what a happy day!

Yesterday was *all* words, so today will be mostly photos . . . and mostly photos of what I wrote about yesterday! :)

I had a *great* visit to the orthopedist today! She wrote me orders for physical therapy! Yay! First they are going to transition me to 'full weight bearing' in the boot, and then they'll progress to 'full weight bearing' without the boot! I have to go three times a week for the next four weeks. And, I got a handicap sticker. Which means as soon as I can walk to my car, I can DRIVE! I'm seeing light . . . the end of the tunnel is getting closer! I have my first PT appointment TODAY!

Then I went to my family doctor, who told me the bite site looks very, very good and that I dodged a big bullet! Whew! :) In retrospect, four days in the hospital is preferable to what could have happened with a brown recluse spider bite.

I get to see this little fellow today, too!


Here are the baby wrens . . . can you see them?
I counted at least four!


Aren't they cute??
They are *so* noisy when Mrs. Wren is
there with a juicy worm. But they know
if they see me, they need to pipe down and get small.

There's the little nest, tucked into the corner.
I didn't move the plant to get a good picture,
because I didn't want to frighten the baby birdies.

One of the benefits of being at the house this
summer was we were here for the figs! They are ripe and yummy.

And sooooo happy! :)


Last one: Sawyer Practices His ABC's!


Here's the back side of the Russia block
I'm back to working on. I really do love this quilting stencil.


And here's the sweet package I received from Karen,
at Little Pieces of My Life.

See?! A present for me!

Cute little pin, isn't it??

And aren't these edges beautiful handiwork???

Yay! And I'm off!

:)

a picture's worth a thousand words . . .

And today, you're getting the words. :)

It's been a nice, albeit quiet, day. I finished the last of the redwork blocks early in the day, so I accomplished one of my Charming Girl goals! Yay! After much thinking, I did finally decide on a name for the last block, but not without some terrific (and interesting) input.

For example:

Sawyer Writes His First Postcard (postcards are big in my family)
Sawyer Practices His Cursive Writing for Aunt Jocelyn
Sawyer Takes His ACT
Sawyer Writes, 'I'll Behave in Class' One Hundred Times

But what I finally decided on is, Sawyer Practices His ABC's. I like it!

Then I pulled out my Russian pillow and picked up on quilting it where I left off. Whoops! I got the corners done and am working on the sides, and then it'll be ready to stitch into a throw pillow! I take so long to get anything done -- I first started talking about this in . . . MARCH!

Let's see, I also baked a pan of brownies, to take to church tomorrow night. We are serving lunch to the teachers of the elementary school next door, and the brownies are actually for that. Can you believe school starts in less than a week? Crazy! This year has simply flown by, collectively, though some of the days have dragged a bit!

What else? My Jocelyn came by to pick up some fabric she's using to dress her classroom windows! And we talked about her nursery and crib sheets, and owls (which is how she wants to do the nursery) and burp cloths. And I showed her all the darling owls I've been finding to do a redwork quilt for the baby!

I also watched Sleepless in Seattle. Because I've seen it a million times and I can do handwork while I'm watching it and not keep my eyes glued to the screen. And because it makes me cry. And because I love that movie. :)

And all day I been hearing little birdie noises . . . like baby birds. And I wasn't sure where out back they were, but felt they were kinda close. And then, when I pulled the brownies out of the oven, I turned around and there was Mrs. Wren, hoping under the screen in the kitchen window, with a big, fat worm in her mouth. She was feeding her BABIES in my WINDOW! I do love the wrens! And as I sit here typing away, I can hear the chorus of baby birds singing, "Feed US!" Yikes -- they are really noisy and demanding! :)

Hmmm. I've also been thinking a little about October. It's only two months away and I hate to have it creep up on me and not be prepared when the question invariably comes, "What do you want for your birthday?" I think I know. I'm pretty sure. I want one of THESE! And maybe one of these, to match my car, which I hope to be driving really SOON!

Oh, oh, OH! How could I forget this?? I entered THIS giveaway on Little Pieces of My Life back in July, and I WON! The most darling, hand-crocheted edged PINK pillowcases! They came in yesterday's mail! With a cute little quilting pin, too! And it was all so prettily packaged, I really felt like I was getting a present in the mail! Thank you, Karen!!!

All in all, a pretty full and satisfying day. Think how dangerous I'll be when I'm on two, working legs!!

For now, I'm off to taste-test a brownie (just doing my duty) by placing it under some homemade vanilla ice cream and topping it with some whipped cream.

And for the record, this entry was worth 0.65 of a picture. Wow! I think that saying needs to be re-evaluated!

:)

and the wrens go marching on . . .

Something happened at the house this week that reminded me of another funny 'wren' story that I'd forgotten to share, complete with photos! It happened Mother's Day weekend, and I think I had some blog apathy and then the accident happened, and one thing led to another and . . . well, you know how that can go!

Anyway, Todd and I had been out and about around the camp site -- I think we'd had a group up there -- and as we returned to our site, we noticed a bit of a commotion at the hitch end of the RV. And it sounded a lot like a wren commotion!

Sure enough, as we got closer, wrens became more vocal, and we could see something odd sticking out of the hitch . . .

Just to put it in perspective, I've put a black square around where the hitch is in the following picture . . .

So we got a little closer, and what do you think we saw??

Lots of homely baby wrens!! Evidently, when I inadvertently chased the wrens out of my door wreath (I blogged about it first here, and then again here) they moved their nest to the inside of our hitch! When we found them, babies were falling out of the hitch, hitting the ground fluttering!

Baby wrens are nicely camouflaged when they hit the forest floor. I put a black square around this one little fellow who was doing his utmost best to get away from me!

Mom and Dad Wren were standing sentinel on nearby trees, alternately fussing at us for being there and encouraging the kids to get a move on it!

I was clicking like crazy to get pictures, but these little fellows are FAST! Most of my pictures showed either blurred blobs, or absolutely nothing by forest floor!

So, a month later, at a different location, what reminded me? Well, I rolled into the kitchen one day last week, thinking I was hearing a wren very close by. I went to the window above the sink to see if I could see it, when I realized it WAS IN THE WINDOW! Haha! It had managed to squeeze in through a hole in the screen and was between the screen and the window. No wonder it sounded close!

Three days later I rolled into the kitchen and thought something looked a little funny at that same window, but my flowers were blocking whatever it was . . .

See there, in the right corner of the window, behind the flowers?

So I pulled them out of the sill, and I had to laugh.

Now I understand exactly what that silly wren was scoping out -- a new home!! I guess Todd and I are just people who have 'wren' experiences!!!

That same Mother's Day weekend, up at Camp MACOBA, I stumbled upon these beauties growing at our new site . . .

Peonies! They smelled heavenly, too!!

And finally, of course, my little bit of heaven on earth . . .

He's certainly figured out how to beat this southern heat!!

Splish-splash!!

:)

The Wren, Part II

First, let me say Happy April!!!! And, of course, Happy April Fool's Day! I stay away from playing those kinds of jokes . . . I've seen it backfire on waaaay too many a lady who played the "I'm pregnant!" April Fool's joke, only to find she really WAS pregnant a month or so later. Uh uh, not for this nearly fifty-year-old grandma! HA!

The FabShopHop is doing something a little different this time around. You still hop from shop to shop and look for the bunny, but this time, as you claim your win, you have to look for a special quilt block (which will be one of the blocks from the quilt below). Collect all twelve doing the shop hop, then the thirteenth at the end of the month! It's a *very* cute spring sampler; click on the photo to HOP over to FabShop's site for more details!

Don't tell anyone that I sat at my computer this afternoon, between phone calls and customers, and got all twelve blocks. Shhhh! :)

So. Are you familiar with wrens? They are very darling little birds. Very inquisitive and friendly. They seem to like people and are very curious about how we humans live. At least, this has been my experience with them. I shared with you several days ago about my wren & wreath experience and we all had a good laugh. I thought that was the end, but no . . .

Monday evening, my mom, dad and I were making our way back to Camp Macoba and the RV, after a last dinner out with the family. Dad had driven, and he and mom stayed in their vehicle, with the headlights on, so I could get out and unlock the front door with decent lighting. (It is *pitch* black after the sun sets. On a moonless or cloudy night, it's hard to see your hand in front of your face!) I bee-bopped up the front steps and with key in hand, reached for the lock. No sooner had my key touched the keyhole, when out flew not one, but TWO wrens! One from each side of the bunny!

This time, I did scream a little.

Both the birds flew about eight feet away to a tree limb, and perched there, as if waiting for us to get in and close the door, so they could get back to roosting. Well, my mom and dad were spending the night with us, so they had overnight bags and things to bring in; things that took several trips. Several trips that made it convenient to leave the front door wide open.

Do you remember me saying how curious wrens were about humans?

My mom had made a trip inside and was getting ready to go back out to their vehicle, when she nearly tripped, trying not to step on one of the wrens, who was perched at the top of the steps in the doorway. It flew away, and we all laughed at the silly wrens. Then I was carrying some things into the back bunk room, set them down on the couch, and AWAY FLEW ANOTHER WREN!!! In my home! It flew from me, ignoring the open door, and headed back to the master bedroom! My dad was rather taken aback by such a turn of events . . . it's one thing watching nature in your backyard. It's quite another having nature move in with you!

After jogging back and forth and shutting all doors on both sides, and waving a fly swatter like a banshee, I finally herded the little fellow out into that dark night. Where I'm sure he was happy to go, at that point!

Silly wrens! I still love them. I was happy to see them both at the feeders the next morning. They don't hold grudges that I don't want them as sleepover guests!

:)

the wreath and the wren . . .

It's been just over four months since Todd & I moved the RV up to Camp Macoba and moved out of our house. Other than three nights over Thanksgiving weekend, one night in Atlanta, one night at Smith Lake, and three nights at my quilting retreat, I've spent every night here since.

We're not roughing it by any means. I know there are quite a few bloggers out there -- quilters, even -- who have done full-time and part-time RVing, and they'd be able to back me up; when you live in a 5th wheel, there's nothing rough about it! We have limited *space* but not convenience. I have a washer/dryer, we have a flat screen in our bedroom and in our living space (they came standard, as did most of the luxury items), we have an upstairs and a downstairs, a basement and a garage, a central vacuum system, a refrigerator, freezer, stove, oven and microwave, and two bathrooms! We have heat, a/c, DVD players, an outdoor stereo system, and we're saving for a dishwasher!

It's actually rather cushy. And thanks to my Mighty Man, our water pressure is KICKIN! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful MM; I'm so proud of him! :)

And while we do have limited space and limited storage, I didn't leave *everything* behind! All of my quilting stuff (minus my space and a few magazines) made it. With the exception of quilting books, I was exceedingly picky about which books I kept. Mainly just my favorite series in the whole world (the paperbacks of the Mitford series) a handful of favorite cookbooks, some favorite Bible study books, and my collection of tea party books. We saved our DVDs, our CDs, and we both brought our laptops. We do not lack.

My clothes had to be whittled down, but not my jewelry! LOL! And I left behind a LOT of my kitchen gadgets and dishes and machines. I saved my Lenox Kelly china (six place settings); but someday down the road I may change my mind about it!

All that being said, we *do* live out in the middle of 110 acres of woods, meadows, ponds and streams. There is ... well ... nature! It's funny, when we left Hunter Road, I was *so* sad that I would be missing all my favorite birds--my beautiful cardinals, the clownish blue jays, the precious nuthatches, and especially our dear little wren, who is so friendly and inquisitive. Luckily, we've had all those birds and *so* many more! It's been incredible--tons of woodpeckers, birds we'd never seen before and even my wren! Along with the birds, we've dealt with skunks, raccoons, deer, feral cats, stray dogs, squirrels and rabbits. Oh yeah, and just recently, we had a little uninvited house guest . . . one that leaves little droppings . . . UGH! But, oh well; I don't sweat it. We put out traps and take care of it.

But I was NOT prepared for what happened tonight. Not at all.

At night there's not a lot of light out at the site -- there's a light post on the other side of the camp, which emits a small glow, and then there's a small yellow light above the door of the RV. I always hit the "unlock" on my car key, so that my headlights stay on and give me more light. It's *really* dark . . . and since we're in the middle of all that acreage, there aren't any nearby neighbors! It spooked me a little when we first moved here, but I've slowly gotten used to it.

Tonight it was dark, and it was raining and cold. I came up by myself; Todd wasn't here. I try (don't laugh at me) to gather everything I've got so I only have to make one trip. Tonight I had my purse, my coffee cup, my Bible, and eight grocery bags. And yes, I did gather it all *and* shut the hatch, too! Hey -- I do NOT want to be out there when the car lights go out!

So, I gather up all the stuff and junk, shut the car doors, and walk to the RV, key in hand. I step up onto the first step, feeling good about it all. I put my key into the lock when ALL OF A SUDDEN SOMETHING COMES AT ME AND TOUCHES MY HAIR!!!!!

Ummmm, yeah. Our dear little wren? He's roosting in the wicker bunny wreath I have on the door. I think he was as shocked as I was. My heart was fluttering just as fast as his wings were!

Ah, the joys of nature . . .

:)