Journal: Dogs & Eagles; Quilts & Blizzards

 

The other day, Hannah and I were talking about her Australian shepherds, Chimera (right) and Willow, and the wonderful dog Sparkle that I had when I was a teenager, along with various other Things of Importance, such as the Rolo commercial featuring that little brat who gypped a baby elephant out of a promised Rolo.  The elephant grew up and was one day in a parade – and then he spotted a spectator in the crowd that he knew and remembered.

It was the little monster who’d offered him a Rolo, and then, just when the baby elephant nearly reached it with those little fingers on the end of his trunk, the kid popped that Rolo straight into his own mouth, with an insulting “nah, nah, nah-nah-nah” afterwards, while the elephant calf gave him a long look.  You can just see the gears turning behind those big brown eyes with the long eyelashes:  >>...processing, processing...<<

Flash forward to parade day:  there was the little devil in person, now also all grown up.  (We know it’s him, because he’s dressed identically to his first appearance, save for size:  argyle sweater vest, button-down shirt, and tie.) 

The elephant reached out with his trunk and tapped the man, affected and cocky as ever, on the shoulder.

The man, who is chewing industriously on what we assume to be another Rolo, turned his head (“Huh?”) – and THWWWAAAACKCKCK!!!  The elephant slapped him a good one, dropping him like a bag of potatoes. 

The parade continued, with the elephant clearly trumpeting back, “NAH, NAH, NAH-NAH-NAH!”  Click the picture to see that ad, which is over 30 years old now.

Back to Hannah’s stories about her smart little doggies.  They’re high-strung dogs, and sometimes a bit nervous around children they don’t know. 

“I don’t recommend the children to run while playing with them,” said Hannah, “since the dogs’ herding instinct turns on when they run.”

That’s funny.  Sparkle startled people a time or two when they took off running, and her ‘heel’ instinct kicked in, and she went to trot-trotting beside them, her right shoulder even with their left knee, just as I’d taught her.

I read so many animal books when I was young and heard what my parents said about various animals we met up with so often, I think I learned early on to be verrrrry calm with them, and pay close attention to signs that tell what they’re thinking.  

“Watch eyes, ears, and tail carefully,” my mother said, “and you’ll be able to tell if they’re happy or frightened or aggressive.”

Why don’t people know not to just stick their hands out right toward the tops of animals’ heads???  No animal – especially animals that don’t know you – like that, not one little bit.  It’s an aggressive gesture, to the animal.

“Do you remembering me showing some of you kids what that would be like,” I asked Hannah, “by reaching out quickly, without warning, and pat-patting or scritch-scratching on your heads?  I remember Joseph blinking and looking amazed, and then everybody started laughing, so he laughed, too.”

Remember how careful ‘Father’ (Mr. Wilder) was with his horses in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book, Farmer Boy?  It reminded me so much of how my parents described both of my grandfathers.  People said my Grandpa Swiney always had the best behaved horses (and even mules) in Windsor County, Illinois.  They sometimes brought problem horses to him to train.  Here’s my grandpa.  We have precious few pictures of him, because he didn’t like to have his picture taken.  I imagine he thought it was a grave waste of his time, posing for a picture.

Someone was visiting the neighbors – let’s call them the Smiths’ – across the lane a few days ago, and they had a small Australian shepherd about the size of Hannah’s dog Willow.  She and the neighbors’ dog, also an Australian shepherd, but larger, were playing nicely on the front lawn.

And then Larry and I stepped out of our house and walked along the sidewalk toward our vehicle in the drive.

The neighbors’ bigger Australian shepherd, Billy the Kid, seemed to think it was his bounden duty to teach the smaller dog, Daffy, what to do about such dire circumstances as this.  He barked his huge woofing bark and started charging down the hill at us.  This, despite the fact that he’s known us all his livelong life – well over a decade now – and has even allowed us to pet him time and again.

His owner, as usual, was yelling at him, but he has IDS (Imprimis [Specific] Deafness Syndrome).  He did pause periodically to look back at Daffy, encouraging her to follow suit.

Last Monday evening, I fixed grilled cheese sandwiches to go with Panera Bread’s broccoli-cheddar soup.  I had some cheese I needed to use, so I combined Colby Jack and Pepper Jack cheeses in our sandwiches.  We had applesauce, strawberry-lemon Oui yogurt, and mango juice with it.  That was the first time we tried the strawberry-lemon flavor.  It was good, but I like some of the other flavors better, especially the ones with fruit on the bottom.  This one is blended.

I did a bit of quilting on my friend’s ‘Mini Heartsy’ quilt after supper.  The pantograph is ‘Butterfly and Swirls’ by Anne Bright.  I really like her designs, but they are rarely simple.  Many are for computerized quilting machines, and this one is no exception.  There’s a lot of retracing.  I did my bestest to retrace nicely.  (My machine is hand-guided, not computerized.) 

I kept saying to myself, Smooth curves, smooth curves!  

You can get by without perfect retracing, as long as every curve is smooth.  Theoretically.  

I was nearly to the midway point when I stopped for the night.

I posted pictures on a Facebook quilting group, and Knowledgeable Nola immediately informed me that the quilting design was ‘too busy’ for the quilt.  “I’m sure the quilt itself would be lovely,” she wrote, “if I could see it.  But I can’t.  Too much quilting.”

I waited until the next day, when I had finished the quilt and taken some pictures of it in its entirety, to answer the woman and offer her this photo.  “When I am taking pictures of my quilting,” I told her, “I turn off overhead lights, leaving only one on in the far dormer, and then take a picture from a low angle.  This causes shadowing that accentuates the quilting.  Here’s a shot of the quilt with overhead lights on.  The thread is white and blends in well.”

Two days later, she responded with a thumbs-up emoji.

I like quilts that behave like those nifty lenticular postcards whose tiny ridges and grooves refract light, so that when you tilt them one way, you see one picture; but if you tilt it the other way, you see a whole other picture.  A nicely-made quilt, I think, should show off its fabrics and piecing designs when one looks at it under a good light; and it should show off its quilting design, whether a pantograph or a custom job, when overhead lighting is dim and shadowing highlights that quilting.

Late that night, there was a sudden bright flash through the windows, followed a few seconds later by rolling thunder.  It was our first thunderstorm of the year, though we didn’t get much rain out of it.  The lightning drew nearer, and the thunder crashed a few times before the storm moved eastward and the rumbling gradually faded. 

A winter weather advisory was issued for the following day.

Tuesday morning at around 8:00 a.m., it was so foggy, I could barely see the trees right out in our own yard.  It was windy, too.  How does the fog stick around when it’s windy, I wonder?

Okay, I found the answer:  it’s an advection fog.  This type of fog forms when warm, moist air moves horizontally (or advects) over a cooler surface, such as land or water.  The wind facilitates this horizontal movement, and the cooler surface chills the air, leading to fog formation.

Well, it wasn’t very warm at all – in the low 40s or thereabouts; but I suppose the air was warmer than the ground.  The temperature was dropping, though.  By 1:30 p.m., it had gone down to 35° and the windchill was only 7°, as the wind was blowing at a steady 30 mph with gusts up to 42 mph.

The winter weather advisory was strengthened to a winter weather warning, and nearby counties began receiving blizzard warnings.  It looked like a blizzard at our house, too!  These views are from my upstairs window.  Look how visibility decreased in the 20 minutes between the two shots.

I finished my friend’s quilt while that blizzard raged and howled outside.  Gusts were reaching nearly 70 mph.  We only got a couple of inches of snow, but it looked like it was all in the air, all at once! 

The Mini Heartsy quilt measures 37 ½” x 43 ½”.   It has Hobbs’ Tuscany cotton-wool blend batting.  I used 40-wt. Bright White Omni thread on top, and 60-wt. White Lace Bottom Line thread in the bobbin.

My friend Julie made this quilt for her little granddaughter, who will be one next month.  When Julie herself was just a year old, her parents, Chuck and Leanne, invited Larry and me to visit one Friday evening when we were on a date.  I played their piano, everyone gathered around, and we sang together.  Julie stood beside the piano bench, one little hand on the piano’s key block, and bounced up and down vigorously right in time with the beat.  So cute and funny, it was.

Tuesday evening we had chicken noodle soup – the last of the Panera Bread soups that Larry got at the store the previous week.

Mmmmm...  There’s really no comparison between this soup and Bear Creek’s dried chicken noodle soup.  Sorry, Bear Creek.

At 8:00 p.m., it was 29° with a windchill of -9°, and the wind was blowing at a steady 35 mph with gusts up to 55 mph. 

The week before last, I got the fabric I ordered from Marshall Dry Goods, including the rest of the material I needed for the backing for Levi’s quilt (the piece on the left, with the animals and scenic prints).  

I’d wound up short just 12” or so, which is always a revoltin’ development.  That night after supper, I cut the size I needed, then added it to the backing (which was already put together).  I ironed it and loaded it on the frame, then put the batting in place.

I keep a large roll of batting on a long bar under my frame, and just pull out one end of the batting when I need it.  The batting is about 124” wide, but it’s folded in half lengthwise before the manufacturer rolls it on the big tube, so it takes up 62” on the bar.

Considering the quilt top, I checked the letters spelling out ‘LEVI DANIEL’ that I’d ironed on back at the end of January.  They had adhered perfectly to the background fabric of the quilt, and were stuck to it good and proper.  Would they stay that way through numerous washings, I wondered?  Should I stitch them down?  I didn’t wanna!  Shall I or shall I not?  That was the question.  (Yep, I already knew the answer.)

After discussing it with a few quilting friends on my Quilt Talk group, I sighed, then got on with stitching those letters down by machine, using a narrow blanket stitch.  It was a bit tricky, because it’s a big quilt, 86 ½” x 90 ½”, and I had to turn it this way and that as I sewed.  But that wasn’t the worst part.  The worst part was that the needle kept getting sticky from the heat-activated adhesive on the backs of those letters, which made the machine skip stitches.  I couldn’t even do one letter without stopping to clean the needle with a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol.  Then I tried rubbing a dab of Carmex (because it was handy) on the needle after cleaning it off, and actually managed to complete entire letters thereafter before the stitch-skipping took up again.  

Two hours later, it was done, and I was glad I had done it.  

Here’s a close-up of one letter.  Can you see the one skipped stitch?

I would load the top the next day, as my back, neck, and hip were hurting.  Usually, exercise is helpful.  But the week before, when I was quilting Josiah’s big quilt, I stood on tiptoe a lot, as I was doing custom quilting, using rulers and free-motion quilting; and I was still feeling the effects of that.  The disadvantages of being short.  😏

My father, who was 5’ 6”, once said he knew he was exactly the right height, because his feet just touched the ground.  😄

I checked the weather one last time before hitting the hay  at 1:30 in the morning:  we were still getting 50-mph gusts.  That was better than the 70-mph gusts we had earlier, but it was still howling and rattling things.  It was 25°, with a windchill of -14°.  That’s 14 below zero.

On the radio Wednesday, they played a clip of someone from Chicago (if you don’t know the crime statistics there, you really should look it up) explaining why illegal immigrants should not be deported:  “These people often come forward and tell the police about crimes and illegal activity!  Without them, we wouldn’t be able to solve nearly as many crimes.”

Yeah, now, there’s a novel piece of bonhomie.  They should make those people police chiefs, right?  Executive Special Agents of the FBI!  Chief Executive Officer at the CIA!

Good grief.  Why would a news agency even put such drivel on the air?  For laughs, I guess.

The sun was shining, but it was still cold and blustery, with a temperature of 34°, windchill of 19°, and the wind blowing at 25 mph with gusts up to 40-45 mph.

I loaded Levi’s ‘Heaven & Nature Sing’ quilt top on my frame, put the pantograph in place, and began quilting.  The pantograph is ‘Bear, Moose, and Pines’, designed by Deb Geissler. 

I timed a row.  It took 28 ½ minutes – and that was without any pausing at all, which left my right hand and left foot in a state of painful paralysis, and my neck merely in pain.

Levi’s other grandmother, my late friend Bethany, once chose this pantograph when she had me do the quilting on a quilt for her youngest son quite a few years ago.  That quilt was very similar to the reversible one she was making for one of her grandsons (no one knows just for whom she was making it), which I took apart in order to remake into two separate quilts for our mutual grandsons, Levi and his older brother Nathanael.  Bethany was delighted with the pantograph, but I think she felt she couldn’t afford to have me do the quilting for all the quilts she wanted to make for her grandchildren – hence, her starting to tie this one with yarn.  The yarn holes and the marks she made for them are permanent, I’m afraid.  I’m just glad she hadn’t gotten very far into the marking and tying.

After our midweek church service, we got Subway sandwiches with a gift card from Keith and Korrine.  We tried out their new sandwiches.  Here’s the description:

“Subway’s New Baja Bliss Collection:  Introducing the Baja Chipotle Chicken Sub and Baja Chipotle Turkey Sub, which are packed with fresh veggies, Subway’s SubKrunch (crispy bits coated with savory seasonings that get fried to perfection), and of course, its Baja Chipotle sauce.”

I want to know exactly what those ‘crispy bits’ are, though.  🤨  They were good, yes, indeedy; but I kinda like to know what sorts of ‘crispy bits’ I’m ingesting.

After eating our sandwiches, we picked up a grocery order at Walmart before coming home.

I once went with Larry’s sister to visit one of her cousins, a mutual friend.  We were all teenagers at the time.  The cousin, who did not know we were coming, was in a downstairs room sewing.  Just as we got to the doorway, there was a cry of dismay and consternation, and a half-sewn dress came winging through the doorway and would’ve draped itself gracefully over my head, had I not leaped backwards in the nick of time.  It seemed she’d put in the buttonholes, and then, instead of using that neat little buttonhole block and cutter, or even small snips, she’d just poked a seam ripper into the buttonhole (which did not yet have its hole), and pushed.  She slit open the buttonhole – and the seam ripper proceeded right on through the bar tack, into the placket, and out the side of the garment.  😮  (We later helped her wrap a little piece of folded fabric around the ripped edge and sew it down.  Under the fairly large button, the repair job could scarcely be seen.)

Thursday, I went on quilting, quilting... rolled the quilt forward, and there were the letters that spell out Levi’s name.  What would the Avanté think of quilting over them?

Twenty minutes later, I was past the letters.  One thread break, one wipe-down of the needle, and all was well again.  There were no skipped stitches.

Hannah has had a bad migraine for several days now, the worst she’s had in a long while.  Chimera has been unusually worried about her.  She was feeling especially bad one day last week, and the dog was lying beside her as she sorted some things in their family room.  He got up and smelled Hannah’s breath very concernedly, then indicated that she should follow him.  They went upstairs and Hannah got a drink.  

“I wonder what he thought I should do?” she said.  “Maybe he thought I should go to bed?  With his limited knowledge, having not been trained, he might think of that.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “because he would equate people being sick with them lying down, since he knows that happens.”

I have been watching the livestream of a bald eagle nest in Big Bear Valley, California.  Their eggs did not hatch in 2023 or 2024; but this year, the female, Jackie, laid three eggs.  They were each laid two days apart, but the first two hatched just five hours apart on March 2 and March 3.  Everyone wondered if the third egg would hatch, and was just about to give up hope when a pip was spotted.  It grew... and grew... and then on March 6 another little eaglet was born.

Once again, we all worried that this little chick would be so much smaller than its siblings that it might not stand a chance, as the older two were already fighting like everything, pecking each other right in the head, seemingly trying their best to poke each other’s eyes out.  They lean back for momentum, and then pendulum forward with all their might and main, beak wide, attempting to latch hold of topknot, throat, back of neck – anything.  Being yet ungainly and uncoordinated, they often totally miss their mark and inadvertently throw themselves into a faceplant or a back flop, after which they expend considerable energy kicking and flailing and trying to right themselves.

‘Bonking’, overly cheerful wannabe ornithologists have termed this malevolent, malicious head-pecking.

Some lady commented on YouTube, “Awww, how sweet.  They’re giving each other beak kisses just like Jackie and Shadow (the parents) do.”

Lady, get real.  They’re trying to KILL each other.

Larry says, “It’s survival of the fattest.”  😅

And the Apostle Paul wrote, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”

As for our worry over the third eaglet, we have been soundly proven wrong.  Chick #3 is as spunky and determined as they come, and he (or, more likely, she) steps right up to the frontlines to get her fair share of the food.  Click the picture to see the livestream. 

Eagle parents (and other bird and animal parents) are liable to ignore an under par offspring, especially when food is scarce.  Instinct tells them not to waste precious resources on the youngster that will likely perish anyway.  That’s hard to watch.  We humans are more likely to lovingly tend and root for the runts.

If you can’t cope with the knock-’em-down-drag-’em-out atmosphere of the eagle’s nest, take yourself to the relative serenity of a hummingbird’s nest.  Again, click the picture to see the livestream.

These babies have already started doing ‘wingercises’, as watchers call it, in preparation for fledging.

Supper that evening was roast beef, baked potatoes, carrots, and onion cooked in the Instant Pot.

By 8:00 p.m., quilting of ‘Heaven & Nature Sing’ was about two-thirds finished.  My back was protesting the long hours of quilting, so I turned off all the lights in my quilting room and headed for the recliner.

A lady on my quilting group was describing her yummy-sounding way of making pineapple upside-down cake.  My father used to love that cake – but he always picked off the pineapple, held it up with his fork, and asked who wanted this stray piece that was desecrating his cake.  😅

Friday was Andrew’s birthday.  I texted him:  “Happy birthday!  Your gift was supposed to arrive yesterday, but it’s been delayed until the 11^th.  Bah, humbug.  We’ll give it to you as soon as it arrives.”

He promptly texted back, “Ruined!  The day is ruined, I say!”  haha 

I sent Hester a picture of these gloves, asking, “Did you give me these crafter’s gloves?”

“I think so?” she replied.  “I’m not 100% sure, though, lol.  They look really familiar.”

“They were just the ticket today,” I told her.  “Not only were my hands cold when I went upstairs to quilt, but they were also quite achy from so many hours of holding the handles on my quilting machine several days in a row.  Those gloves definitely helped.”  Then I added, “I think you gave them to me at the same time you gave me a bunch of quilting clips and a donut-shaped clip for holding a quilt in a roll (if you’re doing quilting on a domestic machine).”

“I remember giving you a collection of quilting things that I wasn’t sure were going to be very useful.  But they seemed like they might,” she responded.  “As a non-quilter I have to rely on other people’s reviews.  😅”

“I’ve used all of those things,” I told her, “even if I hadn’t known I needed to!  Turns out I DID need to.  😄”

“😄😄 I’m glad they are working for you!” she said.  “I think I remember hoping they weren’t too thick.”

“They’re thin,” I assured her, “and they’re very snug and stretchy.  They go onto my wrists a little ways, too.  My hands and wrists were hurting today before I ever started quilting, so I was glad I had these gloves.  I finished Levi’s quilt a little bit ago – the quilting, that is.  I still need to put binding and label on his and Josiah’s quilts.”

Backing

Hester inquired into whether my Bernina has been working all right, as she knew it worked perfectly until that turquoise-haired girl at the quilt shop messed it up.

“Every once in a while it skips stitches,” I told her.  “It never, ever did that before.  And twice now, it has gone on sewing after I took my foot off the pedal!  I ran for my life, and the machine came after me.”

First she offered this laughing emoji:  😂 and then, “That’s too bad.  My washing machine does that.”

“Yikes,” I commiserated.  “Machines can be terrifying.  Diabolic.”

“Oliver’s face watching the washer yesterday was pretty funny,” said Hester.  “He wasn’t sure what was happening.  I had bedding in there.”

“Mine won’t spin if it’s out of balance,” I said.  “It puts a little more water in... gently sloshes things... adds more water... sloshes... until everything is back in balance.  It makes sure the water level is right, and then goes on with the cycle.”

 “That’s nice!!!” answered Hester.  “Mine tries to leave the room.  😅🏃‍♀️” 

hee hee

As I trimmed Levi’s quilt from my frame, I listened to some old Irish folk songs.  I like accordion music.  Years ago, Larry’s father Lyle gave me his accordion.  I learned to play it fairly quickly (since I play the piano), but it seemed a bit awkward.  A week later, I played it for Lyle – and learned I had the thing on upside down.  😄

He couldn’t quit laughing over that.  He said to Norma, “And she was even playing it pretty well, that way!” and he burst out laughing all over again.

It turns out, playing an accordion is way easier to play, if it’s right side up.

Later, I gave the accordion to Keith, our oldest.

Though a number of people have commented favorably on the ‘Heaven & Nature Sing’ quilt, I have not totally decided if I like it or not.  However, I haven’t been able to spread it out entirely to get a good look at the whole quilt, either.  I will put Nathanael’s pictures together differently, somehow.

I’m hoping it doesn’t look like I just backed up and threw those tilted tree blocks at the quilt, “and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” (with apologies to King Solomon)

I have 102 ½ hours in it so far.

After I put the binding and label on Levi’s and Josiah’s quilts, I’ll start on Jeffrey’s quilt.  Then Lyle’s... then Nathanael’s.

Saturday, I heard a person on a news broadcast describing her business after it was hit by a tornado:  “I seen that the ceiling had came out...” 

She owns a business, and she talks like that?!  Poor lady, but... still.  Why must so many slaughter the King’s English?!  Tsk. 

That day, I cleaned up my quilting studio, then machine embroidered the label for Levi’s quilt.  I’ll do Josiah’s tomorrow.

Supper was leftover roast beef, sliced onto 12-grain buttered toast with habanera-pepper jack cheese on top, and baked potatoes.  I had a cup of tea and an oats ’n honey granola bar for dessert.

Sunday morning (which came an hour earlier, on account of the start of Daylight Saving Time), the birds – so many birds! – were all singing their springtime melodies.  I could hear cardinals, robins, Eurasian collared doves, house finches, goldfinches, English sparrows, blue jays, downy woodpeckers, and what may have been a song sparrow, though I’m not sure.

We have a clock that’s hard to get back on its nail, and it’s big and heavy, so we didn’t change it at the end of Daylight Saving Time last November (I should say ‘I’ didn’t, as Larry never does it).  Now the time is correct again – but I keep subtracting an hour.  😅

Last night after church, we had Italian wood-fired Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza.  Once it’s baked, you put on the prosciutto slices and the balsamic glaze.  Mmmm, we like it.

‘Prosciutto’ means ‘ham’ in Italian, and refers to thinly sliced, dry-cured ham.

The pizza has a bad review – but the reviewer likes greasy things, so I imagine I’d like anything he doesn’t, and vice versa.

The red-winged blackbirds are back!  I just heard one, looked out the window – and there he was on one of the new feeders.

It’s a lovely, warm day today, with the temperature getting up to about 70°.  It’ll be the same tomorrow, but the weatherman says to expect snow by the end of this week.

We’ve had plenty of snowstorms in March and April here in Nebraska.  Years ago, before my time, there was such a huge blizzard in late May that there was still snow on the north-facing sides of some of the deeper arroyos and canyons, on the Fourth of July!

My general attitude about the weather is like David wrote in the Psalms:  “This is the day which the Lord hath made; I will rejoice and be glad in it!”

Of course, I’m also thankful for good tires on my car, if I have to drive, and a warm house to stay in, when there’s a blizzard raging.

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