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When I got home from Alaska, I had no deck.  All of the decks in the complex are being replaced and they are still not finished.  My furniture and my grill are in the yard, so I have actually had to COOK on my range in the kitchen all summer. Bah!

 Finally, the deck is done enough for me to sit out there, although it is still not stained and there are some rough/unfinished places.  So I dragged a couple of lawn chairs out of the back of the car and this afternoon, because it was so beautiful out, I abandoned my sewing room for the deck.

As I write, I am on the deck,feet up, drink in hand, watching the bambis wag their tails and munch nonstop on the foliage and contemplate my furniture. The weather has cooled a bit and the humidity has gone. The air has the crisp tinge of fall in it, which is lovely and makes for perfect walking weather. I took three walks today.

It has taken me several weeks to catch up with myself and relax. I spent several days last week cooking for Rosh Hashanah, and even baked my own challah for the first time in eons.  Last time I did that, my children told me they liked the bakery challah better.  But I vowed not to be defeated and this time, using a recipe from Joan Nathan, it was delicious.  Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the beautiful (well,sort of lopsided but who's looking?) round breads.  We ate the raisin challah and I put the poppy/sesame-topped one in the freezer because home-baked bread gets stale quickly.  One Sunday morning it will make fabulous French toast.

In the meantime, am on working on some new ideas, which are coming along slowly but surely.  I seem to work in fits and starts these days, hopping from one idea to another and leaving them all in various stages of "what if?"

I still mean to use my African fabrics - the traditional shweshwe fabrics of the South African women, along with some of the African batiks from the west. I am especially motivated because my talented student Wendi sent me a photo of her prize-winning quilt, hanging in a show. She did not start it in class because she was finishing something she brought with her.  However, she made it

it after she went home and it won two prizes in the exhibit. Wendi lives in Zimbabwe and had traveled to take the class. Just look at the way she used her fabrics!

 Here is a detail.  Aren't those fabrics wonderful?

I am off to make a cup of coffee in an effort to stay alert enough to do something imaginative for the rest of the evening.  It feels later than it is because of course, it is already dark.  As Yogi Berra is reuputed to have said, "it gets later, earlier."  See 'ya.