The Polka Dot Debutante

Finally we are having some beautiful weather. I was about to become a mushroom. So it's time to hit the trail once again. Even with my health issues, Vivienne and I are still planning to hike more of the Appalachian Trail in the fall. So we took our first training hike yesterday and it was GREAT to be back in the woods. It just makes my heart happy. We hiked part of the loop at Silver Falls State Park. It's beautiful plus there are decent elevation gains. We started with this same hike last year so I guess it's a tradition now. Here are some pictures.

The day started out pretty virtuously. Vivienne and I went for a 5 mile hike at Silver Falls State Park. It was cooler today and we started at 9am, but even so, we were sweating hard by the end of it. So we decided to head over to Silverton and have some coffee before heading home. It turned out that the best coffee shop is right above the new yarn/quilting store. Who knew? We really didn't plan this.
Turns out to be a fantastic yarn store and a darling quilt shop. They opened in June and have some unusual things that I haven't seen here in Portland. Figured I'd give them a big plug in case anyone is heading to Silverton or wants to plan a day trip. It's a cute little town and there were several other shops that looked pretty deadly, especially this shoe store with these great boots in the window. Thank goodness they were closed!

The shops are Snippets: Sewing Bar and Lounge, The Purl District, and Stomping Grounds. They are all in the Wolf Building at the corner of Main St. and Water St.

And here is the quilting half of the store. They are really new and still getting in fabric. What they do have is great.

It also turned out that this weekend was the big Silverton Arts Festival. It is in their big town park and there were over 70 vendors. We managed to get into some trouble there as well. There were some great potters and we just had to get a few things. It was a fun day for sure.

This is the final report from Sisters. You are not going to believe it but between the four of us, we made 28 bags and 2 aprons! Yes, we are incredible, thank you, thank you, and we had tons of fun doing it all. One of us would try a new pattern and then the other three would have to make one too. And then there were the many variations that had to be tried. It was a feeding frenzy!
We also managed to walk to town every day, spend an afternoon in Bend, do two great hikes, and cook great food every day as well. I love the Sisters area so much. It has the best quilt store ever, The Stitchin' Post, beautiful scenery, and great weather. I didn't want to come home, well except to see that sweetheart of mine.

The Loot

My fellow bag ladies: Vivienne, Sue and Jennifer

And from Friday's hike, this is North Matthieu Lake

Heading back from the Lake on the Pacific Crest Trail with Mt. Washington in the background.

There is just so much going on I don't know what to write about first. But here goes. My wonderful hubby bought a motorcycle a couple of months ago. I have no problem with it; he used to have one when we first got married. The bike is a beautiful midnight blue BMW and is a pretty smooth ride. He left yesterday on his first big trip. He's going to Northern California to the Klamath River basin and camping and riding for a week with his friend Ben. Here he is leaving Saturday morning.

Here he is with all his gear. I miss him already.

Today I went hiking in the Gorge with my friend Viv. We did an old favorite and hiked up to Angel's Rest. It was so windy in the Gorge that we couldn't even walk out onto the bluff. I'm so puny, I probably would have blown away. You can see all the white caps on the river in this picture.

That's the bluff up there. We hiked right to the back of it but didn't go out to the edge like we usually would.

Finally, here is today's bounty from the garden. We have tomatoes running out of our ears. The first picture is the heirlooms and the romas. The basket in the back has all the goodies from the farmers market. The second picture is all the grape tomatoes, beans, and tomatillas.