Category: Nature

Two finished projects

10/28/2024

It was a productive weekend! The first thing I finished was getting Estelle's quilt quilted. This will be a veterans quilt. It's such a simple block but has a great graphic impact.

The pantograph I used is called Macrame. It's probably my current favorite and it's nice to use to soften a scrappy quilt or a quilt with strong geometric lines.

I also finished my big yard project that I've been working on. This is what the area next to the road looked like. This photo is of my neighbor's yard. I talked to his caretaker while I was out working and we agreed to the property line. He'll tackle this part. Neither of our properties have been maintained on this road line in at least 20 years.

The next 2 photos is of what mine looks like now. It was a lot of work because there's probably 60 - 80 feet of road frontage that looked like this.

There's so much more that we should take out be Chris and I agreed that we have done enough for now. We are very happy with the results and we don't have limbs hanging over the road anymore. The school bus driver should be happy too.

How much stuff did we cut? 4 or 5 piles this big. This pile is even bigger than it looks because the ground slopes down under it. It was a crazy amount of stuff but that Stihl pruning saw made it easy.

Now it's time to start a month of blowing leaves.

Today I have my annual physical and my last election training class. This one is on security and situational awareness. This one should be good for me because I do not pay any attention to my surroundings or the people around me.

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Too nice to be inside

10/23/2024

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Yesterday was way too nice to be inside. I can't believe the weather that we are having this week. Today is supposed to be another nice one. I've been able to hang laundry outside to dry and I stacked wood near the house for when it inevitable turns cold enough to fire up the woodstove. For now, though, we are enjoying open windows.

One of the projects that I've been working on the past few days is repainting this sign that my brother made for me a few years ago. It's really cut down on the mis-directed traffic that we were getting. Some delivery apps send people here for addresses that are behind us across the river. That has now stopped. This is all good for a couple of years and some bird has already give it the "seal of approval".

After lunch I was going to sew but Chris decided to go fishing at the lake. It seemed too nice not to take the opportunity to get the kayak out.

I usually do two loops around the pond but I always take a break in this cove. It's my favorite spot on the lake to stop and listen to the birds and see an occasional deer.

Chris stayed to fish longer so I left my kayak for him to bring home and I had a lovely mile walk home.

I saw Bart on the way. He seems to be missing his friend Magic.

This is the huge Sugar Maple in our yard and a smaller one right beside. It's a beautiful tree, some years are more spectacular than others. This will be a less spectacular year. We notice that the color is strongest in dry years. We've had a very wet year this year until the last few weeks. Soon I'll be out here every day blowing leaves. These trees drop an absolute ton of leaves. There are also 2 big Oaks and 6 giant Sycamores.
SO. MANY. LEAVES.

We haven't killed any of the new plants yet. If you look at the Cedar trunk, you can see all the limbs that Chris cut off. We planted 3 Hydrangea, 3 Rhododendrons and 4 Lenten Roses. It doesn't look like much in this big space but we didn't want to invest too much until we see if we can keep these alive. It will look better in February after I dump some new mulch around the yard.

The squirrels have been busy preparing for winter too.

I did finally come inside and iron some of the fabric I dyed 2 days ago. This wasn't exciting dyeing. These are comparisons of 3 different fabrics for a Facebook group I belong to. We wanted to see if they dyed differently before we place a group order. As you can see, new and old versions dyed exactly the same.

I also dyed 2 options for the background squares for this veterans quilt. My consultation committee still prefers the green but I'm really feeling that dark orange. What do you think?

Today I'm getting out my pruning saw again to destroy some more aggressive foliage near the road and then I'm going to get out the Cricut and start working on postcards. Unless something more fun outside comes along. It's really our last call on summer-like weather. Things cool down tomorrow.

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No quilting yesterday

5/2/2024

I thought about doing some quilting but after I was finished dyeing, Chris and I went to visit Mom and take her some strawberries. After dinner I just didn't have any mojo for much of anything.

But I do have some photos from around the homestead.

Chris chopped wood 2 days ago and this afternoon he saw a wren building a nest in the pants he left outside.

She made a lot of progress in 2 days! We hated to destroy it but at least there weren't eggs yet. They used to build in the propane tank but they see to have abandoned that. One year they tried several times to build in the bumper of my car.

The black irises are blooming like crazy this year.

We saw the snapping turtle that moves between our pond and a neighbor's pond. It eats some of Chris' fish. He says there's a pair in the neighborhood lake that are 3 times bigger than this one.

The baby bluebirds will leave the nest soon!

Today I'll get the veterans quilts loaded and dye some shirts that I tied Tuesday. This evening we are going to go see the finished mosaic. Yay!

Goldfinch quilting is underway!

7/17/2023

Using denim as the batting is working great! As I said last week, I'm doing really simple quilting. I started with the branch.

Then an orange-brown thread for the feet and beak.

Then a dark variegated for the feathers. I could have finished it off yesterday but I got sidetracked gathering things for the thrift store and doing some chore. Chris is coming home today and I didn't want him to see that I've been a total slob while he's been away.

Saturday afternoon was the tax document burn party. I know most of you shred your documents but, I promise you that a big burn is much more satisfying! We followed that with a nice cookout.

It was hot as hades (because it's July in Virginia) but so worth it.

Yesterday I was ironing the new fabric for the shop when I saw that I had a visitor. I watched him for about an hour as he hunted around the pond. He did get in one good strike but, sadly, missed. I haven't seen a heron in a while so this was my excitement for the day.

Chris comes home today and I'm expecting a cooler full of fish!

I seriously need to do some snow dyeing

1/7/2017

I said I'd have photos today but I don't have photos of anything creative although I'm a lot closer to that today than yesterday. Instead I've enjoyed watching it snow all morning and early afternoon. All totaled we got about 5 inches and it should all melt off by Thursday. Perfect.

On a normal snow day I'd be in the basement preparing for a big snow dyeing session. My hope is that I have the energy for all that tomorrow and that I can do some snow dyeing Monday. It's going to be cold enough that the snow will not melt so I should be good for that. I have a few more fold ideas that I want to try out and this is the perfect opportunity.

For now, it's just nice to be in the warm house and enjoying the view outside with my new friends. These are vulture ornaments that my friend made me for Chirstmas. The keep watch over me in my sewing room window.

Butterflies

6/18/2016

Since I am working on some butterfly postcards it seemed time to finally edit my butterfly photos. Mom and I went to Lewis Ginter a couple of weeks ago to see the butterfly exhibit. I took a lot of photo to capture as many different butterflies as we could identify. Here's the gallery.