The sun wins!

Early in the summer, my cub pack set up a schedule for activities. lots of things to go and see and do. Our final event was a family campout at Yamanaka, at the foot of Mt Fuji.

As the weekend neared, the weatherman began to predict a change from the hot sunny days we have had in excess. Unfortunately, that prediction included rain storms.

Although I have no problem camping in the rain with Boy Scouts, Cubs and parents with younger siblings ... not my idea of a fun event when rain is included.

I packed my van Friday night and set out early Saturday morning to my parking lot, Nikko's leash on one arm, pack on my back, craft supplies over one shoulder, and a big umbrella in my hand. It was dumping down huge drops of rain and our narrow lane without drains was a lake. BUT, by the time I had reached the car, the sun was back out.

I picked up my assistant near the highway entrance and there were off and on sprinkles but by the time we reached the camp, there were patches of blue sky between the clouds. We rented a huge canvas fly and got it set up ... just in case. That did it! The weather cleared up completely.

My assistant leader brought some really great activities. One was this string on two rods. and a magic formula of soap and starch and glycerin for making these huge bubbles. Another set of rods had the string tied in little loops and made hundreds of bubbles in one wave. Everyone got plenty of chances to try and some of those giant bubbles were well over six feet long.

  I brought knives and saws and the boys tried their hands at making  owl neckerchief slides from natural materials. This one was made by a seven-year-old Cub.

My assistant prepared a nature BINGO for using on a hike. They had to actually be looking at the object as they checked it off. The parent leaders set off with the kids and I was well aware of their return because the last item was a "dog" and they all knew where to find Nikko.

The nature around Mt Fuji is beautiful every time of year. Sunday morning the families climbed to the top of the building for a view of Fuji while I enjoyed some of the wild flowers, boiled a bit of water for some coffee, and worked on my quilt border.

It took about as long to take down the rain fly and pack it all back up to return as it did to set it up ... well, maybe longer. I was just glad that we hadn't needed it.

I returned home in the late afternoon after dropping my assistant off at the train station. These flowers were waiting as I un-loaded my car. There were also messages on my e-mail from the family groups saying they had had a great time. One father sent terrific pictures of the activities and campfire. My camera has had a lot of very hard wear. It is also used by other family members so I do not know what treatment it gets but clearly, something is wrong with the lens and only a small part of any picture is in focus.

The last blurry picture I will show is my finished flimsy. This is already a big enough quilt but I really wanted a border of some kind to frame it. I didn't have any really big pieces of fabric but there was enough of this grey-blue to go around. I stuck in a few spare cornerstones where I had to join the pieces together to make the border long enough..  Now the piece is 293'' square and I will have to hunt around for something to use for the backing. I will have plenty of time to find a basting location and this will be a good quilting project once it gets cooler.

I hope the next picture of this will be taken with a new or repaired camera.