Jenyfer Matthews

I’m very happy to say that the children started school yesterday – yeah hooray! You might think that after having spent all day, every day with them for the entire summer I might have done something fun with myself like go and have a pedicure or a coffee morning with the other moms. Nope. I know how to really have fun.

I came home and changed no less than seven light bulbs, a few of which required me to stand tip-toe at the top of a six foot ladder. In my stairwell. If that’s not an adrenalin rush, I don’t know what is.

One of the first things I did upon returning home from vacation was to change all the bedding, including quilts. I washed and stowed the Broken Star quilt for another year and put on what I think of as my late summer quilt.

I made this quilt at least five years ago using a variety of bali / batiks and marble fabrics. It’s a fairly simple pattern that really lets the gorgeous fabric sing. My original plan was to use black sashing between the blocks but once I had all the blocks done, black seemed too harsh so I opted for navy blue.

It’s a bit difficult to see, but I hand quilted swirly suns using rainbow variegated thread in the center of the blocks.

I backed this quilt with a large scale bamboo and hibiscus print that is all in shades of blue. It was a print I fell in love with at first sight while fabric shopping in Dubai one day and bought acres of, figuring that one day I would use it as for backing. This quilt was just the perfect candidate.

I was sort of thinking of making each of the children a Halloween quilt this year, but somehow I think that’s a project I should have started in May if I was going to finish this year!

One of my favorite things to do is haunt thrift / consignment shops – 1) because I love a good deal, and 2) because you just never know what you’ll find. It’s just lucky that even the tiny little town that my mother lives in has two thrift stores.

I didn’t have as much time to browse as I would have ideally liked and I had to keep my limited remaining packing space in mind, but I still managed to find some fun things. Unpacking was that much more fun for gloating over my goodies.

One of the thrift stores is attached to the local recycling center and it isn’t very particular about what people donate, but since it is conveniently located they are always getting new things. Because of the never ending donations, things are priced to sell. I found:

A “vintage” Corning stainless steel pie spatula with serrated edge – $0.35 (made in the USA so you know it’s old!)
A girls tennis trophy – $0.35
A pair of denim shorts for my son – $0.50
A pair of stone colored chinos for my son – $0.50

Limited Too reversible windbreaker my son chose
St. John’s Bay cotton blouse with 3/4 sleeves in scarlet (me)
a wine purple cotton blouse from The Gap (me)
an Adidas tshirt in lime for my daughter
a pumpkin orange Cherokee golf shirt for my son
ALL OF THE ABOVE FOR $3 on “bag day”

A linen skirt in variegated red / purple tones (me)
A pair of red leather NEW Aerosole sandals (me)
Sponge Bob t-shirt for my son
Underarmor sport shirt in coral for my daughter
A big, floppy stuffed dog for my son
ALL OF THE ABOVE FOR $1 on “bag day”

I love the red sandals because they are comfortable and fun, but even more because they only cost me $0.20! Who could not love a deal like that??

And I can’t wait to use my new pie spatula

My trip back to Egypt went smoothly enough, in spite of a surprise re-route through Paris. I was worried about that – can you blame me after the trouble I had on the first part of my trip?? – but it all went well enough. I am almost positive two of my bags were over the weight limit but with the distraction of re-routing me and the children either the gate agent didn’t notice or chose to let it slide. Phew.

I arrived in Cairo three hours later than originally scheduled, just before iftar (the sunset breaking of the fast during Ramadan) and was a little concerned about that timing because typically nothing happens for about two hours after that. It was in fact the most efficient arrival I’ve ever experienced. I was through passport control in about five minutes and all of my bags came through one after another, bam bam bam. I was through customs and driving away in half an hour. Unheard of. The call to prayer (and the signal to eat) came as I was waiting for my driver to bring the car around. The timing worked out in another way as well: the roads were nearly empty so we cruised home in no time.

I can almost hear you thinking what’s the catch. Well, let’s just say I would advise you never to assume an airline with have the sense to throw a tarp over your luggage, even if it is raining steadily for a five hour layover. All of my bags were damp and the contents of two were actually wet. One quilting magazine and some other assorted paperwork were soaked. It could have been worse I suppose – at least all my new books were well protected (I tend to pack with lots of plastic bags, against interior explosions of shampoo, etc)

I’ve been back a day and my bags are unpacked and put away, until next time. I am however still settling in. After being in the quiet of the north woods for six weeks, things here seem really loud. Air conditioners perpetually blowing, two toilets running, traffic noise – not to mention the children. It will take me a little while to tune it all out again.

It’s quiet in other ways though. Two of my closest friends moved away at the end of June. No more girly chats, no more wine nights. No more silly text messages throughout the day. I’m sure I’ll find ways to fill in the gaps and distract myself but for right now it all feels a little hollow.

School starts on Sunday. I’ve been ALONE for more than half an hour since the end of June and I’m looking forward it. I haven’t been able to write since two nights before I left Minnesota and I’m itching to pick up the story again…

Summer started so early in Northern Minnesota this year that most of the berry season was finished before I even arrived. I’ve had many fewer raspberries this year than usual and even the blueberries we picked a few weeks back were nearly a month earlier than the typical season.

As warm and sticky as it was last week, it seems that summer is ending a bit early too. The wind started howling a few days ago, whipping up the water on Lake Superior to nearly surfer sized waves. With the wind came cooler temperatures. Much cooler temperatures. Cool enough that many more deer are beginning to show up in the yard in the mornings and evenings, looking for corn. Cool enough that I’m wearing socks to bed and pulling on a thick quilt at night. Cool enough that I wouldn’t be surprised to see the leaves changing color next week.

Too bad I won’t be here to see it.

The children and I will be leaving for Egypt on Sunday, where it most definitely still summer. I’m trying hard to look forward to that – to the fact that in Cairo I still have time to wear the two new sundresses I ordered for myself that only just arrived in the mail here. I’m looking forward to the start of the school year and having a little more time to myself during the day. A change of scene has given me the time to recharge my creative juices and I’m bursting with new ideas for writing and quilts and cooking and…well, lots of things.

But I still wish I could be here in Minnesota to see the change of seasons from summer to autumn and from autumn to winter. I wonder how my husband would feel about commuting…

I have less than a week before I reverse my course and go back to Cairo. Where did the summer go? I feel like I just got here. And need I say that all my plans for my summer education program for my children went right out the window? I had planned to make my daughter do 10 minutes of math a day, my son read and do a bit of writing. To date we’ve done absolutely nothing. Since school starts about a week after we return and we’ll all be settling back in and getting over jetlag, I’m guess that nothing will change once we get back.

Sigh.

My bedroom at my father’s house is a very stressful place right now, surrounded as I am by a mountain of Amazon boxes. I’ve been in denial, but I won’t be able to keep that up. I really need to make a start on packing. And I know that I’ll feel better once I can see the floor again.

I am happy to say I’ve made good progress on my next book while I’ve been here, in spite of falling asleep while writing the other night. I woke up a short time later to four pages of k’s. Overall, I’m going home with about 20K words than I came with – best yet, they don’t weigh a thing

We were surrounded – a herd of does and fawns on one side, and a pack of foxes on the other, all of them hungry. They were discontent, one step away from an angry mob – my only advantage being that they didn’t actually have pitchforks or fiery torches. I did the only thing I could do in such a situation: I walked outside armed only with a red plastic coffee can in each hand – one filled with corn for the deer and one filled with whole roasted chicken pieces for the foxes, chicken that my step-mother had bought and roasted especially for the yard pets.

After I poured out the corn, I did as my step-mother the fox tamer instructed and sat in the grass with my arm extended, offering a drum stick. As much as the first fox to approach wanted that chicken, he wasn’t quite sure about me. He got close enough to me that I could hear his little feet in the grass and the snort from his nose as he assessed the situation. When he decided that I looked like a bad risk, he danced away a short distance watching me. He still wanted that chicken. I admit a certain amount of relief. I stood up slowly and walked over to the little knoll they like and left the chicken pieces there.

They seemed to enjoy their dinner, as they didn’t immediately disperse after. It seemed they knew that their regular chef wasn’t home and they were in the mood to put on a show for her understudy. Kind of like school children do when they have a substitute teacher! The deer eventually chased several of the foxes on to the roof of the shed up the driveway and shortly after they all left.

The next morning I was two hours later than they all would have preferred for breakfast as well, and lucky for me there was only one hungry fox out there still loitering and hoping. We were both in luck: I only had about enough left for one fox anyway and he got it all. My step-mother can tell them all apart. The only thing I could tell is that this fox wasn’t worried about me at all – he just wanted his breakfast. He pretty well stood his ground as I approached the knoll. If I had wanted to sit in the dew-wet grass in my pajamas, he probably would have stuck his head in the bucket and gotten the remaining chicken for himself!

I locked the doors before I went to bed. The way the animals all seemed to know that a newbie was in charge I was a little afraid that the bears might decide to let themselves in for a midnight snack!

Who needs a trip to the zoo when you have creatures like these visiting the yard on a daily basis?

My stepmother has made pets of several foxes in the area. At least a few of them come around for breakfast and dinner a couple of times a day.

My stepmother has also got a couple of “pet” deer. One of them will even let her pet them when she is in the mood for an ear rub.

I myself haven’t seen many bears in the yard personally, which is why it was that much more thrilling when this guy showed up on Monday evening.

He didn’t look so very threatening, grazing on clover in the yard – but I still took these pictures from the safety of the house!

When he started to look too comfortable and got too close to the house, my father shooed him away. They can be incredibly destructive to things like bird feeders. The deer were keeping a close eye on the bear as well.

Is it any wonder the children prefer to play in the clearing, closer to the house??

I’ve heard about the fabulous blueberry picking opportunities in the area nearly every summer I’ve visited my parents, but have never gone picking myself until this weekend. There is an area up the Gunflint Trail that has been cleared at different times by forest fires where the blueberries grow plentifully. I could tell you more specifically where we went, but then I’d have to kill you.

It was a hot day and very still – and it takes longer than you’d think to fill up a gallon sized ice cream bucket even if the berries are fat and juicy!

If I crouched too long, I’d get stuck in that position.

But standing wasn’t so much better!

Even after we’d been out there a couple of hours and I’d filled my bucket 2/3 of the way, I still couldn’t stop. We had decided to go back to the car and maybe find another spot but I kept having to stop and pick just a little more because the berries were so pretty!

As you can see, all that hard work paid off in the end. Is there anything better than fresh blueberry pie?

I’m guest blogging at Killer Fiction today, reminiscing about my own childhood family vacations. Stop by and keep me company – and tell me about your family vacations.

And don’t forget that tomorrow, July 31st, is the last day to take advantage of the sale on my latest release SEPARATION ANXIETY, available at Smashwords.com. For those of you holding out for a paperback, good news! The trade paperback will be available for sale very soon at Amazon.

I also thought I’d share the new recipe I tried for July: Beer Margaritas. Talk about easy and tasty – and very refreshing on a hot summer afternoon.

Beer Margaritas

2 – 12 ounce cans of beer (I used Corona)
1 – 12 ounce can of frozen limeade concentrate
12 ounces of tequila

Pour into a pitcher and mix well. Serve over crushed ice and consume with friends.

ETA: SEPARATION ANXIETY is now available in paperback on Amazon!

Have a great weekend!

I’ve always loved trying out alternate / quirky modes of transporation so it’s no surprise to me how much I enjoyed kayaking.

After my trial run in a very calm inland lake, my step-mother and her sister-in-law took me out on Wednesday to Lake Superior. I’m very happy that we were using sport kayaks, which are a bit wider and more stable – with the water temperature in the instant-skin-numbing zone I wasn’t so keen on flipping over! (though the risk of freezing did add a bit of a thrill to the excursion!)

The weather forecast was a bit iffy and the region is subject to micro-climates (it can be sunny in one spot and foggy a few miles down the road) we decided we didn’t want to drive very far, just in case. We put the kayaks in the water at a nearby beach and set off paddling along the shore to a nearby landmark my step-mother calls Hollow Rock.

(click images to enlarge)

Look at me – still upright!

Approaching Hollow Rock.

The water was just high enough that it would have been difficult to pass through the small opening. It was surprising how much larger the opening is on the other side!

There are actually two openings, but I didn’t see the larger of the two on the approach.

The opening is larger than it looks and was so fun to go inside and investigate.

The view looking out from inside was just stunning.

After the rock, we decided to paddle around a bit more until the wind started to shift on us. The last place you want to be in a kayak is Lake Superior with rolling, cross-wise waves. That lake has sunk bigger boats than a kayak, after all.

We were out for about three hours, give or take, but it didn’t feel that long. I’m hoping to get in a bit more kayaking over the weekend, though I’ll have to share time with my children. I’m also wondering whether my father would notice if I left a trailer with three kayaks parked in the tall grass behind his shed for our next visit??