A little this and that...

Roger wanted to run by the place he hunts to see if the corn had been harvested, so I tagged along with my camera.  I wanted to run over to Green Valley to see if all the walnuts were gone, and to see what else we could see.  The first thing I saw was these turtles...so Roger let me out and he ran on and parked.

I took their picture before they slid off the log into the water...I was strolling along the edge of the lake and came around  glanced up and look what was coming over the hill to greet me.

They came right on up to me, and I talked to them and they listened so intently.

I don't know if they belong to the farm that is near there...I have never seen them before so don't know what to think.

I went on the Rav and they followed right behind me...I was hoping I had some kind of treat left.  I carry dog treats for emergencies...and not the kind you think about.  But lucky me, I had some catfood that I had been going to take to a stray, starved to death kitty I had seen.

You talk about being spoiled, they knew I was getting it for them...they got right at my feet doing this light hissing talk while I got it open.
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The dog treats for emergencies are not for a dog that is growling...thankfully I have not run into one of those before.  But I have ran into a dog or two that wanted to get in the car with me.  Actually, once at work there was a stray that came.  I thought it might belong to some visitors.  For some reason I was leaving at noon, and came in and it came running to meet me.  Well, I talked to it and gave it few friendly pats.  I opened the truck door to put my water jug in, and it hopped up and over on into the passenger seat.

I went around the truck to get it out, well, then it jumped behind the seat cause it thought I was going to sit there....I could get it out but could not get in the truck without it getting in with me.  Thankfully, I could get someone to hold it while I got in and got the door closed.  A treat would have been real handy right then.

Another time I stopped to take a picture, and here came a big old Great Dane...he wanted to get in the car so bad...I was lucky he didn't make it in ahead of me.  At that time, he probably weighted as much as me.....that was another time I wish I had had something to distract a dog.
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Sarah and Lorelei came down this weekend...I wanted to get some photos but it didn't happen.  However, I have to share a happening that Sarah told me about.

One night last week, Lorelei was starting to stand up on the couch.  Sarah told her she needed to set down, and she did.  In a bit, she got on her hands and knees, and was playing around...kind of bouncing about.  I assumed she was watching TV, too...Sarah thought she would be fine and stepped into the computer room for a minute.  She stepped back to where she could see just in time to see Lorelei flying over the end of the couch....her little feet sticking up in the air.

She landed between the TV and end table...not really hurt, but crying cause it shook her up.  Well, my family has this horrible habit of laughing if we someone isn't seriously hurt...so Sarah ran to get her but was laughing...she set down on the couch with Lorelei and Lorelei started laughing, too....and looked up at her mom and said something about 'like Humpty Dumpty, mommy?'

The thing of it is is she makes the connection...she has made comments before to me about Humpty Dumpty in relation to me almost falling and something else but I can't recall all the times or what they were about.

When they were leaving, Roger said something to her about having her own Humpty Dumpty moment and she said 'yeah.....'

I can think of her telling her mom the Humpty Dumpty line after her fall, and I will start laughing every time.

I finally made a decision....

I have been debating on getting a kindle for quite a while now...I mentioned it a few days ago.  Roger kept encouraging me to get one and to get the one I wanted....he was thinking I wanted the Kindle Fire that is coming out soon.  Well, it would probably be okay...but I really wanted something light weight that would not be bulky in my purse.

I also considered the Nook from Barnes & Noble...and though it used to be my favorite place to shop for books, when they changed their website a few years ago, I switched over to Amazon.  I very seldom even glance at books there.  So after much debate, I got a kindle keyboard....it was Roger's early birthday present to me...but he would have wanted me to get it whether my birthday was coming up or not

From across the state line

The other night when I went out to the strip pits, by the time I left the cemetery the sun was starting its descent.  I hurried on down the road...wanting to get to one of my favorite subjects over there in Illinois...by that I mean this house below.

 I always think of it as the Little House on the Prairie.  I have seen it in all types of weather, at all times of the day and it always appeals to me.  I would love to know the history of the place.

That evening, on the other side of the road...farmers were busy.  I have no idea how big some of the fields are over there but they are huge. 

You may not see it but there is a combine in the photo above.... it is to the right of the sun, almost but not quite in the center of the photo...I will try to post a different photo of it at another time.

Today has been dark and dreary part of the day, and a real chill in the air.  I really feel like we are seeing the last days of autumn.  We were out today and saw geese on the wing.  I suppose they are ready to start their migration.  I am thinking if we want to see the sandhill cranes that we should be heading up north before many more days are over.
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I am still working on my sewing project....in the final stages of it now.  I will have to admit I had to do some more ripping out of stitches...and this time I did mind cause they were a mistake.  Funny, if it is a design decision, I don't get upset with myself, but when it is a dumb mistake...I grumble all the time I am taking them out.

That is about it from my corner of the world.  I am going to sew a bit more, then going to try to catch up on all the blogs I follow...so see you later I hope.

From the road

As some may have noticed, I have been sort of absent from blogging...I did do the one post last night but the others at Time Stand Still were ones I had scheduled.  We had went to see the kids Saturday and did not get home till late yesterday evening...we pass the barn above when we go to see them.  The road it is on is a busy road, and no room at all to pull off to the side.  I have tried to capture it before, but always something drastically wrong with the photo.

We still have not figured out what goes wrong with Sarah's computer when we visit blogs...so I am not able to visit any at all, at least not blogger blogs.  But I need to get to my dashboard to get to my list of blogs.  Besides that, we are there to see them...and just grab a minute here and there for email.

Lorelei is changing in ways that are hard to describe....she has a big imagination.  For a while she played the big bad wolf all the time.  Saturday when we got there, it was not but a few minutes till she was pretending to be an elephant.  Sunday, she was a dog.  Or she gets her animals or dolls and carries on conversations between them...or wants one of us to pick up one and pretend with her.  Just constantly in action.

She also likes yanking our chain...she will go along and be working a puzzle fine...then she will look at us and purposely put a piece in wrong sometimes...or pretend she is going to.  She will look at us and say, 'does it go here?'   You can just tell she is wanting to get a reaction out of us.

There is just something about her little voice when she says 'come on mamaw.'  I think she could about talk me into anything then.  Up in the morn Sunday, she wanted to go to our room.  She would cover her baby up, then cover herself up...then want me to get her piggies.  And the giggles are just so contagious.  Sometime during all of it, her daddy got home from work and got his shower...and started playing with her. 

It is impossible to describe....she was following him and imitating all he done...if he took big steps, she took big steps.  If he took itty-bitty steps--she took itty bitty steps...if he marched, she marched....and if he ran from her or chased her, she screamed with laughter.  He is such a good daddy to her...he can be playful and have fun but he is a dad when he needs to be. 
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I have been trying to catch up around here today and we had company for a while.  Just one of Roger's buddies but we had not seen him for a while so sat and visited.  Other than that hung a couple loads of clothes on the line, mopped and vacuumed...just the everyday chores.  I was so glad to be able to hang clothes out again...it had been so rainy last week when laundry need to be done.

I have not touched sewing yet...I have headed down there two or three times and got detoured...so hoping to go down and at least touch some fabric in a few minutes.  I feel so much better mentally when I sew a little each day...

At last.....

First, be prepared for a strange sort of post....and no it isn't a Halloween one.
For a while now, I have been wanting to figure out where I want to be laid to rest...when I die. I have considered two or three options other than this. And both of them are still possibilities. But I went out to the strip pits this evening, and was leaving them by this one road I have only been on one time...and that was coming home from the opposite direction I was going tonight.

So tonight, nothing at all was moving out at the area, so I thought I would head over into Illinois to see what I could see. I had not more than started down the road and there was a sign for the Shirley Cemetery. It almost looked like a long private drive, but down it I went and found this little cemetery.

I have been telling Roger for a year now, at least, that out there at the strip pits is the only place I really want my bones to lay. His cousin has property out there, that actually has a little cemetery on it...but they are old and just maybe a dozen or so graves there. I did not want to ask him for such a big favor.
These are some views...you just feel like you are away from everything.
It was not deep woods by any means, but it was pleasant.
This big old maple tree was out near the entrance of the actual cemetery...not at the beginning of the lane. I wish i had taken a shot looking down that lane...you would see why it looks so inviting.
And there was this little chipmunk chirping because I was there.....

I do not know who to get in touch with to find out who runs it, but I really want to find out if there are burial plots left! It would be a weight off my mind to have that settled.

Now some might think I am nuts to be worrying about this now, but it would be so nice to have it settled. It sounds crazy, but I am just thrilled to have found this place.

A no photos post, or simply miscellaneous thoughts

I have not done enough today to earn my keep, as I have heard my mom say. Literally nothing as far as accomplishments.

Oh, wait, I did need check registers since the place we get our checks quit supplying them. I had been playing on the computer beforehand, so when I realized I did not have one anywhere, I proceeded to find some on-line. That led to e being at Amazon which is a real no-no for me. I cannot go there without looking at books. I always click on non-fiction, because I have a thing about buying nonfiction. Not sure why....but I cannot remember the last time I bought a non-fiction book. It was probably a Stephen King book for my older daughter.

So, looking at books sometimes leads me to looking at Kindles...which happened today. I half way think about getting one, but then think do I really need it. I decided to download the app for PCs.

Let me tell you, that may have been a BIG mistake...besides libraries starting to have some books for Kindles, there is the Project Gutenberg ....then there is Amazon itself. I had glanced before at what they had available, but let me tell you, now that I have spent some time at it, I am in hog heaven. And it is free stuff! I probably could not find a lot of them in actual book form, and one I downloaded I noticed was $30 to buy. And it is non-fiction stuff, which is even better. First hand accounts of pioneers.

Oh, I have downloaded some fiction...but am afraid I will be tempted to look for books more than I read..

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Then a friend of mine, Carletta, almost lost a few month's worth of photos. So we have been talking about online storage...I have thought about it for a long time but continue to put it off. Has anyone else used on-line storage....for anything. I would just want it for my photos.. I have looked at Carbonite and at Mozy...it is very tempting since I know that some of them do it automatically every time you are on the internet. I would still want them backed up on my own external hard drives.

And that just now led me to remembering I can make a back-up copy of my blogs...maybe I should look into that.

Anyway, one thing has led to another and I have not done much. Oh, I did come down here to download the kindle app on my netbook, and I did sew a few lines...

A gray sort of day

Its another gray day here in the Wabash valley. The above photo was taken day before yesterday, but it looked just about the same yesterday and today. Though it wasn't actually raining here when we left home this morn, by the time were up the road a few miles, it was misting rain.

It is the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County this week...we have been to different places on three separate days. The first day was a useless trip...I had a horrible headache when we left home and it did not improve, so we no more than got there till we just came home. That was Monday and it was a pretty day...that was why we attempted to go that day.

Tuesday we went to Rockville in the misting rain....they have a big tent set up with several vendors in it. Among them was the gourd lady...I bought half a dozen from her. I think I will make birdhouses out of one or two, and give the others to Sarah to paint. The gourd lady is a fun lady to talk to. We have been by her farm numerous times but have never stopped...I am thinking the next time we will.

But back to the focus of this post....we ventured farther north today to what is usually a big flea market. As I said earlier, not raining here when we left, but did not get very far from home till it started misting. We continued on, knowing that some would not be open. The bottom line is that hardly any vendors were open....I found a couple books for light reading and Roger found a few little things he could use in his shop.

I could not help but think how thankful I was to have a car that had heat, and how thankful to come home to a warm house with warm, running water. I almost always think about these things when I am out in cold nasty weather...and think about what it must have been like to be traveling in covered wagons and no place to really get away from the cold and rain.

As we came home we stopped by the grocery and got the fixings for a big pot of vegetable soup....my house smells soooo good right now. I wish we had scratch and sniff applications for our computers. I think I am going to go up and have a bowl...then come back down to my sewing.

I leave you with one of my favorite barns near here...I snapped this on the way home today.

the last time these will be photographed for a while...

For a while these yellow flowers were everywhere we went that had any water, or had had water. I never tire of them...but think it will be a long while before I get to enjoy their beauty again. They are all gone now.

And after today, I bet a lot of leaves are gone as well. It has been rather chilly the entire day and I don't think it has stopped raining the one single time. Everything is dripping water. The cats want out, we open the door for them--sometimes they go on out and others they start out, pause and sniff and look and feel...they turn around and go back inside. If they do go outside, they want back in before 20 minutes pass. They have us so well trained...

I have spent a big part of the day with fooling with fabric and with sewing. I did sit with graph paper and started figuring on how to arrange the colors. I was dreading that part, but don't know why. It is just squares of fabric...but I am working with a limited amount. It is fabric left over from another project. I did buy a couple other pieces to go with what I had...

Leftovers from the strip pits...

Sometimes I go to the strip pits and see very little, sometimes I see a lot. When I was there last week, I also saw the Northern Harrier above. Not a very good shot. This is a cropped portion of the original. He was all the way down at the other end of the pond...and seemed to be fishing. He even sat perched on a dead tree for a while...one that stuck up out of the water.
Then at the other end of the area...actually over in Illinois, I saw these three turkeys...this is a regular farm field. I don't know if it was originally part of the mining area or not. If it was, it has been back in regular use for a long while. It always has soy beans or corn planted here. And when the crops are down, or before they grow very tall, if we go by there in the evening, there is almost always deer or turkeys there.
The two deer above were in the same field, only 2 or 3 weeks prior to the shot of the turkeys. The past few times I have been out there, I have not been seeing near as many deer as I always have before. Go Here and scroll down to see how numerous they were a couple years ago.

An Indiana farm

On a recent drive we came across this farm...I liked the whole view of it. Wouldn't you like to be sitting there at the picnic tables?
And here is another little house with that huge front overhang in front. I have wondered was this at one time the smokehouse or was it a summer kitchen. I really have no idea what it was used for...but it reminded me of the little house I showed here.
Even though the fence could have used some TLC, the barn was well taken care of. It is metal siding, and sometimes I don't like that but in this case the barn still had a lot of character.

A gathering of spirits...

The above was taken a couple weeks ago...I think in Illinois. The rest were taken at the strip pits this evening..
Every fall I look forward to the birds gathering together...even though I look forward to it there is an element of sadness about it for me. I don't know why. And every time I see them, I think 'a gathering of spirits.'

They also make me think of that Norman Rockwell's The Gossips....chattering back and forth and getting all excited over nothing.
They came and went from this dead little tree as long as I sat there...which was only 5 minutes or so...but were still coming and go when I left.
As I was about to leave the place, down the road there was another gathering...a big gathering. Even if you enlarge it, I don't know if you will realize they are having a great time in a mud puddle! That is what the mist is....
They would leave in waves and come back in waves...so much fun to watch.

Now the photos below definitely have to be enlarged...not because they are so good, but because there were two bald eagles out there! I saw one from a distance and flew down the road to try to arrive at the strip pit it was headed for but before I got there I saw another one fly up from the pond...and if you haven't guess by now I did not make it in time to get a shot while they were close to the road.
The one I first saw was not even flapping its wings....he was just gliding for the strip pit....I was flying down the road with the dust boiling behind me--I know I had to be going 50-60 mph...just thankful nobody else was out there. Still, by the time I got there and got slowed down they were at the far end and circling and rising to move on out.
But I did get proof that I saw them...I drove around a while hoping they would come back...I did see them way, far away but they never came back near me. Such a thrill to see them!
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I leave you with the song A Gathering of Spirits by Carrie Newcomer...it is where I got the phrase a gathering of spirts....

New to me!

Ever so often, I google 'Simon's Cat' to see if there are any new videos...look what I found!


I hope you enjoy it half as much as I did.

Oh, yeah...here's this one, too.



They so remind me of my cats! Never a dull moment.

More from yesterday's drive...

On our way to Goose Pond, we rambled around in the Greene=Sullivan State Forest. It was started with 3,000 acres donated by various coal companies. It now consists of over 9,000 acres and has over 120 lakes.
I don't know why I chose to photograph this one...probably because it was all the dead trees, etc. It had atmosphere.
I bet in warmer weather it is teaming with wildlife...for some reason I imagine lots of turtles here.

We normally have our fishing poles in our vehicle at all times, but had taken them out when we went to Sarah's last weekend and had not put them back in. I regretted that all day long. We did not see near all the lakes, but we sure saw some pretty ones. And lots of them looked like ideal places to fish. I am thinking I will be wanting to head back down there before cold weather hits.
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Just a little note here...I bet I spent at least two hours ripping out sewing that I did. It didn't have to be done....but I decided to do something different. I think that is the most ripping out I have ever done.

It rained lightly off and on today, but the sun came out this evening...supposed to be clear the next two or three days but turning cooler next week.

A little road trip....

Since it is supposed to start raining tonight, we decided to go for a drive today. My friend, Mary, had went to Goose pond and told me about her trip. I had been anxious to go, so today was the day.
We saw plenty, but all at a distance. I saw a few frog's peeping up from the depths...but not a single one along the banks.

We saw several egrets, with this being the only one within shooting distance. I watched and watched for him to catch something all to no avail. Plus we were watching for this bald eagle...and he came close, but not close enough for a good picture. It was a juvenile. Still, it was very exciting to see it.

There were lots of blue herons, and a couple cormorants, and a couple other birds. Just so frustrating that all except this egret were too far away. I told Roger I would love to take his hunting blind down there and set it up and see if things would come close with us sitting in it.

This is from today...I should have kept a copy of the original...to show you...I just hit auto levels to get this till you could see the milkweed seeds in flight. I don't care how old I get to be, I will love shaking them loose to fly on the wind...in this case Roger shook them loose for me to try to capture.
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The past couple days prior to today, I have spent a lot of time in my basement. And should I admit that a lot of the time has been spent looking for things...namely two or three different fabrics? I found one of them right where I first looked...it had just got squished down between two others...but I didn't find it till I had looked through every other place. Does anyone else lose things like this?

In finding the one fabric, I thought of another fabric that I had not seen in all the searching...I did not go back looking again. But I have been searching for a quilt backing, too...no luck with it either.

Fall foliage

I just thought I would show some of the fall foliage that is now showing in our area. I don't think one single one was taken during a good time of day.
I think you will still get a good idea of how fall is unfolding.
The photos above were taken this past Thursday and the one below was taken Friday on our way to Sarah's house.
I have been pleasantly surprised with how nice the season is. I was so afraid it was going to be short and not so sweet.

Guess where we have been??

I want to urge you to click and enlarge this one...just look at the gleam in her eyes!

Yeah, we went to visit daughter and her hubby and of course Lorelei. Sarah had a job to go to on Saturday morn early, and didn't want to have to get Lo up early....plus they wanted to go out Saturday night.

We just got home a bit ago...was a beautiful drive. I haven't got everything even put away. We had had a power outage while gone. So have got the clocks reset...but that is about it. The Colts are on, so we are just ignoring everything till it is over.

Another fence shot...

I should save this for Friday's Fences, but just have to share it now--I have an entry for it already at my Time Stand Still Blog...

Anyway, we were out for a little rambling drive around here just to see some fall color. We happened upon this fence...it brought a smile to my face immediately. If you will look closely, down towards the barn, there are birdhouses on several of the fence posts.

We are going to be busy Friday and Saturday so may not be making any comments...but should be back in action Sunday night I think.

Heron County Park

Heron County is the name of the place...not the county it is in. It is in Vermilion County, Illinois..notice their Vermilion only has one 'l' and Indiana's Vermillion has two. But that is beside the point. We happened across this place quite by accident. It has an eagle viewing tower and this wetland boardwalk.


Much to our sorrow not a single thing was moving, but it was a beautiful day, and there was all these water lilies. I think they look like they are saying 'take me to your leader.'

I can't wait to go back there another day...it was so windy that day not even butterflies or dragonflies were moving. I have a feeling in wetter times that it is teaming with wildlife.
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I spent the day in the basement...made a pair of pillowcases to go with the quilt I posted yesterday. Not sure, but may get it in the mail tomorrow. I sent my daughter pics and she liked how it looks..

I am looking for ideas for my next quilt...not that I don't have a million. I am looking for ideas on how to use a specific fabric I have. So far no luck...but I will force myself to keep looking.

Photo overload

I could not decide on just a couple photos so am giving you lots of choices...you can click and enlarge any of them.
This is the quilt I have been working on forever it seems like...it is for my older daughter. In fact, she bought the fabrics at least a couple years ago. I thought the original plan was for her to come here and us work on one together...instead her life got awfully busy. And ours was pretty full for a time, too. So the fabric just sat.

After designing a couple or three different quilts in Electric Quilt, and showing them to my daughter, she chose this design. It is basically a Double Irish chain, only in a real Double Irish Chain, the blocks that are almost all tans here would be one fabric. And there is a difference in the choice of dominant fabric placement....and a couple other differences that doesn't make much difference anyway.

This quilt is machine pieced...and machine quilted. Free-motion quilted. That means I drop the feed dogs on my sewing machine, and put a special foot on the machine, and I feed and guide the quilt sandwich...I have to try to keep my foot pedal speed in sync with how fast I move the quilt under the needle, all while following the design. If I move too fast, while sewing too slow, I will have long stitches.

The reverse of this is if I move the fabric slow, but put the pedal to the medal, the stitches are one right on top of the other...and impossible to rip out. There are not very many stitches that are too long, however it would be impossible to count the times I sewed too fast for the speed I was moving the fabric under the needle...but at least those don't really hurt anything.
I forget where I found the fleur de lis...I took it and had it enlarged, then used poster board to make a stiff pattern that I could lay on the quilt and trace around to mark the design on the quilt. Let me tell you, that was time consuming, plus after it was done the markings were hard to see.

If you will enlarge this and notice the fleur de lis on the edge, you will see it is a bit different from the others. I had to redesign it to fit the space. The other fleur de lis go into the adjoining blocks a little bit...

The above photo is after it was washed and dried. It started as 87 1/2 inches. Quilting causes a little bit of shrinkage in size...but should have been much on this since there is not a lot of quilting. But I washed and dried it in the dryer because that is how it will be dried from now on...and its final finished size was 82 inches square. The batting said 3% shrinkage...but I don't prewash my fabrics either so some shrinkage there.