Sisters in Zion

We had no particular plans, but all just brought--or didn't bring--as impulse dictated. The weather was rainy so the idea of butt-kicking hikes didn't materialize. Saundra stayed at work until midnight the night before but brought her sewing machine and a couple of projects. Suzanne flew from Seattle bringing cut up onsies and bibs for a quilt and we wondered if there was anything we could do with the tiny pieces with no allowance for seams. Gay drove from Camarillo and brought a few groceries in Cedar, and responding to a last minute request, t-shirts and rubber bands. I had a vague idea of making tie-dye shirts dyed with southern Utah red dirt and brought a few left-overs. This was not an orchestrated reunion, but more a "stone soup" get together.

Here's what we ended up with:

Five days, five kinds of cookies: banana with lemon frosting, Ugandan sim sim

(melted sugar and sesame seeds), mocha brownies, pecan praline and chocolate chip.

Fantastic food: Thai noodles, pasta puttenesca, slow roasted tomatoes with quick roasted broccoli and parmesan angel-hair pasta, crusty bread, chipotle chili and bucketloads of Suzanne's Cesar salad. Whole-wheat pancakes, cardamom granola with yogurt and blueberries, Zoom with raisins and cream.
A wonderful visit with the aunties in Cedar and a yummy meal we didn't have to make.

Yes, this is Weeping Rock, bawling its eyes out.

Two projects:

Tie dye with southern Utah red dirt (above)

Quilt for Suzanne's grandboy including a repurposed dirt-died sheet as background for the blocks (below--We seem to like birth order in these pics)

Wildlife sightings:

Wild turkeys on "the 14"

Whitetail deer on the Spencer Bench road

Desert bighorn ram in Zion

Two foxes dashing across the road on Cedar Mountain

                                             

Hours of visiting, all of us sleeping in the loft due to the fact that we all have FOMA (fear of missing anything) and rediscovering the syncronicity of sisters--the joy of making a suggestion knowing that three others will like it (or will be able to top it with their own good idea); and almost the best of all: being able to settle in with a book for hours at a time guilt-free because everyone else was doing the same thing.  Bliss!