Thankful Thursday #11

As always, there is so very much to be thankful for in my corner of the world.  The first is a quilty item I finished up this morning that I just love:

The bowl is not crooked!

This is one of my goals I didn't quite reach from Q2 FAL.  The Blue Ribbon Star quilt and Brady's movie took precedence.  Oh well, I want to make an entire set of these Fabric Nesting Bowls, a pattern I bought from Nova at A Cuppa and a Catch Up.  It's the smallest one, a 4" bowl.  Let's take a peek inside...

Maybe she's put some biscuits in there

I'd heard clicking of nails and knew someone was coming to investigate, but didn't expect him to stick his nose in right as I took the photo!
Try again:

Great bowl for my fancy metallic threads, which I no longer store in the freezer. Now to keep Bella out of them; she has a thread fetish as you know, both spool and fibre.

I have two more cut out, ready to assemble.  The lining is a chunk left from one of Brianne's quilts, which I'd originally bought for kaleidoscope backgrounds, but have used as a backing as well.  It's Coral Reef by Jinny Beyer from a very long time ago.  I still absolutely love it.  There's not much left now, maybe half a yard.  I did 1/4" quilting lines in Sulky pink rayon and Robison Anton black rayon threads.  The fabric is black Kona, and Timeless Treasures Fabrics of SoHo (bought at fabric.com this past spring).

As you know I live right on Lake Erie; we have a partial view of it from our patio, and the beach is a 30-second walk down the hill.  I am thankful on a daily basis that I get to gaze on, play and boat in her waters whenever I so choose.  Even though I am an Aries, a fire sign, water soothes my soul, as they say.  The neighbours like to get together from time to time of an evening for a beverage on the beach.  To celebrate Canada Day yesterday, several of us got together.

Although there wasn't much in the way of a beautiful sunset, the water was perfect:  a gentle lap-lapping as we visited.  This freighter was waiting for clearance I imagine, to get into our harbour.  Kingsville has a working harbour which is two blocks from our house to the east of this beach.

If you read my post yesterday, you know a couple of things.  First, that we spent the afternoon at Point Pelee National Park, which had free entry for Canada Day.  I said it was probably my favourite place in Canada, but my husband reminded me of my other favourite, Waterton National Park in Alberta.  So they are pretty much tied, with Jasper National Park coming in a very close second to these two...gosh, I realize that I am so very grateful for our national parks, such wild beauty that should be revered and left in peace with as small a human footprint as possible.

There were two big differences in this trip:  a lot more people than when we were there last September with Brady, and a shocking difference in the point, which is Canada's southernmost mainland point at 41 degrees 41'N.

The point. You know there's a sandbar there because of the low waves flowing out there, but crashing against these rocks.

 Here I am yesterday amongst the rock and cement and driftwood debris:

very strong rather cool westerly winds

And here I am last September with Brady.

easterly wind here, and we are at least 1/8 mile past where I was yesterday

Update: so I Googled the changing point at Point Pelee, and so far haven't come up with anything much to explain it other than the obvious: wind direction, which influences wave direction, which moves sand like you wouldn't believe (I've seen lots of evidence of changing sands at our own beach).  I did find this interesting video, however, so you see just how far Brady and I were compared to where I was yesterday.  (Note, he comments about wondering if he can see Boblo, aka Bois Blanc Island, which is roughly 50 km/30 miles as the crow flies from the point. It's flat here yes, but there happens to be a huge chunk of Essex County beween the point and Boblo, in the Detroit River!  And his comment about the danger of swimming or wading at the point is so true; several tragedies have occurred as the undertows and currents are incredibly strong. Note #2: first time embedding a YouTube video and it worked!  Kewl, as my sister, Linda, would say.  Now if I could get the Feedly button to actually work...)

All that wave-crashing and spray on the west side of the point, and look:

incredibly calm with blues and green to delight my eyes

I have to say, with a huge sigh, that I am grateful for another aspect of lake living: fishflies.  Shiver.

About 2" in length, they can't fly well, do not bite, just stink

Although these little buggers insects are putrid to the point of invoking nausea from most of us who live here, and snap! crackle! pop! just like bubble wrap when you step on them, which, you will see you have no choice but to do, they are an indication that, with the numbers (billions) we have seen, especially this year, Lake Erie is getting healthier and healthier.  She was used, as so many of our bodies of water are on this planet, as a dumping ground.

What we have woken up to for the past two weeks. Yes they are higher-than-the-curb thick under the streetlight and they reek to high heaven of dead fish

They are attracted to the lights because they fly up towards the moon and mate and the larvae fall back down to earth.  They are also known as Junebugs, since they are only around in June.  It's revolting, and I'm glad it's over. It's like magic how they disappear, none out there today, and MacGyver thinks he can powerwash tomorrow and reclaim our cement areas.  I am thankful for our powerwasher!

The second thing you know from my post yesterday is that I had two choices for Cheryl's mystery quilt along.  I am so thankful to those of you who gave advice, and so I have made my final decision:

Thanks to Shelley, I swapped the order, but I've had to add in the cream with gold cat fabric as I don't have enough of the taupe/cream.  Let me know what you think of this; I'm a bit concerned it might be too much of a jump in tone.  And thanks to Yvonne, I've now used the green I had originally placed with the more Christmas run of fabrics.  The majority said they preferred my #1 choice, so bring on part 1!  I'm ready.

Linking up with Yvonne's Quilty Thankful Thursday (oh no! after writing all this, and hopping over to link up, I see she is discontinuing it... I understand why.  However, I will still do these gratitude posts from time to time; it's who I am. :-)  There is a lot in this messed-up world to be thankful for, really.  I still think they should let quilters have an input into the running of countries.  We know all too well, that no matter what colour the quilt is, the innards are the same: batting and thread with a backing.  We know that there are many fabric companies, so who cares which one it is, the fibres are the same: cottons woven to make our diverse, yet gorgeous in their own way fabrics that add beauty to our world.  Hope you get my metaphor.  :-)