I Like Thursday #143 Birds, stitching, a book, and a hike

Welcome to my weekly post of things I've enjoyed over the week, and thanks for visiting!

You know we are birdwatchers at our house, and enjoy all the bird activity in our yard.  There have been tons of baby flickers, and they are hilarious to watch because they whine like crazy for mom to feed them.  I caught a couple of them out the window the other day.

The "baby" is the same size as the parent!

Our friend, Mr. Great-Horned Owl, slept in our big tree in the backyard all afternoon last Saturday.

Mike caught this photo just when he was waking up.

Each time he (or she  - we can't tell if it's a male or a female) visits, he leaves us a present in the form of scat.  I think that means he's been digesting his morning meal up there.

Now probably only an old science teacher like me would think this was neat to look at, but it really is!  I promise I didn't touch it, just poked at it with a stick...  

You can see bones, feathers, and teeth in the scat.  It's dry and doesn't smell bad - another promise I will make you! 

I liked finishing up some red, white, and blue stars for Covered in Love's summer block drive, and getting them sent.

A few years ago, one of my local quilty friends passed away due to cancer, and her family asked our group to take her stash and make things with it.  Among other things, I got a baggy filled with big, leftover HSTs.  I pulled out the r, w, and b ones, trimmed them to 3.5 inch squares, and used the leftover small parts to make the centers of these stars.  I think my friend would be pleased to know her hsts will end up in Kat's beautiful quilts.

I've enjoyed stitching on another embroidered basket this week from my Gail Pan book.

Time to trace another one!

And I've been working on turning my "mistake" triangles into something!  Read my last post HERE if you want to know about the mistake.

I'm hoping to have a finish to share on Sunday.

I loved this book that I just finished up Tuesday.  Such a good story - I couldn't stop reading to get to the end to find out what happened, but at the same time I didn't want it to end.  You know - that good!

Here's a link to the Goodreads blurb about it, 

if you want to know more.

And, finally, yesterday we went on a favorite hike up in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I'll just share a couple of pictures today.

The view from the trail - 

The trail is called Lumpy Ridge.  Can you see why?

And a close-up from the trail.  The wildflowers were just beautiful!

Hope you're having a great week!  Be sure to visit the other "I Like Thursday" bloggers at Not Afraid of Color.