Happy Zombie's Hens

Lisa E. and I had a very important mission yesterday: to adopt Monica's three hens for reasons we aren't allowed to reveal just in case it might get back to the girls whom Monica loves. This is the place we stopped at on our way back from collecting the precious cargo for a quick panini to go. You see why we had to stop here, right? Monica actually mentioned this place and we were happy to have found it right before we shriveled up with hunger. The paninis were pretty good, but kind of sat like lumps in our stomachs afterwards. The best part was watching them get made by a swarthy Italian-American beauty whose middle name is Angelina. Not quite as good as having it for a first name, obviously, but pretty good.

Here's Philip, Rex, and Lisa posing with the boxes in which the hens were transported.

There's Georgie peeking out at her new chicken yard.

Rex and Elena are very excited about the new additions to their coop!

And here's Snow-Ball who was right at home immediately, like most Americanas are. I have a soft spot for Americana's and am sad I don't have one myself anymore.

(This is for Monica's benefit) Here is the spacious chicken condominium in which your three girls will live. Very luxurious appointments!! It even has a skylight.

Here's my tired boy holding Georgie.

You are probably asking yourself how come there are no pictures of Monica and her house and her FABULOUS studio, huh? You're wondering what kind of moron doesn't take pictures of the first "real life" meeting of blog friends. Me. That's what kind of moron. I am not particularly shy as a rule, except with my camera. About fifty times while we hung out for two hours and drank delicious iced tea and gossiped about all of you out there in blog land, I thought "I should ask Monica if I can take some pictures". Then I didn't. Because it always feels so disrespectful and invasive to punctuate a friendly gathering with photo-snapping. Unless you know everyone super well.

So there are no pictures of Monica or her studio which I've never seen full pictures of on her blog (just partial pictures) and which I pretty much never wanted to leave. It's a wonderful cheery well organized CLEAN space. I've decided that she needs to coach me on fixing mine up. You know, in between all the packing and moving she's going to be doing in the next few weeks.

Seeing a person's quilts on the computer is nothing to seeing them in person. I have such a deeper respect for Monica's quilting skills and talent. She embroiders in tight clean stitches and all her work is really meticulously done. My aunt who is also a quilting perfectionist would absolutely love to see such fine work. It drives my aunt crazy that I don't care if some of my points don't quite match up, or if a few squares are wonky, or if perhaps I make it up as I go along. I have a deep respect for all people who pursue their passions with an eye to detail and I do the same in my apron and garment sewing, but when it comes to quilts I let myself go a little because I just enjoy the process and for me, if it's a little messy at the end it just adds a little mischievous charm.

I believe we should all do some things we enjoy that we don't feel we have to be perfect at. I would never make a shoddy garment, I would never leave a zipper buckled or seam unpressed. However, quilting is my playground and I don't impose the same strict rules of conduct on myself while doing it. This doesn't stop me from admiring the greater works of quilting art done by others.

Just as I expected, Monica is such a wonderfully lively warm person that it took only a couple of minutes before I felt I could sit around with her all day long chatting, looking at patterns, talking shop, and politics, and just everything. I would love to belong to a sewing circle with her.

Well, now her lovely birds have a good new home and I've met another blog friend. It was a good Friday! Canning cherries and picking up laying hens for Lisa's coop are great farm-girl adventures to begin the summer with. Now I must go attend to business so that I can start to work on my studio and complain about the heat.