Thank you Frances...

I have a tiny little start on the antique reproduction piece, Frances Pool - 1832. 

I'm really liking the floss selection thus far on this sampler.  

While stitching those purple and blue berries I had a thought. 

 Don't you love it

 how your mind just goes somewhere else

when you stitch? 

Is this just me?

 While stitching those purple berries, 

I decided that they must be mulberries. 

 A bird will get stitched upon that twig of mulberries...

Those little X's of mulberry purple and blue

 reminded me of our young little family,

several years ago, 

dating back to when the dh was a student at Iowa State University. 

  Our young little family 

lived in married student housing

 that sat on the outskirts of campus, 

near a pasture 

where the horses were kept,

 just a hop and a skip from the horse barns 

on campus. 

 Yes, there are horse barns on campus..

ISU is well known for it's

 agriculture

 and vet med studies.  

On summer evenings, 

Erin would hop onto her white Huffy bicycle, 

with the purple banana seat and white wicker basket,

and 

little brother Matthew would be on his

 Big Wheel...

legs going just as fast as can be,

 to keep up, 

I must add. 

Click, click, click...

remember the sounds those Big Wheels made?

 Mom and Dad would be on foot

 and

 we'd go for a 

walk/ride to the feed the horses.

It was decided upon 

by the kids

 that horses eat carrots,

so that is what they fed them!

 After the horses were stuffed of carrots,

 (dear lord, I'm hoping those horses weren't any big part of any research study...)

 we would head east to a bike path

 that ran through a fairly heavily wooded area.

Trees hung over both sides of the path,

 it always felt 20 degrees cooler upon entering the path.

The area was brimming with birds,

 lots and lots of cardinals

 and 

mulberry trees.

  If we were lucky enough to beat the birds to the mulberries,

 we'd each pick a handful

 and

 put them in Erin's little white bicycle basket

 and

 head home to enjoy a treat of 

sugared mulberries and ice cream...

yummy!  

That was 25 plus years ago,

I had forgotten about those

 mulberry

 and

 ice cream days,

until

 I put those X's onto my linen.

 The thought of those days

 brought a smile to my face...  

Thank you 

Frances Pool.

Digging out from yesterdays blizzard,

Brenda