A Fine Weekend

As I write this Sunday evening, I can reflect on the weekend-that-was, and truly report that it was lovely, fine, all that I hoped weekends would be at this point in my life.

My dear husband spoils me; I've established that in other posts. He alone makes this point in my life more than I had hoped to dream, not so many years ago. Having the kind of weekend we just passed, however, gives me an abundance of reminders. We started our Saturday in the manner that has become his favorite tradition -- going out to Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks and bringing back a large latte for me. This he pours into a large white china cup, sprinkles with cinnamon, and delivers to me wherever I am -- this weekend, it was sitting at the kitchen counter, reading More magazine.

From there, this weekend, we went out together and weeded the iris bed. Teamwork -- we hauled 13 5-gallon buckets of weeds to the compost pile between us, and got the whole thing done in less than two hours. After that weedy, mucky job, I was told to shower and get ready for a soul trip.

We cleaned up and headed for Middlefield -- Amish Country -- which is just about 25 miles away. It is very near a dam and lake where we took the kids fishing during their visit, and it has a wonderful cheese factory. You see lots of Amish horses and buggies up and down the road, and there are several little shops. It's a beautiful 25 mile drive from our house, all through the green and rolling Ohio countryside. We are so fortunate to live in yet another beautiful place.

Our main destination was the Middlefield flea market, which takes place every Saturday morning, inside a pole-barn type building. It's actually two buildings -- one full of "stuff" and one called a pavilion, which appears to have multiple uses beyond the flea market booths. When we got there, it was pure serendipity - the pavilion was hosting a quilt expo! Not only was it hosting an expo, it was in Amish country, so many of the quilts were Amish. For a $2 entry fee, we were able to visit all the quilts, vote on our favorite bed sized, as well as our favorite small size, plus visit the four vendors there. There were two different groups raffling a quilt, and though I didn't buy chances on one, the beautiful white, blue, and green Amish quilt captured my heart. I bought six chances on that one, but it won't be raffled until October. There was a quilt auction taking place at 2:00 pm, but we were on our way by then. I did buy four beautiful, colorful pieces of fabric, which I plan to incorporate into dolls soon.

The only thing I bought at the flea market was an old step stool, which is a great plant stand on the deck. I didn't even try to bargain on the price.

Then we went to another "compound" of shops, which included an antique store, a bakery, a gift shop, and an art gallery. The gift shop focuses on Native American/southwestern gifts, jewelry, pottery, etc. It also happens to be a bead shop. I was overjoyed -- finally a place for a soul trip for me! I could have spent a boatload of money, but held myself to a new southwestern sweatshirt (the one I purchased in Sedona 11 years ago is finally about worn out), a hand carved bowl from a reservation in AZ, some beads (of course!) and a couple of inspiring cards. I'll definitely be going back regularly. By this time, however, I was starving hungry and getting a headache, so we skipped the rest of the stores and went to Mary Yoder's Amish Restaurant and had a very nice meal. Oh, how I needed a day like this, instead of work at the job, work at the house, go to the grocery store, do some laundry, repeat.... It wasn't just the spending of money, accumulating stuff, it was being reminded that I live in a world full of beautiful things, that there are people out there making and appreciating beautiful things.
And speaking of beautiful things...I was transported last night when I looked out the deck door and saw the caladium leaf absolutely glowing, as it picked up the setting sun. There's lots of new growth in the pot with the elephant ears and caladium, including what I can only assume is a caladium blossom. I have to post a photo of the bloom, and tell you a story it brought back to mind: Oddly enough, the visible beginning of the end of my first marriage came about because of a framed Georgia O'Keefe iris poster. I believe it's called Pastel Iris, and it's probably my favorite. It's composed of blues and pinks and it is lush and detailed. I happen to love iris anyway, and the beauty of that framed poster, in an extra large size, was significant to me. I wanted to hang it in a place of honor in our blue and slightly pinkish kitchen. (Sounds awful, but trust me, it was very nice.) My ex hated, I mean HATED that print. We had one of our few serious arguments about that piece of art. I hung it anyway - one of the few times I didn't back down for the sake of "harmony." A couple weeks later, we had our group of 10 friends over for our monthly card night. Imagine my surprise when a couple of the guys started giving my now-ex a lot of grief, asking how he could "allow" me to hang that sexual, disgusting picture in the room where we made and ate our food. I kid you not, I must be one of the few people in the world who never perceived O'Keefe flower paintings to be sexual. I'm just wild about the over-sized, beautifully detailed flowers.

So now I have this picture of the caladium bloom, and guess what? It's obviously a reproductive part. Who knew?

While dear husband and I trimmed overhanging tree limbs today, I spotted a beautiful spider web, up on the cable line, iridescent in the sun.

The only dollmaking this weekend was a bit of work Friday night on my doll for Li Hertzi's Sugar Plum Scarey class. I thought about dolls a lot, though!

It was a good weekend of teamwork, natural beauty and shopping in fun places.