Patterns

There didn't seem to be any frost around us, but when we took Spike to the Flat Rocks at about 9am, there was still quite a bit of frost to be seen in the shade. It certainly felt cold. I told John that wearing a hat and scarf made all the difference, but he hates both and would rather complain about being cold. He finally prevailed and went along to Trail House for coffee and our new favorite, Farm Toast...toast with avacado, sauteed onions, bacon and an egg. They have reinstated the couch at Trail House, banned after Covid . Spike has become one of the Trail House regulars, greeted not only by the cafe workers but by some of the guys who work in the bike store/repair shop in the back. 

I got the floor swept before going back to the coat project. The tricky job of matching the lining with the fronts of the coat with a layer of batting in between almost defeated me, but I think I'm almost there. Once I get the three parts stitched together I can decide how to quilt them which I think I'll do by hand. I'm always hearing authors say during interviews that they really don't plot their stories ahead of time, that they just start writing and let the characters tell their own stories. I've always been a bit skeptical about that, but I'm hoping this jacket will tell me how it wants to be quilted because I haven't gotten that far in the plan.

Because I have spent most of the day on this project, I'm posting the big star that's on the back of the jacket. I may or may not put something in the middle of the central square. John thought it should be something circular but I think that might make it seem like a bull's eye.

The BIden administration has announced that it has reached a temporary cease fire agreement for the fighting in Gaza but Netanyahu has postponed a vote in the Knesset until tomorrow. I heard a very moving interview from a reporter from Gaza with a woman who said they had been through this scenario so many times that they could no longer allow themselves to get their hopes up and just tried to ignore the talk of a truce and 'get on with their lives'. I honestly can't imagine what that means in a place that has, and continues to be, bombed into oblivion, many people sleeping on the ground or in bombed out buildings, looking through the garbage for anything edible. The bombing intensified today and 70 more fatalities were reported as Israel holds up the final vote.

I can better imagine what it is like to sleep on the ground with an empty stomach in the middle of winter than I can how Netanyahu sleeps at night.