At Home in Michigan

It was hot as heck today but there was a brisk cooling breeze to make the shade beareable.

We had fun at the family reunion.
Aunt Alta's daughter Melinda sat at the "girl" table with Tara, Valorie, Nellie, Rosalie and me. We got to see pictures of last years reunion and Rosalie's kitchen remodel.
Cousin RuthAnn brought beautiful socks she knit. They are made with such tiny, delicate stitches in beautiful colors. The socks are works of art. But at a cost, because she is wearing a wrist brace for carpal tunnel. She will have surgery soon.
After the official reunion, Nellie and Uncle Gabe, Valorie and Stan, Randy and I stopped by Grandma and Granpas for more chit chat. We showed Nellie what we (mostly Grandma) have been working on. The Autumn Leaf quilt for Carolyn and Michael, the fabric bowls and boxes, and future projects. Grandma showed her beautiful green and pink and yellow quilt blocks she is making in class. Then we walked out to commune with the soon to be butchered chickens. The big white ones are so obnoxiously huge. Their legs are super thick yellow tree trunks that make them waddle in a painful looking way. They walk a few steps and collapse with a flump.

Grandma will have surgery on her right hand on the 18th. Valorie will take her in and stay with her and Grandpa a few days to babysit :). Dupuytren's Contracture causes a thickening of the inner layer of skin in the palm of the hand. This pulls the ring and pinkie fingers in toward the palm so they lose strength and the hand can no longer lay flat. Surgery is unsuccessfull 10% of the time so they wait until at least 30% contracture has occurred. Quite often the condition recurs or moves to another part of the hand after surgery. We wish her luck.

Tara and Paul built a brick walkway from the driveway to their front porch with recycled bricks from the gravel yard by their house. It is a gorgeous walkway and took them about 2 weeks off and on.
They offered the leftover bricks to us. We took them of course.
We are making a brick patio in front of the garage. The sidewalk is coming out and a beautiful brick patio will be laid on a bed of sand. There we can sit in the shade of the dogwoods and watch the local traffic.

This is the first "blog" of mine.
Randy will add next time.
Happy reading
Cecile