Clarity

On a clear day
Rise and look around you
And you'll see who you are
On a clear day
How it will astound you
That the glow of your being
Outshines every star
You'll feel part of every mountain sea and shore
You can hear
From far and near
A word you've never, never heard before...
And on a clear day...On a clear day...
You can see forever...
And ever...
And ever...
And ever more. . .

Today was a most gorgeous day.  First and foremost I can report that the air in The Sandbox has cleared appreciably.  The latest batch of "stew" I've made to mix with the dry dog food does not have brussels sprouts in it like the last batch.  This is not a mistake I will make again!  :-)

The air in the kitchen is better than clear.  It smells fabulous.  For Christmas we received a King Arthur gluten-free bread mix and a special tall narrow loaf pan from Mom and Dad.   King Arthur says gluten-free bread needs more support when baking.  I guess that's true because this is the first loaf of GF bread I've made that hasn't partially collapsed!  I'm gonna be getting me another one of these pans. 

I decided to be brave this morning and take all three dogs for a walk.  I hate only taking one and leaving the others.  They act hysterically upset but in reality I'm sure it's mostly me that's upset and they settle down as soon as I leave the house.  They behave on leash very nicely individually but Ngaire is so high-strung that she makes the others crazed when they are together.  I didn't go out of the subdivision....I'm no dummy.....but we walked around the pond three times enjoying the clear fresh air.

It was early enough that the sun was still up in the tops of the trees.  (These are cell phone photos!)

The reflections were spectacular.

I can never choose a favorite picture.

How can you describe that blue!  It does look like you could see forever.

I sat in the living room to eat breakfast and watched the birds.  We had the usual titmice, finches, chickadees and nuthatches.  One goldfinch, a cardinal, and a blue jay so it was a colorful morning too.  The pair of towhees and the little sparrows hopped around with the squirrels.  I was pleased to see a pine siskin at the feeder.  This is their winter range and it's the first one this season.   Robins were everywhere on the ground and in the trees.  A beautiful red-bellied woodpecker stopped for suet as well as a downy woodpecker, and I was very surprised to see two bluebirds in the feeder eating seed.  The biggest surprise however, was a whole flock of red-winged blackbirds.  Occasionally I see one, but I've never seen so many. 

 (Side note:  I may have been to hasty in my declaration of clear air.  OMG  What a pong!  *waving the laptop to clear the air*   *Sigh*)

I finished up the twelve blocks of the Temecula Quilt Co. mini mystery quilt.  Today it was revealed that the "mystery" was that each day's block had the same number of pieces as the day.  I realized that right from the beginning so I was surprised that was the mystery!  :-)  Since I only have 7" squares of these fabrics I dug deep in my stash to come up with sashing and borders.  The sashing is ok but border part was making me crazy.

Ouch.  Too red.

Shirting like the sashing is, but too pale.

Kaffe??  Fun, but no.  :-)

Hmmm.  All the right colors, but waaay too spotty.

Too pale again.

One more time with the red.  NO!

Yeesh.  By this point I've decided to forget the border and just bind it. This is better.

Even better.  So blue it is.  :-)

Oh man, it smells evil in here.  Maybe we should sleep with the window open.