Finally Finished

See her? She's done!

After all this time, she's finished.

She's even better now than she was 30 minutes ago when I took this photo, due to a nice cool bath to remove the last remains of her misguided, recently stinky past. I am throwing out the chart and threads. The chart is pieced together badly, and the threads smell so musty, there's nothing they can really be used for, at least that I am willing to let them be used for. If it was the spring, maybe I'd put them out for the birds to use, but they've been around cats, dogs and humans so long, and they're ratty looking.

I do feel like this is a major stitching accomplishment. After all those years of just putzing around with her, I finished her. And I know I can finish a Dimensions Gold Collection kit. It's sort of the same feeling I got when I finally finished a Stoney Creek. One less thing I can't say, "I can't do that." Now to get it framed.


Not much else is happening. I sang at the funeral yesterday. It was very hard to get through. This is the first funeral I've sang at that I couldn't get through the song without breaking. But I got to sing with Jane's lovely brother, Bill, and it was something Jane wanted, so we got through. I went down and rehearsed with him on Wednesday, which was a help to both of us, just to talk, and to sing a little. He is a font of knowledge on traditional hymns, and he's a fantastic guitar player. He knows arrangements of music that just push me as a singer, and we have such good musical chemistry together. We already made plans to sing at Christmas, so that should be fun.

And his wife gave me the best treat. 4 fresh tomatoes from her garden! I'd forgotten in my city days that everyone in the country grows tomatoes and never can use them all. Everyone always has a table FULL of tomatoes in their back entryway, I guess as a parking lot til they figure out what to do with them, or who to bless with them. I was so grateful--a home-grown tomato is a gift, and I got 4! ANNNNNNDDDDD the orchard nearby had green tomatoes, so I got some of those, along with some lovely big peaches and giant cucumbers. At some point this weekend, we're going to be enjoying fried green tomatoes and bacon (OK, I'll be enjoying the fried green tomatoes, SO very firmly declined my offer to make him some, he has no clue what he's missing), and then also some pasta salad made with upcounty tomatoes and cukes. Heavenly . . .