Spring-ish Signs and Critters, To Frog or Not to Frog, Downsizing Thoughts

 Tony called me to take a look at this little guy on the back yard railing. He'd been watching him for some time and he hadn't moved.

Sorry the reflection of the front door glass is weirdly caught in this photo.

He thought he might have died as he was so still. We kept watching and breathed a sigh of relief to see it lift its head and glance about but stay where it was. Then we wondered if it was sick or something. But it eventually stood up, stretched out each of its tiny back legs and took off running. It was sunbathing! It too recognized how rare these warming beams have been. A relief!

The front yard is looking springish but the roof snow is hanging on. Out my kitchen window.

The pond is overflowing its bank, a regular spring occurrence. These geese are in an area that is normally grassland. Taken from a great distance so as not to disturb them. 

Inside my stitching hasn't exactly been smooth sailing.  I worked on the England in Quakers project...I began another little motif but the result was this. I didn't like it so frogging had to happen.

And then I tried the little sheep design. I had to use this grey thread as the called for white was too white for my fabric. But I'm noticing a difference in weight between the colours...very slight of course, but enough to make the stitches look too crowded on this thread count fabric like this grey is looking. I'm debating more frogging...actually the more I look at this the more I'm sure I'll be removing these too. I'll use a couple of French knots for the eyes and he will be cute eventually.

I've stitched three EPP stars/hexagons in reds, this month's RSC colour -my only photo cut off part of one which I didn't notice till now.  Luckily I have lots of red fabrics on hand. 

We finished this series... I cried at the ending. Any of you watch it?

The spring sunshine is illuminating in more ways than one. Like making visible this very intriguing spiderweb that just seemed to materialize in a back bedroom, a room I'm seldom in. It had a rounded funnel shape which made me wonder if its maker was a more unusual spider. I left it there which I know would drive some people crazy but you all know how I love all the critters. I'm going to check back and see if I can get a glimpse of the spinner.

What kind of housekeeper am I!

We recognize we need to downsize. This won't be easy as Tony has a thing about needing land mostly as space from neighbours. It's hard to find the combination of smaller house and big property. Since I have lived in so many places and in many types of housing, I really don't care what it needs to be except less chores on the land and in the house. I would be very happy in a condo, for instance, but that would be Tony's nightmare, LOL. When I was very young I used to worry about the eventual having to leave a house you'd lived in for decades...I was thinking about my older grandmother, the fisherman's wife, who had to do just that or maybe a farmer's wife who would find it so unbearable and poignant to leave their home after a lifetime living in the very same spot. Well, that turned out to be another of those totally senseless worries that occupied space in this strange head of mine.

In my middle of the night mind ramblings recently I was thinking of losses and out of the blue this line came to me...You have to give a little, take a little, and let your poor heart break a little...Recognize it?

Happily joining these linky parties...Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Stitchy Mail, Teal Stars, Liberty's Birds, Update Too

Oh April, where are you? 

Since I last wrote, we've had more snow- 14 cm to be exact, prior to it turning into an ice storm which was scary, then a thunder and lightening storm, high winds and rain, more snow -the mean kind, small bits driven by the wind and the weather warnings kept piling on. 

Seeing the trees laden with ice is always sad.

They tried to say there might even be a tornado in the mix. Yikes! It's -7 windchill this morning..yes it's staying cold and I'm still clunking around the trails in my winter boots with cleats and wearing my winter jacket. But as we always say, it could be worse. Some folks lost their power and it's taking days to get it back. I am always so grateful when that does not happen here...so far. But perhaps this was winter of 2025's last hurrah. The temperature is supposed to rise dramatically by the end of this day to 18C!!   

Okay, that's enough yakking about the weather. What else happened this week. My computer was having glitches and then failed completely. Tony worked on it most of Wednesday to figure it out and got it working fine again. I was happy about that as this Acer is not that old and shouldn't be giving up just yet. 

I've now completely finished two of Liberty's Birds blocks; well no, as it happens, not quite. When I took a photo of the Red Cardinal, I didn't like the curve on the flower stem so I took out the stitches and fixed it. I like to add a few embellishments like blanket stitches here and there so that adds time. 

I had thought the RSC colour is teal for this month and I had to check out what exactly is teal. I found this handy chart at Art in Context so apparently teal can run to lighter shades as well as the dark that I immediately thought of. Whatever the shades, I have very little of these lovely colours in my stash. *Actually Red is the colour for April, 2025. But the teals are pretty to look at anyway. :)

I dug deep to find a few pieces. I've finished one Starry Hexagon and prepped a couple more. 

I must show you that paisley up close. It's from a thrifted man's shirt (don't think Tony would ever wear such!) and when I bought it, I thought it would be neat and interesting for Halloween pumpkin fabric. 

I had stitchy mail this week.  My Aunt Martha's State Flowers transfer set arrived. 

I plan to stitch the Canadian Provincial and U.S. State flowers together in one project, as a way of marking our two countries marvelous shared history. I was thinking maybe arranging them alphabetically or something. 

Update

Okay, so we made the over an hour's drive to the huge hospital complex- and with Brad's help found where we needed to be for Tony's appointment. Once in that particular wing, it is smooth sailing with folks ready to guide you even. We met first with the respirologist then with the pulmonologist-lung cancer guy joining us. We spent an hour with them all told and the conversations were excellent. I won't bore you with all the questions and answers, but the bottom line was this...the procedures to check out the tumor have risks...maybe too many for someone Tony's age to take a chance on. And then even if it was found to be cancer, the treatments with the usual awful side effects also are not advisable for someone in his age category. But the decision to proceed or not was up to us, of course. Since our gp had already provided us with this line of thinking and we had talked it over, we knew what the answer would be. Unless something happens to change our outlook, we are leaving it alone for now. And Tony's fatigue...they didn't think it had to do with his lungs. Since he's had every test known to man showing nothing else untoward here's what they thought... a rapid decline in strength and stamina in your eighties can be part of the natural aging process and, in fact, is that way for most folks. No getting around or over it. But Tony is struggling to accept that idea nonetheless. 

So in a way, we are both relieved a bit too. It is daunting to face hospitals and treatments, etc. at any age and especially at ours. The less we have to do such may be for the better.  

Thank you all so much for your kind words and all the considerate suggestions, encouragement, etc. Tony appreciates it very much too. 

Always happy to join linky parties-Alycia Quilts, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and Creations Art Quilts.