Catching up.....again :-)

Today is a gorgeous day.  Cool and sunny.  I've been cutting t-shirts and decided to take a break and see what was on my camera.  Ah!  These weren't on the camera, these came from Poyla.  Our sweet Stardust has celebrated her first birthday!  And she's going to be walking at any moment!

I finished these three quilt tops last week.

These two hockey jersey tops are for twins.  :-)

Well....some of us work in The Sandbox.

The five bluebird chicks have fledged and gone.  I cleaned out the bird house and have seen the parents hanging around.  Maybe we'll have a second set!  The geese have managed to hatch one gosling out of their five eggs.  The rest of the eggs appear to have been abandoned.

Our big excitement was the Friday before when the tree people came.  Lots of noise and equipment.  But we have a bit of open space now.

The Bobcat driver zoomed up and down beside the house dragging long tree trunks and carrying big loads of branches.  We were amazed at how expert he was and never touched the house.

The new view across the back yard from the right side.

The new view looking up.

The old view of the front of the house.  (click to see better)

The new view of the front with the persimmon trees gone (yay!) and fewer huge pine trees behind.  And a few branches were trimmed so the dogwood tree in the center of the front yard could have some air and light.

This Friday Carolina Fish Hatchery came to stock the pond.  About 1200 fish in all.  I am told we now have bluegill, shellcracker, channel catfish, koi, minnows, largemouth bass and grass carp.  I think some others were added at the last minute.

Lots of pollywogs mixed in.

Having the kids listen to the catfish "talk".

Amazingly, despite their excitement, none of the kids fell in.   :-)

Everyone "helped".

Each type of fish was shown off.

We had a good time chatting with the experts.  :-)

It looks awfully calm considering what's going on under the surface!  :-)

Saturday, before the deluging (record) rainfall came, we enjoyed the neighborhood pig pickin'.  Once we figured out the sauce was gluten-free The Tramp stuffed himself with pork while I stuffed myself with salads and desserts (groan).  I made a batch of Anzac biscuits to share.  It was fun seeing the blank looks when I was asked what kind of cookies I had brought and we had fun explaining to the locals what ANZAC day is all about.

On Sunday The Tramp built me a new desk.  :-)  Love that man!