More at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Hello, everyone.

We went back to Bentsen Park for some walking the other day--it's close by, and it's interesting--and discovered that even peanut butter sticks can't get birds to come out if something has them skittish.

When we got there, there were no chachalacas at the feeding station by the entrance, but there was a small herd of javelinas.

This was right by the entrance gate. Javelinas were the only creatures in sight.

There were some chachalacas at the bird blind. They were skittish, too, and left in a very few minutes.

On our way out, we chatted with the volunteer and she told us that few minutes earlier a hawk had emerged from a nearby shrub. That does explain why there were so few birds to be seen.

(We walked about 3 miles that day.)

Return to theYturria Tract

Hello, everyone.

As y'all know, we've begun our walking training. On Monday we drove over to the Yturria tract again. The previous time we had been there, it had recently rained. The main trail/road into the area was swamped pretty close to the front. We hadn't brought wading boots that day, so we headed for home. On Monday the weather had been dry for a while.

Things at the west end of the county were really dry. And there were almost no butterflies.

One of the few butterflies. Notice how the leaves on his twig are all folded in against the wood. That's one of the native shrubs' drought adaptation at work.

 This cardinal was the only bird that was willing to hold still in the open. There were a lot of really skittish birds, though, hiding in tree foliage and shrubs while they ate berries. We couldn't figure out why they wouldn't hold still for the camera.

Block Play, and Layout Play

Hello, everyone.

I was looking at Pinterest and saw an interesting block, one that is new to me. It was called Greek Key. The link led to Marcia Hohn’sQuilters’ Cache. In following it, I learned some new things about an old standard block: Log Cabin.

 I knew that Ms. Hohn had a Log Cabin pattern on her site, but I'd never looked at it in any detail. That was a mistake.

I have in the past used Log Cabin blocks to form larger patterns, treating the squares as a form of half-square triangle optically speaking. It gives the look of many triangles, but all the seams are either straight of grain or straight cross-grain, and while the pressing can become a mass of little things, everything does eventually. Also, and for my personality this is key, you can freely get scrappy! All you need to do is to sort your scraps by the key value that you are varying: Blues-dark, blues, medium, Blues-light, whites was one set of groupings I used.

There were the diagonal lines marching down the quilt face. There was the Christmas tree wall hanging. 

Wall hanging for Christmas season.
Center of the tree was plain blocks. Shape was created by Log Cabin blocks.
Also an applique of a pieced star for the top!

A bird in town this morning

Hello, everyone.

I looked out the back window today around 7 a.m. and, just behind the carport, I saw this bird:

He's perching in the neighbor's live oak tree. He was studying the whole field carefully. I guess he wanted to find some breakfast!

A Project Completed

Hello, everyone.

The newest Stash Fidget Mat is done.

This should take washing okay--that is, the ribbons might get a little rumpled, but the bird is fleece and should be fine. The 1-decade rosary hanging from the hanger strip is removable (has a catch) as it was originally made to be a bracelet type of rosary. The beads are golden-toned wood with brown decorations, and a pressed glass cross at the end.

The bird is stuffed by the method shown at Needle n Thread by Ms. Corbet. It should be completely resistant to shifting, as the lift is provided by pieces of fleece under the outer bird. (The bead eye is held by three stitches for security.)

Training Day 2: Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Hello, everyone.

Today we drove over to Bentsen Park for our walk. It was about 9 when we started walking--paused to buy an annual Family Pass on the way in. (These look like they're pretty handy. They're good for free admission at all of the Texas state parks.)

The park is in Mission--that is, it's at the edge by the Rio Grande River. There is a very nice restroom at the entrance, and a cute shop with various souvenirs and helpful ladies who will gladly sell you your wrist band. (By the day, it's $5 per person. Less for persons over 65.)

They appear to be one of the parks that's seriously interested in community use (a couple of camping sites and some picnic table areas) and handicapped access. Even the dirt trails were smooth, and often had some color or other of fine gravel on the top of the dirt or caliche underneath. Always spangled with long lines of Ant Lion pits! (These are small crustacean type predators of ants that dig a slidey sloped pit, like the monster in the second Star Wars movie only much, much smaller, and when the ant steps on the top edge the dirt granules slide under it and it slides down into the mouth of the ant lion.) There are a number of observation benches placed strategically near bird feeders or trees that are known to attract hordes of butterflies. There is also a blind overlooking one of the bird feeding stations. There were a number of useful signs to help the visitor locate things and a pair of historical-marker plaques near the entrance.

There is a hawk observation tower--with an extended, gently sloped ramp to the top. A person with a walker, if they could face the distance, could easily get up to view the hawks. An energetic mother could push a stroller up it, for that matter.

We saw various birds at the feeders. (The most popular feeders appeared to be the logs drilled with cups and filled full of peanut butter. Flat seed trays came in second, at least today.)

A woodpecker getting some peanut butter. The vegetation
was this dry everywhere at the park.

Training report: Day 1!

Hello, everyone.

Our local weather has settled into what we call "Chamber of Commerce Weather"--highs near 80F and lows near 60F, breezes coming mostly from the Gulf of Mexico, and sunshine. It's the kind of weather that the snowbirds come down for.

And we did our first official training walk this morning. Mission Hike and Bike, partial, about 4 miles. The birds and bunnies were extremely skittish and camera shy. Might have had something to do with not being the first ones out--the bike riders had already been through, and more came while we walked, and the high school Cross Country boys, well two of them, were running too. We saw cardinals (no good shot) and kiskadees (only shot is blurry) and a roadrunner.

Even with cropping the photo, he's still hard to see. And he took off walking right after the shutter clicked.