Babysitting

I am watching a friend's dogs while she is on vacation.

She has watched our dogs so many times

that we were happy to have

Iggy and Max over to our home!

Iggy is our dog's littermate (Buster).

I remember going to the hospital

to see the two little pups in their kennel.

One of B's associates at the hospital was the owner.

We had recently lost our Holly dog so we were looking.

My sister went with me and

we oohed and aahed over the two little guys,

finally deciding on the smaller one

who became our Buster.

Our friend, AJ, took the bigger one

who became Iggy,

which is short for Ignatius.

Our other dog is Buddy.

He is Buster and Iggy's older brother.

It is interesting to watch the three brothers together;

you can tell they are related.

Buddy is very tall in the legs,

Buster has an incredibly short tail,

and Iggy can sit on his hind quarters, so they are unique too.

Max is an older dog; I think he's about 10 years old.

Max is short for Maximus

He is all white with black eyes.

And he loves food,

especially human food!

Since we couldn't really have all four dogs in our bed

(I don't know how AJ does it)

we have them sleep in a big blanket nest

together in the laundry room.

They are pretty cute

and it has been fun to have a sleepover with the dogs.

Interesting

While I was at the cabin I read two books:

The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

by Caroline Alexander

and

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

by Tony Horwitz

Both are books that I've read several times.

I knew some of the history of the Mutiny, but the big question still is:

Why did Fletcher Christian do it?

What was his motivation?

I've seen the 1962 Marlon Brando movie version

as well as

the 1984 Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson version entitled The Bounty.

(In light of recent events, it is a little difficult to admit

Mel Gibson is my favorite actor

and the movie The Year of Living Dangerously

is one of my all-time favorite movies,

but his personal life may be what makes him a great actor)

In The Bounty, his love for his Tahitian wife

seems to be the outward motivation

but there is something deeper going on.

The straight-laced dutiful English society

vs the laid-back devil may care Island-time society of Tahiti

are at odds.

There are two amazing endings to the story:

Bligh made it the 47 days and over 3600 hundred miles

from the middle of the Pacific to the Dutch East Indies in a 23-foot boat with his crew

and

there was a little surviving community on Pitcairn Island where

Christian and the other mutineers made their final destination

(albeit mostly women and children and only 1 man)

I guess that is the whole point:

it was almost too incredible to be true.

When I got home, I started reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

mainly because I had recently viewed

La Jaconda (otherwise known as the Mona Lisa)

at the Louvre.

And Madonna on The Rocks.

Book o' the Week

This week's book was The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig.

It was wonderfully written, had a great storyline,

and was an all-round terrific book.

I purchased it twice and got great deals both times!

First, I bought it for my Kindle for $1.24.

And then I bought the real deal at Doc's Book Loft for $0.89.

Am I a bargain hunter or what??

To be honest, I would suggest everything

and anything written by Ivan Doig.

He is an incredible writer who speaks my language.

All of his novels,

as well as his non-fiction,

have been gripping, intriguing, interesting, and well worth the time.

I've read (multiple times) the following:

The Sea Runners

English Creek

Dancing at the Rascal Fair

Ride with Me, Mariah Montana

Bucking the Sun

Mountain Time

The Whistling Season

Work Song

This House of Sky

Heart Earth

I can't honestly say how I found the first book

of his that I read (The Whistling Season)

but truly fell in love with this author.

There were several copies of books at Doc's Book Loft

and I almost bought repeats to have at the cabin.

They would totally be worth it!

I just finished up with Cub Scouts.

We made bean bags and played various bean bag games.

It was a lot of fun.

Jelly Roll Quilt

For L's birthday, I wanted to surprise her with a hand-done quilt.

I've made her other quilts but they'd been machine-quilted.

The quilt top was completed at the beginning of May, and so I had about 5 weeks to finish it,

She received the "mostly finished" quilt on her birthday

and was gracious enough to let me have another week to get the binding done.

It was completed using a jelly roll with added borders.

The inner border and binding were the same fabric.

Some Quilts

L sent me some pictures of quilts to add to my Quilt Diary.

The pictures reminded me of the fun I had making them and the fun she's had in having them.

T-Shirt Quilt from high school t-shirts, and bike jerseys. I think they were 5 inch squares with a few double sized blocks. The backing is flannel. M. Bundy machine-quilted it. This quilt was made for Christmas 2007.

This quilt definitely made me smile. It was actually "made" twice. The first time was when L was a senior in high-school circa 2003. After all these years of loving it to death, the backing was pilling and dingy. I unstitched the yarn ties and restitched the seams for reinforcement. T. Robertson machine-quilted it using a light blue minkee backing. It was also bound in minkee. It was completed in 2010.

The 3rd quilt is a Levi & Flannel that I made for R prior to his mission in 2004. I used extra thick batting so it is really lofty. It has a blue plaid backing and was tied with yarn. I still have a large supply of Levi's and should probably get making some more. They make terrific car quilts.

Bayeux and Beaches of Normandy

This is a picture of a window in Mont St. Michel that I thought was pretty.

We got to Bayeux in the afternoon and our first order of the day was to do some laundry. We did that and walked around the city for a while. We went to the Trou Normond for dinner. The tables were inside halved-cider barrels. We had interesting entrees (the appetizer), not really sure what they were, but they were tasty. Mine was in a pastry with Camembert sauce. Our plats (main course) were mignon de porc (pork tenderloin), and a fish that was out of this world. They served the potatoes sliced thin like my Mom used to make. Creme brulee and apple tart was dessert.

The next day, we went to see the Bayeux Tapestry. It dates from the 1077 and depicts the Battle of Hastings, where William the Conquerer beat out Edward for control of England and Normandy. I thought it would be like a huge wall hanging but it is more like an incredibly long table runner.

We also went to the Cathedral.

The next day we went to the Beaches of Normandy and the American Cemetery. 6 June 1944 otherwise known as D-Day was when the American, Canadian, British and other forces landed on French soil to stop the Germans. It was very awe-inspiring and really made me appreciate what our military does for us. Omaha Beach, Pont du Hoc, and Utah Beach were especially sacred. The cemetery is incredible. B and I have visited Arlington Cemetery, the Punchbowl in Hawaii, and now this. Even as I write, tears come to my eyes as I think about being there.

For dinner, we traveled into Bayeux for dinner on the Rue de Cuisiniers at the le Pommier Restaurant. Wow and Yum barely touch what we ate for dinner. Again we had a pork and fish dinner with entrees of farmer's salad with goat cheese in pastry and pate de foie gras. The fish was two different fish loins braided together in a yummy sauce. The pork was in a gravy and was so tender it melted in your mouth. Dessert was Chocolate 3 Ways: Hot, Cold, and Frozen and Apple Pie a la mode. It was Apple Heaven more like it. And the chocolate was a hot cake with hot melted fudge inside with chocolate mousse sauce and ice cream. We were very happy.

Today our drive took us back into Paris to the airport. Nothing spectacular to report. We fly home tomorrow. We are very grateful we made the trip, B is grateful to have finished his ride, and we are looking forward to heading home. We miss our children and our dogs.

Brittany and Normandy

From Paris, B and I traveled to Chartres to see the Cathedral. It was very beautiful and is famous for its stained glass windows, in particular, the blue color. Our trusty Lola (GPS Tomtom) navigated us to the parking area without much trouble.

They are currently working on some renovations and cleaning and it is amazing the difference between the cleaned ceilings and the regular ones. I guess 1000 years of candles can do that to a cathedral.

Our next destination was Fougéres which was one of the control stops for B's ride. He thought the castle, the cathedral, and walled city was very beautiful and wanted me to see it. the earliest sections date from the 800's but most of the castle was built by the Normans during the 11th and 12th centuries.

While we were in Fougeres, B was troubled with the flu. We slept in and enjoyed the quite day. We ate crepes at the creperie and then had dinner at our hotel. The next day, we drove to the Abbaye du Mont St. Michel. It is essentially out on an island, with a causeway that has been built for tourists. It has very steep and narrow streets, and dates to the 9th century.

Our next stop was Bayeaux which was one of the first French towns liberated by the Americans after D-Day (6 June 1944).