Scottie Dog

Tomorrow is Mutt’s Day - a day to celebrate dogs of mixed breeds everywhere. You’ll never see them at Crufts or the American Kennel Club, but mutts are believed to be more intelligent and healthier than pure breeds. All my dogs have been mutts. The first was a Basset/Spaniel mix named Jake. His whole body existed to propel his nose. Years later I inherited a Cocker/Maltese/Poodle mix called Bitsy. Not the brightest crayon in the box, she would wind her leash around a tree or lamppost and get hopelessly tangled. But I’ve never met a more loyal, loving dog. The mutt I walk these days is Duffy, a Westie/Schnauzer mix. He’s smart as a whip and obedient, unless you throw a squirrel into the equation. We’ll celebrate the day with a long afternoon walk, a game of catch, and a belly rub at bedtime. Just like every other day.

Paddle Wheel

Mickey Mouse made his film debut 83 years ago today. Steamboat Willie was the third Mickey Mouse film to be produced, but the first to be released. Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho were both made before Willie, but were released after. In all three films, Walt Disney himself provided the voices of both Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I don’t think there was much of what you’d call dialog in these three shorts, but there was lots of music and plenty of fun noises. Coming just months after the first “talkie,” Steamboat Willie must have been really impressive. My great-grandfather ran the only movie house in Richfield, Utah during the early 20's. That was probably a bit before Mickey’s time. He would have been more familiar with the stars of the silent films, like Buster Keaton, Lon Chaney, Gloria Swanson, Bela Lugosi, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.

July

July is anti-boredom month, and it needs to be. School is out and the weather is just right for bicycling, roller skating, skipping rope, running through the sprinklers, slippery sliding, setting up a tent in your backyard, making and flying paper airplanes, splashing in a wading pool, selling lemonade, making mud pies, or giving the dog a bath. It’s a great time to learn to play marbles, build a tree house, walk to the park, make home-made hand-cranked ice cream, erect a sand castle or see how high you can swing. Right now, instead of sitting in front of a computer or television screen, you could be out having some REAL fun. July is almost over, and summer will be gone before you know it. In fact, there are only 56 days left until autumn begins. And school will be back in session long before that. What are you going to do about it?

London Square

A year from today the 2012 Summer Olympics will begin in London. I’m not making plans to see any of the events, but several of my neighbors are. A lot of the preparations now underway remind me of the Salt Lake Winter Olympics in 2002. I got to see Alpine and cross-country skiing and the closing ceremonies. I would like to have seen the speed skating or bobsled competitions. It was fun to explore the Olympic Square downtown, and to see the buildings draped with massive banners - photos of Olympic competitors. For me, the real highlights were watching drunken Germans trying to do “the wave,” and seeing Kiss performing Rock and Roll All Nite one last time. In 2001 I’d signed up to be an Olympic volunteer, but when the training day was announced I had a prior commitment. I wish things had turned out differently. I’d probably still be wearing my volunteer parka.

Friendship Card

This block looks like a cross between a traditional Card Trick and a Friendship Star. When we first moved to England we were warned that we’d find the English very reserved - to the point of seeming unfriendly. Even before our furniture arrived, a woman in our new church announced from the pulpit that she refused to make friends with Americans. “They never stay long enough,” she said, “You get to know them and they’re gone.” I’m so glad to find she didn’t mean that. In fact, she’s become one of my dearest friends. Even passers-by have been surprisingly warm and welcoming. Not long ago we were walking the dog when one of our neighbors crossed our path with a punnet of fresh strawberries. He must have seen us drooling, because he offered us three. I’ve never tasted anything more delicious. And we don’t even know his name!

Cobblestones

York is one of our favorite haunts. One of the things we like about York is nothing seems to change here. This place was first settled by the Romans in about 70 A.D. They called it Eboracum, which might mean something like “place of the yew trees.” If you ever run across an ancient Roman, you can ask him. The York Minster is built on the foundation of their fort, and you can see bits of Roman towers incorporated into the city walls. After the Romans left it was called Eoforwic by the Anglians and Jorvik by the Vikings. Most of the roads in York still wear their Viking names, even though the Normans took the town from the Vikings more than 1100 years ago. Our favorite part of York is called The Shambles. It’s a narrow, crooked cobblestone lane with timber-framed buildings that have leaned against one another here since the 1300's.

Ice Cream Cone

Nearly everyone loves ice cream, though we each may prefer a particular flavor. Most of us can agree on vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry. I have a good friend living in Sweden who says when she first moved there, ice cream came in vanilla, chocolate, or pear. Last summer the Build-a-Bear in Copenhagen called their mint/chocolate chip bear “Pistacie” because Danes apparently don’t eat mint/chocolate chip. In Japan you can buy fish, squid or eggplant ice cream. I’ve heard Denny’s new maple/bacon ice cream is all the rage. My dad used to ignore the wide assortment at Baskin Robbins in favor of black licorice. I love their daiquiri ice, though I haven’t had it in years. Generally we just buy vanilla. It goes with everything from apple pie to fudge brownies. If you whip it with a banana, peach or mango, it makes a terrific smoothie. Not a bad way to celebrate Vanilla Ice Cream Day.

Afternoon Shadows

Brookstone sells the most wonderful hammock I’ve ever seen; hand-woven white cotton rope with oak spreaders at both ends. If you have two trees in your yard the proper distance apart, you can attach one end to each trunk and take an afternoon nap in the shade. If not, you can buy a steel hammock stand with wheels so you can move when the sun does. There’s even a hammock pad so you won’t wake up with rope marks on your arms and legs. Every Father’s Day, I seriously consider buying one of these hammocks for John. More than once I’ve come very close to actually doing it. What stops me is I know that he’ll know it isn’t really for him. For one thing, there’s no television in the back yard. And for another, if he ever tries to take a nap in this hammock, he’s going to have to get me out of it first.

Cheeseburger

Years ago I took my sister’s sons out with my own children. The venue I chose had bowling, skating, laser tag, rides and video games. I knew it would be a big hit. For dinner I ordered burgers all around. Our order took a while, but it was worth the wait. The buns were soft and fresh, the patties thick and juicy. They came open-faced, piled high with fresh lettuce, ripe tomato, onion, cheddar and pickles. Bottles of catsup, mustard and mayo were close at hand. My nephews stared at their meals for a moment or two. Finally the younger one said, “McDonald’s doesn’t make them like this.” His older brother asked, “What’s with all the salad?” Then he added, “This is the stupidest burger I ever saw.” The moral, I suppose, is that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. A timely thought for National Junk Food Day. So...what’s YOUR poison?

Moon and Star

Forty-two years ago today, Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. I believe our family watched the event on a television my dad built from a kit - the same TV with which we saw all three seasons of Star Trek. This month also marks the final voyage of the space shuttle program. For the first time in my life, the United States has no way of reaching space. After this, the remaining orbiters will go on display. The Endeavor will be in Los Angeles, the Enterprise in New York, and Discovery will be in Washington D.C. The Atlantis, the last of the shuttles to orbit Earth, will rest in Florida. Maybe we’ll be able to visit the next time we’re there. You know, when I was a kid watching The Jetsons on Saturday mornings, I thought by now I’d be living on the moon. Surely I’d at least vacation there from time to time, right?

1941 Nine-Patch

On this day in 1940, Winston Churchill was first photographed giving the famous “V for Victory” sign. For months, England and much of Europe had been using this hand sign - two fingers up with the palm facing out - as a symbol that they were eagerly waiting for Germany to falter and be overthrown. At first, Churchill accidentally made the sign backwards, with the palm facing inward. Born to an aristocratic family, he didn’t know the sign he was making was known as a “two-fingered salute” to Britain’s lower classes. In case you were wondering, a two-fingered salute means pretty much the same thing as a one-fingered salute does. Eventually, Churchill stopped making the sign with the palm facing in, after it was explained to him that he was inadvertently “flipping the bird.”

All Those Fish

Today is National Caviar Day. I’m not sure that we need a national caviar day. It’s not likely that I’ll ever observe this holiday by eating black caviar, as it runs upwards of € 6,000 per kilo. When you think of all the things that kind of money could be spent on, it’s amazing that ANYONE would be willing to buy what is really just fish eggs. Of course, for much less than that I could sample trout or salmon roe. In fact, I have actually done so. The taste was nothing to write home about (though here I am, doing just that). If you’ve seen Tom Hanks’ character Joe Baskin in the movie Big tasting his first caviar, you’ll have a general idea. Maybe they used a better variety in You’ve Got Mail, when Hanks’ character Joe Fox gobbles up all the caviar that was meant to be a garnish.

Electric Fan

Tomorrow is Disneyland’s 56th anniversary. July 17 fell on a Sunday that year, too; a day when everything that could go wrong did. Three times the expected number of guests showed up. Vendors ran out of food. A gas leak shut down Fantasyland. A plumber’s strike left much of the park without drinking fountains. Temperatures over 100 degrees melted the new asphalt, and ladies’ high heels sank in. An overloaded Mark Twain Riverboat sank in The Rivers of America. Coincidentally, the very first air conditioner was patented on July 17, 1902. Disneyland didn’t get its first air conditioner until 1963, when the Enchanted Tiki Room opened. And then it was to cool the Audio-Animatronics, not the guests. My house in England, like most homes and businesses here, has no air conditioning. My neighbors’ attitude towards A/C is, “If you had it, you’d get us

ed to it. Then you’d NEED it, right?”

Fantasticks

I’ve read somewhere that The Fantasticks is the longest running musical in the world. I’ve also heard the same claim about Cats, Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera. I’ve seen those last two, even owned the CDs. Love it or hate it, nearly everyone has an opinion about Cats. But only my hard-core theater friends are familiar with The Fantasticks. In the story, Matt and Louisa hide a budding romance from their feuding fathers. The two teens are unaware that their dads are actually good friends with a scheme to become fathers-in-law. The dads hire a band of travelling actors to stage a mock abduction so Matt can save the day, but things don’t turn out exactly the way they planned. Unless you’ve seen or performed this play, there’s good a chance that the only song you know from the score is the first one: “Try to Remember.”

Green Tomato Soup

I’ve kept myself entertained for three weeks with what I saw and did during the Wasatch Quilt Shop Hop. Now I’d like to mention what didn’t happen. I didn’t visit Material Girls in South Jordan. They were originally part of the shop hop, but at the last minute they pulled out without an explanation. They made this decision after some of the materials for the shop hop had been printed, so I know Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg would have been their book. It’s a shame. I loved the book. I suspect I’d have liked the store, too. Other shops I missed on this trip were Red Rooster in Providence, Threads of Time in Centerville, and Gentler Times in Cottonwood. Gardiner’s Sew & Quilt was also missing from the shop hop, though it’s still in business. I wish I’d known that before we drove past Ogden.

Green Gables

The novel American Quilting chose for the shop hop was Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I read this book as a teenager and instantly fell in love with it. I’ve always wanted to visit Prince Edward Island, though I suspect I really want to see Prince Edward Island in the 1880's. I love the antique bed American Quilting had draped with a classic Log Cabin quilt. I seriously covet their wooden ironing board, too. Maybe I should haunt eBay until I can find one to make my very own. I wanted to buy a kit for the scrappy purple star quilt I saw hanging outside the shop, but they didn’t have any. Instead, I bought a fat quarter of every purple print in the store. I still don’t have enough to make the quilt, but I can certainly collect purples until I do.

Gatsby

 I read F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in high school as a class requirement. I must say, being tested on what I read or expected to write a review does not seem to increase my appreciation for a book. In fact, rather the reverse is true. More than a decade after high school, I reread most of the books I’d loathed in my teens. I found most of them have improved with time. Broadbent’s Quilt Shop in Lehi chose The Great Gatsby for their novel and their block. Somehow it suits them. The moment you walk into the store, you feel as if  you’ve stepped into another era. It’s no wonder, because Broadbent’s has been on this very spot since 1882. It didn’t hurt that they played Scott Joplin music the entire time I was in the shop.

Bella's Star

I’m not a big fan of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, but I’ve met a lot of girls (and women, now I think of it) who are. I believe the book benefited more from good timing than good writing. It appeared in 2005, when there was only one installment left of the Harry Potter saga, and everyone (publishers especially) was desperate for another J.K. Rowling. I shouldn’t criticize Meyer’s work. After all, she has several best-sellers and I do not. But I will say if I were teaching a writing class and she were my student, I’d have sent Twilight back with a lot of red ink. The ladies at the Corn Wagon in Springville obviously don’t agree, because they chose Twilight for their novel. I did appreciate the treats they served the guests that visited their store. They offered little round bites of red velvet cake, covered in white chocolate.

Pirate's Map

Each quilt shop, in addition to creating a block for the shop hop, also made a quilt using all the blocks from the other shops. We saw several lovely, original quilts during the hop, but Elaine’s Quilt Block in Sandy had the most beautiful. It was a treasure map, with X marking the spot where gold doubloons lay hidden. The book Elaine’s had chosen was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. All around the shop were pictures of pirates with silly names. Heather was given a sheet of paper with the pirates’ faces. She and John raced all over (while I shopped) to fill in the names of the pirates so they could win a prize. I’m not sure which of us had more fun. The directions for this block state that it should be entirely paper pieced. That sounded like a challenge to me, so I took it. I constructed the block using only traditional piecing methods.

Dragon’s Lair

Of all the quilt shops, Mormon Handicraft had the most appealing decor. To celebrate their chosen book, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, they turned their store into an enchanted forest. I didn’t spy any witches, satyrs or trolls while I was there, but I definitely caught a glimpse of a dragon. They’re kind of hard to hide. Sadly, Heather never made it up the stairs to see it for herself. First, she is not a big fan of stairs. And second, to get to the stairs in the first place she had to pass by the children’s section of Deseret Book. She never stood a chance. It was good luck for me, because I found plenty of time to buy fabric. I even picked up a few of the Marti Michell templates that I didn’t yet own. I do seem to spend more money at stores where Heather has something to do.

Miz Hobbs’s Brassiere

The book Pine Needles chose for the shop hop was Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman. It’s the only one of these books I haven’t read. So of course I ordered a copy as soon we got back home, and I’m waiting for it to arrive in the mail. Pine Needles is another one of my personal favorites. Last autumn, Better Homes and Gardens’ Quilt Sampler featured this West Jordan store in their Ultimate Shop Hop. The article mentioned that the owner, Sandra Workman, used to work for a group of physicians. She was at a time management seminar that asked among other things, “If you could be doing anything, what would you be doing?” Her answer was to quit her job and open a store that would allow her creative juices to flow. Most people just dream of doing things like this, but she actually did it.

I’m Late; I’m Late for a Very Important Date

A few years ago, when the shop hop’s theme was favorite movies, Piper’s Quilts chose The Wizard of Oz. There was a bicycle with a stuffed dog in the basket leaning against the porch of this restored Victorian home in Sugarhouse. A pair of ruby slippers with striped socks still in them stuck out from beneath the porch, as if the shop had just been dropped on a witch. In the front yard, someone had made a huge tornado out of dried grapevines. This year they chose Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and the decorations were much more subdued. I did appreciate Lori Holt’s lovely quilts that graced the front porch. Inside, most of the muted tones I’d seen in previous years were replaced by brights in large, loud prints. These colors seem to be “in” right now, but they’re not really my cup of tea.

Dorothy's Hour Glass

Quilter’s Haven is in Bountiful; one of those stores you have to pass before you can see it’s there. For this year's shop hop they chose L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. The employees were dressed as Dorothy, the Wicked Witch, the Scarecrow, etc. The store was all dolled up. There was a small “tornado” near the front door. There was a bicycle with a little dog in the basket. There was even a yellow brick road running the length of the store and back. All along the path were pictures of characters from the book. It was clear that they would periodically call out a character’s name, and if you were standing on the corresponding picture you’d win a small prize. Maybe we just didn’t stay in the store long enough, because we didn’t hear them call any names until we were headed back out the door.

Independence Square

In 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States of America, fifty replicas of the Liberty Bell were cast. Each state would receive one and place it in a spot of their choice. This presented the state of Pennsylvania with a problem. They already had the original Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. If you happen to be in the area, it can be viewed in a glass pavilion near its original site, Independence Hall. So Pennsylvania shelved their second Liberty Bell, and that might have been the end of the story. But some years later, Walt Disney World realized there was a spare Liberty Bell lying around and asked Pennsylvania if they might have it. Pennsylvania agreed and on July 4th, 1989 Pennsylvania’s replica Liberty Bell was hoisted and lowered into its permanent spot inside Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom where it still sits today. Have a happy Independence Day!

Case in Point

Quilts Etc. is absolutely my favorite quilt store. They have a convenient location and a large selection of fabrics, patterns and tools. The employees there are very helpful and friendly. Their sister store across the street, The Handmaiden, has wonderful machine quilters and needlework supplies. I’ve enjoyed every class I’ve ever taken at Quilts Etc., especially their Saturday morning block-of-the-month classes. The book they chose was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle. They built a small pub in their classroom and served lemonade and BBQ beef sandwiches. There was even a mystery for guests to solve; a prize quilt had been cruelly murdered. If you could solve the mystery, you might win a prize. I scratched my head over it for a while, but I had no idea who dunnit. It’s okay, because I DID win the drawing. I got a few fat quarters, some fun buttons, and some cotton/bamboo batting.

Fancy Fins

Sew Sweet in Tooele (It’s pronounced two-ILL-ah) is the hardest shop to reach. If there was a tunnel through the Oquirrh Mountains (You pronounce that OAK-er), it would only be a few miles west of Draper. Instead you must drive north to the Salt Lake airport, then west to Stansbury Park and south again. It's at least an hour each way. Sew Sweet’s book was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. They decorated their store with a fishy motif. I bought a kit there to make a fabric book for my grandson Aidan, The Pokey Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey and Gustaf Tenggren. First published in 1942, Pokey Little Puppy is the best-selling hardcover children's book of all time. It's even outsold Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat and Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon. I’ve read all three books so many times, I know them by heart. I’ll bet you do, too.