I will hang the Prayer Flag

While I was spending time in Idaho, when I was not watching the birds, or watching the garden change daily and cutting flowers, I did some stitching.  I sat by a window in the sun room where the light was natural and with the window open, I could hear the fountain in the pond, and the birds chirping.  I free form stitched a few things.  I practiced my French knots on a small banner, and I did this prayer flag, in honor of my Father.  I used denim from an old pair of my husbands jeans, and bits that I had cut from a few of my Dads' well worn western shirts. On the back is a blue plaid panel from a different shirt than the piece on the front. The buttons are from an old vest that his sister had made him, and the deer was embroidered on the vest.  I cut around it and attached it to the flag.  The other fabrics are recycled as well.  As I stitched, I thought about long ago memories of my Dad and how well he took care of me and my siblings, how hard he worked, how his sense of humor kept everyone who knew him smiling.  It was very meditative, sometimes emotional, but it was healing for me. On the 19th, it will have been 5 months since his passing.  I've been avoiding thinking about Fathers Day this year. However, tomorrow, I will find a suitable place to hang this flag outside where we can see it every day.

 

 

Well, Yes indeed, those birds did fly

I had watched and taken so many photos of those robins, and I was so hoping I would get to see them leave the nest and fly.  I was scheduled to leave on the 30th and was getting nervous.  They all three looked so crowded in the nest, and kept standing up and flexing their wings.  A couple of times, it looked as if one might "fall" out, or take off any minute. I would go to the window every morning when I woke up, and on the 29th, two were sitting up very tall in the nest, and the third looked like it was smashed under the weight of the others.  I always left the camera right on the window sill so it would be ready.  That morning I turned and walked across the room to get my coffee and when I came back the two were GONE!!!  All that time watching and waiting, and I missed it, drats!!!  I looked around on the ground and did not see them, not on the fence, nowhere.  Anyhow, the third one was sitting there alone, and I was determined not to miss his leaving.  So I camped out by the window, and waited and waited some more.  I took several videos of him standing, wobbling, settling back down, Mama coming to feed him, still he stayed there. I got a lot of photos of him, my arms were hurting from the long sessions of holding my phone and/or camera up to the window.  Finally, after what seemed like hours, I was on the phone talking to hubby and lamenting the fact that I had missed the first two leaving.  Lo and behold the last one took off.  I got to SEE it but no photo.  He,( I had been calling him he,) but don't know.  Anyhow, he flew about 20 feet to the fence. He kind of glided, did not really flap his wings.  There he sat for at least 15 minutes.  I could imagine his little bird brain thinking, well what do I do now.  Mama sat above on the tall birdhouse a few feet away.  After a very long time, he flew off the fence down on the other side, where I could not see. The end of the bird saga, but I was so happy they flew the day before I had to leave.

I have finished sorting through hundreds of photos, most very blurry, since I was using cell phone mostly, and through the window.  Anyhow, I have put together a progression of photos, some of them are clearer than others.  Enjoy. I certainly did enjoy watching these robins, and hope to repeat it next spring.

May 21st

 

May 25th feed us!

 

May 27th getting ready

 

May 27th 12pm

 

May 28th 4pm

May 28th 5pm

May 29th 10am. 2 have flown, last one left

Mama waiting and watching

 

Sitting on fence looking up at Mama

The End

When pickle jars turn into flower vases

I'm running out of vases.  I  waited and waited for the peonies to bloom and now they have just exploded.  I counted 12 bushes in my garden and most of them are white.  There was one dark pink one, but it only had a few blooms which I took to my Mother a few days ago.  Medium pink account for about 3 bushes.  Anyhow, I have filled all the vases I had, and am scrounging in the recycle bin for jars.  The irises are about finished blooming, so today I will have another large vase to fill with white peonies.

 

 

back yard looking toward house

 

I Ran Away from Home

Sooner rather than later this year, I fled the heat of Texas and headed out to Idaho.  It was 95 the day I left and a balmy 60 when I arrived in Idaho.  Of course since I left, we have had the coolest May we have had in Texas in several years.  No matter...  Here are some of the daily views from my little homestead in Idaho.

 

A nest built over the back porch light  

 

Eggs laid May 2nd or thereabouts

 

Mama sitting

 

 

Birds hatched 14th or 15th, babies at 5 days old

 

 

 

We've had other wildlife in the garden too.

 

Several quail, they move pretty fast, so hard to get good photo.  The color is a bit off in this one, they are more greyish, don't know where the blue came from.

 

Ducks were pretty cute at first, but have become a bit of a nuisance, since they won't stay out of the pond, and it is a small pond.  They are also leaving droppings as ducks will do.  If they build a nest and then won't let me sit out by my own pond, I might not like that.

 

 

This post has gotten too long to show any of the beautiful flowers I have here, may do that in another post.  I have a bit of a challenge working on this little tablet hubby left behind for me to use.

 

Rock n' Rollin in Austin TX

The other day I told a friend of mine that hubby had bought me a Rock...  She immediately asked what jewelry store he got it at and how many carats.  I told her she would just have to come over and see it, being the expert she is about jewelry. She is a collector of fine jewelry and has the diamonds on every finger and her arm to prove it.  When she arrived she came in laughing, as she has known me long enough to know I don't really care about diamonds.  When she saw my rock she really cracked up.  Here is my Rock. It is a 3/4 Ton Honeycomb Limestone.  It has a bonus of some little verbena growing in some of the crevices.  You can see the tire tracks from the fork lift that delivered it.

 

We started the landscaping on the side yard that had been torn up from last years sewer fiasco and then the foundation repair following that.  We should have gotten it done sooner this spring, but with work and all the travel and family stuff, we just couldn't find the time.  So we get started on the day it hits 90 degrees here and then yesterday it got up to 95. I worked in the early morning hours, but hubby worked all day. We have a lot more to do, but will work on it in segments.

Here's a bit of our progress so far.

 

After rototilling the entire area, and putting paver stones along the driveway to widen it just a bit.

 

Delivery of supplies along with my Rock

 

The tools that I myself used to bust up every bit of the ton of sandstone. Then I carried the pieces to the yard and built a border around the walkway that hubby built, and also around the tree.  I was not as sore as I thought I would be after day one.  But after day two of doing this, it hit me, and I could hardly walk. A couple of hot mineral bath soaks helped a lot. My knees and hips are still very sore, from the bending and placing the stones though. Hubby took a video of me busting rocks, as proof that this actually happened.  I am a designer and supervisor, I am not a hard labor kind of gal, so I guess we actually do need proof of my part in this endeavor.

 

Liriope grass planted and hubby working on drip emitters for where the Asian Jasmine will be planted. This is next to the house beside the path.

  

Workers are taking a little break.  On the last day, I was so tired, I would carry one stone, then rest.  Then carry two stones, then rest and have a coffee, another stone, another coffee and rest.

 

Where we are for now. Walkway finished, stones outlining under the oak tree. Under the tree will all be Asian Jasmine. The part that still shows as dirt will be filled in with a few more specimen plants, yucca, a row of sedge grass. Maybe a few succulents.  The rest will be 1" river rock, shown here.

 

 

All the plants will be on drip irrigation. Hubby had to practically redo our entire sprinkler system.  We will have eliminated a lot of turf that had to be watered, so we are happy about that.

 

 As you can tell by the photo, we share this side yard with a neighbor.  The tree is actually planted on his property, but reaches way over ours as well.   We decided to do the project together for a cohesive look.  I think it is going to look great when all completed.

Creeping Out into the Night

When the skies are clear, if I go up the stairs to bed at a certain time, I can see the moon out my bedroom window.  Last night the full moon was bright and gorgeous at 9:30 when I toddled off to bed.  I kept waking up, wondering, is it time yet?  Hubby had set the alarm so we could get up and see the eclipse, but I was already awake when the alarm went off.  We crept out into the front yard, around 2:00 a.m. and the moon was directly overhead.  By then there was a large sliver yet showing.  It was 44 degrees and very breezy. We huddled together and watched and waited.  The sky was so dark and clear.  It was mesmerizing to watch as slowly the sliver became smaller until the moon glowed red.  The Blood Moon.  We commented on how we really must get some Astro- binoculars.  Watching Cosmos has really renewed our interest in the night sky. We are both hooked on that show. Also the wonderful host, Neil deGrasse Tyson.  He is so amazing to listen to.

When we first moved here over 20 years ago, and there were only tiny new trees, and no houses built behind us...Hubby would take the telescope out back and we'd have star parties.  All the kidlets that have since grown and gone away would come over and he'd let them all look at the stars and planets. He'd pretend to be Carl Sagan and answer all their questions.  Ha Ha.  Now the city lights have gotten closer every year and the trees taller, and if one wants to look at the stars they have to head farther and farther out of town. I miss going out in the desert when we lived both in California and Nevada and seeing everything in the sky so brightly.  In one of our California locations, we lived on Starlight Lane.  That has always been one of my favorite of our many addresses.

Crept back in the house and went back to sleep around 3:00 a.m.  Very cozy and happy that it was a clear night and we got to actually see this time.  So often it is cloudy here and we miss these extraordinary sky events.

Happy Spring!

Spring arrives in many guises all across the country. Nice and cool here this morning and got up to 80 this afternoon. It has been very windy all week, so the humidity is low and the weather men keep warning of fire danger.  The trees are starting to bud. No spring bulbs popping up through the snow here, at least not at my house.  No snow and I don't have any bulbs.  I did think that the hard freeze we had killed my little potted Pomegranate tree that "someone" forgot to move into the garage, that one week we had very cold temps.

 Plus, that same "someone" cut it way back in my absence.  However, the past week has shown it is recovering, at least one branch has some new growth. Poor little thing, I hope it grows to it's former size.  We bought it for our anniversary gift about 8 years ago and have managed to keep it alive all this time, So Far.

I've done a fair amount of moping and grieving the past few weeks, but have managed to get out a few times and do some things. We only went to a few of the SXSW festival happenings this year. The crowds just get larger every year and it is less appealing to us to deal with it. Here are a couple of the ones we did get to last week and week end. Getting there, we drove to the train station and took the train downtown.  It was a quite uncomfortable, like being in N.Y. or San Francisco. It was standing room only and in very close quarters. Ewww  It was even worse coming back, but we were on line early and at least got a seat this time.

 

 The poster show was amazing, mostly artwork done for music gigs but some movie posters too. Look at the cute little taxidermy guy that someone swapped for some posters.  The lady there said it was a weasel, but I think the white ones are ermines. Not certain though. He was really cute, if a little creepy.

Renegade Craft Fair is always fun.  They had these paper mobiles hanging from the ceiling all throughout the building. Lots of handmade things and workshop/make and takes.  I only bought some tea and a pretty aqua screen printed scarf.  There was a guy there from L.A.who had some gorgeous screen printed and handmade books.  It is hard for me to resist anything PAPER...but I managed. Now I am sorting through all my stuff trying to find his business card so I can drool over his artwork on his website.

Meanwhile back at the convention center, there was a lot going on there besides the poster show and Music Gear Expo.  There were bands playing on several stages and it got to be a bit much after awhile.  Hubby went to listen to music and I wandered around seeing some of the other sights.
I met these really cute young ladies in line at one of the venues.  I asked if I could take their photo, I thought they were so cutely dressed.  They are Kari from Nashville, and Ella from Atlanta.  Hope you can make out Ellas' huge wooden peace sign earrings. Believe me there were a lot of really cool costumes, most I did not get a chance to take photos of.  Most of these were taken with my cell phone as I need to shop for a new camera.