Three Fun Things

First,  Ben came home yesterday!!  

I was sure glad to see him but as he unpacked in the living room the stench of smoke began to fill the room.

He explained that cooking is done indoors without flues, making interiors very smokey indeed.

Lucky us, we have washing machines.  If you add a half cup of baking soda to your wash it helps dissipate the smoke.  I'll have to ask Ben how the Nepalese people do their wash.  So far I've learned that in general the people live very simple agriculture-based lives.  Ben said it was like time traveling back to the medieval ages.   

I'll see if I can get Ben to be a guest blogger for us.  He has some interesting photos and stories to share.  

Secondly, there was a bear up a tree about five blocks from our house.  He had climbed up in the morning and settled in for a long nap.  I saw him three times between 10 am and 6 pm and he didn't move the entire time.  

See that little group of people looking up at the tree?  The local newspaper had come by to take a photo which it posted on the paper's Facebook page.  As word spread, clumps of people gathered near the tree to see the bear for themselves.  There is a group of volunteers who serve as "bear sitters" when this happens, monitoring the safety of the bear and the people.  If a bear does something bad, like threaten a person, the city tags it and then it's "three strikes you're out."  If the bear gets three bad reports, it is relocated or even killed.  No one wants that so the bear sitters hang out with the bear to keep it and it's admirers safe.   

This was the best photo I could get. 

Here's the one the paper took.  This bear seemed quite calm about the little crowd of admirers below. 

And last, I've been amusing myself by making small "mug rugs" with sugar skulls on them.   The clever people at the Bernina sewing machine website posted this fun project and I had to try it.  

 Here's the Bernina sample.  

Here's my first two little mats.  I made a wider binding which I glued down and then stitched with a bright yellow thread. 

Then I changed the shape of the skull.  I like this shape better. 

This one is my favorite, so I hung it up in the dining room.  

And that's that!  On to something new.