Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

It’s Thursday evening. Today was another day of weather ups and downs. Yesterday was incapacitating it was so hot. Today it was cool and raining. I was content to stay in the studio most of the day. More from the studio later.

As Carol told you the other day, we went to Rangeley last Saturday. What she didn’t think to mention was the very cool sight we saw on the way home. Until we arrived on the camp road I had only seen one critter, it was a small kitty scooting across the road. On the camp road we saw a huge owl barely more than windshield height, come swooping into view and disappear into the woods. I thought it was rather cool. I often hear the Barred owls calling in the evening and late at night. Sometimes there are three or four calling and answering back as they go about their owl business.

We also like to look for and see the snapping turtles as they bob their heads and sometimes their shells up and out of the water. Based on the different head sizes we have concluded there are several out there. I confirmed that last night there are at least two. As I watched out the studio window, one fairly good sized turtle was out front on the surface and I looked closer to the beach and I see another walking along the bottom. I watched it as it plodded along, after climbing over the neighbors water line it came up for air and just set there. I became bored and went back to sew a couple minutes and when I came back it was gone. I watched in the area it had been headed and sure enough one of the dark circles on the bottom of the pond started to move. It moved off into the dark twig littered bottom and the drop off and was gone. Was cool to see because I had my eyes open. You have to take my word for it though because I did not get any pictures.

I did get pictures of the lily I told you about last time. 

I also thought the view from my studio window looking down was cool. 

I loose count trying see how many blooms there are, I believe there are around 40. Too bad they don’t last, the first few are already faded and are falling off. Soon I will be cussing the lily as I clean up after it and dispose of all those petals. My other shorter lily is in bloom as well. 

I mentioned quite awhile ago I don’t set out hummingbird feeders because I would never remember to clean them. I do however plant flowers they love. They love these three plants along the fence. Two are Fuchsia and one is a Cuphea, they have little tube blossoms that the birds love. 

We enjoy watching them go from one to the next trying to get each and every blossom Lately there have been more birds, so maybe a new batch is flying around as they chase each other around. Fun to watch nature.

In the studio, I completed quilt #20 for 2025. It is the same size as most, 65” x 77”. 

2025-20

I again went with smaller blocks that I then grew to be 12” finished blocks. I used a variety of methods during my block growth process to fill in space. This used up a lot of small 1”x 2” Flying Geese and Split Rect units I had laying around in a bin. I eat ham from the little plastic containers, they are great for small units and they stack well. I now have a couple that have been combined together into one because there were so few left. I have since made a bunch more 1x2 geese cleaning up another ham container of the squares needed. I guess upon reflection, I did not empty anything, I just altered the form of the contents and placed them into different containers. It kept me entertained for a while so I guess that was the point. I again chose two very different fabrics to frame the blocks. I did not add bowties like last time so when it was time for a border I just grabbed something. I was pleased with the results.

#21 is well on the way and is using up an abundance of 1-1/2” strips. No worries though as I have a great many left. I am still using a framed 12” block but these blocks will be much different than the last few have been. I’ll keep plugging away and when it’s done you’ll see it. Time will tell.

This weekends weather doesn’t look too bad, maybe cooler than the last few days but who knows, time will tell. Stay safe and enjoy whatever we get for weather, it is now August and the sands of summer are quickly slipping through the hourglass. So long until next time.

Oh yeh, here’s tonight’s sunset.