When our boys were little we did our best to make sure that their toy choices were gender-neutral and non-violent. That was all the rage then (and it may still be). They each had a baby doll and/or stuffed toy that they loved a lot – but they also made guns out of anything they could find until we gave in and armed them with pop guns… and swords (it was the time of He-Man and Skeletor after all – see Chris, below). After a few years I realized that boys and girls are not interchangeable toy-wise and just went with it.

Jeff was more into Superman and cowboys – all at once.

My grandson, Jack, is all boy and he is already fully armed but truth be told he likes trucks more than weapons (usually). Especially fire trucks. This afternoon I took him to the Sherman Fire Station and he got to see the big ladder truck – and sit in the driver's seat!

In Sherman, if the doors are up you are welcome to come in and visit. An exceptionally nice fireman showed Jack and Elanor (who was with us and sort of interested) the trucks and the lights and all the cool stuff. They got fire hats which Jack prefers to wear backwards. He didn't wear it in the truck.

Jack enjoyed the real fire trucks and then he was ready to go buy the toy fire truck that I had promised him beforehand. It's good to be home and doing 'Nana' things!

Daisies & Dots is the name of our newest collection of fabric from Robert Kaufman. The colors are clear and fresh and brimming with happy daisies and dots. We love every bit of it!

This fabric won't be available for sale until January 1 but you can see the full range here on the Robert Kaufman site. We've been busily working on projects made from this fabric. If you are signed up to receive our eNewsletter you'll know when we post something new on our site. If you aren't on the list and want to be, click here.

On a related note, this fabric will also be available in jelly rolls. Amazingly enough, neither Linda nor I have ever used a jelly roll. If you have a wonderful idea about how a Daisies & Dots jelly roll might be used, please share it with us. It would be nice to be able to put some ideas with the jelly rolls on the web when we put them up in January.

After sharing all the wonderful photos and news from our trip I thought I should also share my real life. I got home Sunday evening and I have been digging out from under piles of paper…

and laundry…

and weeds. This vine appeared while we were gone and grew at a very fast clip and those cute little pods look capable of bursting into millions of seeds. 

It's taken 3 days but I've managed to clear off my desk, pull the weeds, and do the laundry. I've washed and dried the fabric I brought home from Australia but the linen is going to have to be pressed before I put it up. I hope to deal with that pile this evening.

The kids came for dinner last night we had a great time. Elanor and Jack have grown in my absence. Kids are amazing and it was so much fun to see them again (and Chris and Lorna too, of course).

Thought I'd share this idea: I bought some lingerie bags at Walmart for $1 each. I used them when I washed the fat quarter-sized pieces of fabric I came home with.

This is what the fabric looked like after they came out of the bag. Often this sized piece comes out of my washer in a big lump. The lingerie bags worked for me. Some of the threads were twisted together but the fabric came out of my washer in better shape.

The students in my last class at the Valdez Quilt Festival were nice enough to take a short lunch and let me leave town at 3:30 PM which meant that I was in daylight for the majority of the drive back to Anchorage. This should be a 6 hour drive. I stopped to take lots of photos on the way to Valdez so it took longer to get there. It took me 5 hours to make the return trip! I only stopped twice on the way back – and I drove faster.

It was clear and the skies were blue. I saw the mountains that were shrouded in the clouds when I drove to Valdez. The trees were even more beautiful. The photos don't do them justice.

There were mountains lining the drive the entire way. Sometimes they
were close and roads were very winding – at other times the peaks were
farther away. My rental car was small-ish with a tight suspension and some get-up-and-go. It was fun to drive! It would have been more fun in a sports car – not safer, of course, but more fun.

The gold treetops glowed in the green. I took this photo at a 'photo stop'. It was an impressive peak.

There was a stretch of what looked like aspens. They stood out because of the white tree trunks. Some had gold leaves and others, like the one below, had not yet turned.

These had turned…

I watched for moose and bear by the road. Didn't see any. I did see a massive number of vehicles that obviously belonged to hunters. They were all attached to flatbed trailers which puzzled me until I saw some hunters speeding along off the road on 4-wheelers equipped with huge rifle holsters. In one area they were so dense that I wondered if they ran along in packs (the hunters, that is) chasing moose.

It didn't start out sunny. In fact every day in Valdez has begun in a blanket of fog and clouds like this or thicker. In fact this is a photo after the deepest fog. That's the terminus of the Alaska pipeline across the harbor (I found out that there is indeed only one AK pipeline).

At midday the skies turned blue but the fog still hovered over the harbor. It was really bright and crisp and happy!

The next time I walked past a window I noticed that there really was water in the harbor. Amazing!

My hotel is near the ferry docks and the day stayed clear long enough for me to take these photos. The deepest white high on the mountains in the background are glaciers unless I am very much mistaken.

Imagine kayaking here!

This was supposed to be a short flight, less than an hour. Remember that song about a 'three hour tour'? Here's the plane. It was actually bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. Era only flies inside  Alaska and that's important because you don't have to go through security to get on their planes. After years of succumbing to searches I found this to be unnerving.

We took off around 7:30 AM and flew over dense clouds. I took photos but they look a lot like the clouds from yesterday's posts. We got to where Valdez was supposed to be (who could tell?) and started descending into the clouds. Thick clouds that did not get any thinner as we got lower.

Scott, a nice man sitting next to me, was very calm and assured me that this was normal and if it was dangerous the pilot would pull up – and about that time he did. Quickly. When we got back above the clouds I could see snow covered mountain tops in the near distance. We circled 25 minutes and tried it again (by that time I was ready to forget it.) The fog was still too dense and we flew back to Anchorage.

After the 2nd attempt Scott (who is a private pilot with his own plane) said he doesn't fly into Valdez because fog is common. He also mentioned that the control tower at the Valdez airport is remotely controlled – there wasn't an actual person in there to talk us in. They have ground crew in Valdez but that's it. Oh my.

After some discussion with seasoned Alaskan travelers and after consulting the weather I decided that it might be better to drive the 6 hours rather than hope the fog cleared enough to land later in the day (which it did). Sheila, my contact at the Valdez Quilt Festival, agreed so I rented a car and took off.

The leaves are turning in Alaska and the scenery was beautiful! I stopped often to take photos (the drive back should be faster). This is my little car next to the elk crossing sign. If you look closely you may notice that the sign has been shot. It's a problem here – most of the signs I saw had been shot. I tried not to think about who might actively be shooting signs while I was on the road.

More leaves:

It was overcast and a bit rainy all day.

The drive was winding enough to keep my attention.

There are a lot of rivers and streams here. And fishermen – lots and lots of fishermen. And hunters are out because it's hunting season too. They tell me the elk and moose stay off the road during hunting season which is good. I would like to know how they know now is when to hide.

The Alaska pipeline (is there more than one?) ran near the road as I got closer to Valdez.

And there were glaciers! The next photo is more about where the glacier isn't. I think that ice covered the rough black ground in front of the ice not that long ago. It looks newly uncovered to my untrained eye.

This glacier with the split in the middle is about 30 miles outside of Valdez.

I drove in on the marked road and could have walked up close (at my own risk on unstable ground according to the signs) but it was late. I did go far enough that I ran into a couple who were nice enough to take my picture! It was blowing as you can see by my hair sticking up.

I can tell you that Alaska is BIG. Bigger than Texas, although I believe it has a much smaller population. It struck me that if I lived here I would think of nature differently. Nature is in your face here. It is easy to feel both insignificant and magnificent at the same time when you breath this air.