More sadness from Minneapolis

~ Last Saturday ICE agents in Minneapolis murdered another US citizen who was observing and filming their illegal activities. He observed the agents shove a woman to the ground, and when he leaned down to help her up and shield her from further mayhem, the agents gassed them both, took his legal fire arm and then proceeded to fire 10 TEN!!! bullets into his body. Another observer filmed the murder and has since come forward to self-identify to CNN. I cannot imagine the hell she experiences every day after witnessing that. Of course, the Trump administration spun it six ways from Sunday, saying he was a hired assassin and a radical terrorist, that he drew his gun, and all sorts of other lies. The only good to come out of this is that Trump's head of ICE, Greg Bovino, has been removed, but sadly replaced by Tom (Bagman) Homan, the "border Czar". He has vowed to reduce the amount of agents in town - we will see. In the meantime, ICE presence in Maine increased last week, although Susan Collins claimed today that ICE Barbie has promised her that their work in Maine is done. They dubbed this action here as Catch of the Day. They love to troll us with what they perceive as clever names for their programs. ~ Locally, we were walloped by a storm on Sunday night/Monday that left us with 15+" of snow. Thankfully it was a dry light fluffy snow so clean up was not as onerous - but it went on far too long. We had finished the front 2/3 of the drive and took a nap break. While we were napping, neighbor farmer Bob Campbell finished the job for us and even came back Tuesday morning to deal with the 3" we gained overnight. And he did a better job than any of the guys we've paid the entire time we've lived here!!! Neighbors helping neighbors - one of the things I love about this town. Now to figure out a way to thank him. ~ I'm on the home stretch of the mystery quilt I've been working on since Christmas. Just 10 more blocks of one kind to finish and 25 of another and I can start assembling it. It will go to be professionally quilted , then I'll bind and likely gift it to Linda Turner to help her heal from the loss of her son, Derrick, who committed suicide 2 weeks ago. There's a celebration of his life a week from Sunday at the Belgrade Community Center.

What Is This Country Coming To?

~ After last week's horrific killing of a woman by ICE in Minneapolis, the rhetoric coming from the Trump Administration has become increasingly terrifying. More gas lighting, more shockingly violent false claims, the President yelling at an autoworker in a Ford plant in Detroit then flipping him the bird (How presidential?!) And the increased insistence that the US will take possession of Greenland one way or another. The EU has been moving forces to that island in preparation for a possible armed conflict. I believe we would not "need" Greenland as the president claims if we weren't acting like a global bully by taking control of Venezuela while capturing and removing their president. Yes, he was an illigitimate president but don't act as if that's why we went in there with guns blazing. You just wanted the oil - oil that it turns out none of the US companies want. They don't want to invest the multi millions of dollars it will take to get the infrastructure back in working order and they don't want the "dirty" oil that Venezuela has been selling for years since we have plenty of cleaner oil right now. Whoever came up with this plan did not do their homework. Of course, the "real" reason all of this is happening is because they want to badly to make the American public forget about the Epstein files. They don't want the sitting president of the US and all his chums exposed for the bottom dwellers they have been for years There are some truly awful allegations out there by some of the victims who have been talking - extreme criminal behavior that would make the MAGA faithful turn tail and run.

New Year, New Quilting Adventure

~ After closing LeafLady Quilts at the end of my last show in November of 2025, I needed a project to keep me at my machine and distract from the increasingly shitty world we are forced to endure. I found it, even before I officially retired from selling - A mystery quilt. I had recently run across Bonnie Hunter's postings on Threads and learned she is of a like mind when it comes to the current political landscape and makes no bones about it in her personal posts. I'm certain she has lost some of her audience as a result but did she really need them? ( I had followed her on social media back in the 2010s and stopped because she was way more productive that I could be and I was feeling bad that I couldn't keep up with her.) Anyway, I am in the midst of trying to catch up on the clues for her Lupine & Laughter Mystery Quilt. It's a scrappy thing, just what I need to reduce my holdings. I'm halfway through Clue 4 and have happily managed to use some of my Deb Tucker Studio 180 tools to complete some of the clues. A new clue drops every Friday and if I'm really diligent today, I will only be 3 clues behind when that happens tomorrow. And 2 of the next clues are mostly assembly of previously constructed/cut pieces so they should be quick. I ran into a bit of a bog with the half square triagles for clue 3 and had to re-sew the seam and rip out the previous seam on avout 1/3 of them. (Still not completed yet but I have enough to keep me moving forward. It's a joy to not have to make any decisions on this save for which fabrics to use. I'm sticking fairly close to Bonnie's suggested color palate, some scrappy, some not. Not even sure what the finished size will be. I plan to have it professionaly quilted (Probably Lynn at Whippersnappers) and will likely donate it for a raffle somewhere. ~ Other than that, the tree is down, the house undecorated. The outside lights are still in place due to the snow load but today promises a break in the frigid temps so there might be a chance to grab those lights by Saturday. There has been some shovelling and baking and decluttering taking me away from the sewing machine. ~ I have several runners designated as gifts for friends in appreciation for their years of support for my little business. I need to package up the ones to be mailed and write little notes for all. Get those out of the house. And I'm collecting things for donation to GoodWill, so they will get a box ot a bag or two. We need a new vacuum cleaner. And I could use a new chair for the studio - the current one slowly sinks over the course of the day to where it is too low to be comfortable. (What did I expect for $10 at the State surplus sale?) I also need to print off forms for the 3 throw quilts I'm donating to Hopes and Dreams for thier ALS challenge. I donated several previously, a couple of Judy's UFOs that I finished and one of my own. ~ Tai Chi starts again the last week of the month. ~ We had a nice dinneer out on Christmas Day at Otto's on the River in downtown Augusta. I finally got the prime rib I'd been wanting for months.