Cinco de Mayo

I've just returned from a weekend with family, celebrating nephew Charlie's First Communion in one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen (St. Mary's Catholic Church in Northampton , Mass). It's one of those big, old cathedral looking churches with columns and naves and a long center aisle leading to an altar which was a deep robins egg blue with gold trim; white columns. Magnificient. I find being in church is a very emotional experience for me. Brings up lots of stuff I guess, lapsed catholic that I have become. Probably need to spend some time thinking about that. But what I AM spending my time thinking about is yardwork. A little bit every day. Yesterday I spent an hour or so dividing my lily bulbs. Hope they survive. I read online they were pretty hardy and could withstand some abuse, so I went at it. I also drove to the coast and the site of our new home and planted the 3 crabapples, the lilac and the 'something' redbud my sister gave me. By the time we start building, we'll have some nice trees waiting for us.

This weekend in Northampton was the Gay Pride Parade. We missed the parade but saw a few of the floats and participants milling around before it began. No one can say that that community is boring. Of course I forgot my camera. We also went to TWIST-a huge art/craft extravanganza. I was impressed with how many of the vendors used recycled materials and had Etsy shops. As a matter of fact recycled-UPCYCLED they called it, was HUGE. Flip tops made into bracelets, purses. Plastic bags made into purses, jewelry. Lots of collage with everything you can imagine.

I treated myself to a new cookbook. My sister had the new Cooks Illustrated tome, a huge heavy book that even taught you how to scrub potatoes, (not that there's anything wrong with that).

But I chose Ina Garten.
To me she's like the Mr. Rogers of the cooking shows. I just feel myself relax when I tune in to watch her. And her recipes are straightforward and easy to prepare. This one is Back to Basics. Just what I need, new basic ideas.

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I'm teaching the last rag rug class at the library. Then I'm going to sort some books for our huge, gigantic (we'll see) book sale, then come home and do the laundry. No coffee by the lake this morning, too windy and cold. Showers for the rest of the week. And not one thought about doing something in my studio...hmmm.