Monstera

Choosing fabrics.

Preparing the pattern.

Piecing the sections.

Assembling the sections.

Monstera leaf!

End of May

The perfect hosta--

 Unmarred by slug or bug.

The deepest purple iris--

With the most delicate of Spring scents.

I love daisies--

Nothing fancy needed.

Rain

It's been really raining here.  Three and a half inches in the last few days with more in the forecast.  Heck Creek is really roaring.

Blackberry Summer?

High temperature today--90 degrees.  Where's the traditional blackberry winter?  It seems there was no Spring this year, just a long winter and now summer.

 

Roadside Flowers

As I walk down the driveway to get the mail, I see the first of the year's fleabane.  It's considered a weed, but I like the little white fringe around the egg-yolk yellow centers.

Common fleabane, Erigeron philadelphicus

Across the road by the old barn is a field of ragwort or groundsel.  It seems quite plentiful this year.
  

Golden ragwort, Senecio aureus

At the mailbox I decide to walk east down Heck Creek Road toward the blacktop.  Scattered throughout the woods I see more ragwort and wild geranium.

Wild Geranium, Geranium maculatum

Also, scattered on the forest floor and beside the ditch, mud-spattered, were

violets. The purple of violets is one of my favorite colors.

Common blue violet, Viola sororia

Where the road curves a bit and is shadier and wetter, I find the diminutive dwarf crested iris and rue anemone growing side by side.

Rue anemone, Thalictrum thalictroides

Dwarf crested iris, Iris cristata

A beautiful Spring day.

Chickens

Left to Right:  Jane, Kitty, Lydia, Elizabeth (with waterer)

About three weeks ago, four chickens came home with us from Southern States farm supply.  They were cute little fuzzballs when we first brought them home.  Now their real feathers are starting to grow in and they look rather scruffy.

Jane

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Jane is a Buff Orpington.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a Speckled Sussex.   If Elizabeth Bennet's family kept chickens, they would probably have been this breed as it was quite common in England at that time.

Kitty

Kitty is an Easter Egger.  She and her sister Lydia should lay blue to greenish eggs.

Lydia

Even though Lydia has a different colored plumage from Kitty, she is also an Easter Egger.  The Easter Eggers have such cute tufted cheeks.

The Easter Eggers also have darker and greenish feet.  Jane and Elizabeth have pink toes.

I've been chick watching a lot and have discovered that chicken behavior consists mostly of eating, drinking, sleeping and pooping.  And whatever one is doing, the others want to do it too.  If one chick goes to the waterer, soon all four are there pecking at the nipple and getting a drink.

At the feeder

The feeder has spaces for eight chickens to eat, but they all want to eat out of the same space.  The top of the feeder was a favorite place to perch and poop, so Pop made a paper hat for the feeder to keep them from sitting on top.

Elizabeth on top of the heater (notice her pink feet)

 The brooder is an extra large cardboard box.  It has this heater in it to keep the chicks warm.  The heater gives off a gentle heat and the chickens go under it when they get cold.

Jane

Here is Jane preening her new feathers.

Lydia

True to her namesake, Lydia causes the most trouble.  Here she is perched on the top of the box, ready to make her escape.

 

January

Not much happening here in the house above Heck Creek to write about.  To date January has been very cold and mostly cloudy.  (So much for those predictions I saw last fall for a warmer than average winter.)  The warmest place in the house is in the front room by the wood stove.  I just want to sit there and doze.

Ralph has been organizing the shop area.  It really hasn't been usable since we've moved in.  I would like to carve out a spot to do some glass work.  I unpacked a few bits from before the move and hung them in the windows to add a little color to the gray days.

above the kitchen sink

in the bedroom window

And I continue to make blocks for my winter sampler quilt.

paper-pieced teapot and cups

appliqued mittens

If I ever get this quilt finished I may not do applique again--I  find it tedious and I'm never quite satisfied with the results.  Three appliqued dilly birds and another mitten to go.