Thistlewood Manor

Weekend projects

It’s so nice to have Greg back!  It’s been fun hearing about his travels and good to be able to do things together again.  This weekend we worked on projects we need to finish.

Greg’s first project was a new faucet for the sink.  It came apart while he was gone and although I had screwed it back down, it was leaking.  It was pretty cheap to begin with and I’d never really liked it, so we bought one  that I can put big kettles under to fill.

I love it!  So much nicer than the old one.

While he worked on that I planned what I need to do to be ready for Gulf Wars, a re-enactment event I’ll be attending in a few weeks.  I started with a list of things to make.

Then I worked on my banner for a bit.

These are the embroidery designs I used.  Here’s the finished Cherries:

  Fortunately I have good help.

This is Gracie, supervising.

Greg finished the faucet project and decided to work on the submission forms to get his device registered for our re-enactment group.

He said he doesn’t know how kindergarteners do all that coloring, it was a lot of work!

Meanwhile, I finished a baby quilt top so I can get it quilted and off to it’s recipient.

I love the zig zag pattern in soft pastels.

So, that was our weekend, we felt like we accomplished quite a bit!

Play time in Sri Lanka

Greg has a little down time before his flight back home takes off, so he’s doing some sight seeing.  Here’s where he stayed last night:

Morning swim on the beach.

Breakfast time:

After breakfast they went on a drive through the jungle.

They saw shrines.

And a “farmers Market”;

And elephants:

And deer,

And asked that age old question:

“Why did the peacock cross the road?”

Then they had a very fancy lunch at a restaurant in the game preserve:

   

Looks like they are really enjoying their trip!

Meanwhile, back in Sri Lanka….

I haven’t posted pictures in a few days because Greg didn’t have a good internet connection to send me any.  He’s now finished with the second job and is at a hotel near the coast with better internet.

Here’s a picture of what he’s been working on:

The parts to the grain dryers were shipped over and Greg and 3 other men from Sukups have been putting them together.

Looks like they’ve had plenty of help:

Here’s the accommodations at the last site, not quite as posh as the first one:

Talk about an efficient bathroom:

And of course, pink and blue mosquito netting.

Greg would like me to point out that HIS bed has the blue netting.

Of course, we have to have more food pictures.

Snack time!  Nice to see they have Diet Coke in case I ever go visit there.

Interesting………

This looks tasty!

Time to rest!

Greg and his coworkers will be doing some sight seeing before coming back this week, so hopefully I’ll have more pictures to share.

Patchwork

A few things I’m working on in the Sewing studio today:

Using up scraps in a scrappy couch quilt.

A mug rug for a friend.

Now back to sewing!

Just like downtown.

I was hungry for good Mexican food tonight and discovered I had all the right ingredients when I looked in the refrigerator.  I decided to make taco salad, so first I fried up some tortillas.

The first one got a little dark because I pressed it against the bottom of the pot.  The dogs still enjoyed it.

Then I topped the shell with lettuce, taco meat, cheese, sour cream, taco sauce, guacamole and olives.

Just like going downtown!

Puppy time again – 8 weeks old!

They are getting so big!  3 of them have left for new homes and 1 is staying with us; leaving 2 girls and a boy still wanting to be adopted.

Have you ever tried to get 4 puppies to cooperate for a photo shoot?  Well, I didn’t succeed.

But I tried.

Don’t you love this little face?

And this one?

Hey, let us out!  We want to play outside again!

Food and cooking in Sri Lanka

Greg sent me some really interesting pictures this time!  Of course, since cooking is a big part of my life, any pictures with food in them are appealing to me.  It’s so fun to see how another culture lives.

Greg said they mostly have fruit for lunch on the job site.  I love how nicely this is presented:

They eat in a bungalow on the job site.  Can you imagine cooking in this setup?

It reminds me of a camp kitchen, which I guess it is, in a way.  Here’s a picture of an evening meal:

Always eat with your right hand!  Greg also sent a picture of one of his coworkers picking a snack for himself:

 

Mmmmmmmm, yummy.

Hope you enjoyed today’s pictures, I’ll have more tomorrow!