Wild Kingdom

Wild?  Here?  In our semi-urban setting?  Oh yes indeedy.  Since it's nearly midnight the birds are nice and quiet but the peepers, toads and their friends are filling in nicely thank you very much.

Earlier in the week, Thursday as a matter of fact, as I was slowly driving around the pond towards our house I spotted something new.  New to me anyway.

Yep.  More snakes.  Not venomous this time, thank goodness.  As far as I can tell they are northern water snakes.  (Another link.)

Not having my camera in the car, I grabbed it from the house and walked back to see what was going on.  The red arrow is pointing to the snake.  They were apparently having a party in the pond with the koi and the turtles.  If you click on the photo you may also be able to see at about a dozen koi and at least as many turtles.  The snakes that appeared to be playing with each other when I drove by, quickly dispersed when I walked up so these were "lucky" photos.  I had no idea until I imported to iPhoto that I'd actually captured them.  20X zoom from the safety of the road is plenty close enough for me!

Also this week I decided to be brave and tackle the front flower beds.  Clover was taking over. It looks much better now and just needs a good layer of mulch......and nothing bit me so it's all good.  :-)

I pooped out before I got to this one but it's mostly just a matter of leaf litter out and mulch in.

While I was working the bluebirds were busily feeding their brood.  Mama chattered nervously at me when I got too close but she bravely flew back and forth bringing dried mealworms from the bird feeder.  Dad seems to prefer hunting for "real" prey.

Peekaboo!

This weekend is the county library system's book sale.  It was held in the Jim Graham Building at the state fairgrounds again.  The building is used for livestock shows, car shows, boat shows, gun shows, you name it.  It's 95,000 square feet and was full of books.  This quick shot with my cell phone is only showing about 1/4 of the room.  It's amazing really.  We were smart this year and brought along a small trolley.  You never know what treasure you might find for a dollar!

Today was devoted to the home front.  The garage got an initial cleaning and a car-load was taken to the "dump."  Then I decided to make our (ugh) pollen coated porch usable again.  All the furniture was scrubbed down and I hosed down the floor, walls and screens.  A huge improvement.

I even resurrected my lounge chair which hadn't been cleaned or used for several years!  Once I get a new cushion for it I'm looking forward to naps on the porch.....when it's not too hot!

It was hot enough for bugs today.  Something from the Wild Kingdom bit me good.  The welts aren't even that itchy but they sure are big and ugly.

This evening, while The Tramp treated us to several episodes of The South Bank Show I puttered with triangles.  The making of the Sgt. Pepper album was very interesting.  The Pet Shop Boys not so much....for me anyway.  And lastly a show about Danny Kaye.  It was nice to have the entertainment while I finished cutting and settled down to sewing more geese units and half square triangle units.

A bit tedious I'm afraid....but at least I did a better job cutting these triangles than the original set!  :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

Penance

For my sins, I just spent the better part of the evening recutting piles of triangles.  Sigh.

Thursday through Sunday I was at a beetreat in the mountains.  Before I left I got this t-shirt quilt delivered to Patchwork Memories so I could leave with a clear conscience!

I also sent off a birthday gift to Stardust.  I used indietutes pattern to make her a backpack out of the pinkest and sparkliest fabric I could find.  :-)

And inside I stuffed a couple of bunnies made from Bunny Hill's Snickerdoodles pattern.  I won the pattern from another blogger (but I can't remember who!).  So cute!

I received a photo of the backpack in action.  :-)

We left home Thursday morning in the rain.  We arrived in the rain.

Watched it rain almost all weekend.

And then left in the rain on Sunday.

But then that's excellent sewing weather.  Right?  The lodge was spacious and comfortable.  Since it was so dreary outside, the lighting left a bit to be desired but we stood some lamps on the big dining table and with our Ott Lights as well, we managed to get quite a lot of sewing done.

Cutting fabric and cooking happened in the kitchen.

Wonderful things like these delish crepes kept our stomachs happy.

The Bernina 830 Record performed like a trooper on it's first big outing.

These are blocks from Bonnie Hunter's My Blue Heaven quilt.  I made four blocks at a class with Bonnie at least three years ago.  This was my opportunity to get some more blocks done!

L finished this top on the weekend.

And all of us worked on this top, our donation to the guild's quilt auction in October.

I put the last three rows on this quilt top (Bonnie Hunter's Patches and Pinwheels) and I'm looking forward to working on the borders  I just love the look of this one.

Back home, the first thing I had to finish was another t-shirt quilt.

And this evening I took inventory of the My Blue Heaven bits and pieces.  On the weekend I got the 174 hourglass units put together.

At the retreat I got all 45 of the modified puss in the corner blocks put together, so this evening I started to work on the star blocks.  

Well.  Oh my.  Putting the first one together was such a struggle.  The half-square triangle units were odd sizes and the flying geese units were embarassingly wonky.  Out came the rulers to check against those blocks I made a few years ago.  Talk about wibbly wobbly sewing.  Ack!  So I got my Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers out and decided to check all my cut triangles.  Yikes!  What kind of a triangle is that???

 Was I drunk that day???  Holy cow!

Penance has been performed.  The piles of triangles are all now either trimmed to size or in the trash.   I'd like to think if I cut them today I'd have done a better job.  Hmmmmmmmmm.

Cuteness

After the last posting disaster I decided to take the easy way out and go with family photos.  Cuteness all around.

The Viking.  Too cute for words.

Stardust on her birthday.

Well..... I think they're cute.  :-)

Batman had surgery.  Apparently he thought the whole hospital experience was lots of fun.  Have you ever seen anyone so happy to pose on a hospital bed in hospital pajamas?  Cute!

Five fell and smacked his front teeth.  They've been removed so now he has the whole cute missing front teeth thing going on.

Canada geese and goslings are showing up everywhere.  Of course their cuteness depends upon your point of view.

Not much is cuter than a nest full of bluebirds.  :-)

Magenta sporting her tutu.  Awwwwww.  :-)

Rocky, in a rare moment of silence.  He's a man of action!

On a visit to Staglands.  I'm told they had a wonderful time.

Cherry blossom time!

Five and Ivy watching Dog TV together.

He has to wear an eye patch for a few hours a day and he's very good about it.

I can't remember when I could sit like that!

The Sailor Son, telling me to stop being cute and point the camera at someone else.  :-)

We all had a fabulous time at the neighborhood pig pickin'.  The boys told me on no uncertain terms that they weren't eating any pig!  Hotdogs and cupcakes were just fine thank you very much.  :-)

Stardust the Easter Fairy.  The cutest Easter egg hunter in town!  :-)

Retreating this weekend with some quilting friends.  Woot!  I hope to have some great things to show off when I get home.