Chicken Hug

At our chicken-keeping neighbor's...

A Morning at The River

There's something new every time we go down to the river.  It's such a joy to be able to stay back and let the boys have some independence in a wild space.  

The water was way down which I prefer because I can worry less.  After a lot of rain, the water can get quite high and the current very fast.  Here, it only gets about 2 feet deep all the way across the river.

These boy's most valuable tool:  A net.  We've learned the difference between a good net and a bad one.

Our neighbor is especially talented at catching things and netted this baby snapper...

It looked just like a mini dinosaur...

You can see the reflection of the road on this beetle's back (lower right side).  Amazing...

Also, Matthew caught a mourning cloak butterfly.  No picture because the camera died, but he was very proud.

For the Cape

I think that finding out that we're having another boy has something to do with my recent increase in production of home-made things.  Luckily, these boys of mine like home-made clothes (especially Joe.)  Here are the beach bathrobes that I made for them in between trips to the fabric store for quilting supplies...

Green is for Mattie, white is for my niece, the hoods are lined with flannel...

Mattie only wore his for a few seconds because I accidentally told him he looked cute, but I'm hoping he'll wear his at the beach.  Danny however, was perfectly happy to model his...

The Pattern is by Made...

I'm not quite finished with Joe's.  He wants one without a hood because it will look "less babyish" that way.  I should be able to complete it tonight after kid bedtime since I already cut the pieces...

Which reminds me:  Try to cut through two pieces of terry cloth with these scissors.  Go ahead, try.

YOU CAN'T.

I bought these as a belated birthday present to myself...

Ooooh baby, they are such a relief.

For a Friend

This quilt is for a friend who is moving to Portland at the end of this month...

My studio...

I can't quite get the color right in this picture, it's slightly more muted than comes off in this shot...

Anyway, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Changing

I found this guy in the kitchen a few days ago (a black swallowtail caterpillar.)  

At first when I spotted it I wondered how it got in the house, then I realized that there was a parsley plant I had bought several days ago still in the bag hanging on the door (I WAS intending to plant it...)  When I peeked in the bag, there was almost none of the plant left.  Just little nubs where all the leaves used to be and the plastic pack it was planted in was filled with caterpillar poop.  We suspected it was getting ready to change into it's chrysalis because it wasn't moving, so I coaxed it on to a big bunch of parsley from the grocery store and put it in our aquarium where it would be safer.  And the next morning it had changed!  It should be a few weeks before it comes out, which means we might be taking an aquarium on our road trip to Cape Cod.

We also bought this sensitive plant.  I love it.  It goes to bed at 8 and doesn't open it's leaves again until 10 AM.  I have never seen a blooming sensitive plant before, the flowers look like firecrackers.

And well, there's also this change happening...

This is an intentionally bad picture of my baby bump and it might be the only one I ever post.

Outside

A storm at sunset...

I decided to give up on this vine...

We thought it might have been an cucumber vine, but it's huge and still doesn't have any blossoms so I think it's just a weed with very beautiful curlicue tendrils.

The boys hacked away at it until it was gone.  Now we have to decide what to put in it's place.  A cucumber, I guess!