And So the New Year Begins

When you are sewing all the time, other activities take a back seat, one of which has been cleaning my house, while the other is not taking photographs incessantly. Neither of those are good, but one is worse than the other. Can you guess what order of importance I place on the above? 😀

It was kind of weird having the holiday on Monday wasn't it? I began the day by getting back out on my bicycle, and as I rode down our street, immediately I saw a large bird fly into my neighbor's gigantic Pine tree. An osprey!

This is the same neighbor who last year played host to the Heron's nest, however, sadly the dead tree was taken down during the fall, so we won't be watching the Great Blue Heron have babies again. By the looks of their driveway, this is not the first time an Osprey has been on those branches! Always look for the poop!

Once he/she took off, I decided I needed to visit the owl, and see what I could see. As you can see, the owl was having no part of my visit.

Whether this is the female or male, I haven't a clue, however, it won't be long before they are laying their eggs again, so we have that to look forward to. Well, two big birds, why not check for a third? As I was riding down Waterwitch on my way to the eagle nest, I heard a loud call and, yup...another raptor! Using both my zoom lens, and a little bit of cropping, we are able to see the hawk pretty clearly; I am pretty sure it is a Red Shouldered Hawk, although I would not suggest quoting me on that.

So this was all very exciting, and I rode on with great expectations, only to find not an eagle in sight! Last year the house was vacant, however, that is no longer the case because a young family has moved in this fall. I was hoping for an eagle, but instead I got to talk to these absolutely adorable boys riding in their front yard. Oh my gosh, they were so cute!!

Brings back fond memories of having little boys around. :)

Heading back from whence I came, by golly, an explanation for all those droppings on our neighbor's driveway appeared right before my eyes. Although the Osprey was in the same Pine tree as I rode up, it was not long before it flew onto the branches of another tree, joining up with another Osprey!!

I was dying!! When I did get home, I asked B if he would like to accompany me to Leu Gardens so I could take some photographs. "Nope, but I would like to go look at cars", he replied. We have been talking about him getting a new car for a while because, although low mileage, the BMW is 10 years old now, and showing some age. Plus, he'd dreamed up a plan where he would get a truck, so we could have a vehicle to haul stuff around, while I would trade in the Pilot, to once again drive a MINI Cooper!! Long story short, we got neither, but I did test drive this used funky MINI Clubman.

If you are new to this blog you may be unfamiliar with my MINI Cooper obsession, fueled by my previous ownership; an art business will put a damper on owning a MINI, or in my case, a trade in! I will keep you posted...

So, I mentioned I received some super great gifts, not all will I show, however,  there are a few I wanted to highlight, including this cool light catcher Jon and Alissa got me while visiting New Orleans this year.

The question begs to asked...Did Matt and Tom buy this mug, so perfectly matched to my new dishes, before or after my purchase? The match is uncanny!

They definitely know the saying on the cup..."You Cannot Drink Too Much Tea," rings true for me! Design by this British artist!

Books!! Six new books!! (atop my awesome new ironing board)

It is hard to explain, but every now and again, when I open a gift I immediately break into tears. When we were first married Bruce gave me a set of cookbooks, Woman's Day for those wondering, and I bawled. Then again, one year Bill gave me a Crock Pot, that of all things, brought me to tears. So it was this year that I began crying when I opened the top book, short stories by Colum McCann given to me by Matt and Tom. He is definitely one of my most favorite authors, and a signed copy is icing on the cake! Please note the Kafee Fassett book given to me by Jane and Ray for my birthday as he will feature in this post soon.

Speaking of my birthday, perhaps because I'm getting older, people are sending more cards? I don't know if that is true or not, but this year I hit the birthday card jackpot!

They will remain on display for weeks I suspect!

So, the weather has been unbearably warm and muggy, but you know who has been loathe to turn the ac back on. I'm stubborn like that. Yesterday morning I was diligently cleaning, sweating up a storm, as I finally got around to mopping the floors. Glancing at the clock, rather than a calendar, I saw the time was 9:20, and panicked. Oh my gosh, it is Modern Quilt Guild meeting day at 10! Dashing into a very quick shower, and flying down the highway, I arrived at Sewing Studio with a few minutes to spare, and a whole lot of empty parking spaces. Good grief!! It was only Tuesday, not Wednesday!!! Since I'd driven all that way, I decided to carefully browse the entire store, not once, but twice. I came away with some solid colors that I incorporated into this new pillow cover. Disclaimer...totally stolen idea!! At some point in time, I'd come across this amazing quilter  and fell in love with her work. A couple of years ago J & A gave me a signed copy of a book called, Steal Like an Artist, which I have certainly done here.

Bruce left for the airport at 5AM this morning and I decided to start my day then as well, beginning with cleaning up my sewing table which was a huge mess. I organized those solids in one of the sturdy boxes that held my beautiful new dress Bruce gave me for my birthday.

Later on  I went to the actual meeting; it was as inspirational as ever. Plus, they presented a slate of officers for next year, and guess who will be President? Sharleen's daughter! As in THE Sharleen, organizer of our Days for Girls chapter. Proud Mama is looking at her sweet daughter Sarah's handiwork.

Today I met another fantastic quilter, who if you are interested and on Instagram, you can follow here. During the show and tell segment, Debra presented this fantastic work.

Guess what? The fantastical fabric on the top left corner, (the back of the quilt), is none other than Kaffe Fassett fabric! So amazing!

Irene is on her way over just now. You can bet we will be talking sewing!

Not sweating as the humidity has abated,

Gail

What Kind of Bird Are You?

I may be the only person who has never heard of DOPE, or maybe not. Every single Sunday someone tells me about something new, and in this instance, a woman told me about DOPE, a personality test that claims everyone is one of four bird types: dove, owl, peacock, or eagle. I'd forgotten all about it until I was handing my sales book over to Bruce to record, and noticed I'd written the acronym down.

Because we all know how fond I am of birds, I checked it out, linking it to my blog. Except at first I did not take it myself, then thought better of it. How could I convince you to take it if I hadn't done so myself?? While in the midst of answering the 40 questions, which really amounts to clicking your mouse 40 times, Angela called and I told her what I was up to. She knew all about it, claiming that I was a peacock. Really?

Well, guess what? She was correct, apparently I am a peacock, or at least 37.5% so. Following, it claims that I am 27.5% dove, 25% eagle, and a lowly 10% owl. Telling Bruce about it during dinner time, I suggested he take it as well. Well, can you guess what bird Mr. Bruce turned out to be? It was no surprise to me that his major bird, if you will, is an owl.

This little guy is from my Ponce Inlet trip, taken through the wire cage. Bruce's percentages were as follows: 40% owl, 35% eagle, 20% dove, and an even lowlier 5% peacock! Well now. I've always said opposites make the very best partners!

I had to click on "full of trivial conversation" if I wanted to answer truthfully!

Speaking of birds, I realized that some folks may have never seen an osprey before, so in the spirit of education, here is last weeks osprey and mockingbird.

Did you know the mockingbird is Florida's official bird? Well, now you do.

I bought some lettuce last week which was almost too perfect to be true. I'm thinking they put these heads into some machine to make them look so symmetrical.

It was such a cute little head! I got to thinking about the time I learned that baby carrots are not babies at all, rather, they are shaved down from life-sized carrots! Some of us are so easily fooled. :)

As well, while at the market on Saturday, I purchased some baby cucumbers with the intention of trying my hand at pickle-making. Around these parts, we love pickles, although, heaven only knows how these will turn out.

It will be about a week and a half before I know how they taste. Looking up some recipes online, I really wanted some mustard and dill seed, however, Bruce called me from Publix saying he could find neither, so we're giving pickling spices a go. Because I like garlic pickles, there are about four cloves in the bottom. Am I crazy or what?

Don't you just love cherry season?

Raniers are tasty all right, but expensive, so generally I buy the Bing cherries which are pricey enough! This photo was taken at the market on Sunday, which was not too bad, both heat and sales-wise. Plus, I  had early visitors--the beautiful Condon family. My great nephew Spencer has been walking for about a month now and he was pretty much loving testing out his new found freedom:

He's the cutest darn thing you've ever seen, and such a sweet spirit! I hope their luck holds out when baby boy #two comes along this fall!

Let's take a little stroll around the garden shall we? Our poor little gnome is showing the effects of our hot Florida sun, fading more each day.

He's still awfully cute though. I told you I re-planted the window boxes with red pentas and white lantana. The pentas are blooming just fine, the lantana is only days away:

And then there are my crown jewels, the dahlias! My word they are a gorgeous flower, and pretty soon I'm going to have more than you can count, as there are about 20, yes I said 20 buds on my three plants!!

Some are variegated, some are just plain deep red, or not really red--maybe pinkish red? Somehow this bloom has a little extra row of petals on the bottom. To be honest, I never dreamed they would even come back, let alone thrive like nobodies business!

Because Bruce has been home for a few days, I'm making meals of a little more substance then when I'm alone, thus, groceries needed to be purchased yesterday afternoon. Plus, I could not, for the life of me, find my box of "London Cuppa", which is my everyday tea; the whereabouts of my latest purchase is a mystery to me. Except most of the time they have it at Marshalls, so off I went, in spite of the threat of rain. Paying for my purchase I glanced towards the glass doors, and talk about a rainstorm! Good grief, the thunder and lightening were amazing, even setting off car alarms. Standing under the portico, I was convinced it would not last long.

Convinced and reality are two entirely different things when it comes to rain in Florida! Eventually I went back into the store to wait it out. Now, I love a good shopping trip to Marshalls, but not for nearly an hour! Finally, asking for a bag for my handbag, I took off my shoes, and made a run for it! Arriving home I found Mr. Bill visiting with his Dad, showing off some new boots purchased from eBay. Nice. The bank has him studying at home for yet another license. Have I told you he's moved over to SunTrust, joining his brother at the same bank? Well, he has, beginning last week. After Bruce took the bird test I asked him what he thought our boys would be. The twins--definitely eagles. Jonathan I'm thinking would be a dove, but it is Matthew who has me completely stymied. No clue.

In true peacock fashion, which means I'm willing to take risks unlike my owl husband, I tried parking my bike along a bit of an incline this morning. Not a good move Gail. I took a sideways tumble, landing in gravel on my left hip and ankle. The good news is that my camera, which I'd been holding in my right hand, suffered no damage. The bad news is that, in an effort to break the severity of my fall, I'm thinking I might have twisted my back. Then again, perhaps it's only temporary discomfort and it will be as good as new later today. That, my friends, is a bit of that peacock optimism at work!