What happened to May and June?

For the Birds, copyright The Drawn Thread

It has been seeming like finishes are a thing of the past.  Nothing finished in May, and only one finish in June, "For the Birds" by The Drawn Thread.  This was delightful to stitch and got me thinking about doing a sampler with Hebrew letters as the border.

Tour de France, copyright MB3Z

Now we're in July, that time of year again - the Tour de France.  Time to get out my ufo poster of the TDF and get working on that again.  It is a big project with quite a bit of work still to do.  I haven't yet reached the point where I can see the finish line, although I've gotten a little more work on it than this picture shows.  This year I've learned some new techniques through my EGA chapter, and it kind of has me questioning whether I should continue to do so much cross stitch. Although I love cross stitching and I definitely plan to finish all my cross stitch ufos, there are so many new things to try.  I may need to think harder about stitching goals, what I'd like to achieve through stitching, and which techniques I should concentrate on.  

Because I've been trying to finish my ufos, I haven't spent as much time reading.  I had planned to spend this year reading the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.  They are an excellent series of historical novels set in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.  I was halfway through the 4th novel, The Mauritius Command, when a Jeopardy clue and a post about it on FB led me to read The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.  Guess I needed a break from the sea.  This is an excellent novel and very different from what I usually read.  It is set in an alternate history where the Axis wins WWII.  Japan and Germany have divided America, with Japan controlling the West, Germany the East, and a neutral zone in between in the Rockies.  The plot follows different characters, not all of whom know each other but who are all connected.  Disturbing and thought-provoking were the words that came into my mind upon finishing it, but I'm very glad that I read it.