Journal: Bunnies and Birds and Blocks (of Quilt)

 

Last Monday evening, Amy sent a video, asking, “Can you hear our frogs clear over there?  😂”

They were indeed setting up quite a racket, chirruping and croaking away.  Here’s a screenshot from her video, showing late sunset colors reflected in the ponds left behind by the rain in the fields near their house, with lightning flashing in the western thunderheads.  With a big enough lens (and a little more light), you might be able to see our house on the small, wooded hill just under that lightning in the clouds. 

I stuck my head out the door to see if I could hear the frogs.  I couldn’t, but I did hear robins, Baltimore orioles, and what I think was possibly a mockingbird singing their evening songs.  The possible mockingbird might’ve been a brown thrasher.  

One time I thought, You know, the brown thrasher sure sounds a lot like a mockingbird, so I looked it up, and whataya know, they’re in the same family – Mimidae.  That’s a Latin word that sounds a lot like our word ‘mimic’.

Victoria sent pictures of Carolyn and Violet on their way to school earlier that day.  It was the last day of school for grades 1-6 for the year.

Tuesday, a quilting friend posted a picture of a pretty little quilt she was putting together, and I promptly fell down the EQ8 Rabbit Hole.  It’s such a... a... a... toy!  A fun toy.

I’m calling this quilt ‘Illusion Logs’.

While I was playing with it, I discovered something new:  the ‘Map to Fabrics’ function.  What started off being a solid-color block (from the EQ8 block files), turned into a block sporting pretty fabrics.  Every time I use this program, I learn something new!  I also found that a right-click in the window that shows available and already-used blocks will give the option to use whatever color or fabric combinations you have already used, even if the block had not yet been saved.  (I’m pretty sure that sense made sentence.)

Here’s something else I discovered a few months back:  Using the Serendipity function, then choosing ‘Fancy Star’ after choosing a block – I chose one in the Wolves’ quilt, you can create some nifty things, such as this star block (or quilt, if you enlarge it).

I like EQ8.

At 3:00 that afternoon, the temperature was 53°, with a windchill of 38°.  Brrrrr!

Wednesday was grandson Lyle’s 18^th birthday and grandson Levi’s 15^th birthday.

I opened the bathroom window as I usually do on nice mornings while I curl my hair, at least until the summertime bugs show up.  There’s no screen in the window, because this is the window through which I take pictures of the birds. 

A small housefly (at least, it looked like a housefly) immediately came zooming in, and before I could whack it with the flyswatter, it bit me on the legs four or five times.  Yeooooowch!  Whatever kind of fly that was, he sure had jagged mandibles in his nasty little maw.

The worst of the bites started out looking like a small scratch, turned into a little bump, became a welt the size of a dime, and rapidly expanded to the size of a nickel.

I applied some essential oil that’s supposed to reduce itching and swelling.  It still itched, and I didn’t have rubbing alcohol handy, so I grabbed a bottle of perfume and gave that welt a squirt.  Ahhh.  That made it quit itching, and I smelled good, into the bargain.  However, the welt continued to grow.  I pulled out the Cortizone٠10 and applied a dab, and the swelling was soon going down.

I wonder what kind of a fly that was, anyway?!  No telling, as he’d been summarily swatted and squished.

The male Baltimore oriole brought his fledgling to the suet feeder again.  When the baby winds up on the opposite side of the feeder and can’t see his papa, he helps himself to the suet.  When Papa pops around to the same side as Baby, though, the youngster immediately goes to flapping and cheeping and begging for food.  Picture taken by photographer Lillian C. Taylor.

I spent most of the day working on Lyle’s quilt, until time for church.

After another one of those short nights with only three hours of sleep and a couple more of tossing, I got up not too long after sunrise Thursday morning, figuring I might as well make good use of my time by working in the flower gardens – only to discover it was much too cold for that.  It was only 46°.  So I showered and ate breakfast, popped outside to take pictures of irises and peonies, and then scurried back inside to warm up in front of the space heater whilst downloading my pictures.  

The first yellow iris has bloomed.

By 10:00 a.m., I was sleepy.  But I had a fresh cup of caramel pecan coffee, and the Wolves’ Dream Catcher quilt was calling me.

For supper that night, we had chicken ranch bacon pizza, and black cherry Oui yogurt.

I put in 13 hours of sewing that day.  I can do that, when it’s a process involving cutting, sewing, ironing, with combinations of standing, walking, and sitting.  Can’t stand and quilt for ten hours or so anymore, though.  I got all the less-than-one-inch squares (finished size) cut and sewn into their two-patch configuration.  768 little squares.

Here’s the eaglet called Gizmo, offspring of the famous bald eagles Jackie and Shadow of Big Bear Valley, California, taking notice of the camera.  Her sibling, Sunny, is lying in the nest behind her, and the mother, Jackie, is perched on the far branch, which camera operators have christened ‘the front porch’.  I’ll betcha Gizmo spotted her reflection in that lens, whataya bet?

Friday was a rainy, chilly morning.  By 1:00 p.m., the temperature was up to 59°.  I headed to my sewing room to add the silver rectangles and the blue squares to the two-patch units.  Here are the two-patch units.

The house wrens were singing their little hearts out that afternoon.  Amazing how our smallest bird has one of the biggest songs. 

Photo of singing Northern house wren from eBird.com.

I got some Caramel Macchiato cold brew from Christopher Bean.  It resided in the refrigerator for a few days until I decided to give it a try.  I didn’t notice until I’d taken a couple of sips that it was ‘double strength’.  That means ‘quadruple+ strength or more’, for me.  Yikes.  My hair is still standing up on end. 

After watering that stuff down by a six-to-one ratio and adding ice, I finally had a Thermal tumbler of something drinkable, and even almost good-tasting, if I could just get the memory of those first two sips out of my head.

Hannah came visiting, bringing me two more flowered coasters she had cross-stitched.  So pretty.

We had a nice visit while she strung ribbon through the little holes at the tops of these coasters and the two she had brought me before Mother’s Day, and I pinned pieces for the Wolves’ Dream Catcher quilt onto their foundation papers.

For supper that evening, we had beef, broccoli, and rice, with gravy – a Marie Callender frozen concoction.  There’s a flavor in the gravy that neither of us like.  I read through the ingredients, and we think it’s probably the soy sauce.  The stuff looks good on the front of the box!  But... 😝 

Saturday was another chilly, damp morning with wind gusts up to 25 mph.  It was really smoky around our neck o’ ze woods.  I didn’t know if it was coming from something local, or from wildfires farther away.  The entire sky was hazy, so I guessed it was from farther away.  Looking at an online wildfire map, I decided it was most likely from the Plum Creek Fire to our northwest.  That thing just won’t go out; it’s been active for over a month now.  It’s in wooded canyons and arroyos, so is challenging for firemen to cope with.

Later in the day, I learned that I was wrong.  The smoke was from one of the neighbors burning a pile of rubbish.  🙄  Further, the ‘haze’ in the sky was... are you ready?  It was clouds.

Shortly after I rehung the birdfeeders, a male Downy woodpecker landed on the suet feeder.  They’re so cute.  Picture is from the American Bird Conservancy.

I took a quick look at the Big Bear Valley eagles – and found Sunny staring into the camera:

A friend was having trouble with her Internet (or maybe it was merely a solitary website causing the trouble).  I offered a few suggestions, though by the time I learned of her problem, it seemed to have resolved itself. 

Lots of scenarios, with this new-fangled Internet stuff! 

“It’ll nevah catch on, I tell ya; it’ll nevah catch on.”  (Quoting astronomer Clifford Stoll, circa 1995.)

The young oriole was back at the suet feeder that afternoon, nibbling away at it.  This time he was by himself; there was no Papa Oriole nearby at the moment.  He’s growing up!

Victoria sent an audio clip of Arnold, who’s 1 ½, saying ‘skid loader’.  Or, as the case may be, ‘skid lub-lubble’.

“When you were that age,” I told Victoria, “we finagled all sorts of ways to get you to say ‘blueberry’, which came out as ‘burrbaby’.”

“I remember saying that while we were in a drive-thru,” she answered.

“Yes,” said I, “when we were asking everyone what kind of hamburger they wanted. 😄”

We had chicken with noodles, broccoli, carrots, and red peppers for supper.  I put a strawberry rhubarb pie in the oven, too; but it was to share with some of the kids and grandkids Sunday afternoon.

That day I got all the little fabric pieces sewn onto the foundation papers, and began trimming them.  There were eight stacks of 48 units.  Some were two-piece units, and some were three-piece units.  I got four stacks trimmed, and then it was bedtime.

One of our missionaries from Mexico City was visiting Sunday, and he preached at each of our services. 

That afternoon, we had dinner with some of the offspring.  Afterwards, we took flowers to the cemetery.

It’s a rainy, chilly day here.  It was 59° at 11:30 a.m., with a feel-like temp of 57°.  I put out the bird feeders during a break in the rain, then started the laundry.  The bathroom is shined up, the bedroom straightened, and the kitchen is clean.

Larry put new brake pads and rotors on the Mercedes, and this afternoon he took a cylinder for someone’s scissor lift to a shop in West Point to have it fixed.  West Point is 65 miles to our northeast.  He’s back now, working on something in the garage.

There’s a Common grackle at the suet feeder pecking away furiously at the suet, sending pieces of it flying all over the place.  An American robin is on the banister, just as furiously snatching up all the wayward chunks that are landing in her vicinity.  She even managed to catch a couple of them in midair.

Then the grackle took exception to her proximity and the way she was helping herself to his fallout, and, opening his big beak wide, made as if to give her a good peck.  She flapped herself backwards out of harm’s way – and went right on pecking up the falling pieces.

Meanwhile, out in the front yard are bunnies, running and hopping crazily all over the place.  They’re so funny to watch.  Picture is from the Welcome Wildlife website, and taken by Porsupah Ree.

Back to the quilting studio I go!

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,