And life goes on

No pictures to post today, just an update on the bluebirds and life in general. Day before yesterday I woke up to all of the wonderful sounds of new life in my backyard. The robins have a distinct call and the blackbirds, both red wings and yellow heads are quite loud actually, even to the extent of being obnoxious. But the bluebirds I have been watching have a sweeter call. As I sat at my kitchen having that first cup of "java" to get my heart started, I noticed a flock of bluebirds at the fence. Two males and three females sitting on the cross rails bickering and fighting. This was unusual to observe and upon closer investigation, I discovered that they were new babies. They were trying their wings on the fence fluttering from the crossbars to the top and back to the gravel on the ground. Watching this was so much fun, but I did notice that they continued to "pick" on one little female. After about 45 minutes, they ventured further and further except for the little female who moved closer to the garage and sat alone in the sun for at least another two hours. Occasionally a male would come and torment her and she eventually flew to the ground, keeping the others at bay somewhat. Then "mom" came to entice her and she just wouldn't follow. I was so fearful that she would just die right there. Eventually, after "mom" kept trying to get her to fly, I walked up to her and clapped my hands. She flew away, but couldn't get enough elevation to land anywhere and ended up behind my iris near the garage. I knew she would have more cover there. Mom continued to keep a watchful eye. By noon, my dogs were out and I was sure my pretty boy cat would find her so I again tried to get her to fly. This time she flew over the fence and under our camper which is adjacent to two and a half empty lots covered with lots of grasses and sagebrush. Mom followed and I can only hope that she is OK. I did not see mom at the birdhouse and did not hear babies in the box but by evening, Mom was back at the box with food. She continued to bring food to the box all day yesterday and today. I have not ventured out to see if there are still babies in the box or not, but that devoted mom who lost her mate nearly two weeks ago, managed to raise at least 5 babies alone. The doves have a baby also. Merle, Pearl and Burl? They fly over several times a day. They no longer come to my pond, but my neighbors must be feeding them as they land in their back yard. The baby robins are so plentiful and they are so demanding! The nestlings out front escaped the nest this week and we have several families visiting the pond. They are messy! Another new baby has arrived in our block. My next door neighbor (we share a fence with spaces you could throw a cat through) has a new puppy. It appears to be an Australian shepherd or mix. What a cutie! It is using it's outdoor voice quite a bit.

I am having a yard sale this weekend and am discovering that I have been hauling a lot of baggage around for a lot of years. It is so difficult to part with "stuff". I shall close my eyes and pitch! I shall close my eyes and pitch! I shall close my eyes and pitch! Someone slap me if I don't please!!! It seems that when I decide to collect something there is no moderation. I go whole hog! I need to stop and get rid of this stuff.

"Keep to moderation. Keep the end in view. Follow nature." ~ Lucan

Mother Nature can be cruel

This picture shows the remains of the snowstorm (especially on the deck in progress), which surprised us yesterday morn. Pleas note the bluebird box on the back fence. We have a family of bluebirds living there and mom and dad were so very diligently bringing insects to the babies until day before yesterday. Since we are re-decking this surface, the steps down have been temporarily removed. The beagle went out early before daylight and couldn't get back up on the deck very well. Anyway, in my attempt to get her back in, my beautiful cat got out. In spite of the fact that he is "pretty", he is quite a hunter. As soon as I got up again, and he had only been out 2 hours, I suspected that the bluebird family was in trouble. I only saw "mom" feeding the babies and the wind was blowing so violently that she was fighting it constantly. The Mr. and I started to search the property for evidence and in the flowerbed near the back deck we discovered both a mouse and remains of Daddy bluebird. (The mouse was evidently an attempt to prove to me that he was still somewhat useful despite his appetite for fowl.) Now comes the mother nature part. In spite of the fact that we have them for companions, cats by nature are hunters. This can be cruel, but it is the truth. Within a few hours of the discovery, and our constant watching her to see if she could keep up with the feeding schedule alone, we noticed another male emerge upon the scene. He became quite attentive to her as she continued to search for food for the babies and fight the wind. He perched on the fence and even peeked into the house, but his quest for her attention continued. We were hoping that he might help her hunt and feed the babies. After 3 days, she is still managing to keep some of the babies at least fed and keep him interested also. (The Mr. peeked in the box when she was gone on the first day and to our surprise, the babies are quite large, fully feathered and there are 4 or 5 of them. We do hope that Mom can keep up the pace as she must be totally exhausted! Our cat is confined to the house for a while now hopefully.

Since it is the first of June, we started to watch for baby antelope and saw our first two yesterday and they were tiny, probably born within hours.




"All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so." ~ Victor Hugo

Back from Vacation

We are back in Wyoming and it feels like winter still! I have no pictures to post as our camera decided to expire the morning we left. We did, however, buy a new one after we arrived in Sunny CA, but I still don't quite have the hang of it yet and really haven't had time to work with it...but soon! The Mr. was able to play a lot of pool....didn't get in the money, but did play with his team in a hard luck tournament for 12 solid hours on Thursday. That was their goal. We didn't win any money in Vegas, but did provide entertainment for the Magic show at the Comedy Club at the Riviera. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, let them seat you in the very front by the stage!!! We were a little late getting there and were forced to sit up front. BIG MISTAKE! We both ended up on stage and you have so many bright lights shining in your face that you can't see the audience. That is all you need to know.

The trip from there to Mike's was uneventful, but by that evening, I had what I thought was an allergy and by the time I got home, I am convinced that I had actually contracted a bug of sorts. There were SO MANY people in Vegas. What a rat race! We had a great visit with our kids, Mike, Maggie and Lexi. Food was wonderful and although the time was shorter than we would have liked, Mike and Maggie went back to work on Monday so we left on Tuesday a.m. Elko was our destination for the first night on the road and we woke up to rain, followed by some traces of snow on the trip but mostly rain all day long. It is still in the 30's at night here. Global warming? I still don't have flowers in my pots and boxes. Beagle Butt and Skinny Bitch were glad to be rescued from the boarding kennel (although it is a wonderful facility for this area). We have lots of work ahead and my yard is such a mess! Blooms did greet me however in the back yard and the deer didn't completely devour my flowers out front. I need to work on my quilts, but I am not sure if I am getting the hang of the stippling yet. Need to check with someone who is smarter than I am.

"We have not inherited the earth from our fathers. We are borrowing it from our children."
~Native American Saying.

Quilting and Tornadoes

I just completed this table runner. Get a closer look by clicking on the snaps. The main thing I wanted to do was learn to stipple quilt. This is done by the use of a special foot and lowering the feed dogs of the sewing machine. I did a good deal of "ripping" as it took a lot of trial and error in order to get the hang of moving the fabric without the use of the feed dogs. After all was said and done, I finally got it finished and perseverance won in the end. (It did, however, try my patience.)

Now..the serious business of weather. I wonder how many of our ancestors took a quilting project to the "cellar" to keep a young girl occupied during the threat of a tornado?


With the destruction of property and the interruption of life as we come to take for granted, Mother nature humbles us continually. For as long as I can remember, tornadoes have always been a part of spring weather, especially in Weld county where my family lived. As a child, when the air got so very still that you could here the wings of a butterfly flutterby (well almost) in the spring, Mom would begin to pace. She had grown up in a part of the country where tornadoes were very common and very violent. I remember Dad making fun of her as she would usher us to the cellar on the rare occasions that she actually spotted one of the funnel clouds. He had grown up in that very same area and only once in all of his many years, had he heard tales of tornado damage there. As school was about to be over for the summer to begin, we would quite frequently see those small funnels on the horizon, but being mostly rural and dry land, damage was rarely reported and they hardly ever touched down. In Weld county the destruction of property and injury, including one death yesterday was horrific! The swath of damage even extended into parts of Wyoming here in Laramie and Cheyenne. As we embark upon this Memorial Day weekend, let us not forget those who have given their lives for our country during war-time causes past and current, and those who have given their lives as Mother nature continues to take at her discretion.

In my kitchen hangs a tattered piece of quilt passed to me from Dad. It once graced our bed at home I am certain. This quote frames the quilt: "Quilts like families tattered and torn, are held together with stitches of love." As with the old quilts, those families affected yesterday by the destruction will struggle to get their lives together with stitches of love..

Happy Birthday

Spring has brought blooms for my Birthday!! How wonderful after all of my complaining about the long winter. This past week a group of school retirees and some of those dedicated saints still teaching, were summoned together by another soon to be retired teacher. The purpose of the gathering was to celebrate a birthday of our beloved ex-principle. Unfortunately, he has had some health problems and that puts a real damper on spirits, especially to one who seemed invincible at one time. It was wonderful to see old faces again and catch up on things and hopefully we did bring a little sunshine into the life of the birthday boy. Thank you Patsy!! Mr O's birthday and my birthday are a day apart and we are the same age. Enough said!!

Below is another glimpse of my backyard now that some of the plants are beginning to emerge from their winter naps. Again, I apologize for the poor photography. Not my forte.



We took the dogs to the lake for some exercise this afternoon and take advantage of the beautiful weather. They got booster shots this week and weighed. Winter took a toll. The beagle is nearly obese and the border collie is a little chubby also. However, she will slim down as she loves to chase the ball in the lake.

The Mr. is taking me for a birthday dinner this evening so will make this short. Everyone have a good weekend!


"Flowers are love's truest language." - Park Benjamin

Hiatus

As you can see here, we have an abundance of birds at our feeders and these finches keep our feeders always a source of entertainment. The kitchen window has no ledge outside, but they are always trying to cling on and do try to fly in quite often. We have quite a few of the American finches also which are such a pretty yellow. We have robins nesting in the limber pine out front and bluebirds in the boxes out back. There is a feeder outside the living room windows also and needless to say, the cat loves to watch them from inside. I don't want to know what he does when the bugger goes outside. Hopefully he is too damn lazy to do much harm, but he has always been an outside/inside cat and howls unbearably if he is forced to stay in. We are in the ol' wild west after all. Last week I spotted a fox trotting down the middle of the street and he cut across west of the house to the north where he played in the sagebrush a while. We have the stream to our pond flowing again and we introduced some frogs to the pond last summer. The Mr. heard one croaking, so they evidently survived the winter.





I feel as if I have taken a leave, but honestly, the weather has had me in a funk. It has been a little depressing, not to mention that I have been wanting to do some things that my isolation doesn't allow. With gas skyrocketing even higher, I fear that will even further prevent me from getting out of town. Don't get me wrong, summer is on the horizon and I love summers here, but it is the only time I can get out of town and I am frustrated with the long winters here and the lack of things to do in the winter. If you happen to be a snowmobiler or a ski bum, or grandchildren to spoil, winters can be the most delightful time of the year I suppose. It is the middle of May and is still snowing and was about 27 degrees last evening. Yuk!!!

This is one of the bird houses which I am starting to paint finally. I want to put animals in the windows and along side of the barn.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!! The Mr. and I went for lunch and if you click here on Erica, you will see what she did for me from Seattle. I did get lovely cards from Mike and Maggie and from Alexis. My birthday is soon and I have a friend (and twin) here sharing a birthday this week with me so we went to lunch today. Happy Birthday Ginger and Virginia!!!

My garden club met this week here and had a plant exchange....some of the members are still dealing with accumulations of snow so a plant exchange was a bit risky, but I did get some new plants and did get them in the ground. I made some blueberry cheesecake bars and one of Paula Deen's recipes for orange brownies. Yummy!! If you are familiar with the "lady" you know how she cooks. This recipe was no exception. You know a pound of butter in everything. They had a cream cheese orange icing. TO DIE FOR!!! This recipe will definitely go in my cookbook.
In spite of this cold damp spell.....

"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own." - Charles Dickens

May Day snowstorm

With the first of May upon us, we had another snow storm which closed roads here and on the eastern plains of Colorado. May baskets? Give me a break!!! I do remember making May baskets with my grandmother in the early 50's and maybe even as far back as 1949. She lived in a small town just 4 miles south of us and since I was the oldest grandchild of her youngest son, I suppose I spent a lot of time with her. I have fond memories, too many to list here, but we always made May baskets filled with goodies which I would then deliver to the neighbors in the block. I would carefully place the baskets on the step, ring the bell and run back to the safety of grandma's front porch where we would watch for the reaction of the neighbor. Does anyone still do that?

We have been so busy. We went to Cheyenne so the Mr. could play in a tournament and pick up some remodeling items (garbage disposal, light fixture etc.) Well, we came home a lot poorer! Having sold our camper trailer last fall, we knew we would be getting a new one. The mall had an RV dealership and we just stopped to look. Ha Ha! We are now the proud owners of a new travel trailer and went back on Wed to pick it up. Because of the last two days of snowy weather, we haven't even got to look at it inside. The robins, bluebirds and the finches have been scrambling for food with snow everywhere and my feeders have been a source of nourishment for the finches. Busy little guys they are!! The house finches with their red top feathers look like they have crew cuts as the feathers on their heads stick straight up when they are wet. We have a nesting pair of bluebirds in one box and the robins bathe regularly in the pond in spite of the chilly weather.

Being in a city with access to fabric this week, I was able to get some more for quilt projects on the horizon. Below is a snap the Mr. took of me while I was trying to layer the rosebud pattern to prepare for quilting. I have started the free-motion quilting process and find it relaxing, but very time consuming. I love piecing but quilting is not my favorite. This quilt will probably grace the bed in the trailer as it is my first free-motion project and has been a learning process. Not something for the county fair for sure!!
My friend, Barb, just got back from Hawaii and is thrilled to be here with snow to deal with I know. We have chenille bedspreads with which to do something and think we will make some baby quilts. They make such soft quilts, and we have collected so many. My friend Debby had a tough time when her last heifer was calving. In distress and not able to get any help for the heifer, she turned on Debby and injured her. When all was said and done, the calf did not survive and Debby may have some back injury that will require some recovery time. She was hospitalized and is home with a back brace I think so will check on her and I do wish her all the best. She is such a hard worker and did not deserve this!! I had intended to get some pictures of some of the calves this week, but that will have to wait.

"Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization."
- Daniel Webster