Field Trips in Fiber

Song About the Moon

Song About the Moon

by Paul Simon, Music ©1981, 1983- Paul Simon (BMI)

If you want to write a song about the moon Walk along the craters of the afternoon When the shadows are deep And the light is alien And gravity leaps like a knife off the pavement And you want to write a song about the moon You want to write a spiritual tune Then nah nah nah Presto Song about the moon If you want to write a song about the heart Think about the moon before you start Because the heart will howl Like a dog in the moonlight And the heart can explode Like a pistol on a June night So if you want to write a song about the heart And its ever longing for a counterpart Write a song about the moon The laughing boy He laughed so hard He fell down from his place The laughing girl She laughed so hard The tears rolled down her face Hey Songwriter If you want to write a song about A face Think about a photograph That you really can't remember But you can't erase Wash your hands in dreams and lightning Cut off your hair And whatever is frightening If you want to write a song About a face If you want to write a song about The human race Write a song about the moon If you want to write a song about the moon You want to write a spirituaI tune Then do it Write a song about the moon

....and then the sun came out photos....part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

I need to do some color palettes now!

...and then the sun came out photos...part 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from a rainy autumn day

 

 

 

 

 

A surprise new species of hummingbird!

We've been living here for 10 years watching what we though were Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds. We put feeders out every spring and love watching them flying around. Imagine my surprise to discover that we don't have Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds. We have a sub-species called the Southern Red-Necked Hummingbird! How do I know? Because last year my SIL gave us this very pretty feeder for Christmas (I know it was my SIL and not my brother because he would given us a Lowes gift card or forgotten all together - not that there's anything wrong with a Lowes gift card mind you but this was a thoughtful and personalized gift) and the hummingbirds won't touch it! I even tried to trash it up for them with some bright red ribbon and then still will not get near it. The feeder that used to hand in this spot was their favorite. Now they are all over this one on the right. I only had to wait about 10 minutes to get this photo. See the red neck? You heard it here first. It's a new species!

I captured that photo using my continuous shooting mode on my camera. Thanks to Sue's Friday camera lessons I may actually learn to use some of the features of this fancy camera! While waiting for the hummingbird, I got this shot of a butterfly trying to break into my house. I was about 8 feet away.

Snow photos - part 3 - Birds and icicles

 

Crow

 

Cardinals waiting for me to move so they can get to the feeder.

 

My first "bird in flight" photo ever.

The rest of these are of icicles on the back of the house.

 

 

Snow photos - part 2 - Trees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow Photos - part 1 - Walking around

I'm sorry. I can't help it. We don't get snow like this very often so I have to post photos. If you are from a snowy climate just skip these posts.

Chris took these during the snow yesterday.

 

The guest house

 

Deer Tracks

 

The Pond

 

A creek feeding into the river

 

At the river - I only go down here in the winter. You know, snakes and all....

 

Chris checking the wood duck box

 

A tree on the river bank

 

The house

 

Kim's photos - part 2

Have you analyzed me yet? Need more time? Try these.

 

  

  

   

When I returned from Craft Week I had some great surprises waiting for me at home. Here's part of the cool mail I've received.

  Karol-Ann won my drawing for the left over Monkey fabric a few weeks ago. She surprised me by sending this really cool monkey tea towel and tote bag last week. She made the tote bag. it's lined and has pockets on the inside. I just love the orange and green fabric.

Summerset sent me these great hand dyed socks. They are wrapped in paper left from her daughter's painted paper bag book covers. I can't wait until it's cool enough to wear them.

I also received some great inspirational magazines from Carole but they missed the phot shoot becuase they are already by the reading chair.

See, sometimes mail can be good! 

Kim's photos

My friend Kim is a terrific photographer. Earlier this year I finally convinved her to upgrade to digital. It was totally selfishly motivated so that I could "have access to" her photos. She took lots of photos during craft week and here are a few that I want to share.

You'll notice that none of the photos have people in them. I have a really weird hangup about my art. I don't like people or parts of people in any of my art. Animals are OK but no people. I don't know why but I've always been that way. I also hated dolls as a young girl and still don't much care for them. It's probably because my Mom beat me (just kidding) or something but I'll leave you to analyze while you enjoy these non-human views.

  

  

  

   

More in the next post.

Community Shared Agriculture and other ramblings

It seems like everyone is doing the latest cool thing - Community Shared Agriculture. One of my friends is doing it and she shared some fruit with us a few weeks ago. We don't participate in a CSA program for three reasons. First, I can't figure out what the are going to do in the winter. Second, there are a lot of vegetables that I either don't like or are allergic too. Third, we are getting enough from our own garden.

But I looked out the window this weekend and realized that we are already participating in a CSA program. Our peach tree is feeding a large community!

So there. I am cool after all!

Here are a bunch of random comments....

For a look at a man who truly loves his wife, check out this post on Gina's blog. It features one of my tie dye shirts. I didn't realize they were liked so much!

Today I went for my third deep muscle massage. My back is getting better but it still hurts to twist and take a deep breath. The massage therapist thinks I've "popped a rib", whatever that means. Whatever it is, it's darned uncomfortable and I hope it unpops soon.

In work news, I have been assigned a new project that will be announced in the next couple of days. My life is about to go out of balance for a while. It's a great career opportunity but I have mixed emotions about what this is going to do to my free time. I'll probably cut back on some of my QOV activities and other commitments for a while and use my limited free time for whatever mood strikes.

Right now, though, I am just counting the days until craft week!

From the garden

Chris puts in a vegetable garden every year. This year he's growing something extra in the carrot patch.

Is there a more perfect home for 4 baby bunnies than a carrot patch?

Bird Watch - Independence Day

How appropriate that our last baby chicks are leaving the nest on our Independence Day! We have been watching the birds peeking out of the box today so Chris went to check. Here's the last one before it joined the rest of the family. They are flying among the trees now.

The season in review:

• First egg documented April 2
• 5 Bluebirds fledged May 7
• 3 Chickadees fledged between May 11 and 15
• 4 Tree Swallows fledged June 17
• 3 Bluebirds fledged July 4
• 2 nests of Chickadees lost to predators

The End - Until 2009

Bird Watch

They are almost ready to go!

Mom is visiting today so I also had to snap a photo of Casey. It's hard to believe that she's almost 14.

Bird Watch

Bird Watch

We took this photo late yesterday.

Bird Watch

Bird Watch

Bird Watch

They are hungry today! Mom and Dad are staying very busy. I can see them flying in and out from my computer spot.

Bird Watch

Bird Watch

I checked on the bird boxes after work yesterday. The Tree Swallows have fledged. I actually saw the whole family flying around near the next box so the must have just left. The Bluebirds had not hatched.

Chris checked just a few miutes ago so these have just hatched today! I hope we get to see them reach maturity.

Bird Watch

Are these Tree Swallows ever going to leave? They must have a good life in that box and are in no hurry to graduate and leave - sort of like teenagers today! Maybe they are staying around so I will have something to post until the Bluebirds hatch.

Bird Watch

We were surprised to find that the Swallows are still around. The parents were hanging close by and we tried to get a photo of the female on the box but she chose not to pose today. Here are the big babies.

The Bluebirds haven't hatched yet but Chris thinks he saw a Wood Duckfamily cross the driveway. He's going to check the Wood Duck box down by the river to see if there's any evidence of nesting. That would be very cool but either way we have a family of some kind of duck! Unfortunately our rent-a-dogs were here this morning so the ducks were chased off before Chris could get a positive ID. Silly dogs, don't they know what they are not supposed to chase?

Bird Watch

This may be the last photo of the Tree Swallows. The Bluebirds have not hatched.

Bird Watch

There are still 4 eggs in the Bluebird nest but you can see the Swallows better in this picture than the one from Thursday. I think they will leave us soon.

Bird Watch

The Tree Swallows

another Bluebird egg!

 

Bird Watch

The Tree Swallows are growing. Now I know why they feather their nest - you can hardly distinguish the babies from the loose feathers.

The Bluebird has laid 2 more eggs. Does this photo remind you of anything?

Unfortunately, something got to the Brown Thrashers. They were not old enough to fledge.

 

Sunset

While I was posting about my fabric dyeing adventures we had an awesome sunset. I ran out to get some photos. Everywhere you looked the sky was different. I took all of these in less than a minute.

This last one is what got Chris so excited. This is called mammato cumulus. I thought you would want to know.

Bird Watch

Chris checked out all of our nests today, again risking his life. Both Brown Thrasher parents came after him today. You can tell that this one is not happy!

But the babies seem to be very happy.

The Tree Swallows are still growing.

and the Bluebirds have started their second family.

   

Bird Watch

Chris took a walk this afternoon and checked on the Brown Thrasher nest. It's in a cedar tree in the neighbor's yard. (Remember that a "yard" to us is 10 acres so it really is "a walk".) He got the first photo of the Thrasher guarding the nest. She pecked him while he was taking the second photo of the new babies! He risks his life to provide me with a little entertainment!

Bird Watch

We checked on the 2 boxes this afternoon. The Tree Swallows are doing fine but the parents were none to happy to have us around.

The Bluebirds are back and have built this nest in just a few days. It appears to be ready for the eggs.

Bird Watch

The Tree Swallows just hatched!

The Bluebirds are back in box 1 building a new nest. I'll have photos of that in 2 days with new baby photos. 

Bird Watch

We are still waiting for the Tree Swallows to hatch but today Chris found another nest! This one is on a tree at the corner of our neighbor's property and it's a Brown Thrasher! Isn't is a pretty nest?

We will keep an eye on both nests and post again when someone hatches.

Bird Watch

I've received a few questions lately asking how we take the bird photos. Chris made all of our boxes. The 4 bluebird boxes are mounted on fencing posts with the top of the boxes about 5 feet off the ground. I have to stand on tiptoe to look in but they are the perfect height for him. He hinged the lid so we can open then and peek in. The birds have never seemed to mind us taking a peek. I just open the lid and snap a couple of photos and then leave them alone. We try to only go every other day so that we are not bothering them too much.

Two other boxes are mounted on trees. He has to use a ladder to check those. I'd love to figure out a way to have a web cam in the boxes but that would require some REALLY long extension cords!

We checked on the boxes today and the news is not all good.

The Chickadees in bluebird box 4 have fledged but the Chickadees in the Chickadee box are all dead. We don't know if something killed them or if the parents abandoned them. We had several days of very heavy rain and maybe the parents couldn't take care of them.

But the 5 Tree Swallow eggs are doing fine.

Chris has seen the baby Bluebirds flying around and we are hoping for one more Bluebird nesting before "baby season" ends.

Bird Watch

This is probably the last bird check until Thursday. we got these two just before the big rain started.

This is bluebird box #2. We can finally see that the Tree Swallow nest has 5 eggs.

Here are the Chickadees in bluebird box #4. They may be gone by the time we visit them Thursday.

While we were out we had a very exciting sighting of the Scarlet Tanager. I've only seen this bird once about 8 years ago. We hear them often but they don't often leave the cover of the woods. This photo isn't very good but it's still proof that we saw one! I was standing about 40 feet from the tree.

Bird Watch

Don't read to the bottom of this post if you are against vermin destruction.

First the good news. Chris took some more photos today.

The Tree Swallows are working Bluebird Box 2. We always love these birds because they are really friendly and don't seem to mind our attentions at all. Chris got 2 photos. One with her peeking out of the box and one with her on the nest. I think they are really beautiful birds.

Then he checked on the Chickadees in the Chickadee box

and the Chickadees in Bluebird Box 4. They are getting their black caps!

You might be wondering why I am doing two bird posts in a row. I had planned to wait until Saturday to survey all of the nests again but something happened today to add "bird inventory" to Chris' list of chores.

I work at home Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today, during my lunch break, I happened to look out the window and saw a bird perched on Bluebird Box 3 (the Chickadee family photographed yesterday). I grabbed the binoculars and saw that it was the evil House Sparrow. Over our few years of birding, we have lost bird families to two things: snakes and House Sparrows. Snakes, I understand and we do a lot to dissuade them from eating our birds and, if Chris catches them in the box, they generally have an unfortunate accident.

House Sparrows are not native to the US. They are to us as the Gray Squirrel is to the Brits. (I don't like the squirrels much either but in Britain the Gray Squirrel has just about eliminated the native Red Squirrel population.) House Sparrows here are brutal to native birds. They destroy eggs and baby birds and then nest on top of the abandoned nests. I did a lot of reading on the subject last year (after they destroyed a little bluebird family) and followed the recommendation to let them lay their eggs and then destroy the nest.

When I saw the House Sparrow on the nest box I knew what had happened. I looked in the box and all of my Chickadees were gone and the Sparrow had already started building a new nest. I reported the incident to my hero hunter.

Vengeance is mine saith the bird woman....

.....followed by a full inventory of all other families.

Bird Watch

The Bluebirds fledged today! Chris will clean out that box to see if we can get a second group. Meanwhile, the Tree Swallow has started laying in Bluebird Box 2

And the Chickadees seem to be perpetually hungry.

Bird Watch

Chris saw one of the baby Bluebirds peeking out of the box today so we feel pretty sure that this is the last glimpse we will have of them.

And the Chickadees in box 3 are getting cute! We didn't check the other two boxes but I'll get Chris to snap some photos of them later this week.

Bird Watch

We did a complete tour of all of the bird nests this morning.

The Bluebirds are growing like crazy in Bluebird Box 1

The Tree Swallows are about finished with nest building in Bluebird box 2

We have 3 Chickadee families. Here's the group in Bluebird box 3

and Bluebird Box 4

and the newest family in the Chickadee box

Bird Watch

It's a great day in bird land!

The Bluebirds are growing fast. Their blue feathers are starting to show.

The Tree Swallows have been very busy.

And the Chickadees are hatching everywhere. These photos are from Bluebird boxes 3 and 4. We didn't get a photo of the Chickadee box but assume they have hatched too. I think the ones in Box 3 hatched today. The ones in Box 4 look a day or 2 older.

Bird Watch

If finally stopped raining so that we could check on the birds. The Chickadees still have not hatched but the Bluebirds are growing!

And the Tree Swallows are building on Bluebird Box #2

I hope that you are enjoying the bird photos because there isn't going to be much fiber content for a couple of weeks. I've got lots going on at work through mid-May. The birds will have to keep everyone entertained for a while!

Bird Watch

We went out to check on all of our families this morning. As we approached the first Bluebird box we eyed the male in a nearby tree bringing in a worm to feed.

The babies are growing fast.

Meanwhile, it appears that the Tree Swallows are building in Bluebird Box 2. We usually have one Tree Swallow family each year but the Chickadees built in their box this year. I hope they stay in the new box.

The Chickadees are still incubating. We think they will probably hatch this week.

Bird Watch

I checked on the new baby Bluebirds today.

Remember how the yard looked in March when i started these photos? Look what a difference some rain and sun makes!

Bird Watch

We have babies!! The Bluebirds in Box 1 have hatched.

We also too the opportunity to check on the Chickadee Box that we could not get to Sunday.

She left while Chris was taking photos so we could see that she laid 6 eggs.

But our morning started off with this:

Our rent-a-dogs apparently had a little fun and chased these two raccoons up the dogwood tree. They were stuck there for a couple of hours.

Bird Watch

There was about a 15 minute break in the rain today so we were able to get a few photos. If you need location reference for any of these boxes you can find it in this post.

Mama Bluebird was keeping her 5 eggs warm in Bluebird Box 1. You can see that she is wet in this photo.

Bluebird box 2 is still empty but Chris saw Bluebirds and Tree Swallows shopping it this week.

The Chickadee in Bluebird Box 3 has laid 7 eggs.

We couldn't check the Chickadee Box because the ground was too wet for the ladder but earlier this week Chris noticed yet another Chickadee building a nest in a box that we had abandoned. We'll call this Bluebird Box 4. If you look at the photo of the first Wood Duck box, Bluebird box 4 is about 20 yards to the left. Chris checked it today and got a photo of the mama on the nest and another of the 4 eggs.

Mom emailed me a week ago and said that she has a Chickadee nest in her bluebird box too! That's 4 Chickadee nest this year and we have never had Chickadees nesting before. Weird.

The Wren box and the 2 Wood Duck boxes are still empty.

Bird Watch

Here's the last check of the birds until next Sunday. If you are interested, you can see where these boxes are located on our property here.

Today we were able to get a photo of the mama Chickadee on her nest in Bluebird Box #3.

All together now, say "Awwwww!"

Another Chickadee family is underway in the Chickadee Box on the South side of the house. You can barely see the first egg.

Bird Watch

We have the first Chickadee egg!

The question now is whether this is a Black-Capped Chickadee nest or a Carolina Chickadee nest. They look a lot alike but I leaning toward the Carolina. I don't really care I'm just happy to have our first Chickadee nest since we've had the nest boxes out.

Bird Watch

The mama Bluebird finally left the nest long enough for Chris to get this photo yesterday and confirm that we have 5 eggs! Now to wait for them to hatch. The two Chickadee nests are still unoccupied and Chris saw a Tufted Titmouse checking out the Wren box. I hope they are all full this Spring.

I'm sorry there hasn't been much in the way of fiber content lately. I have a new project (THAT I DID NOT WANT) at work and my Spring allergies are starting up. If you have been reading Gayle's posts about the spoon theory you will understand what I mean when I say that today was a 3-spoon day. I apparently got a teeny piece of cheese in my Mexican dinner last night and had a terrific allergic reaction. At 5pm, I am just now coming out of the fog and I had so much work to do today! Unfortunately, I will not be sewing after dinner tonight.....tomorrow will be much better!

Bird Watch

Say awwwww!

I don't know how many eggs she finally laid but she's done. Isn't she pretty? The other boxes are unchanged.

Bird Watch

Mrs. bluebird is busy. We usually get 4 or 5 eggs so the nest may be full by Sunday.

The Chickadees seem to have finished their nest in the 3rd Bluebird box. It's hard to tell from this photo but there is a very well defined cup ready for the eggs.

Chris took this photo Thursday morning before he left on his golf trip. This one is on a tree on the South side of the house. We'll have another update Monday.