Catching Up!

This is truly a miscellaneous blog with bits of what I have done during the past month.  This is a late afternoon picture looking over the Cape Fear River with lots of color in the sky.  

My biggest accompishment has been the basting, machine quilting and binding of 18 quilts!  9 of those were for the Neonatal unit at our local hospital, 3 are for Habitat for Humanity and the rest will go to the Sweet Charity group except for one which I will send to a cousin.  

My oldest daughter and I made our annual pilgrimage to Huntington Beach State Park down in S. Carolina but we were a little late this year and there were a lot of people as it was the weekend.  We didn't see too many birds but did spot our Wood Storks all off in a tree  This was a nice Great Egret and there were many of those.

We also spotted several Semi-palmated Plovers. 

They were joined by several Semi-palmated Sandpipers.

I took a drive around Greenfield Lake here in Wilmington a couple of weeks ago and the leaves are just beginning to turn there.

A very late afternoon trip down to the Air Force housing produced quite a herd of deer who didn't seem to care that they had visitors!

I also added to the quilts I had made this summer with these two baby quilts made from fabrics I had previously cut up.

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I have had this piece of Michael Miller fabric for years.  There were two yards and a total of 3 repeats in the length.  I have stared at it the last couple of years wondering what to do with it and finally decided to do a stack and whack even though I didn't have the repeats lengthwise.  There was a partial repeat across the fabric so I used that and decided to do a "posy" stack and whack .

I finally decided to use a full panel and surround it with the posies so that I would get to see the full panel which I really liked a lot -- the reason I couldn't just give this fabric away.  My plan at present is to surround the panel with a two inch green border and then surround the posies with varying shades of green and yellow.  Looking at the picture now, I am thinking some white might make its way in somewhere..  Currently the panel is 24 inches high and 26 inches wide and each of the little posies is 5 1/2 inches.  I will be using my hand dyed "solids" for the borders.  I may rearrange the posy blocks a bit as well.  We shall see how it develops.  My quilts generally tell me what to do not the reverse!

On the bottom is the green I am thinking will be a good border.

These three fabrics will surround the little posies (I think!).  They look better in person.

Butterflies and Birds!!

Before I left Webster, I did catch a migration of American Lady butterflies which were all over my neighbor's butterfly bush.  She has thought they were young monarchs but taking pictures revealed that they were really American Ladies.  This is the back view.  They are quite a bit smaller than the Monarchs and aren't as pretty.

This is a side view of the American Lady.  

There were tons of these Gulf Fritillaries taking nectar from the flowers down at Ft. Fisher on one warm sunny day.  The butterflies definitely prefer the sunshine and warm temps!!

This is the side view of the Gulf Fritillary.  You won't see these in Webster!

This is a Clouded Sulfur Butterfly which is very common down here and also gives butterflies their name!

This is a Silver Spotted Skipper which I spotted at Greenfield Lake.  Lisa also got a picture of a Long Tailed Skipper.

Shockingly I managed to see two birds that I haven't seen before in my first days down here!  This is a Red-eyed Vireo.  I probably have seen these before but never got pictures good enough to identify.  From my birding friends, this is evidently a bird that is hard to photograph.  It was hiding in the branches of my next door neighbor's bush just as I was exiting my car.

This is the back view.  It is kind of a greenish color and really blends in well with the foliage.

This was my second new bird -- a Brown Headed Nuthatch.  This was a picture that my daughter took at Greenfield Lake.  It is also upside down as he was hanging from the branch.  I couldn't get a good shot, only one good enough to identify the bird!  Exciting to find two new birds in two days!

There  were two Anhingas hanging out still at Greenfield Lake.  This is the female up high in a tree off in the distance.

This is the male Anhinga which is also called the "piano bird" because of the patterning on his wings, obvious here.

I did see a couple of other birds at Greenfield Lake which were probably Yellow-rumped Warblers but couldn't get a good enough picture.  This is a Palm Warbler that was hanging around.  There was not very good light so pictures weren't so great!!

Lisa's house always provides photographic opportunities.  This was one of the many frogs she has rescued from her pool.  It is a Southern Leopard Frog. 

Lisa took this shot, up close and personal.

Quite a Commotion at Ft. Fisher!!

I have had guests here from Rochester for the past week and I was taking my friend Debi down to see where I spot some of my birds.  I had read online that there were 100s of Northern Gannets one day off the beach at Ft. Fisher diving for food and was sorry I missed the sight.  When we went down the following day, however, they were still there!!!  Even Debi was impressed and took some videos of sometimes 20 birds diving at once for food.  They make quite a splash.  The Northern Gannets are big graceful birds who spend most of their time quite a way off shore.  They were still pretty far out but we could at least see them and it was a spectacular sight!!

The sky was just filled with these birds which are easy to see because of their sheer size and bright white bodies with the black tipped wings.

Here you can see them a little closer with some doing their dive bombing!  We still saw a few the following day from my porch (I had seen them in the morning from my porch but just the usual one or two that I spot when the weather is iffy.

I also took them down to Greenfield Lake to see if the Shovelers were there.  They weren't -- just a few Grebes.

I do like the reflections you get though!!

A Visit from Gail and Bill!!

We weren't totally successful at providing nice weather for our "fair weather" Florida relatives this past weekend!  My sister and her hubby came up for a short visit and we tried to provide some birding for them and managed a little before they left.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) the weather deteriorated but the birding improved just as they left!!  Our first day we went to the Basin trail to see the Hooded Mergansers and down to Carolina Beach State Park..  We also made frequent visits to the boat ramp at Ft. Fisher as you just never know....  The second day we took them to Greenfield Lake and the Arboretum but both were free of birds for the most part.  This scene is of some of the swampy part of Greenfield Lake and one of my favorite scenes with the cypress and the algae.  The alligators like it over here but it was far too cold for any alligators!

The Hooded Mergansers were showing off their fine feathers and were doing all sorts of dancing behaviors and Bill and I watched for some time.

There were also some Ruddy Ducks mostly sleeping and a female Hooded Merganser in the foreground.  No diving today!!

There were a lot of Horned Grebes down by the boat ramp.

We spotted this juvenile Cooper's Hawk sitting in a tree at Carolina Beach State Park.

Sunday morning brought extra icky cold windy weather which is perfect for sighting Northern Gannets from the porch!!  Gail was the first to see them!  They are a beautiful very large elegant bird which usually spends its time out over the ocean except for these stormy days when you see lots of them.

All we saw at Greenfield Lake were a Pied Billed Grebe and another Ruddy Duck.  There was an area which was just filled with Great Egrets which only I got out in the cold and photographed!!  I liked the background of the trees.

This is my sister Gail and her husband Bill in front of the most beautiful Japanese maple (which doesn't show unfortunately) at the Arboretum.

The Camellias were blooming and this is a nice pansy garden for all my northern friends!!  It is cold but we have flowers here all year round!!

Tomorrow pictures of all the birds that came down to the boat ramp on the morning that they left (but fortunately which they were able to see on their way to the ferry and going home).

Alligators, Birds and Stuff

 I just can't help myself taking pictures of pretty sunsets at Ft. Fisher.  This day I actually drove on my way home from somewhere else when I noticed it would be a good sunset day!!

 I went to Greenfield Lake Park one day to see if there were any of the Shovelers (there weren't) and it was a gorgeous warm day (close to 80 that day) and this 8 foot alligator decided it was a good day to come out and sit in the shade.  This was not where I usually see them!!  He had to be 8 feet long!

I used my telephoto to get up close and personal as he had his eye on me!

This was just a view into the Cypress swamp near where I saw the alligator.  

I try to get down to Ft. Fisher at low tide each day to see what is wondering around.  A couple of mornings ago, it was this male Belted Kingfisher.  I had to take pics while still in the car as they are very shy and won't let you get anywhere near them!

On my way back, I stopped by the rocks and my usual walking place and noticed this House Wren sitting out on the rocks.  Usually you see the Carolina Wrens around here, especially at my daughter's house!!

Yesterday there were all sorts of birds down at the basin.  I just love the Oystercatchers and there were dozens of them yesterday.  There were one remaining Godwit, many Semi-palmated Plovers, Horned Grebes, Ibis, Egret, Herring Gull and the  usual Ring-Billed and Laughing Gulls.

Here are two Horned Grebes.  They don't let you get too close and spend a lot of their time diving for fish.

Here is a closeup of a Horned Grebe.

This is a Forster's Tern which we see frequently down there.

This is a view to the long brick wall I have mentioned before which separates the basin from the Cape Fear River.  Note all the Oystercatchers!

I have been working hard on finishing the jacket and finally I got it done several days ago.  This is the back and the next picture is the front.

I hadn't sewed the linings down at this point but it is all done now!  I actually found some silk at a local quilt shop for the lining.  Optimistically, I bought enough to finish another jacket as well!!

After I finished the jacket, I decided it was time to make my granddaughter some new clothes for Christmas as I just like to do that.  Here are two jumpers (corduroy) and two dresses.  I  underestimated the fabric needed so had to line with some of my quilt fabric but think I like it even better, especially for the corduroy jumpers which would have been pretty bulky with corduroy!  Now to get them packed up and in the mail.  There are kitties on the fabric on the far left and a jungle scene for the one on the right!

Now I am making some purses from kits I made up before leaving home.  Of course I forgot how to put them together but after staring at them for awhile and undoing a little stitching, I remembered (and will now document for myself).  It has been months since I have made purses!