Let the sun shine in.

How many times have I written in the past couple of weeks about the weather? Either I'm writing about how hard it's raining, or I'm writing about how fantastic the weather is. I'm like a broken record. Someone give me a new topic, please! But I haven't got a new topic yet, so let's continue with the weather theme.

Saturday was such a beautiful day. I mean, a really, really beautiful day. Doug and I got up early to enjoy as much of the day as possible. We drove down to Newport to see a couple of the mansions, and also to walk the Cliff Walk, the 3.5 mile walk along the water. Views of the ocean on one side, views of the palatial estates on the other, with bright sun shining down. Can't think of a better way to spend the day.

Doug posed on the grounds of The Elms. We really liked the grounds of this mansion; no ocean view, but the gardens were very European. And on the way to and from Newport we saw several of these: Personally, I think wind turbines are beautiful (how many times can I use that word in a blog post? Let's count.), like art, and I wish I could see more of these dotting the horizon. They spin in this very constant way, reminding me of the wings of a large bird. More of these, please!

We also spent the beautiful (what's that... ten times now?) days doing somewhat less exciting things, like grocery shopping (Wyatt's not sure he approves of the new bag, but I do), quilt-making, and fixing a couple of toilets. We could put off fixing the toilets no longer, so now the now one in the basement actually works, and the one upstairs flushes properly. (Thanks, Sasha, for all the hard work helping Doug with this!) And I could put off taking the next step in my quilt-making no longer. This project, as expected, is way more intensive than bib-making. I am trying to do it in little steps, and so this weekend I laid out the top layer in the pattern I liked, noted which square went where, and then put all the squares in a pile again to sit and wait for me to get time to do the next step, which is to start sewing them all together. Here's the top layer as it will hopefully look when done: I'm a little apprehensive about starting the next layer. With my bibs, I had so much extra material that it didn't matter if I messed one up. It was easy enough to just cut another piece and start again. I don't have extra of these t-shirts, so if I screw this up I have to somehow figure out how to either fix the mistake or... well, there is no other choice. The stakes are higher with this project, but that just means that the reward will be higher. I can't wait to see the final product, which I'm still hoping will be by summer.

I also have hope that one day I'll finish True Compass, which I've been reading for what seems like forever. I am enjoying it, and I am learning a lot, but reading a book that's over 400 pages is a real commitment for me. There are not enough hours in the day! But there's time to read now, so that's what I shall go and do.