Madonna of the Trail

Greetings, all, and Happy Mother's Day to all you moms! I had occasion to go to Bethesda on Friday. I do not care for the escalator at the Bethesda Metro (although Dupont Circle is worse)--too steep. I cling to the railing on the way down, not skipping down the stairs as I see many doing (some wearing stilettos or flipflops). I walk up without fear, eyes forward, not imagining my demise, but I don't like the downward trip at all.


Right outside the Metro stop is this statue, placed by the DAR in 1929, to commemorate the mothers who ventured on the trail west. There are 12 such statues between Maryland and California, although only Maryland's faces east. Lost already? Reluctant? This statue sits right on Wisconsin Avenue, facing an Indian restaurant across the street, cars whizzing past.


I picked up and put down lots of projects in the past couple of weeks. Here is Essamplaire's Sarah Hatton McPhail. It just goes on and on, however much I stitch, but I don't begrudge a single thread, because it's really fun to work on. I added to the right-most rose and the tan alphabet at the top.


And Dorothy Walpole. Such a pretty sampler, but like the Bethesda Metro, it goes down and down and down. I can't wait to get to the large area of flowers at the bottom, and away from the eyelet-stitched alphabets.


We lost our kitty, Little Friend, two weeks ago, to a long illness. We miss her terribly. She had belonged to another family in our former neighborhood, but that family just moved away without her. She sat patiently on their step for weeks, which broke our hearts. We began feeding her and eventually moved her inside.


Little Friend must have whispered in this guy's ear on the way out. He showed up at the door the day after she died. We have been feeding him--he consumes a huge amount of food, but he's quite the scaredy cat.


Perhaps these guys look in the door and see this piece of needlework hanging in the foyer:


Here's little Peaches, waving hello, getting ready for her pedicure.
Peaches: "Heeeeellllpppppp Meeeeeeeeee!"


Happy week ahead!