Travel Plans

Tom and I have made our vacation plans for the year. Because I'm spending much of the year getting my knees fixed and getting my strength back, we decided to stick closer to home this time.

We are going to visit the Smokey Mountains and rent a cabin in Tennessee. (This photo is from the Smokeys, but it's not ours.) The cabin is not at all rustic (it has WiFi and Cable with flat screen TV's) but it's log and has a wood-burning fireplace and a covered porch with rocking chairs.

And it has a full kitchen, so I can do all the cooking and baking I want to do. And, since we're going in the fall, the fireplace will feel nice, I'm sure.

It's only about 9 hours from where we live, so we are driving, which means I can take as much stuff as I want - lots of quilting, lots of writing and reading. And no luggage or weight or space limits!

I haven't spent much time in this part of the country, so I'm looking forward to seeing it and - for the first time in a long time - moving around freely with knees that work!

New Quilt Project - Early Morning in the Tetons

I am working on a new quilt project for a competition which is coming up this summer. I'm going to try to put together something that I've been thinking about doing for a while - design a quilt to go with the writing I'm doing for my National Park Project.

Right now I'm working on an essay called "Beaver and Bear" about the day my husband ran across a bear and her two cubs in the Grand Tetons. The quilt will have bears on it - this picture is one I'm going to use for reference to do the cubs.
This is the photo I'm using to reference the mama.


Need to get going on this right away, since I'm within 4-5 weeks of needing it done. I'll post a photo of it when I'm done and include the essay too.

The Coccoon

It's been nearly five weeks since my knee replacement surgery and I've had a lot of time to just sit and think about things.

One of the things that I'm beginning to realize is, that I have been living in a cocoon of pain for several years now. With bad knees, which progressively got worse week after week, I found myself measuring every activity, every plan, every event in terms of how much pain it was going to cost me.

And the truth is, lately the answer has been - too much. I simply got to the point where there were things I couldn't do anymore - and those things included stuff I loved doing - shopping, going to museums, hiking in the National Parks, travel.

But lately, with my right knee getting better and better, I find that I'm starting to think like the old Denise. We are planning trips we want to take this summer and fall and no longer is my first thought about how I'm going to physically manage things. I can actually picture myself enjoying activities and not worrying about walking any distance.

I still have a ways to go before my right knee is up to snuff, then I have my left knee to take care of in June (although that one isn't in nearly the bad shape the right one is) - but I'm beginning to see some cracks in that cocoon and perhaps by this autumn - I can break free!