Quaker Garden

Here is a picture of my version of Blackbird Designs' Quaker Garden. I used the recommended fabric and threads, but deviated from the instructions in a number of other ways. I changed the color of the birds, because I love that blue (dolphin blue). I also decided to replace the alphabet with a phrase celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary, which came and went while I was working on this project. I am really happy with the results and I'm going to have it framed to put above my bedside table.

The Moonlight Magic Century Ride

I biked a century! 100 miles of beautiful landscape, from Lone Pine to the entrance to Death Valley. A long, windy, hot climb in the late afternoon, and then a fantastic coast down as the sun set, with pink clouds and views of the Eastern Sierras. We finished in 8 hours, 10 min. Above is a picture of Mount Whitney framed by a stone arch in the Alabama Hills, where we went before the race to climb around and calm our nerves.

A History of Violence

We watched this on "date night" last night. I knew it was going to be disturbing, so scheduled a walk through the neighborhood afterwards, to put some distance between the movie and sleep. But I still had a nightmare!
This movie was interesting and I liked the performances but it reminded me of "Crash" in that all of the contrasts were too extreme, to the point where you know what will happen because it has to be the polar opposite of what you are about to see. I still love Viggo but I wasn't convinced that he had ever been such a bad guy--the transition wasn't real. I did like the vision of small town life, though it's crazy to think that someone as emaciated and well-dressed as Maria Bello's character would live in a farm house in the midwest, even if she is a lawyer. But that's hollywood.