Happy Fourth!

Happy Independence Day, my friends! It's one of my favorite holidays. We're celebrating at home this year . . . a departure from our celebrations on the east bank of the Willamette River of many years running. It's fine by me, and that means it's also a cooking day. I made a potato salad yesterday. Today I'll be marinating some flank steaks for smoking and grilling later, and I'll be baking a lemon meringue pie. Lemon meringue being my favorite, it's always a good choice when there will be folks here to help us devour it.

Yesterday's sewing was to make some progress on the Charm Stars for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I had half of the squares for the large half square triangles cut, and I needed to cut the squares for the second block.

This process was helped significantly when Miss Sadie uncharacteristically took to her bed on the sewing table for a nap. Usually, she's all about fabric selection and measuring for a quarter-inch seam, but she must have been worn out from day after day of sewing.

But first, a girl has to take care of her purrsonal hygiene.

Then, and only then, can she settle into peaceful slumber. Shhhhhhhhhhh.

Meanwhile, I sewed, pressed, trimmed, and arranged the half square triangles into charm stars.

These take quite a while to make.

By the time I had the second one laid out, I was ready to do something else. I took a little walk around. The butterfly bush is blooming.

And the tallest pink echinacea is about to produce a flower.

Also, this darkest wine hydrangea is showing its color. It is covered in blossoms this year. We think it got too dry at some point because many of its leaves are brown at the edges.

Later in the afternoon, I went out to harvest some grass for Smitty. As I was walking along, a bird flew out of the grass. Upon closer inspection, I discovered a little nest with four eggs. I've used my finger for scale. The eggs were about the size of a peanut M&M.

Well, this was disturbing. We thought the nest might have fallen from a tree, but the grass growing all around it would indicate otherwise. I posted a picture to the Pacific Northwest Birders Facebook page and learned that these are the eggs of a junco. Juncos are ground-nesting birds, and so it's normal to find a nest in the grass like this. We'll have to pay attention for a while and Mike will have to avoid mowing over it. We have a lot of birds, and I'm always thinking we'll see nests. Other than the ones that nest under the eves of the house, I've never been able to find a bird's nest like this one in any of our trees, and certainly not in the grass. I'm just glad I saw it before I stepped on it.

This morning I grabbed poor Sadie up from her morning nap to administer a second dose of worming medication we brought home from her recent vet visit.

As you might imagine, she was thoroughly outraged at our rudeness. Smitty was skulking around, thinking he might be next. Little Man won't get his until the 15th, so he was spared the indignity this morning.

So there's cooking to be done, and I suppose I should clean the place up a little. We'll be celebrating our Fourth with family, which makes it one of the best days of the year. I'm hoping to get those Charm Stars sewn together too. I hope your day goes well. Stay safe, and Happy Fourth of July, everybody.