Wednesday, July 17, 2019

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.















20 comments:

  1. Had to laugh at that bird, we get the same thing here with the magpies, the young, often the same size as Mum, run after her yelling for food! Well done with the blocks you have saved. So good to see your friends fabric being used, the blocks you ave made are lovely. Great photo of the owl!! Very pretty stitchery too.

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  2. Love Mr/Mrs. Owl--scat--uh, not so much lol--interesting though....
    Your stars are lovely and the basket is so cute...thanks for sharing hugs, Julierose

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  3. Birds are so entertaining! I had a baby catbird and mama outside the sewing room window this week. So funny to watch. Not sure I would have recognized the scat for what it is.

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  4. Love the bird pics! Your sewing pieces are lovely, great color choices! Have a great week!

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  5. I have a photo of a big Horned Owl from about 5 years ago when we visited Glacier National park in the campground one evening so it wasn't a really good photo as it was kind of dark - hope to see another one this year - I think we will be heading to Montana but I'm not positive at the end of summer.
    Love your triangles

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  6. Love those RBW blocks. And, those wild flowers on your hike are so pretty.
    Thanks for the book info-I'll see if it's at my library. mary

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  7. Scat is totally awesome! We love finding it on the hike and the kids love it too. They're at that age where talking about poop is super fun and their mom (my sister) is trying to get them to stop with the constant potty words, so any excuse to talk about it is super exciting. How cool that you have an owl that comes! I love that picture of lumpy ridge- what an apt name!

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  8. I did as I was told and read your previous post. It is so much more engaging to learn about the mistakes than "everything went as anticipated". Thank you for all the pictures in the post, showing all the missteps. But the best part is the AHA moment!!! It was almost worth making the mistake :-) I am looking forward to your finish wit great anticipation!!!

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  9. Your Thursday posts are a real get-away for me. Loved this one, especially the hike. The summer doldrums have me longing for mountain air! Looking forward to seeing your "mistake" finished project. ;)

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  10. Well, you know I love the bird pics. Actually I believe that owl scat is actually an owl pellet. Once the owl digests its food, it vomits up a pellet. In the pellet are the skeletal remains that the owl doesn't digest. My daughter dissected owl pellets (with glee) while in high school. It was a bit "ew" for me - haha. I enjoy watching the young cardinals here. Love all of your blocks, but the ones from your friend made me a little sad and happy at the same time. That hike looks lovely, lumps and all! I'm going to check out that book!

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  11. Everything is wonderful! Will be watching to see how you use your rectangles.

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  12. Those RWB blocks are pretty - how nice to have used the fabric. It's amazing raptors can pass feathers and bones. Your mistake triangles are pretty!

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  13. there I was admiring mr owl, then, well as the book says, everyone poops. Your sewing is terrific... and the connection with your friend is too. Admiration for you. Gotta go see the goodreads comments, LeeAnna

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  14. Such fun bird pictures! It's wonderful to use your friend's fabrics and squares in these blocks. She would be happy to know! I love your mistake quilt! That book looks good. That's for the recommendation!

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  15. You got a bunch of things I love in this post, Diann. Baby flickers, a great horned owl, a basket and an embroidered one at that, gorgeous wildflowers in white, and those pretty fabrics! Happy Stitching/hiking, etc!

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  16. We do the bird watching thing too. Love the picture of mama amd baby flicker. The owl is really cool too. We have barn swallows nesting near the house, close enough that we get to see when the little ones start testing their wings and take flight.

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  17. Your owl is awesome! We hear one regularly, but I've only seen it once.

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  18. Perfect pic of the owl-love it!.. so realistic! Also, really enjoy your blog.

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  19. I like how your triangle blocks turned square;) I think it will work out great that way!

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  20. There is actually a market for owl pellets. The ones I find in my garden I save for my friend that works at the university. The biology department loves them.

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