Rainy day birds

First things first: Happy Birthday to my brother Alex! I can't believe you're 25--hope you have a great day.

It's rainy rainy here today, which can make for some beautiful photos of flowers with the macro lens. This is an iris that my cousin Sara gave me for transplant early this spring. It seems content in my front yard, and we should have seven or eight blooms by early next week.

This morning's ride was wet and not without a certain amount of "wind up my tail" bluster on the horse's part. A group of birds has decided to call the riding ring home, and they kept flying up in Joshua's face just as we'd canter around a circle, causing much distress. Between calls of "go git 'im" to the dog, who dutifully zigged and zagged across the bluestone, rushing the birds away, we managed to get some pretty good ring work in.

At first I thought the birds were much-displaced sandpipers, since their bodies were shaped that way, but after some research on the excellent whatbird.com, I've determined that they were killdeers. A "season" of killdeers (be sure to listen to the recorded call). I love naturalist terminology, especially the names for groups of animals or babies. The "interesting facts" on the killdeer were what really made me sure that's what these birds were. To wit:

Interesting Facts
(Subtitled: I'm such a geek)
--Killdeer exhibit a clever “broken wing display” in which they appear to be struggling with a broken wing while all the while leading the predator away from their babies. Once their young are out of danger they “recover’ and fly off. (This season of killdeers was doing this like crazy. They'd bend down and extend a wing and their tails, all fluffed out, showing their rust-colored underfeathers, and then they'd explode upwards and away when challenged.)

--Although technically shorebirds, they are unusual in this group because they often nest and live far from water.

--They are ground-nesting birds that are famous for hiding their nests right out in the open. They really use no nesting materials and rely on distraction displays to protect their offspring. (When I first got up to the ring I stepped carefully, looking for any obvious nesting going on, but after I finished riding I found the nest in the crook of the big black coop jump that Brian made me for my 25th birthday). And so we come full circle. Here's hoping that the weekend will be a little less rainy.

A few shadows, a little sun

I meant to post this photo the very day I took it, late last month. For some reason I really love it. Perfectly describes all those snow walks we took a few weeks ago-- so cold and so grey, but also really full of light and life.

Jingle Jolly

Preparations for Christmas continue apace. To brighten up the dining room, I made Happy Zombie's Jingle Jolly Runner over the weekend. I didn't do the best job with the binding on this one (it also hasn't yet had a trip through the washer and dryer to crinkle it up), but I was happy to make it almost entirely out of scraps (save the black polka dots in the centers of the stars).

I'm hoping that later this week it will make a nice soft landing spot for the advent wreath that I'm still working on finishing. Until then, the only advent wreath in the house is this miniature tree ornament one that my mom made, which lovingly recreates the full-sized wreath that we lit when I was a child. It's amazing! (I wish I could have gotten a better photo, but we've had another cold, grey day.)

And here, just for kicks, is a picture of the furry child on Thanksgiving, doing one of the things that he likes best (can you tell?). This photo serves double duty, showing as it does, one cute dog and the horse jump over which his human was thrown in the little flub that resulted in two cracked ribs. Fun, huh? P.S. It's taller than it looks!

The Colors of Fall

My brother Ted was in town this weekend, to help me with some of the tasks that have been impossible with my cracked rib. He helped me mow the lawn, rake some leaves, wash the dog. We've had some really warm weeks here in Virginia this fall. Most of October was in the 70s, and November hadn't been much different. Until this weekend, when I noticed all the fall colors around me. There's really something to that slanting pink-gold afternoon glow--it changes the colors outside and makes me want to change the colors that I work with inside. Yellow crunchy leaves as a backdrop for a white puppy.
Brown nubbly wool as a Christmas present-to-be.And cheery red dots as Dear Jane B-6 Wild Goose Chase. Even the name of this block sounds like fall.

Finally Fall!

Grady's Halloween portrait this year had to be a mosaic because he refused to sit still. Too much excitement now that there's finally a chill in the air. And look! Leaves on the ground and rain on our poor tired old stoop. The small pumpkin is from our farm share and the larger one with the warts from the Safeway in Leesburg. I love the warts, and both pumpkins' gnarled stems.

I also have a new Dear Jane block to share. This is A-11, Pebble's Protest, and contains my first set-in seams. I'm pretty happy with how the block turned out. Unfortunately, the photo of the block did not turn out as well due to the rainy day. But don't get me wrong, I am very very happy with the rain. Very happy.

Tomorrow, I hope to show you some hand-piecing from the past, but it depends on the weather.

Placemats and Pesky Puppies

Here's part of the promised batch of new sushi placemats. I had intended to give them away at a bridal shower/bachelorette party on Saturday night, but my husband took one look at them and declared them 'too nice' to give away to people who wouldn't know how much work I put into them. So I ended up giving a set to the bride and keeping the rest. I don't know what I'll do with them yet, but they're nice to have around. Also nice is having a husband who values the little things that I make and puts up with the sound of the (very loud) sewing machine through our evening television time.

The rest of the second batch (save the ones that went to the bride, in linen and this fabric a la the elephant mats).
And here's what happened when the pupster saw me paying so much attention to the placemats through the camera. He grabbed the first thing he could get his lips on and ran. I know that geraniums (or, excuse me, pelargonium) are poisonous to dogs, but I got it away from him pretty soon after this photo. Don't worry. Until tomorrow.

Mail call

As (relatively) new homeowners, my husband and I get a lot of mail. Much of it from creditors eager to take over our loans or bury us under more debt (at a one-time special rate of xx%!, they scream). Our 70-year-old home is a mostly untouched colonial; we are only the second owners, having purchased it from the original owner's daughter, who grew up here.

Not that it's so 'historical', but we are grateful that the house is as it always was, without an addition tacked onto the back haphazardly, racing the arrival of a second child, as is so often the case in our neighborhood. We love the huge trees in the neighborhood, and the small set of shops a half-mile down the road (earlier this week I went to the dry cleaner, the post office, the pharmacy, the hardware store and the grocery all in the space of an hour!).

But I do wish our neighborhood did mailboxes instead of mail slots. I love coming home to mail, but hate the sight of it splayed on the floor of the foyer when I unlock the door. And I like the ritual of the trip, however short, to the self-contained mail unit, so tidy and neighborly, out there facing the road as a representative of our house and our family. Recently I tried to get some mail love back despite the slot, with the lovely pleated pocket front door organizer tutorial from Meg at Montessori by Hand. Very good and straightforward pattern. I decided to forgo the small front key pocket in favor of simplicity-- we're enjoying the results very much!

And just because we all need a little cuteness in our days, a gratuitous puppy pic.

Have a great weekend!