Two Stitchy Projects Updates, Birding News, And My Purchase

A piece of my plant broke and I stuck it in this little single sprig bird vase.

I enjoyed seeing the tiny bud open and then when I took it out, a root was growing! It is now planted in soil.

Growth is amazing!

Here is the blouse I purchased at Simon's on my Mother's Day trip to Ottawa. It is roomy, light and airy. The tag says it's made of 100% cotton but definitely not the kind of cotton we quilt with as this is so light. 

Thank you for all your comments on my POST about looking for summer dresses! With how cool it's been, I've not been in a hurry to actually order anything. I enjoyed reading your responses about how you dress these days. A lot of us are choosing comfort over fashion it appears. When I think back to the decades of wearing panty hose...ugh. It's now hard for me to believe but at one of the school boards I first worked with, women wearing trousers was frowned upon, so we all wore skirts/dresses. Sounds like the dark ages, doesn't it. 

A First! We had a pair of Canada Geese choose our little pond for nest building. I didn't know what was going on as in why one of them was sitting on the bank so much.  And why the two of them were always there. I thought the one on land all the time might be injured and we discussed whether we should call the Wild Bird Centre. This is the male always nearby. I think this just might be the pair I've photographed earlier and shared with you.

And here is the female taken from a great distance. You can see why I thought she might be sick/injured.

It turns out they had built a nest and had a tiny family! A first for this property.

 Through binoculars, I was so surprised to see two active looking goslings with the mother still on the nest one morning. I kept staring hardly believing what I was looking at. Two days after that sighting, they had all disappeared. I panicked thinking the young had been subject to a predator. But then I read Canada Geese leave the nesting area within 24 to 72 hours of hatching and move to whatever water is nearest. Goslings are born pretty much able to walk and swim. There are many rivers and ponds around so they would have lots of choices. 

With them gone I was able to visit the nest. There are the remains of one egg and it looks like one egg didn't hatch. I definitely watched two active goslings; in fact, my second day, very early morning spying, they were trying to get down the bank to the water which I thought was amazingly soon after hatching. The mother plucked goose down from her breast to insulate the eggs just like I'd read about online.

I think this was a new mother to have chosen our tiny bit of wetland/pond. But it was so peaceful down there when I would visit, staying far away of course. All the birds singing, frogs croaking and deer stopping by for a drink. No one to bother them but that lone old woman creeping around. I do hope the little ones got a good start at least.

 The RSC hosted over at Super Scrappy Starry Hexagons project is going well...my goal is to stitch two a week and I've done that no problem. I have over 50 stitched so far. I'll have to find a larger container. That's a sprig off the very old English Ivy- they are so hardy you just can't kill it. 

And I'm stitching Block 2 of Liberty's Birds. This is meant to be the center block so is a little more elaborate than the others. More doodads and I'm doubting the size of the yellow flowers (?). Why do I always worry about details like this. But they are too big so will probably redo them.

I'm also having doubts about the shape of the eagle that is meant to go across the center. You have to use your imagination to see the bird. I'm going to search online to see if I can find a simpler shape that would portray it better.

But first I have to shorten a pair of Tony's summer trousers. He has lost some weight since last summer for sure. Speaking of which, we had a good meeting with the local cardiologist. Tony did fine with the stress test so nothing showed up there. Dr. Wei mentioned Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so we had a chat about that. Anyway, Tony is going to be booked for a Nuclear Heart test to further explore his extreme fatigue issue. 

I hope you are having a good weather and stitching day wherever you are!

Sharing this post with Melva Loves Scraps, The Quiltery and The Inquiring Quilter.