Sepia Sampler...and Other Things That Begin With "Ssss"

I am still struggling with the souls stranded on the Isle of the Unfinished, but have rescued one:  "Sepia Sampler," a design by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm, is now finally finished and framed.  (The frame is not as black as it appears in the photo - there are wonderful wood tones that reflect the sepia tones of the sampler colors.)

{Stitched 1 over 2 on 36ct "Wren" by Picture This Plus.}

The smoke from the Canadian wildfires has once again enveloped Nod.

Every morning, every evening and every hour in between is shrouded in haze.

{Smokebush and Echinacea...and wildfire smoke}

This round, the smoke seems particularly irritating to my eyes so I checked on the back gardens, then retreated to my dungeon.

{View from the dungeon}
 

It's not such a bad place to be considering the "babies" are now hatched and out and about.

You know...those other things that start with "ssss...."

Yes, that streak of red on the left of the photo below is a very forked tongue.

They are every bit as feisty as the adults.

If you don't hear from me in a few weeks, please tell someone to bring bread and water....

On second thought, hold the water...make it wine.

Magnolias on Monday

 

Happy Monday, Happy May.

The Magnolias are finally blooming.

They are such odd little things to me - putting out their beautiful blooms long before their leaves.

There is not much new here.  The days have been gray and gloomy.

{Rajah Roo}

I fear that soon that everyone here will soon melt into a morass of grayness.

I finally finished (?) hooking Early Bird (design by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm).

The question mark is there because I am not thrilled with my background hooking and the longer it sits about unbound, the more the urge to do some reverse hooking takes hold.

We'll see.  For now, it is keeping the other unbound rugs company on my table. 

I have also made progress on "Sepia Sampler," another design by Lori from Notforgotten Farm. 

For some reason, this has been a really soothing stitch - except that border.  Believe it or not, the stems are a different color than the leaves on the "clover" (at least they look like clovers to me) so there is a great deal of starts and stops.  I probably should have changed out one of the colors so the difference was more noticeable, but it's too late now.

And I'm not certain why I'm bothering to tell you this since the colors are not showing properly on the photo.

Have I mentioned it's gray and gloomy here?

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In the reading department, this is one I finished a few months back already.

I had enjoyed another book by this author, Anxious People, which I mentioned in this post so, of course, I had to read another by him.

Like Anxious People, this book does not fall within the genre to which I generally gravitate.  It is quirky and different and, again, I find the author's wry humor irresistible.

It is the story of young Elsa, whose grandmother is, well, nuts.

When Elsa's grandmother dies, Elsa is charged with tracking down people her grandmother has wronged in her life and apologizing to them.

It turns into an adventure of fairy tales and imaginary kingdoms and all-too-real heartbreak.

And like any good fairy tale, there is a lot of wisdom packed inside if you're open to finding it.

It's about grief, forgiveness and, most of all, embracing being different - something some of us can relate to too well.

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Well, I'm off to get some bread in the oven.  After a week of thinking I need to break my hermitage and get some groceries, I decided it's easier to bake.

Here's hoping your Monday has some Magnolias and fairy tales in it.