Creative Abundance

What a difference a Year Can Make...

Last Memorial Day weekend Peachy was recovering from her cataract surgery that was performed on the Friday before the holiday weekend.

There were complications, but the final result is fantastic.  The quality of her life has been improved exponentially now that her sight has been restored...

Last year at this time our little Poupon was not doing well.  Although she is at the Bridge now, her memory lives on.  We donated agility equipment in her honor to the New Leash on Life program.  The program is a partnership between the Robeson County Humane Society and a correctional center.  The inmate trainers do obedience training with three dogs for an eight week period.  Now agility has been added to their repertoire.  It’s a win-win situation. Almost all of the dogs in the program have been adopted prior to their graduation date. A recent graduate is now in his forever home in Hawaii.  The program provides positive elements for the trainers as well.  The rate of recidivism for inmates who participate in the program is less than one per cent.  

I recently received the links to videos of the three dogs, Buster, Laci and Cody, who are currently in the program. Already Buster and Laci have forever homes to go to, and there is quite a bit of interest in Cody.

Here’s Buster, Laci and Cody:

Our bluebirds are doing well.  The babies fledged about three weeks ago and there is now a bluebird couple building a nest in another bluebird house.  It is not unusual for them to build a second nest in a different house.  I am pretty sure that this is the same bluebird couple who had the first clutch.  I tried to encourage them to stay by feeding lots and lots of meal worms.  I put them on a tray, and then whistle for the bluebirds.  It is funny how they make an appearance right after the whistle. They land on the tray for their meal even though I am about six feet away.

 

The house that they selected for this next brood can be seen from our kitchen table.  It’s been quite interesting to watch the nest building project during breakfast - they seem to be busiest in the morning.

And impatients which reseeded themselves are now appearing every where - including in the driveway.  Every year I debate whether I should leave them - it looks a little messy. Every year I just don’t have the heart to pull them up.  And this year isn’t any different.  

   

I have a quilt that will be ready to go to the quilter on Tuesday and yarn is on its way to knit a cardigan designed by Louisa Harding (Ravelry link)..  I have not knitted in several months.  I needed to take a break due to pain in my left thumb.  I really am ready to knit again, but there will be no more marathon knitting sessions in my future....

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." Maya Angelou

Last week when Jo Ann and I went to visit some gardens during Virginia Historic Garden week, we noticed the absence of birds.  It was quite strange.  

In the past month we have had two families of birds appear, and they have taken residence in our bird houses.  Additionally, a hummingbird is visiting our feeder. We are delighted!

A family of Carolina Chickadees lived here since March 19.  They started building a nest right after the cold, snowy weather left the area.  

 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch the babies fledge. 

And we have a bluebird couple whose babies hatched just the other day.  They live in this house:

Both houses have raccoon baffles which will keep all predators out.  And I’ve cut back the camellia near it so that a predator cannot get any leverage up and over the baffle.

We are feeding the bluebirds lots and lots of meal worms.

Meal worms are fillet mignon for a bluebird.  I feed the meal worms potato and oatmeal (that’s what is visible in the “serving” dish).  We replenished the bluebirds' dish four or five times today.  As an aside, the picture shows how well our moss lawn is doing - more about that later!

And in the mean time, I’ve been working on another mariner’s compass quilt.  

I had some problems with one particular block.  There were two fabrics that I wanted to use, and tried three different times to make it work.  The fabrics were simply poor choices for this particular quilt.  

I know that there are dogs who can detect drugs, bombs and even cancer.  Our companions search out and identify bad quilt blocks.  When Maizy finds a bad block, she lays down and ponders over it.

Maizy is right - that block with the red is a little off.

When Cassidy detects a bad block, she stands on it.

They both were right, so I changed it.  I tried three times to make that red work, but it was just too intense.  So it was eliminated.  I substituted a dark rust, which is reading a little dark on my monitor. But it is a change for the better.

   

As a thoroughly trained bad block detection dog, when I get it right, Maizy nods her head in approval.   

Through all this bad block detection and correction, Luci does what she does best, napping on stack of fabric.  But that’s okay, as I had all the help I needed.