So Much Fun With Friends

I’m still here; I’ve been enjoying several wonderful days with my friends who are visiting. The four of them arrived Wednesday evening in time for dinner. Bob and Deana live in Tennessee and are the friends I visited twice last year when the three of us went to Nicole Sauce’s Spring Workshop in April and then to the Self-Reliance Festival in October. Bob and I have been friends since I was 14 and he was 16. We both played trombone—he still does—and sat next to each other in band. They brought our other high school friends, Joyce and Dodie, with them. Joyce and Dodie were also in band. They live in Ohio. Ours is a long and enduring friendship even though we don’t get to see each other very often.

Bob and Joyce went hiking in Glacier Park on Thursday, and Deana and Dodie and I went fabric shopping. We stopped at the community center, first, where the Thursday sewing group was getting ready for next week’s craft co-op sale. After they met everyone, we headed to town and stopped at all three fabric stores. Deana stocked up on fabrics that she can’t get where she lives and I picked up a few supplies and two more presser feet for the Bernina 880. We all met back at our house for dinner and conversation that evening.

I was happy that the weather cooperated. The forecast initially had been for rain, but we’ve had lovely, sunny days. We decided that the Friday outing would be a hike to Avalanche Lake in Glacier Park. This is a hike the husband and his father and I did many times with the girls when they were little, but I haven’t hiked in the park for at least a decade. It’s not a long hike—two miles in and two miles back—but the trail is rocky and there is some elevation gain. Some of us were feeling it by the time we got to the lake. We stopped for a few selfies along the way. (That’s me in the middle.)

There were a lot of people hiking the trail yesterday. When we were planning this trip, I suggested the group come in September, after the height of tourist season, but I was a bit surprised at the amount of congestion in the park even at this time of year.

I had made dinner ahead of time and put it in the fridge before we left to go hiking, so when we got back, all I had to do was heat up the pulled pork and put out the potato salad. After dinner, we all went out to the garden to spread a giant tarp over the tomato patch. It’s 31F right now and the temperature likely will drop a few more degrees before sunrise. I’ll leave the tarp on until Monday; after this frost, temperatures rebound back up close to 80F, so the tomatoes should keep producing for another week, at least. I think the pumpkins and butternut squash are done, though.

Joyce and Deana both crochet. Joyce is working on a granny square blanket on this trip. (They started in Colorado and drove up here.) I love granny squares but I can’t crochet to save my life. I admire other people’s work:

The bright colors are wonderful.

The four of them are leaving this morning to head back to Bozeman. I am sorry to see them go but glad that we all got to spend a few days together here in Montana. I hope they will come back again next year.

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I have to look at the to-do list today and get myself organized. I’ve been quilting the I Spy top here and there and it’s almost done. I need to quilt the border and then I can bind it. I may not get the baby quilt done by the end of September, but I will try. Next week is full—I am teaching an all-day class on Wednesday and the craft co-op sale will take up Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

I think I may just take advantage of the nice weather and spend the day cleaning up the garden and putting it to bed.