4/16/19

Morning Walk

The day got away from me yesterday. I did my slow stitching in the morning. The last of the sundresses is this far along, and I expect I'll finish it off this morning.


Although I reported sunshine yesterday morning, the clouds moved in before I was finished with my slow-stitching. Checking the forecast, the rain wasn't predicted to start until the afternoon. It took a bulldozer, but I got my lazy self out for a walk. Below is our neighbor's house. Smitty and Sadie are working tirelessly at evicting him from the propurrty.


Straight down our driveway, our human neighbor planted daffodils along the portion of the driveway shared with our three closest neighbors. Many years ago, I recall reading in our local paper that bulbs for either the white or the yellow daffodil with the orange center were becoming a rarity. The article requested folks with that particular variety share bulbs at some collection point. Although I've searched for the article, I can't find it. (It was long enough ago to be pre-internet.) So, I can't recall whether it was the white one like this one below...


...or the yellow one like this one below. In either case, our neighbor has us covered.


Still on the shared portion of the driveway, I noticed these tiny flowers hanging from one of the trees along the way.


Also, a pair of Cooper's hawks were circling. They must have a nest nearby. We get a lot of hawks for the same reason cats like it here...there are lots of little munchies running around in our field.


Nearly to the main road, I caught up with our friendly neighbor the horse. Thank goodness, I had a bag of horsey treats in my pocket.


He's sharing his pasture with a different mule from the one we see ordinarily. This one was smaller, and it wouldn't approach the fence no matter how many cookies I offered up. Nothing doing. Our neighbor often boards large equine animals for friends and family, and so I suspect that's what's going on here. He's probably mad about being left behind with strangers.


Okay, so here we go, officially on our way. Some of the blooming things I saw yesterday are common weeds, and it's often difficult to tell whether I'm looking at a flower or a flower bud. Just to be sure, I took pictures anyway.


At the top of the hill, this neighbor has some beautiful blooming trees in their yard.


Here's another of the weed shots.


In a long-ago blog post, I was able to identify this one, but I can't remember what it is.


This is some kind of wild fruit tree.


Here's something new with the red flowering currant in the background.




In the "every little thing" category...this fungus. The cap was smaller than a dime.


Oh, and lookie here...this is something I haven't seen yet this year.


I'd reached my turn-around point by then and took a picture of the valley below.


Testing the new camera's zoom capabilities, I zoomed in on this red barn. You can see it in the image above, about 1/3 of the way down the photo and near the middle.


You can't see this next one in the larger photo because it's outside the frame. But I zoomed in on a barn much farther away to see how well the camera could do, and it isn't too bad.


Then, I zoomed way, way out, far off in the distance. When the camera's lens is extended as far as it can go, I can activate the digital zoom to get even closer. That's what I did in the image below. Digital zoom isn't as good as the zoom provided by the lens, but this isn't too bad. It's a little grainy, but see for yourself.


So, I'm pretty happy with the camera's capabilities, both far away, and close-up.

On my way back home, I noticed this trillium nearly ready to bloom. I love the trilliums. The are my favorite of our native wildflowers.


So you can imagine how excited I was when I found this cluster in bloom just a little way on.


Here are just a few more I noticed toward the end of my walk.




It was already 1:00 p.m. by the time I reached home again. I was starving for lunch and also surprisingly tired. I ended up taking a nap in the afternoon, but got busy on my new sewing project before the end of the day.

My goal was to get all or most of the cutting done. I've cut all the "constant" pieces I'll need for the whole project.


And then I got to work cutting up scraps for the random 2-inch squares. I'm using my smallest scraps for this. Anything that can't be cut into a 2-inch square is getting thrown in the trash. Scraps are taking over my sewing room, and this project is designed to get rid of a goodly portion of them. To complete the first row of blocks, I'll need 180 of these 2-inch pieces. Yesterday I cut 100 of them.


They actually go pretty fast, and so I expect I'll be able to cut the remaining 80 and then start sewing before the end of today.

But first...grocery shopping. I still have food to get through the week, but we are out of our favorite Dove sorbet bars. You have no idea what a disaster that is, and so grocery shopping is a must. Hopefully, I'll have some completed blocks to show you tomorrow.

13 comments:

QuiltShopGal said...

Looks like an absolutely wonderful day, with a gorgeous walk. Your photos are stunning. I'm very impressed with your zoom feature on your new camera. What type did you get? I definitely want (NEED) a new camera.

Beth said...

Wow! That is some camera! I'm taking my old Canon in for a check-up, but now I'm kind of crossing my fingers for a bad diagnosis. (Isn't that awful?!)
Your photo of the pinky flowers that you said reminded you of a wild fruit tree looks a lot like our quince bush blossoms. So, maybe?

Julierose said...

Gorgeous photos--
Love this dress with those roses --nice work...
Your friendly horse must just wait for you with those treats...
Hugs, Julierose

crazy quilter said...

I just have to say you have some very pretty weeds in your neighborhood. Your new camera is wonderful!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I always love going on a walk with you - thank you for sharing the wonderful photos of all the blooming things. It has to be the yellow daffs that are rare - we have tons of the white, but just a few yellow (think the critters prefer or they get diseased). The dress blocks are going to make for such a cute quilt.

piecefulwendy said...

Your walks are so much prettier than mine, with all those flowers and even the weeds. What fun. We have Cooper's Hawks around here too. I've had one take a mourning dove right in front of my patio door. It was quite amazing and disturbing, to say the least. They are beautiful birds. Love that sundress, and I'm looking forward to seeing the other quilt as it comes along.

bcarlf said...

I love your photos. What kind of camera? Mine is a zillion years old and certainly doesn't have a zoom like that. Remind me where you live? It must be somewhere wonderful with all those beautiful barns and flowers. I live in a suburban area and am so old I don't have much energy for travel, and I do love to see your travels!

Janis P said...

Hi there. I've been reading your blog for a while without any comments, but the wildflowers brought me such happiness that I want to write to say than you. All my life I stopped to look at all the flowers on my walks. Now that I have to use a walker and rarely get to go outside, I really enjoy going along with you on your walks and trips.
I have 2 quilt supervisors myself. A big boss, and a little girl who purrs and wonders what the fuss is about. All of my free motion quilting is done one block at a time because my condition makes me unable to wrestle a whole quilt at a time in my Brother home sewing machine. I've really been able to figure out a lot of ways to join quilted blocks. Anyway, many happy walks to you, and thanks for sharing! Janis

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

You have a great place to walk!! Lovely flowers. I say if it flowers....it's a flower and keep it. Well, mostly I say that. As with everything there is an exception. As I look out my window at little clumps of green with tiny purple flowers, I KNOW that they will go crazy and choke out my PRIDES, so out they go. Thanks for sharing your walk with us. I'm pretty sure that's all the exercise I'll get today, lol.
Happy Easter.
Carol

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Oh, I forgot. Your spring dress is lovely. Great slow stitching.

QuiltGranma said...

So, you never told us who lives under the rock! The long straightish stems with yellow blossoms are forsythia. The little yellow ones are I believe Johhy-Jump-Ups. I too love going for walks with you, but unfortunately, we do not burn the calories like you do when we read about your journeys.

quiltzyx said...

Thanks for taking us along on your bloomin' walk! The photos are gorgeous & I'm glad to see what a nice job your new camera is doing. I'm still trying to figure out how to get my Coolpix connected with my phone so I can upload any photos I take. Time to read the manual AGAIN.

Brown Family said...

Beautiful blooming things!