8595 in January).  I didn't add up miles in January, but did in February.  Miles total ws 126.03 for an average of 4.5 per day.  Am pleased I was able to get more walking in.  My best day was Feb 21st 17,433 steps, 7.36 miles.

Planks in February: 19 planks in February (up from 16 in January).

Leg lifts: Fell off, only 6 in Feb whereas I did them 10 days in January.

I am beyond disgusted with how President Zelensky was treated by The Hillbilly and The FELON.  I really do think there's something to the thought that The FELON is an agent for Russia.  I have the book, "American Kompromat" by Craig Unger on a hold through the Libby Library App.  Hope I don't have to wait too long to get it.

Dangerous Times, Afghans Completed

 

Before

And After.  30 squares in this afghan, some knitted but most are crocheted.  In the before you can see how the sizes varied; but thankfully I had a rather large skein of the blue shown in the first picture to size the squares.  Only had a very small ball of yarn left...just made it...whew.  I titled this one Blue Eyes.  It's been laundered and is here drying/being blocked.  This is my 4th ghan made while we're wintering in SC.

Despite the bigoted jerk in The White House move of telling google etc to remove Black History Month, Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage, and Indigenous People's Month from the calendars, This is Black History Month.  If you haven't yet done so, please add it to your calendars, post it to your various social media pages.  AND next add Jewish Heritage Month to your May calendars.

Given we've recently seen Musk, and Steve Bannon give The Nazi Salute in public to applause,  I want to ask everyone to read/listen to this book.  We are facing very serious and scary times.  I know some people say they can't read about WWII or Hitler because it's too close to what's happening right now....I say that's why you must read it.  We had German American Bund Groups here in the US at the height of Hitler coming to power.  I knew Henry Ford and Charles Lindberg were pro-Nazi and anti American Government; but had no idea we had active children's groups.  There were 40 local branches of Nazi Youth Groups here in the US.  There were Nazi Summer Camps, primarily in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania; but the groups spread to Illinois, Wisconsin and California as well.  This book gives you such background about how prevalent White Supremacists were,  and how Pro Nazi groups came to power.  PLEASE read this book and tell others to do so as well.

A  picture from one of the Nazi summer camps...uniforms and swastika's.  And look how young some of these children were as they were being brain washed.

This picture has been posted before, but I thought it worth a repeat.  This Neo Nazi group marched in a neighborhood not far from my home just a few months ago.  The KKK is still alive and well, as are many other groups (The Oath Keepers, 2 percenters,  The Proud Boys) etc.  

There may be some confusion over what the child did or didn't say to THE FELON, but there's no confusion over how hideous this was that someone not elected, not vetted, someone without security clearance is doing a presser from The Oval office, as he looms over the convicted criminal.  I don't often say alot about politics on this blog, but........I'm not able not to today.

While this book isn't about WWII, it's about The Vietnam War; I found it also very pertinent to our time.  As minority groups are losing protections, this books paints a very true story of how horribly women were treated by their friends, their families, their government, their Veterans Association; and the general public.  YES, there were woman in Vietnam, and they suffered.  Nurses were on the front lines and experienced horrific first hand atrocities.  They, like the soldiers had a hard time trying to adjust to post war life in the US.  I've read several of Kristin Hannah's books, this might be one of her best.

Knitted and crocheting and exercising helps me not totally focus on all the horrific things happening, not just here in the US; but globally as well.

More Projects and Books

 

Titled this one Down in the Valley.  These strips were donated with the intent they would be scarves, but they're all to small to be scarves.  I've mixed them up in way to make an afghan.  The strips are different lengths and widths.

Using yarn I had in my stash, I had enough blue to edge for size and join and make a wide border.  It measures 55 x 40 inches, so not a bad size in the end.  I ended up not using 3 of the strips because it would have been long and narrow.  I'll see if I can incorporate the 3 strips not used in another project.

A recent vase of flowers along with a nice cocktail (and in the background you can see Crayons when it was laid out to dry.  That's 2 afghans back.  

The Paper Plane Cocktail is very pretty and refreshing.  Generally you use equal parts of Bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and Lemon Juice.  I like to use just half the amount of Lemon Juice, as I think it over powers the over flavors.  Garnish with a dehydrated slice of orange.  When I don't have dehydrated orange slices I use a fresh slice.

A true story from WWII.  The Americans were far outnumbered, the weather was against them, had been for 4 months with rain that slowed the march to Berlin.  In December of 1944 Patton summoned the Chaplain and asked for a prayer for the weather.  He got one, had it distributed to 250,000 men.  Then came the Battle of the Bulge, heavy fog as the enemy converged at Bastogne.  Will he get the miracle he and the troops prayed for in time?

Judy Blume, a woman ahead of her time knew how to relate to young teens with questions about their bodies, about growing up and more.  She talked about things that parents didn't want to talk to their children about.  She changed the way many of us grew up........until censorship of her honesty put her on the most banned booked list.  She pushed boundaries the far right didn't want pushed, she promoted equality for women.  A fascinating book.  I personally didn't realize the backlash she experienced for years.  And now with books being banned once again by the far right, as a means of controlling what people learn; this book seems quite timely.

The next 3 books in the Bess Crawford Series:

A Hanging at Dawn, full of suspense and mystery about Simon Brandon's past, why is he in jail?  Will help arrive before dawn downs?

An Irish Hostage, The war is over but; is it peaceful?  Many Irish still hate the Brits and mistrust those who fought with her.  Mystery, and hate erupt in a small village; are the Irish who fought with the Brits really their enemy?

The Cliffs Edge.  In the aftermath of WWI, people are trying to heal, trying to overcome food shortages that still exist.  People are angry, mistrust pits family against family.  Using her nursing skills, Bess aids a family friend until she's needed more urgently elsewhere.  Injury, death, fighting within pulls a town apart with her in the middle of it all.

In January I managed 266,463 steps for the month, an average of 8,595 per day with my best day being just over 14,000.  I did not get back into Yoga as I planned.  I did about 10 days of leg lifts twice a day (forgot to record some days, thus the estimate).  I was able to increase my planks from 30 seconds x 3 to 35 seconds x 3, and then 35 seconds x 4.  I did planks 16 days in January.  Will try to increase things during February.

Projects, Finishes and Work in Progress...and!

 

Bright Jewel was designed some time back and has been in a project bag waiting it's turn to be be worked on.

Here it is in the works.  These squares are more unform then many I work with, so sizing/edging these is going quickly; as you can see.  The white space is where the last square was being worked on.  Stay tuned.  I wasn't sure how large this would be with less edging then I sometimes use, but also wasn't sure how much lavender I had to do the edging, so kept it limited.  The plan was to finish them all in terms of sizing and limited edging, then see how much yarn I had to determine whether or not to edge more.

This was the original design of Crayon, but I needed 5 squares from this design to help complete an additional afghan.

Here it is sized and edged (same picture as previous post), and tied ready to stitch together.

Here it is completed.  It's been laundered and is drying.

And now, Bright Jewels is drying/being blocked.  I started this post a day or so ago, and in the meantime was able to complete this ghan.  Very happy with how it turned out.  Instead of adding more edging to each square, as I was anticipated doing,  I added multiple rows in the border and then a scalloped edge.  Click the picture to enlarge it to see the scalloped edge.  As always all the afghans will be donated to a family shelter.

Pastel Tulips has grown from 7 inches in the last picture to 10 inches here.  I work on this in-between the other afghan progjects.

Books 10, 11, and 12 in the series.  "A Casualty of War", the war is close to over; but the aid stations are still over run with badly injuried men.  One of Bess's patients thinks his cousin tried to kill him...Bess is put in harms way as she tries to unravel the mystery.  He says he's not crazy, but Bess maybe the only one who believes him.

"A Forgotten Place", The Armistice has been signed, but not the Peace Treaty; so injuries and death are still happening.  Bess tried to aid an Welsh amputee patient by going to a small Welsh mining town where mysterious murders are taking place; and she's smack dab in the middle of it.

"A Cruel Deception, people gather in Paris to try and hammer out the Peace Treaty, but Bess is sent on a secret and highly personal mission that puts her in harms way with a dangerous murderer/drug addict.

• Exercising is coming along, not great but better than last month so that's a plus.
• Can't believe we had snow here in South Carolina, geesh we left Ohio for the winter to escape the cold and snow.  Things were closed down for several days, and it took a whole week for the golf courses to open again.
• We've enjoyed meeting up with a good number of people from other years, have had social gatherings, and gone out to dinner.  So, having a good time despite the colder than normal weather that everyone seems to be experiencing.