Kimonos, and Urban Wildlife

My friend Louise hosted a giant Kimono sale this past weekend. She’s been collecting silk Kimonos for years and has hundreds of them. Once or twice a year she puts them up for sale and asks her women friends to help. I volunteered on Saturday afternoon. My job was to have fun, to show off the Kimonos by trying them on, and to encourage potential buyers to do the same. This morning Louise let us all know that her sale had raised $11,000, money she has already donated to organizations that support women and children in Corvallis. Her effort reminds me how much a single person can do when they set their mind to it. (See the gallery below).

Meanwhile, the rising creek behind Brent’s son’s house in Baton Rouge brought a visitor. My first response was EEKS! My second was what happened to the Egrets??

Ally’s about 12’ long

On Friday, I walked by the outside wall of my studio and noticed a tiny patch of lichen growing on the newly painted siding. I reached out to brush it off, but it wasn’t lichen. It was these little fellas: (zoom in for the full effect).

And yesterday, I was walking down the alley behind our house when I saw honeysuckle blossoms draped across my neighbors’ fence. After six years living here, you’d think I would have seen them before, but I hadn’t. As I passed, I said out loud, look at you! You’re gorgeous. Then I heard a man’s voice say, well, thank you! I looked over the fence. It was Patrick, my neighbor who walks his orange tabby on a lead around the neighborhood. He was smiling, knowing he’d caught me talking to his flowers. It seemed to me, he understood.

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PS If you’re interested in Louise’s Kimonos, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with her. And if you’re local, her next sale will be during Fall Festival, September 28-29.

I was channeling my Mom in the last photo. She loved to wear bright pink, something I shy away from. That's my friend Beth holding up the soft pink and off-white Kimono and a new friend named Babs in the purple one. The quilts in the background are made with Kimono fabric. Good idea!