Featherstone Quiltworks

Well, I bet no one has ever titled a blog posting THAT before!

The story starts on Mothers Day, 2005.  My thoughtful DH suggested going out and choosing an arrangement of fresh flowers.  Knowing how costly they can be, and the short enjoying time, I suggested we go to a local nursery and choose a flowering  house plant instead.  I’m notoriously bad with house plants, but DH has some farmer genes and has taken over the house plant duties.  We chose a hibiscus with Kool-Aid orange blossoms.  Let’s call her “Lucky”.

Lucky goes south with us for the winter.  The very few other plants we have we leave at home for a neighbor to care for.  Because Lucky is a tropical plant, she LOVES going south.  Lucky gets swaddled in some plastic to keep the freezing temperatures away from her when we open the car doors (last year it was around 20 below when we headed out).  Of course, she gets to come into the hotel for any overnights.  And once we’re in Texas, she enjoys the warmer temperatures, the longer days, and basking in the sun just as we do.

Then we — I mean, then Jim — repotted Lucky.  She had clearly overgrown her pot and had become quite rangy and *gasp* unattractive.  “We” trimmed her way back and gave her some fresh soil and a new bigger pot.  It was quite a setback for Lucky.  She quit blooming.  For months.

Then Lucky bloomed — on Christmas Day!  What a special plant.  Then she didn’t bloom again.  It seemed it took all the ooomph she could muster to squeeze out that blossom.  Then finally Lucky bloomed a second time!  September 4, 2010.  That date would have been my dear mother-in-law’s 100th birthday.  What a special blossom.  Mom H. would have loved her.  That’s the September 4th flower pictured at the top of this post.

Lucky has had two more blooms since September 4th, so apparently she’s pretty much recovered from the “tough love” we gave her last year.

And that’s the saga of the Lucky Hibiscus Plant.

–Sue

Since Pat commented on my glasses in the 1971 picture, I had to show you this 1982 picture.

–Sue

Have you ever been CONSUMED?  No, not like Jonah…

We have had a missing limb on our family tree.  My paternal grandmother had a fairly brief first marriage in the 1920s, which resulted in my dad and an uncle.  This first marriage was never talked about, and I wasn’t aware of it until my late teens.  It didn’t matter to me at that time; it didn’t change how I felt about my dad’s adoptive father — he would always be grampa to me.

As I got older, though, I wondered more about this quarter of my being.  I only had a name, and couldn’t find out much about him.  I wanted to get some answers before my dad died.  I didn’t.  But I kept looking, every few months when the bug would bite me again.  I found his parents, but the age I had for him (I’ll call him MissingDad) was too old.  He really didn’t fit into this family.

I put a plea for help out on an ancestry bulletin board some time back, hoping that would generate a lead on this man named MissingDad.  Well, two weeks ago I got a reply from someone who was looking for MissingDad too.  He had a theory.  He thought maybe MissingDad was really another son in this same family, let’s call him ”Larry”, who either changed his name or had a nickname or was maybe trying to disappear for a while.

Hmmm.  Finally a lead.  I was CONSUMED by this search.  I’m glad we don’t pay for internet use or Ancestry dot com by the hour!  We wanted to be able to confirm they were one person, or disprove it.  It was such a tantalizing thought, but because it MADE SENSE! 

I talked to my mom several times, and to my aunt on the phone and by e-mail, and they were searching their memories for any shred of a memory of what Grandma ever said about MissingDad.  My mother remembered something that ties the two together perfectly!  I could hear the angels singing!  Actually, I did get goosebumps when my mom said she remembered Grandma saying (when my mother was pregnant with me) that she could be having twins because MissingDad was a twin.  Well, guess who else is a twin???  Yup, Larry.

I really wish I could share this with my dad, but he’s been gone for 11 years next month.  Hey, maybe he does know, I did hear angels singing! 

I feel a lot like Adrian Monk this week.  And thank you, DMS (like he reads quilting blogs, but you never know…), for your theory and sharing it with me!  I don’t know if I would have ever gone down that path without you.

Sue

It’s almost 11 am, and were are still 7.6 degrees below zero, only expecting a high of zero today, and a high of 5 above tomorrow.  I hate being this cold.  I got out my big Columbia parka to wear today; I don’t think it’s been out of the closet for at least a couple of years, maybe longer.

We are heading out for the third day of our four-day paint-a-thon at DS#3′s double bungalow.  We are hoping to complete the painting on the one side by day’s end tomorrow, but we keep falling short of where I expected we would be for the day, and we didn’t get home last night until after 11 pm.  The real workmen (as in “paid”) will be back Monday morning doing their sanding, varnishing, grouting, installing countertops and kitchen flooring.  The work just goes on and on.  But not for us.  By tomorrow night, we’re done.

It could be worse — we could be working outside!

–Sue

This is our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, and has been for years.  Eons, even.  This is right out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook (circa 1970).  And a note from me:  I make this in one large casserole dish and bake it just a bit longer.  We pass it family style.  We serve it over rice, with a salad, crusty bread, and glass of vino.  Yes, it’s a lot of butter, but it’s Christmas!  And it’s up to you as to how much chicken broth/butter you want to spoon on your rice.  Make sure your shrimp is already cooked before you start — I buy it frozen, and if it’s nice and pink instead of gray, it’s cooked.  Be sure to thaw the shrimp before beginning the recipe, and pat it dry with paper towels.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Divide shrimp among 8 ungreased individual casseroles (each about 5 inches in diameter).  Cook and stir garlic in butter until butter browns.  Remove from heat.  Remove garlic pieces; add remaining ingredients except bread crumbs.

Toss 1/4 cup of the garlic butter with bread crumbs.  Pour remaining butter mixture over shrimp in casseroles and top with buttered crumbs.  Bake uncovered 10 minutes.  (Do not overbake shrimp as they tend to become tough.)  Garnish with sprigs of parsley (fresh).

8 Servings