Monday, October 10, 2011

Visits & Visitors

We had quite a few avian visitors to our yard in late August and early September. The hummingbirds found our feeder and raspberry bushes good sources of food on their migration through our area. While I've taken many photos, most are blurred due to the speed of their wings. However, I was fortunate to catch one at rest, briefly, in our lilac bush.


On another occasion, a hawk that had been following a group of crows was chased into that same lilac bush, giving me another opportunity for a photo. While you can't tell from this picture, it appears to be an immature red-shouldered hawk, rather than one of our more common red-tailed hawks.


I have been working on a priority quilt that I intend to offer to The Altzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. It is made of materials I inherited from my dear mother-in-law and others purchased at the quilt shop in her home town at the time of her death. While she was not officially diagnosed with altzheimer's, she did have some form of dementia, as I've mentioned before. I am happy that I can do something to help advance the research to end this cruel disease.

I have also begun working on Christmas gifts. Before you groan that it is too early, let me explain that I come from a family of seven, and we still come together at Christmas to celebrate. Since I am the youngest and a grandmother, you can imagine how many people that entails. Even though I only concern myself with giving gifts to my siblings and the children in high school or younger that is a lot of gifts. Of course, you have to add to that my own children and their spouses/significant others/children, four of whom are now on the other side of the country, necessitating shipment of gifts in time for Christmas. Scarily enough, I'm already behind.

We did take time out recently to visit one of my sisters in Wisconsin. We were about a week early on the peak colors for fall, but did get some good pictures on the trip. Here are a few with which I was quite pleased.




I hope that you, too, are enjoying the changes in season, wherever you are, and until next time, I wish you peace and all good.