Tuesday Morning Thoughts

One of my goals in retirement has been to have a relaxing hour in the morning with a cup of coffee, the paper, and then some time to think and reflect before getting the activities of the day underway.  You'd think meeting this goal would be easy since I'm not rushing off to work, but it's surprisingly difficult.  Each day offers up so many wonderful possibilities that I'm often off and running as soon as I'm out of bed.   But this morning I'm making the time to start the day off in a more leisurely way. 

We had a busy and fun long weekend which included several dinners with friends, a trip to Ft. Collins to see an art quilt exhibit and a fun bike race, movies and a cookout with John and Dawn, a couple of good hikes, and a walk downtown to check out Boulder's Labor Day festival.  

The only photo I have of the fun evenings with friends is this somewhat blurry image of Paula's fabulous homemade peach pie.  Colorado peaches are still in season and we are getting our fill of them.  Paula's pies are legendary, and this one was a real treat.    

For the art quilt exhibit I show you these two modern renditions of the traditional "9-patch" quilt block.  Here's a sample; 3 patches across and 3 down.     

Here's Bob Mosier's gray and white version.  His background as a sculptor is clearly shown in this 3-d piece created with thread and batting, rather than fabric.   

You might see that better in this detail.

 Here's a completely different use of the 9-patch idea, a colorful piece made by Elena Stokes from silk sari remnants.  At first I saw twelve sections, but then realized there actually nine.

Here's a detail showing how she sewed narrow pieces of silk together to make the quilt surface. 

The show was the 36th Annual New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts at the Lincoln Center in Ft. Collins, which is about an hour north of Boulder.   One of the great things about living in this area for me is that there are so many opportunities to see and learn about modern quilts.

While in Ft. Collins we were amused to see some of the many participants in the Tour de Fat, which we read later is  "hilariously ridiculous bike parade sponsored by New Belgium Brewing...A day-long celebration of bikes and community fundraiser."  It was funny and interesting to see large groups of people dressed up in costumes riding around the city streets. 

On Sunday Dawn and I walked downtown to check out the classic car show which was part of the city's Labor Day festival.  

And later we all went to see Crazy Rich Asians which I highly recommend.  Great fun for everyone! 

The background to the weekend was the news coverage of the several services for John McCain and I was struck by this statement by Barack Obama: 

 "So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty. Trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage. It's politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that."

It was a good reminder to me that kindness and respect are still qualities to strive for each day, regardless of what the actions of our current President would lead us to believe.