Not much sewing time....

HAPPY MAY 1st to all of you! April certainly flew, didn't it? No sewing-related photos here today. Between my part-time typing job and also getting ready for a big music weekend at church, no sewing took place yesterday. Today I am in a handbell concert at church and right after that, I have a practice for tomorrow's folk group music at church....then have to come home and knock out some of the typing for the doctor. Tomorrow after church, I have to finish that typing, so....very little sewing either day, I suspect. I've posted here an assortment of flower photos that I've taken recently...some in our yard and others in downtown Lewes. Hope you enjoy them (I think they will all enlarge if you wish to see them close up). I hope I'll be back with some quilting-related photos early in the week. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Some of our azaleas about a week ago.....more of them are in bloom now...I should take more photos this weekend.Our chives have gone WILD!!!Orange azaleas (a deciduous azalea that looks dead in the winter!)Some of the tulips that were at the entrance to our housing development recently.Remaining photos are of flowers in Lewes, Delaware, two weeks ago. I love living near this old, historic town!Yes...this next one shows a cannon. Lewes was a town with a fort that played an important part in the protection of the coast in years past.

Some decorations and more......

We had a bad night Wednesday into Thursday....woke up at 3 a.m. in the midst of a terrible wind and rainstorm...power was out AND we had 3 leaks in our ceilings....2 in the kitchen and 1 in the guest bathroom. We never went back to sleep after that. We had to get in touch AGAIN with the company that did the repair work after the tree came down on the house in the summer...the company that did a totally new roof....a roof that leaks! Today someone is to come out and fix it again. I pointed out that we have been patient but this is getting OLD now...and I need it fixed. I told them I will report them to the insurance company if it's not taken care of properly. (They don't want that as we have a big company for our insurance...Liberty Mutual...and they remove poor contractors from their "preferred" list and that would be a big blow to this contractor.) So...keep your fingers crossed they get it fixed this time...it's pretty upsetting. We have a two-year warranty on workmanship and this is the second time we've had them out in less than a month for leaks!

Okay...now for a couple of fun photos. One is of a chicken wishbone that my grandkids decorated with me a few years back. We did several of them and used gold craft paint (can't tell that in the photo very well) and painted the wishbones...let them dry....wrapped twist ties around them so we could attach ornament hangers and hang them easily...and put bows on them. Some have red bows and some have green. When one of the grands hangs them on the tree, I tell them they need to make a secret wish...it's kind of fun...and an EASY project. Just make sure your wishbones are washed well and let to air dry for quite awhile.Next is a photo of 6 of a set of 12 dolls I made years back with a friend. We started with a cardstock base and glued wooden beads on for heads and used felt, sequins, etc. for dresses. They are all "international" dolls and I enjoy seeing them every year. (The photo should enlarge if you click on it.) They were made at a time in our lives when money was tight...our kids were very small...and there wasn't a lot of money for tree decorations. They are about 30 years old now. They were made with a lot of love. They have a special place in my heart and I hope my daughter and grandkids will value them when I am gone. I hang them with pride on my tree each year!I feel like I am getting a nasty cold and I hope I'm wrong. I have a handbell concert to play in on Saturday afternoon and a folk group practice that evening and folk group on Sunday morning at church. I don't have TIME to be sick!!! Hopefully, the rest of the stitches come out of my forehead today and there is no further trouble with this area.

Some photos of our tree damage.......

I am hoping to sleep tonight.......after not sleeping last night more than 3 hours. I realize the damage could have been a lot worse and we could have been hurt. I am very grateful to all of you for the caring comments and emails I got.....and I apologize for not having time amidst all the "activity" here today to reply to you. I think the reasons I am upset are that: the tree was on COMMON ground and should be the landowner's responsibility...not MINE (as it wasn't on MY lot).........there are 5 MORE trees that are just as scraggly and just as exposed to TOTAL wind (due to the recently totally cleared....basically, stripped...land behind us)....and the tree removal guy said in his professional opinion, we are sitting ducks for this to happen again with any of those other trees if the landowner won't take them down. (And those other trees are positioned so that they would really do more serious damage to the house.) SO....it's hard NOT to be upset and nearly impossible to go to sleep in a relaxed frame of mind!

Here are a few photos....as always, click to enlarge. This is a neighbor looking at one of the other trees that could easily topple onto our house. (There was total woods behind us when we bought....and the trees were thick enough that they provided a good break from the wind...now the area is TOTALLY devoid of trees except for these few pines near the fence...in sort of a line next to the one that came down). The tree landed ON the house but was about a foot ABOVE our cute little storage shed...and it was very tricky to get the tree down without any of it falling ON the shed and, probably, ruining the shed. These tree removal guys were very good at what they do! (But I had to shell out a check for $3,100......will get $2,100 of it back from insurance, supposedly.) It still was a hardship to write out a check of that size.
The peak of the roof is nearly flattened. At least today was sunny and rain-free for the tree removal work. The worst of the damage is over the master bathroom.....skylight has damage and there are roof rafters (beams) that are destroyed....so major work will be needed there. Some of the damage is over the master bedroom...but not much of it. We don't know if there was any damage to the foundation areaThis is an "aerial" view of the damage. Hubby was invited by the tree removal guy to go up in the bucket truck to get this angle for the insurance company. My stomach knotted up when I first saw the damage in daylight....it's hard to see your home look that way. It helped me to get online last night and read all your caring comments to me...had to laugh at Dawn's comment that even with this upsetting episode in my life, I didn't miss a blog post. I emailed her back and told her that blogging is what keeps me sane most days!!! Thanks to all of you...it did help me a lot to find so many messages last night.