Happy New Year!

Our Christmas cactus actually bloomed brilliantly right on time this year -- only the second time in the 20 years we have had this plant!  It has been so warm down here that the blossoms are dying off faster than they would have if the temps had been a little cooler outside.  We have broken high temp records for 5 out of the last 7 days and we have had our air conditioning on for a week -- this is North Carolina not Florida!!  Last February was the coldest on record and this December was the warmest on record!  Even the water temp was 65 today!  Crazy.....

Tuesday I spent the day with my friend Dianne dyeing and she spotted a lump in her mulch.  Underneath was this sweet potato which was about the size of a soccer ball!  I liked all the nooks and crannies and had to have a picture.  Don't think they will be eating this.  Daffodils and azaleas are blooming down here, very confused about the season.

We did a session of extreme overdyeing at Dianne's.  The colors we used for the first baths were top to bottom, Grape, Fuchsia, Leaf Green, Golden Yellow and Sun Yellow.  The overdye (columns) are Neutral Gray, Turquoise, Basic Brown, New Black and then Deep Navy.  They were each 3% solutions (WOG).  We used low water immersion with 11 yards in each bucket.  Some interesting results  I thought.  The grey is very weak as an overdye and changed the color very subtlely.  It is a blue/gray.  My favorites were the Basic Brown overdye (not much difference between the overdye on the Sun Yellow and Golden Yellow which surprised me.  I like the colors I got overdyeing with the New Black.  Also, surprisingly was that the Navy did the darkest overdye.  I don't know whether the scale was just off or whether it is that much stronger than the other colors.  It is a very nice clean color,

This is just another look at the colors.  I think this gives a much prettier view of all the colors. and gives you a better idea of how they will behave in a quilt pattern.  Some of the darks will make awesome background fabrics.

Just taking some pictures on  a nice day at Greenfield Lake a week ago.  Only Cormorants and Pied-billed Grebes were in residence.

First time I have seen the Redhead female out of the water.  The Canvasback has left but the three Redhead females are still hanging out with the Coots.

Yesterday I saw my first Common Loon of the season.  I have seen several Red-throated Loons at the beach but this Loon was down by the boat dock hanging out with the Horned Grebes -- quite a few of them.

This is the Loon from the front.

This was one of the Horned Grebes and I liked the background and his bright red eye!

This is a juvenile Herring Gull with an illegally sized Flounder that he was trying to figure out how to eat!  The state officials would have fined him if they saw him!!  They recently changed the size limit on what fisherman could take in the Southern Flounder.