Paper Canoes, Patrick Shawn, Patchwork Quilts&Cats, Persimmon Envy.

If Patience is a virtue than Persimmons are the perfect plant to push your pertinacious personality. Oriental persimmons take seven years to fruit. 7. I get antsy waiting for my toast to toast. BUT, some lovely garden fairy planted persimmons in the pasture of the house we rent and apparently it is this tree’s 7th birthday!!

Happy 7th Birthday Oriental Persimmon!

It is loaded with fruit and because we have very diligent cats and terrifying geese, our squirrel population is non-existent! So I have high hopes that it will be glowing with fruit here shortly. I have a friend who is madly envious of this tree and also told me that apparently these trees are much coveted for golf clubs? Ick.

Lombax on patrol.

Whilst many trees make you think of paper, how often do you look at a tree and think, “Paper Canoe!” I am going with never on that. I do, however, love to read old, old books and see paragraphs that are so pertinent to your current setting that is makes you freeze and re-read it and then chuckle-sigh to understand that there really is NEVER anything new under the sun as far as people are concerned, the newness simply being that is it NEW to US as we experience it. There is a book called “The Voyage of the Paper Canoe” that is about a man travelling the country in 1875. By Canoe. Below is an excerpt from his journal while he was visiting HERE in Sloop Point!

“Wednesday opened with partially clearing weather, and the icy covering of the trees yielded to the softening influences of a southern wind. The family went to the landing to see me off, and the kind ladies stowed many delicacies, made with their own hands, in the bow of the boat. After rowing a half-mile, I took a lingering look at the shore, where those who four days ago were strangers, now waved an adieu as friends. They had been stript of their wealth, though the kind old planter had never raised his hand against the government of his fathers. This family, like thousands of people in the south, had suffered for the rash deeds of others. While the political views of this gentleman differed from those of the stranger from elsewhere, it formed no barrier to their social intercourse, and did not make him forget to exhibit the warm feelings of hospitality which so largely influence the Southerner. I went to him, as a traveller in search of truth, upon an honest errand…and where fourteen millions of people desire to be permitted to enjoy the same privileges as the Constitution of the United States guarantees to all…”

YOU SEE. It is possible to not be a savage regardless of your political views or persuasions. You needn’t be a jerk and everyone is entitled to an opinion and it DOESN’T HAVE TO MATCH YOURS. Freedom isn’t being free, it’s being free to CHOOSE without being persecuted for your choice. That’s the beauty of freedom. And everyone should get to choose. I had someone who I know thinks they love me, as a friend, tell me in all seriousness that women voting was a problem. I did not destroy this person, though I admit, it hurt to hear that, nor did I try to dissuade him from his opinion, but it strengthened my resolve to do more on the ground around me to ensure that I hold onto all the choices available to me and use them in the best way possible. It’s a matter of education, you see.

So I hold, that the problem is not necessarily the “haves” vs. the “have-nots” but more a “Choice” vs “no choice.” You can’t miss something you never had. Truly hungry people can’t demand ultra-specific foods. You have no choice. And in America, there-in lies the rub. If you can’t choose the things other people have the luxury of choosing, it makes you mad. You feel, if you are here, you should get to choose. And the people preventing you from making that choice are the bad ones. I never get political on here and I am not about to now, BUT, since the advent of all the Covid debacle, I have been disappointed in the general reaction of people. I don’t know why I was hoping so hard for a scene change, but I was! I truly hoped that during the quarantine, people would use their imaginations and spare time to walk in somebody else’s shoes. Let the restrictions open your eyes to people who can’t travel, are confined to a nursing home, locked up in prison, are teachers, work in daycares, can’t afford to eat out, can’t afford cars, have mental illnesses that make them afraid to leave their home, are caring for spouses that are incapacitated, so very many correlations were to be drawn from the restrictions, and yet, none of that seems to have happened on the majority of people. I can say, first-hand, from the reactions of visiting tourists, week after week who are baffled that there are Covid Restrictions down HERE followed by equally instant irritation that we did not fling the doors back open the minute the “government” said we could. This is where the lack of imagination cracks me up. Do you know what kind of change it took to switch to the new system? Do you know that our JOB has never been to cater to your whim? There was a book coming out that I had been so anxious to read and then I heard her interview on a podcast and I decided I was in fact NOT going to read the book. In this interview they are discussing all the sweeping changes needed in the restaurant industry. And her tone, so superior, so self-involved, I cringe even thinking about it. I was a girl growing up in the restaurant industry and yes, the gross stuff is totally true. BUT, few normal people can sustain the amount of crap people will dish out over food!!! We have had grown women have hissy fits in this bakery because we didn’t have what they wanted. Obviously, the restaurant industry has been widely discussed and written about from Anthony Bourdain, Bill Buford, Gabrielle Hamilton, Scott Hass, the list is huge but what I think is SO funny is that NEVER is it the fault of the consumer/customer. HOW CAN THAT BE? Who created the world that unrealistic customer demands were the way the world had to function to be sustainable and healthy and responsible??? (Here’s looking at you Amazon, McDonald’s and Disney!!!!) Yes, the restaurant industry needs an overhaul but so do ALL THE INDUSTRIES. The answer is in the middle. Consumerism has translated to politics and EVERYTHING is about MONEY and that is just not going to work anymore. There are way, way, way too many people on the planet now for this wildness to continue. You, madame, demanding your one cinnamon roll at 7 a.m. simply because you want it that way does NOT mean that my entire family has to change their life to accommodate you. Restaurants DON’T have to offer strawberries year round. Nobody finds the idea of a complete meal ready for your in sixty seconds in a drive thru unsettling? Have you ever made yourself food that fast at home? Shouldn’t that worry you? Do you EVER get the same kind of service from your doctor or insurance agent that you demand from a minimum wage kitchen person? WOULD you put the same demands on yourself you are putting on the people making your soy latte? And when I find myself in the middle of this debate in my head, I simply retreat to the land of quilts. It is safe there, soft and quiet, and full of nothing but comfort.

A clothesline full of happiness and history!

I can’t quilt. In fact, I can’t even sew a button. It’s true. LUCKILY, I have been surrounded by Quilting Queens my whole life, in one form or another and they have kept me snug! One of my quilts even predicted the future and I never saw it coming!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Fox and the Hound quilt, circa 1980. Shawn’s favorite book from childhood 1980.

Mom made me the Fox and the Hound quilt for naptime in pre-school. It had pink pigs on the back and my name on front in rainbow letters. My name now is simply, “M”. ( I am a HUGE believer in signs though, so when the “M” disappears will I have evaporated? We shall see.) And so it followed that I rolled through life and into adulthood as a massive fan of pigs, rainbows and blankets. Fox and the Hound was too sad, though and that bear was TERRIFYING so it was never a favorite of mine. But not too far away, it was Mr. Smith’s favorite book and the first movie he ever went to see in a theatre!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I have beautiful quilts my friend Kathleen made for Connor and one for me, perfect lap quilts, and absolute works of art and love. Logan has a quilt from his childhood, I have my brother’s old baby quilt. I have art that looks like a quilt. And I have one one of my all-time favorite books, that my aunt gave me 100 years ago about the Patchwork Cat, and we do indeed now have that very cat in our home 🙂 Quilts make excellent couch covers when you have dogs that shed like mad and boys that eat on the go. Even Phineas T Piglet has a quilt that I scavenged from the side of the road. He loves a good blanket! The thing about quilts is all quilts tell a story. Old quilts made from flour sacks have stories to tell and new quilts made from quilting circles have heard so many stories when the quilters gather round to speak their minds.

But since I can’t quilt, this fall, I am making a Patchwork Garden! I have the most ALLURING LETTUCES coming from Green Drop Farms this week and I am going to transform my garden into a quilt! I am quite excited about the possibilities because we have MADE IT THROUGH SEPTEMBER without a hurricane and I am beside myself with joy!

• 

• 

  Quilt Gardens in Elkhart County

• 

Send me pictures of your fall gardens or your pumpkin-y porches! I love getting everybody’s pictures. So much inspiration! (Also fun story, when I was doing the pumpkin display late one night this drunk gal rolled up and demanded her husband buy her a cinderella punkin’-they were both stinking drunk and I told them if they took it and ran they could just have it-which they did-let me tell you 2 drunk adults running down a Surf City sidewalk at 10 at night with a massive pumpkin is worth it weight in gourds. It was their anniversary and she wanted that pumpkin and as they were careening down the sidewalks she shrieked, “Best anniversary everrrr,” and it was THE BEST.)

• 

Don’t forget this Sunday is Patrick Shawn’s birthday, and as he is older than me I rub it in with MUCH glee and there will be oodles of cake slices! And I will leave you with a picture for your week that will inspire you to plunk on a hat, pull out your typewriter and WRITE!

The cutest niece in THE WORLD!!!