What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 I left for Florida (see Monday's post) with 18 9-1/2" crumb blocks on the design wall. By the time I got home on Friday I had a good idea what I'd do with them.  (Surely I am not the only quilter who mentally designs quilts as a way to fall asleep.)  

 Even though yesterday was the full moon, I slept like a baby! Although, isn't that expression kind of silly since babies tend to wake up a lot! I slept well - let's just put it that way! 

Yesterday was an interesting day. We had a visitor, and the Pony Express is alive and well. Actually, we had a visitor the day before as well. Both were making pick-ups and drop-offs for the Pony Express. And besides the rescue, which I'll get into in a moment, I just didn't seem to be working very fast. I'm not ...

I made time for only two walks this week, in and around meetings, when it was still warm and sunny.    The front came through Saturday night.  We had a dusting of snow and the Sunday high was in the mid-30's.  

Left: Mr. and Mrs. Crane out for a promenade at Middlefork Forest Preserve on Wednesday afternoon.  I was that close to them.

I stopped at Middlefork on my way to Lake Forest Place where the AAUW book group meets.  This month we discussed Horse by Geraldine Brooks.  I listened to it earlier this year when Diann/Little Penguin recommended ...

 There were about 20 trick-or-treaters on Friday afternoon.  The little kids are the cutest.  And most said "Thank you" without any coaching.   Three 11-year-old boys were wide-eyed at the bags of popcorn I gave out.  "You are the WINNER!!" one of them said.

 Autumn colors and a wooly bear caterpillar at Illinois Beach State Park yesterday.   Bottom left:  two mullein sprouting new green leaves.  We haven't had a frost yet.

As so often happens, it takes an obituary or a funeral to reveal all of a person's accomplishments and how many lives that person touched.  Saturday afternoon I ...

Fringed gentian -- you can see the fringes at the edges of the petals.  They like sunshine and moist (but not wet) soil.  The lake prairie at Illinois Beach State Park is just right.  

Some have a single stem and others have multiple stems.

Such a beautiful blue!

Upper left:  this channel is the Middle Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River.  It flows into the Des Plaines which flows into the Illinois which flows into the Mississippi and then to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Monarch on ironweed.  Top:  Scarlet lobelia and asters; compass plant.  Center: Obedient plant; water smartweed or amphibious bistort (what a wonderful name!). Bottom: monarch on ...

Tussock moth and monarch caterpillars both eat milkweed.  Their coloration is meant to deter predators; apparently milkweed-filled caterpillars don't taste very good.  (How do scientists figure that out?)

On Monday afternoon I helped set up for ...

Erika treated me to brunch (crepes benedict, which provided supper as well), with a cinnamon roll from the restaurant and some P.E.O. daisies.  

I spent much of the afternoon in air conditioned comfort with a Zoom call and paperwork for Stevens' estate.  It is not at all like the BBC dramas where the lawyer brings everyone together and reveals the contents of the will.  In this case, there are IRS forms, new accounts to open, and ...