February 21, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 33 Comments

No Leaping This Year

Lincoln is winding up here, ready to leap into the fray. Doesn’t he know that 2023 is not a leap year?

A year has 365 and 1/4 days, but how do you have a quarter of a day? We make up for it by having 365 days in our calendar every year, but every fourth year we add one day to even things out.

Next year (2024) will be a leap year, so it will have 366 days (one extra day in February).

Lincoln is not going to leap this year. He’s just getting warmed up.

Only 28 days in February this year, so those poor fellows who were born on February 29 don’t get to have a birthday this year. Someone born on February 29, 2000, would 24 years old next year, but they will only have had six birthdays.

I’m told they celebrate their birthdays on March 1 on the non-leap-years.

Told it’s not a leap year now,

I will practice anyhow.

Getting fit and into shape,

Flying leaps will make them gape.

Look for me in just one year,

I’ll leap branches without fear.

Leaping Lincoln, here I come,

Hope I don’t land on my … er … fanny.

February 16, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 58 Comments

Set the Table

When I was quite young, my mother taught me how to set the table. I think it’s something that most parents teach their children as soon as they’re able to help out. Sometimes children ask:

Which side does the knife go on?

Which side for the fork?

Which way should the knife be turned,

Ready to eat pork?

Sharp side in or sharp side out?

How close to the plate?

What if there’s a spoon as well?

Can you tell me, mate?

So I decided to come up with a way to make it easier for a child to learn to set the table. Somewhere I had seen a set of placemats that showed exactly where to put the cutlery and where to put the plate.

At the same time, it was a good way to learn what the primary colours (red, yellow, and blue) were. The green was a bonus.

I made these quite a long time ago (eight years), but as I looked through some old photos, I came across them. Since I’m going to a quilting retreat next week, I thought I’d share these with you. I didn’t use a pattern to make the placemats. They’re quite simple. But I did cut out the shapes for the plates and the cutlery using cardboard tracers.

February 13, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 46 Comments

Love, Love, Love

Because it’s February and Valentine’s month, along with my fish placemats, I plan to make some more heart placemats at the upcoming quilting retreat.

Did you see the movie with Adam Sandler where he frequently says, “Love, love, love”? He says it with a sigh, or as if people are making too big a deal of love, but really he wishes he could make the girl fall in love with him. I don’t know which of his many movies it was, but I remember him being on the beach being a bartender in a little beach bar.

Anybody know which movie I’m talking about? I just don’t remember. All I remember is that every once in a while, he’d say, “Love, love, love,” as if it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

On Valentine’s Day we like to show the special people in our life that we really do love them.

But shouldn’t we do that every day? How should we do that?

Here are a few ideas.

Good relationships have a lot of give and take. The thing is, it’s not meant to be “one gives and the other takes.” You both have to give and take, equally.
No good keeping score and saving up Brownie points. Just go for it, and be good to each other.
Work towards a common goal. If you are working against each other in life’s goals, it’s not going to work. For example: If one makes the money and the other just spends it, it’s not going to work. Or if one always messes up the house and the other one always cleans it, it’s not going to work.
Allow your partner his/her own space; time to pursue some creative hobbies or quiet time on their own.
Say something nice to your partner every day.

Lastly, I was reminded the other day about how dogs behave when their owner returns after having been away for a while. If you’ve ever owned a dog, you might have noticed how they jump around and sometimes yip and bark and whine, or roll on their back hoping for a belly rub because they’re so happy to see you.

Wouldn’t it make your partner feel good if you showed how happy you were to see them when they come home? You don’t have to bark and yip, or roll on the floor with joy, but … well … you get the picture.

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 11, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 45 Comments

A New Bird

About 100 ft. from my house stands a maple that has seen better days. The woodpeckers peck holes into the trunk, and it’s a wonder that the tree hasn’t lost more limbs in the recent windstorms.

Still, I love to see the woodpeckers, and I always have my camera handy for bird sightings. When I spotted this one on the maple this morning, I grabbed the camera and rushed out onto the deck to snap a photo. I closed the sliding door quietly.

“Please don’t fly away until I get a picture,” I whispered.

He didn’t fly away, so I snapped some more. Still he didn’t fly.

“This is great,” I thought. The squirrels were chattering noisily just then, and I assumed that the woodpecker hadn’t heard me tiptoeing out onto the deck.

But then I thought, “That’s strange. He should have flown by now. Or at least pecked at the bark. But he’s just sitting there. Maybe he’s sick.”

I brought the camera in and uploaded the photos onto the laptop. Then I could see the bird more clearly. I wasn’t sure what kind it was. Maybe not a pileated woodpecker, after all. He seemed to have morphed into something else.

A broken off branch surrounded by the maple’s tears?

February 6, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 58 Comments

Something Fishy

In a couple of weeks, I will be going to a quilting retreat. It’s a chance to do three days of sewing without having to stop to clean the house, make dinner, and wash dishes.

It has been since before Covid that I have been to one of these working holidays and I was at a bit of a loss as to what project(s) to take with me to work on.

Four years ago, I sewed the placemats you see in this post, meaning to take them as gifts to friends in Montana, but with the border closed for a long time, the placemats were put on the shelf for later, and later, and later. I almost gave up on the gift idea and was going to use them myself, but they didn’t feel as if they really belonged to me. They were destined for Montana.

Along comes a quilting retreat that I’m able to attend for the first time in several years. It will be the perfect time to make a set of these fishy placemats for the Captain and myself.

Here is the first one I made, rather oversized, but okay to use as a table center. You can see that I got carried away with my imaginary fish. That’s Darth Vader’s cousin on the top right.

No such fish exist, as far as I know, but it was fun to make up some “pretend” fish to swim in and out of the seaweed.

A few turtles swam past as I was sewing. Some stayed to visit.

Some of the placemats have rocks near the ocean floor. Maybe I’ll put some clams and crabs in the next set. Sea urchins might be fun to add as well, and who knows what else might live there in the depths? Maybe a squid or two? In this case, the sky really is the limit.