Journal: Weather, Quilting, & AI Ruminations

 

Just for the fun of it, I asked AI, “Why was it so dark at noon in Columbus, Nebraska, on August 8, 2026?”

AI informed me that it was NOT dark in Columbus, Nebraska, at noon on August 8, 2026.

I retorted, “Yesirree, it absolutely DID get very dark!”

AI changed its tune and gave me this information: 

AI Overview:  At noon on August 8, 2026, the skies over Columbus, Nebraska, turned very dark due to a severe daytime thunderstorm system.  Heavy storm clouds and high-density rain cores rolled through eastern Nebraska right around midday, drastically cutting off sunlight.

It then went into greater detail, even adding in links to Nebraska Meteorologist Houston Hall:

Why the Sky Turned Dark

·                  Thick Storm Clouds:  A fast-moving line of heavy thunderstorms and gusty outflow winds pushed through the area between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM.

·                  High Water Content:  The dense, towering cumulonimbus clouds carried heavy rainfall and large ice/hail potential, which blocked and scattered incoming sunlight.

·                  Low Cloud Base:  Low-hanging storm bases absorbed and reflected very little light, creating an eerie, twilight-like darkness at high noon.

*        *        *

Ooookay.  But if AI had access to this information, why did it first inform me that it did not get dark on Saturday, August 8??  Sheer laziness?  Knowledge pomposity?

I’ve had similar instances with AI, where if I adamantly disagreed with it, it would quickly change its stance and give me information that was totally the opposite of what it had given me seconds earlier.

A person can pretty much get whatever information one wants, with whatever slant one prefers, out of AI, it seems.

Nobody posted any good pictures of the storm – or at least none that I can find, probably because it was just plain too dark to get any.  Here’s one (above) from a year ago.

In hunting through an old journal for a bit of data, I found this tale from 2003, wherein Hannah related a story about a recent dinner with her in-laws:  

They were having some troubles with a handful of flies, and, after watching everyone shooing the flies away, Aaron, 2, decided to solve the problem, and he knew just how to do it, too.  He marched into the kitchen, came trotting back, flyswatter in hand, and, without a moment’s hesitation, aimed for the first fly he spotted:  SPLAAAAAATTT!!!

He got the fly.

Trouble was, he’d swatted a fly that had been sitting smack in the middle of somebody’s plate.

Chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and peas flew, as did several of the people.  Leaping to their feet, yelling in amazement and consternation, they gave futile effort to dusting gravy and potatoes off their fronts.

Aaron, meanwhile, was silently examining his flyswatter, wondering why he’d come up with so much excess this-and-that when all he’d been aiming at was the fly.

Late Tuesday morning, it was sunny and 83°, on the way up to 90°, with a heat index of 10-12° higher.

I finished cleaning the kitchen, and then spent the majority of the rest of the day working on Arnold’s quilt.

Meteorologist Ryan Hall was streaming live that afternoon, as there was bad weather across several states, including Kentucky, where he lives.  At one point, there was a shelf cloud moving right toward him.  This view is from a camera on the ‘Weather House’, as he calls it, where his broadcasting office is located.

The second shot is from a camera mounted on the Pikeville Medical Center in the town itself.

I got the first two quilt blocks done for Arnold’s ‘Puppy Pause’ quilt (below).  After Violet’s quilt with all those little curves, this one is like playtime compared to SAT tests!

A storm went through during the early morning hours Wednesday, with a lot of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning.  By 11:00 a.m., it was sunny and 78°, on the way up to 87°; but it would be raining again later that night.

I decided to call Arnold’s quilt ‘Puppy Pause’ (and I did use the blue puppy print from Janice’s bins).  

Let’s hope that name doesn’t boggle the brain of my friend who was highly concerned when last year I named Josiah’s horse quilt ‘The Mane Event’.  I tried to explain... mutual friends tried to explain... 

She remained greatly troubled about it.  “But your pretty label has a misspelling!”

Someone offer her a course called Puns 101.  😅

It was hard to tell which is the right side of the light blue background fabric I used, particularly since it fades from light to very light and back again throughout the yardage.  I flipped each piece one way and then the other before sewing, decided fast, and didn’t change my mind after the fact.

Motto:  “What’s done is done!”

(Bugs me, though, when I later notice a piece that I’m pretty sure is wrong side up.)

Motto #2:  “Don’t look, Ethyl!”

Here’s a male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on my tall lavender phlox.

Below is the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.  The male is yellow; the female is black. 

By 7:00 p.m., all the blocks were done for Arnold’s Puppy Pause quilt.  They were lying on my ‘design bed’, heh, where I was so absorbed in getting them in the order I wanted, I was quite startled when I glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly time to head to church for our midweek service.

I made sure to point out the blocks to Larry when he came rushing in to finish getting ready after his shower; otherwise, he’d never notice them at all.  He’d toss his pants and suit jacket on the bed while he buttoned up his shirt, then grab them up and put them on – nary the wiser that he was wearing a puppy quilt block on his back or his ka-setterumpus (Hester’s word, when she was wee little).  😆

After church, we gave Andrew and Hester a gift for their anniversary.  I looked it up to see what the traditional gift for an 18^th anniversary is, and upon discovering it’s porcelain, I decided to give them a vintage casserole dish and lid in the Autumn Leaf pattern that used to be my mother’s, purchased from the Jewel T company before I was born, probably in the late 1950s.  I tucked a family-size bag of dried chicken noodle soup in it.

Hester later wrote me a thank-you note, adding, “The soup looks so good; the kids are excited for it 😄.  They’re big fans of chicken noodle soup.”

As we drove west toward home, we were heading into the sunset – but the sunset was all covered by tall thunderheads.

Here’s a Blue Jay fledgling, not long out of the nest.

As forecast, we had another night of thunder and lightning and rain.  There were three tornado warnings in the Sandhills to our west near the town of Mullen.

By late Thursday morning, it was sunny and 72°, with an expected high of 78°.  To our north, though, on the Nebraska/South Dakota border, another tornado warning was issued.  The little town of Bancroft, to our northeast, got almost 6” of rain.  There were 75-mph winds at Stanton, an hour to our north, and telephone poles were broken or down in numerous places.

We did not lose power at our house, but a lot of people from the Panhandle all the way east to Omaha had no electricity.  

Here’s a shot of a supercell near Gordon, Nebraska, taken by photographer Kris Feltes.

It was Teddy’s 43^rd birthday that day, the 13^th of August.

Here he is at age 8, when we got him a new red bicycle.

We tied a balloon onto the bike’s handlebar, positioned it on the walk, then I went out to lay wait with my camera while Larry asked Teddy to go out and get the newspaper.  Notice that even though he saw the new bicycle with the balloon on it, which would tell any birthday boy that that was his new bike (and you can see he knew, by the delighted look on his face), he nevertheless picked up that newspaper and was about to head back in and give it to his father.  Larry was right there at the door to take the paper and tell him he’d better hurry right down the steps and give that new bike a try. 

Victoria sent Baby Russell’s one-month pictures with the caption, “Our little bRussel Sprout 😆. ”

That reminded me of another time when Aaron was little, and he acquired a new baby cousin named Brock.  Aaron was quite sure the baby’s name was ‘Broccoli’.

Hannah would tell him, “No, his name is Brroc.k.”

And Aaron would say, ever so carefully and precisely, “Brroc.k.oli.”

That day, I went on sewing the blocks together for Arnold’s ‘Puppy Pause’ quilt.  When I added in the puppy print with the blue background, I had just enough of both puppy prints to cut 20 blocks.

As I mentioned, that blue print came out of one of my late sister-in-law Janice’s bins.  She gave me three very large, and very stuffed, bins in 2013, the Christmas before she passed away. 

She’d taped the lids on with masking tape, and after I untaped them to look at the contents, then put the lids back on, those lids kept sproing-oing-oinging back off again, because the bins were so full. 😅

I wish I’d have kept track of what all I used of her fabrics and things (guess I could look back through pictures of things I’ve made), but I’ve gone from three big, full bins to about 1 ½ not-too-awfully-stuffed bins.

By suppertime, the blocks were together and the first border was on.  I started cutting the next border, which would consist of 648 one-inch squares and 4 three-inch squares.

Teddy stopped by after he got off work, and I gave him his birthday present:  a flashlight and knife set that we’d gotten at Cabela’s in Sheboygan, Michigan; a tool for breaking car windows and cutting seat belts in an emergency; and a big jar of mixed nuts.

Here’s another episode of my Great Grammar Aggravation, this one from a newscaster who works for a major television station in Omaha.  She’s explaining why they’re not giving John Q. Public as many details on a certain sitchee-aye-shun as Johnny Q. might be a-wantin’:  “...and we don’t want to impede on their investigation in any way.” 

‘Impede on’?  We impede investigations.  Or we intrude on or encroach upon investigations.  We don’t ‘impede on’ anything. 

Grammar, oh grammar, where have you gone?

Thursday night there was another bout of thunderstorms, and the rain continued until late Friday morning.  Eventually the sun came out, but several areas nearby were issued flood watches.  The high was 82° that day.

I was late in hanging up the bird feeders, on account of the rain.  The last few big raindrops were still ker-plunking down when I looked out the window and saw little birds all lined up on the railing and the feeder hanging bars, looking at the patio door and chirping in unison.  😂🐦🐥🐧🕊🦅🦜🦚🦩🦉🦃🐓🦆🦢🦤🐦‍⬛🪿

By suppertime, all 72 three-inch 9-patches were done, 18 of each variety, using up nearly all of the puppy print and paw print fabrics.  In fact, a few 1” patches had to be pieced.

It was another rainy morning Saturday, and once again, the little songbirds (and a couple of noisy jays) were telling me they were half starved to death before I rehung the feeders, never mind the fact that there are seeds and grains of all sorts, insects of myriad variety, and wild and cultivated berries and other fruits everywhere one might look in this part of the country.  They want black oil sunflower seed served up to them in a ‘lordly dish’ as Jael did for Sisera, thankee kindly. 😄

I did some housecleaning, then headed upstairs to my quilting studio to get the nine-patch border sewn together and attached to the Puppy Pause quilt.

That afternoon, Hannah sent pictures of baby mourning doves in a nest in one of her bushes, right at eye level.  Dove’s nests look so unsubstantial, it makes one wonder how it stands up to the weather and sustains the growing babies!

By 9:30 p.m., Arnold’s quilt top was done.

Sunday morning at a quarter ’til eight, it was 67°, on the way up to 81°, and, although it was completely overcast at the moment, we would wind up with a sunny day.

I refilled and rehung the bird feeders, and then blow-dried and curled my hair, sipping Maui Joe’s (coconut, macadamia nut, and pineapple flavored) cold-brew coffee as I got ready for church.  I’m very glad to have discovered I like cold-brew coffee – in fact, I like it better than hot-brewed coffee – as it’s much more pleasant not to be boiling hot as I’m getting ready to go somewhere.

After church, we had dinner with Bobby and Hannah’s family:  chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh corn on the cob from Daniels Produce, and, for dessert, zucchini chocolate sheet cake with ice cream.  We took a jug of Tropicana not-from-concentrate orange juice to add to the menu.

It was pretty and sunshiny most of the day today, with the temperature getting up to 87°.  Larry mowed the lawn this morning.  I need to do some serious weeding.  Mañana.  😉

There was a young English Sparrow at the suet feeder this morning, pecking off pieces of berry suet and gobbling them down with gusto.  But every time Papa Sparrow got close, baby backed off, crouched down (in order to look like a wee infant, you know), and went to flapping and cheep-cheep-cheeping.  “Feed me!  Feed me!  I’m just a baby, and I don’t know how to feed myself yet!”

The father bird patiently stuffed bites into his offspring’s noisy beak, then flew off – and baby proceeded to stand back up, step over to The Ol’ Feedin’ Trough, and continue feeding himself with aplomb. 

My weather app says that it will be raining in an hour and a half – about 9:30 p.m. – and the sky certainly looks like that’s just what it’ll be doing.

I drained the last of the Maui Joe’s cold-brew coffee this morning; so I made a new jugful.  I like to let it steep at least 18 hours, so this afternoon I opened a bottle of Starbucks cold-brew concentrate in Pumpkin Spice flavor.  Good stuff – so long as I water it down a lot.  I don’t like strong coffees and teas.

Nebraska was just issued a tornado warning – this one near Burwell, 100 miles to our west.  We’ve had several severe thunderstorm warnings throughout the day.

We had leftover spaghetti and meatballs for supper tonight.  Spaghetti and meatballs are one of those foods that often taste better on day two, because the sauce and spices have a chance to better permeate the meat and the pasta. 

Now I need to go decide on a backing for Arnold’s quilt, and sew together some batting.  I intend to get the Puppy Pause quilt quilted tomorrow.

Next, a new quilt for Keira.  I asked Hester yesterday what Keira’s favorite colors are.  

Hester’s answer:  “Pink and purple and sparkles and unicorns and butterflies!”  haha

I’m having Orca Spice Chai tea by David Rio in a pretty cup Victoria and her family gave me.  I make it with skim milk.

Just for the fun of it, I asked AI to identify the block I used for Arnold’s quilt.  It informed me that it was called ‘Square in a Square’ or ‘Economy Block’.

“This is NOT the ‘Economy Block’ or ‘Square in a Square’,” I informed AI, feeling quite smug and superior.  “Note how the points of the central square extend into the outer triangles.”

(Yeah, I’m having fun with AI.  If I can discombobulate my laptop, AI, or any digital program or device, I feel all accomplished ’n stuff.  Larry says I like to blow up computers.  No, no, I just like to discombobulate ’em!  😂)

Anyway, look at the answer I got.  You’d think AI actually had a conscience!

“You are completely correct, and I completely missed that key structural detail.  I apologize for misidentifying the block.”

Mah woid (in a Shirley Temple tone).

AI then proceeded to discombobulate itself, without any help from me:

“Looking closely at the image, the points of the center square explicitly extend all the way out to split the outer dark blue triangles, which is exactly how a Square in a Square inside a Square block behaves.  This specific geometric interaction makes it a variant known as a Square in a Square with Flying Geese (or an On-Point Flying Geese block).  When assembled, those inner light-blue fabric shapes are actually built as four Flying Geese units flanking a central square, rather than concentric squares.  Because of this construction, an 8” finished center square forces a direct mathematical ratio onto the rest of the block.”

It went on to give the ‘The Real Math’ for the block, including a lengthy explanation of ‘Flying Geese Units’.  I was given cutting directions using the ‘No-Waste Flying Geese Method’, and told how to avoid dealing with bias stretch and how to get perfect points where the center meets the outer border.  I was told that the ‘4-at-a-time no-waste method’ was highly recommended – and then was told to cut four 3.375” x 3.375” squares – or generous 3.5” x 3.5” squares if I preferred to trim down to exactly 2.5” x 8.5” later.  (So much for the ‘no-waste method’, eh?).  I was then given ‘Assembly Steps’ to finish the block.

The instructions were pretty good, actually, though not exactly how I did it (and of course I like my method best).  😉  Surprising, I thought, especially in view of the fact that it had originally misidentified the block.  It still thinks it’s a ‘Square in a Square with Flying Geese’ (or an ‘On-Point Flying Geese’ block). 

Hmmmm.  I believe I’ll call it an ‘On-Point Square in a Square with Flying Geese’.  That oughta deter anyone who tries to tell me (in snippy tones), “That’s a block that’s in such-and-such a pattern, and so-and-so is selling it on this-or-that website!”

Yeah, that happens fairly often.  I ignore them, figuring people just can’t possibly copyright all the quilt blocks that have been created for the last 500 years or so, using patch units that are common in most all the quilt blocks known to man.  For instance, what if I configure a Nine-Patch, documented in America at least as early as 1786, in some unique measurement – let’s say 8.76-inch finished, which would mean each square would measure 2.92 inches finished, ----- or what if I left the center square out and then appliquéd a 3.35-inch square over the hole?  Now I can copyright that Nine-Patch, right? 

Ugh, these things get ridiculous.  Thus, I generally ignore the fussbudgets who try to tell me I’m infringing on someone’s unique design, when I’d never even seen said design, nor do I know the supposed ‘designer’ from Adam (or Eve).  As King Solomon said, “There is no new thing under the sun!”

Besides, how do the aforementioned fussbudgets know that the designer they’re trying to defend didn’t steal said design from me?!  After all, I’ve been sewing and quilting and making all sorts of things for a good 56 years now.

It’s so silly.  If Jane Doe can create something off the top of her fuzzy li’l head, probably Jill Doe, in a different time and place, can do it, too.  And each of them considers themselves unique and brilliant. 

Can you see anything wrong with this AI-generated ‘quilt’?  😆

Pioneer version of front-wheel drive.

Okay, that’s a long enough rant about that.  Let’s find a quilt backing!

Oh – another tornado warning for Nebraska, this time near Ord, which is 90 miles to our west.  The weather is coming closer!

Quilt backing, quilt backing.

 

P.S.:  Just one thing more:  an AI-generated bird.  The bird makes me laugh.  The people who ooh and ahh over it – “Traveling to the country where that bird lives is now on my bucket list!” – make me want to bang their heads together. 

(Oh, and FYI the country is Lala Land.)

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

Journal: Lightning & Quilts & Detroit Pizza

 

Last Monday evening, we had chicken/rice/vegetable soup for supper, along with Strawberry Cheesecake Flip Yogurts. That didn’t seem like quite enough, so, even though those Flip Yogurts are basically dessert, I pulled some unbaked cherry turnovers from the freezer and popped them into the oven. Yum, perfect.

Listen to the instructions: Preheat oven to 475°. As soon as the oven is up to the correct temperature, put the turnovers in, then immediately turn the oven down to 400°. Bake for 20 minutes.

The turnovers rise to about double in size, and are golden and flaky when done. Delicious.

Tuesday, I finished blind-stitching the hanky skirts to the Crinoline Ladies quilt, added beads and pearls, and machine-embroidered the label. 

The square coral pieces and the pink and coral beads atop them were from an old broken bracelet of mine. I thought Violet would think that was nifty, as she’s a sentimental little dear. 

That afternoon, Hannah wrote to ask, “Do you have the Strawberry Lemon Streusel Muffins recipe nearby? Joanna was reading your old journals last night and saw that I had made them, and now wants to make them as well. You called the muffins your favorite at the time.”

I looked in my cookbooks, but did not find the recipe. I found a few similar recipes online, though, and sent her the links.

I looked up the story in my journals, in case the time frame might help Hannah know what cookbook the recipe came from.

And here it is, from June 9, 2003:

“Bobby and Hannah came visiting, bringing us those strawberry/lemon streusel muffins that are my favorites of all time. Mmmmm…no other muffin in the world can beat them. They came in one at a time (Bobby and Hannah, that is; not the muffins; the muffins all came in together) to see how we’d been progressing on the house, while the other stayed in the car with the children, just in case by some miracle they hadn’t been exposed to chickenpox.”

(Our younger four children were in various stages of chickenpox. We’d just moved out here to the country a couple of months earlier.)

I sent the excerpt to Hannah, remarking, “You will now forever connect strawberry/lemon streusel muffins with chickenpox.” Then, looking again at the date, I added, “That was two months after we moved out here.”

More from that same story:

“Keith was talking to Aaron, who was waiting out in the car: ‘Are you cold?’ he inquired. Aaron shook his head. ‘Are you warm?’ asked Keith. ‘No,’ replied Aaron, ‘I’m two.’ hee hee” (Possibly Aaron thought Keith asked, “Are you one.”)

“Later that evening, Larry’s brother Kenny was pouring our new neighbor’s driveway (or walkway or something). The neighbor lives over on old Highway 81, about a quarter mile to our west. Kenny had some left-over cement, and he offered it to Larry; so Larry and Keith made a little entry at the patio door, being sure to leave it low enough to accommodate the bricks we plan to lay for the patio. They weren’t quite done smoothing it out when Tabby proceeded to walk straight through it, purring the while.

“Cats.

“About the same time, Caleb bounced a soccer ball onto one of my pansies, dumping pansy and potting soil both right out of the pot.

“Boys.”

I closed out of that folder before I accidentally read a dozen more journals.

“Look what you got me started doing!” I said to Hannah, sending her a couple more passages.

Midmorning Wednesday, it was 65° and sunny. The dewpoint was high, and it felt quite a lot warmer than that. The high would be 77°. I hurried outside to take pictures of the Crinoline Ladies quilt before it got any hotter.

It took me a good 35-40 minutes to set up the frame, attach the quilt, and take the pictures, especially since I got sidetracked with the Rose of Sharon Hibiscus that was blooming profusely. I didn’t use the paracord and stakes to hold the frame in place, since, for once, the wind was only blowing at about 5-7 mph.

By the time I went back indoors, I was boiling hot. My hair, which had been damp from the shower, had not dried out there in the humidity. I turned the air conditioner down, cranked an EdenPURE fan up to High, and gulped cold-brew coffee while I dried my hair, holding the ‘COOL’ button down on the blow-dryer. That’s an inefficient way of drying one’s hair, but it was COOLer.

In the 35 or 40 minutes I was rushing around outside, the temperature had risen to 70°, the head index to 83°. The humidity was 66% and the dewpoint was 58°.

Yeah, I’m a weather wimp. Not as much in cold temperatures as in hot. Besides, the frame that holds the quilt, the sandbags that holds the frame in place, and the quilt itself, are fairly heavy, and I carried the quilt downstairs from my quilting studio, then hauled everything out to the back yard, which entails going down a flight of steps from the deck to the yard.

Come to think of it, I guess I’m just an overall wimp!

Victoria planted this hibiscus about 12 years ago, before she was married. It was only about a foot tall back then; now it’s a good ten feet tall and puts out hundreds of blossoms every summer.

Here’s the description of the Crinoline Ladies quilt:

The quilt measures 86” x 86”. The batting is Quilters’ Dream 80/20. I used a variety of threads on top, from 40-weight to 60-weight: Omni, King Tut, Gütermann, YLI, Signature, Bottom Line – and even some old J&P Coats, just because it was the only thread I had in the right color. I used 60-weight silver Bottom Line in the bobbin.

The quilt was designed in EQ8. The central panel is by Michael Miller, and is called ‘Dreaming of Tuscany Blooming Vase’. It measured 24” x 45” until I cut off the top and bottom borders and incorporated them into the side borders of the quilt.

The quilting is free-motion and rulerwork. The tops of the Crinoline Ladies are machine-embroidered with embroidery designs from Hatched in Africa. The vintage-look hankies are actually brand-new hankies from eBay. I saw several lots of ‘real’ vintage hankies, but the fabric was quite thin, and most were not 100% cotton, and the sizes weren’t uniform. (These aren’t either, really, being more rectangular than square; but I made them work.) These were all cotton, all different prints – yet all coordinating. I did wash them, as they were quite stiff. Now they’re all soft and nice. I blind-stitched them in place and added a few beads and pearls.

I bought these hankies (there are about 18 left) because I own a grand total of only two vintage hankies. One was mine when I was a little girl; it has kittens printed on it.

When I was little, I sometimes sat next to another little girl in church, and I once made her giggle out loud (which earned me a side-glare from her mother) by stretching the hanky unobtrusively cattywampus one way, making the kittens grin; then quickly (and still unobtrusively) stretching it cattycorner the other way, which made the kittens frown.

Why did her Mama glare at me like that?! I was being unobtrusive, wasn’t I?! I tell you, I was hardly moving a muscle! Plus, I had on my very best “Who, me?!” face. I was so innocent. It was not my fault she snickered! It was the kittens’ fault.

The other hanky is white, fairly large, and has a one-inch tatted border of fine blue thread. Maybe I’ll do something with it, one of these days.

That afternoon, I attached the label to the quilt, then hunted through my bins for fabric for Arnold’s quilt.

After church that evening, I picked up a couple of quilts that a customer wanted me to quilt for her. Driving home via a country road, Common Nighthawks and American Woodcocks and at least one Barn Owl were flying up from the sides of the gravel road.

This picture of the American Woodcock is from All About Birds. The Woodcock is also known as Timberdoodle, Bogsucker, Mudbat, Labrador Twister, Night Partridge, Brush Snipe, Mud Snipe, Swamp Snipe, Big-eye, Bcasse (from the French bécasse for woodcock), and Hokumpoke. They’re in the Sandpiper family (Scolopacidae), though they usually live in upland forests rather than near water.

The Woodcock has a plump body, short legs, a large, rounded head, and a long, straight prehensile bill. Adults are 10 to 12 inches long and weigh 5 to 8 ounces. Females are considerably larger than males. The bill is 2.5 to 2.8 inches long. Wingspans range from 16.5 to 19 inches. They come in a mix of different shades of browns, grays, and black. The chest and sides vary from yellowish-white to rich tans. This mottled coloring provides camouflage against surrounding leaves and earth. Woodcocks have large eyes located high in their heads, and their visual field is probably the largest of any bird, 360° in the horizontal plane and 180° in the vertical plane.

They inhabit forested and mixed forest/agricultural/urban areas, wet thickets, moist woods, and brushy swamps. They like moist soil where they can use their long bills to probe for invertebrates and earthworms. A Woodcock can open and close the tip of its upper bill, or mandible, while it is sunk into the ground.

Woodcocks migrate at night. They fly at low altitudes, individually or in small, loose flocks. Flight speeds of migrating birds have been clocked at 16 to 28 mph. However, the slowest flight speed ever recorded for a bird, just 5 mph, was recorded for this species.

American Woodcocks occasionally perform a rocking behavior where they will walk slowly while rhythmically rocking their bodies back and forth. This occurs during foraging, leading ornithologists to theorize that this is a method of coaxing invertebrates such as earthworms closer to the surface. Woodcocks like to debunk such theories by also rocking while slowly walking across the road, creating long lines of cars awaiting the birds’ crossing.

Now, that’s probably just for the sheer devilment of it.

Whatever the reason, the Woodcock certainly has a glide in his stride, and a dip in his hip. Here’s a video of a mother with two chicks, all of them bumpity-jouncing along. Somebody please tell me, do they ever get where they’re going?? Woodcock Hen and Chicks

I stayed up way too late playing with EQ8 that night, but I got a good part of the design for Arnold’s puppy quilt nailed down.

Thursday, Larry went to South Dakota, a two-hour-drive one way, to pick up an old farm truck which he then partially took apart and sold for scrap metal. He does usually make some good money doing this; but he would be driving through some dense fog, and the steering in the truck he was driving wasn’t working quite right. Since he didn’t seem particularly worried about it, I did it for him. Worry, that is.

Worrying is good! After all, when I worry about things, everything often turns out just fine. That proves it to be a worthwhile effort, right?? Further proof: sometimes things that I hadn’t even considered worrying about go all sideways and askew.

Very scientific and analytical. 🤔 Yep. 🤭

A friend assured me that she would worry a bit for him, too. 😄

A few hours later, I told her, “See, our worrying was successful! – he made it back home safely. 😁” Then I added, “Truth to tell, I’m not one to worry too much. If I happen to think about various ones of my family who might potentially be in harm’s way – or even those who are not, but I happen to think of them – I pause what I’m doing for a moment and pray for them. Much better than worrying! ❤ ” – and she agreed.

You know, if you read too many Internet comments, you’ll continuously lose brain cells. Look at this remark under a video of a bison walking verrrry slowly and carefully in Yellowstone National Park: “His back hip got gourd.”

Somebody responded, “I seen him, too.”

And there are so many “seen him when he done it” comments, I live in constant fear of the Grammar Establishment throwing their collective hands up in despair and deciding, “Improper grammar will now be considered proper, and vice versa, since the majority of people say it wrong anyway.”

One person tried to correct the first by writing, “ *gored,” which earned him the immediate ire of a dozen or more untutored Internet brawlers.

“U new what he mean right that all that madders!!!” wrote one person.

>>...head explodes...<<

Meanwhile, I loaded my customer’s quilt onto my quilting frame and began quilting it.

I took time out a little later to pop a Detroit Pizza into the oven for supper. It was a Supreme this time. Larry and I are in agreement: it’s our favorite of the four varieties from Motor City Pizza Co.

By 9:00 p.m., the first little quilt was done.

Friday, it was hotter than it had been for over a week, with a high of 90° and a heat index 10° higher. I filled and hung the bird feeders, played the piano, did a bit of cleaning, then blow-dried my hair whilst sipping Georgia Peach cold-brew coffee, listening to Rural Radio on my tablet, and typing posts and answering texts and emails.

After eating something, I trotted upstairs to my quilting studio, where I had my customer’s second quilt ready to load on my frame. The pantograph was already printed and ready to be positioned on the quilting table. It wasn’t long before I was quilting away.

The large-leaf hostas around my yard have burnt leaves and look pathetic. They’ve only just started putting up stems for the big white blossoms they have in late summer, so they’re going to look pathetic all through the blooming season, despite rain, and despite our watering them. When I planted them, they were in the shade of many Austrian pines. Pine beetles killed those trees years ago. We replaced them with Douglas firs and Blue Spruce trees. One of these days, they’ll be big enough to provide more shade. They were about three feet tall when we bought them; now some of them are 25 feet tall. They did not all grow at the same rate; some are only about 15 feet tall. We have three distinct types of soil in our yard: sand, clay, and good dark loam. That and the slope of the yard, creating different water depths, made the difference in tree growth.

This was my snack that afternoon: one of Walker’s shortbread fingers, along with a cup of Orca Spice Chai Tea. Each biscuit is 100 calories, so one is enough, especially since I make that tea with a cup of skim milk, 80 calories, and one tablespoon of the tea mix, 35 calories. On the side of the can it calls for two tablespoons per serving, but I don’t like it that strong.

I’ve been trying to find some tea that tastes as good as some I had when we were in Iowa a few months ago. This is pretty close, especially when I make it with milk and heat it. Sometimes I make it cold, and put ice in it. It’s good either way.

The second little quilt was done by 7:00 p.m.

At 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning, it was 73° and sunny, but wouldn’t be for long, as a severe thunderstorm was bearing down upon us.

At 11:54 a.m., one of my weather apps warned that hail had been detected and would arrive in six minutes. I, typing away on my laptop, didn’t pay a whole lot of attention until suddenly I realized that the whole house was dark, except for the light on my screen!

I looked out the window.

Wow, it really was dark, as dark as it usually is an hour and a half after sunset! I don’t know if I have ever seen it that dark at noon. I’m talking about nighttime dark!

I hastily pulled up a weather app. Any weather alerts were unremarkable, other than ‘thunderstorm’. Rain fell, but not hard. It was quite eerie.

It stayed very dark until nearly 1:00 p.m., by which time it had lightened up to what it’s usually like half an hour after sunset. The rain had nearly stopped by then, and the worst of the storm was 20 miles to the east and continuing to move east.

It was somewhat dusky for 2 ½ more hours, and then it hailed for a while. It was mostly small hail, with the largest pieces about the size of a penny.

After half an hour, the hail quit, the rain tapered off, and the sky gradually grew lighter.

Meanwhile, I was pulling out a few more pieces of fabric, measuring, tweaking EQ8, hoping to make do with fabric I already have. But... I have one yard of the puppy print. Only one yard! I needed 2 ⅛ yards, according to EQ8. 

I have just half a yard of the paw print fabric. I need 1 ⅞ yards. And I have no black-on-white that reads mostly white.

Okay, this is going to take some brainstorming, if I’m really going to stick to my guns about ‘not buying any new fabric’.

I then found a piece of puppy-print fabric that was in one of my late sister-in-law’s bins. It doesn’t exactly match, but maybe I can make it work. I ironed it, laid out the fabrics I’d scrounged up, and pulled out the ones that went together best.

I have hunted for the dog print (by Tara Reed, for Quilting Treasures), and can’t even find a solitary picture of the stuff. Even the fleece I had thought to use on the back of this quilt isn’t nearly big enough.

At 4:30 p.m., it thundered. LOUDLY. I looked out the window, watched for lightning, counted seconds until the next thunder... and decided it was some distance away. The rain began again.

And then – FLASH-CRACKCKCKCKCK!!!!!

A bright bolt of lightning lit up the sky at the same time thunder shook the house. That bolt of lightning surely hit something nearby!

This storm, according to the weather apps, was moving to the northwest. So odd. Summer storms here almost always move from west to east, which is the direction the first storm was moving. This second one blew through quickly.

I went to put wet clothes in the dryer and start another load in the washing machine. The lights flickered while I was in the laundry room. Hoping the washer and dryer would get done with their cycles and the electricity wouldn’t go out, I took a basket of dry clothes to the bedroom to fold and put away.

As it turned out, the storms were mostly over, and the electricity did not go out.

It was 68° at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, on the way up to 89°. I drained the last of the Georgia Peach cold-brew coffee that morning; I would need to make a new gallon that afternoon.

Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

When we got home from church, Larry fixed his scrumptious pancakes for lunch. He put applesauce in them this time. Sometimes he adds yogurt to the mix. We topped them with peanut butter and syrup.

After the service last night, we chatted with several of the children and some of our friends, then went to pick up an order at Walmart.

Home again, I put the groceries away, and we had a late supper of cranberry-almond lettuce salad, slices of fresh red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, Mozzarella cheese, dragonfruit (half for each of us), and cherry turnovers, fresh out of the oven. We had peach/white grape juice to wash it all down.

After getting only an hour and a half of sleep Saturday night (no reason; it just happens now and then, and I spend the night scrambling about, getting up and remaking the bed, getting back in and scrambling about, getting back up and remaking the bed, and on and on until the alarm goes off), anyway, last night I made up for it by sleeping 9 ½ hours, after going to bed about midnight. 9 ½ hours! I practically never sleep that long. My usual hours of sleep are about 7.

I’ve done a bit of housecleaning, refilled and rehung the bird feeders, played the piano, and put away a few groceries that arrived via FedEx.

Larry has been working on a Hyundai that he picked up to dissect and sell for scraps – but he then thought it was much too nice to demolish, and instead sold it to grandson Levi. He thought it would be an easy fix. All these years, and he still thinks something – anything – will be an ‘easy fix’! HAHA!

The vehicle needs a new motor, as the head is (probably) cracked. Cracked heads aren’t good. 🤕 But even with the new motor, the car will still be a good buy for Levi.

Look at this AI-generated image. See anything wrong with it? I hope Levi’s car doesn’t wind up like this one, with the front grille where the door belongs! 🤣😂😆

I’ve blow-dried my hair, and have a tall mug of newly-steeped cold-brew coffee. This is a new flavor for me: Maui Joe’s, which has essences of coconut, pineapple, and macadamia nut. Yum, it’s good.

Time to get back to work on Arnold’s quilt! I’ve decided to call it ‘Puppy Pause’. Reckon the lady that got all worked up over the horse quilt I named ‘The Mane Event’ will be equally troubled over ‘Puppy Pause’? Calm, lady, calm. These are whatcha call ‘puns’.





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