Baby Quilt

This baby quilt has been sent to my great niece, Mila Marie. I wish I had taken the picture in natural light for clearer colors. Isn't there a better term to describe the babies of our nieces and nephews?
Yesterday morning a wood duck showed up at our pond. This is the first time we have seen one and he didn't stay around for long. Not the best quality picture, it was taken from inside the house with the camera lens zoomed out as far as it would go. We sure hope he visits us again.

Experimenting

We had some snow last Monday and I took these pictures but never downloaded them from my camera. I am experimenting with 2 new programs. The first is a picture editor called Irfanview. Seems good for quick editing, with a couple of clicks I cropped, color corrected and resized these pictures.

And I’m also trying Windows Live Writer for this blog post. It has a few fun things like different frames for your picture. The above one is “Instant Photo” and this one has a drop shadow. Also you can easily move your text around your pictures.

For those of you who read this blog through a feed, there was a strange post from me yesterday, it was just Windows Live Writer getting my blog.

More Ice Skating Ducks

More Ice Skating Ducks from Karen Mason on Vimeo.

I forgot to post this second video I did of the Ducks on Ice last week. This one is in a smaller format so hopefully it won't take as long to load. The ice is gone now, and the ducks are showing up regularly.

Ducks on Ice

Even though the edges of the pond are frozen, the ducks showed up and ventured on the ice. Usually I put their corn just on the edge of the water (they like a drink with it) but I had to just scatter it on the ice. Yes, there was some cute slippage as they waddled around.
Close up of cute feet. Not the best quality but it was still a bit dark and it's hard to hold the camera steady when cold. This morning the ice covers more of the pond so I don't think we'll see them today, not enough room to land.
Speaking of cold, this evergreen plant sure looks a bit worse for wear. Here I was worried it had outgrown the spot it was in, now it looks like it will need major cutting back, if it survives.
And I don't think I posted a finished shot of the Starry Scarf. I used both skeins of the Noro Silk Garden, it still could have been a little longer, but it's very nice.

Sunday Update

The Ducks are back! After all our crazy weather, the minute the ice was cleared from the pond, they returned. I had feeding duty since Dave is out golfing this morning. So I decided to walk around the yard and see what I've missed.
Jessie Dog and Milo Kitty had to join me on my rounds, Milo kept trying to chase the ducks. I'm not quite sure why he's so puffed up, maybe it was to just stay warm.
The Garden Gnome doesn't seem to mind all the leaves and dead stalks around him.

A few textures caught my eye.

Dave took down the Christmas light that were on the deck railing, but they only made it as far as this chair. I thought they looked interesting piled there. Click on any of the pictures if you want to see them larger.
Here's my new camera, picture taken in the mirror. I'm quite happy with it, lots to learn about it though. It's a Panasonic, Lumix, DMC-FZ28.

Duck Feeding

Two Mallard males showed up and I decided the quickly get some food down to them to encourage them to stay. Milo accompanied me.
These guys must have been here before, they knew I was putting good stuff in the water and were determined to get it while cautiously watching the cat.
They would approach, then circle back.
It was a dance, Milo would loose interest, the ducks would come closer, Milo would be attracted by their nearness, they'd move back...

Let's try it from a different direction.
Aw, heck with it, let's just eat. The picture I missed was Milo falling in and the assorted chaos from that. I finally decided it was time to let the ducks eat in peace and convinced a wet Milo to follow me in the house.

All pictures are clickable to see larger.

Flower Power

I don't think I've showed you my wonderful new garden shoes, Ladybugs, and yes they are already dirty. They are waterproof and comfy and slip right on and off.
Quilt Complete! I showed this top about a year ago, it just large squares of flower print fabric with borders, simple construction and quilting and it's done! It's a large lap quilt 48" x 56".
Isn't this a wonderful arty shot of the quilt (yes I laid on on the grass, it was dry) and the snow still in the yard.
Poor Hellebore's trying to poke back out of the snow.
And of course an obligatory duck shot, he had to check out what I was doing in the yard.

Ducks are Back

I was surprised when I was driving up to the house yesterday afternoon and I saw Matt out in the yard. But he was out there giving tidbits to Agnes and Alfred. Then this morning I looked out the window...

and oh my goodness, 8 ducks out there. And they all came running when we brought out the bread.
I encouraged them to pose on the snowy ground for better contrast, it was pretty dark at 8 am, I lightened these pictures up with Photoshop.
Dave doling out the bread crumbs, a trip to the store is planned to get them some cracked corn.
Magestic Mallard, I love the orange feet.
And here they are on the water. I contemplated calling in to work "I can't come in today, we have 8 ducks on our pond" but thought better of it. When I got home only Agnes and Alfred are still here, I wonder how long they will stay.

They're Back!

What's out there??? Oh, look, the ducks are back!!!

Let me at 'em!!!
A really quick post with some early morning pictures. Notice the reflection of my foot in the top picture. I snuck out on the deck to take a picture of the ducks, this group is a bit skittish so I had to keep my distance. When I turned around to go back inside, there was Sophie at the window.

Update

You'll have noticed (I hope) that I changed the look of my blog. I've asked my daughter, who is studying graphic design, to create a banner for me, but she hasn't had time yet so I decided to play with some of my pictures, I thought these leaves looked interesting.

As an update to my order from the Michigan Bulb Company, my last item, a Dogwood "Tree" finally arrived. According to the package tracking, it was in Kent, WA on June 10, but didn't arrive here till June 22. It took 12 days to go 90 miles, got to love the US Postal Service. It seems they ran out of the "potted plants" so they sent me this bare root one, we'll see if it grows or not.
	Here are the other plants after 2 weeks, the Bellflowers are showing some leaves and there are tiny shoots on the yarrows plants.

And for a bit of color, here is some Sweet William. It's sort of a volunteer in the yard, back about 5 years ago Dave covered our septic system mound with some wild flower seeds, and we had a lovely assortment that first year, some came back the next year but soon the grass took over. Some Sweet William always tries to come up each year, this patch is next to one of my beds so I've managed to keep it weeded.


Here's Agnes gobbeling up some cracked corn. We haven't seen much in the way of ducks these last few days, I was up early this morning and saw a female on Ducky Island, but she didn't stay around for long.
I'm wondering if now is the time that they molt, from what I have read they can't fly for a month while they get their new feathers.

Yard Work

Time to get busy on the yard, first off need to plant the pots for the deck. It was quite the scavenger hunt in many different stores to find suitable plants this year. Of course my last stop (because they didn't have much last year) had the best selection. I'm going to have to make another round of the stores as I've now decided that the deck by the pond could use some pots too, but maybe I'll try to do some sort of perennials out there.

Dave found this snail pot that he thought I'd like on one of his many Home Depot trips. I put some Rosemary and Golden Oregano in it.

Here's one of my yard eyesores, these are the controls for the septic system and you can see one of the 4 lids to access the tanks. I thought when I did my original planting 4 years ago that I was hiding all this, but not so, in fact we finally decided to pull out the plant that was in front of the controls as it was not doing what we wanted. So I put in some new bushes which will hopefully grow up and hide this.

While shopping I found this lovely lemony yellow Calla Lily. I didn't read the requirements carefully as I now know that it will not overwinter in our garden so I need to put it in a pot and bring it indoors for the winter if I want to keep it alive - and it cost more than I thought it did.

There's usually company when I'm out in the yard.

And they aren't shy about coming up to ask where the food is. If I don't get right on it they trot over to the bird feeders and clean up what the small birds spill to the ground. Most of the time Alfred stands guard while Agnes scarfs up the food.

The new patio furniture has arrived, we actually bought wood even though it will need maintenance. The chairs will get a coat of Watco before being placed on the patio.

I always enjoy the early season yard work, but I tend to burn out by the end of June. We are really enjoying the way everything is shaping up this year, it makes a big difference having a lovely pond instead of a huge dirt hole. With an umbrella set up over the chaise lounges on the pond deck, it's a lovely place to sit and read.

There is something out on Ducky Island

My Goodness, it's an egg!

We have no hopes for future ducklings, and are not sure if it was Agnes or the other female that laid the egg, but there is no nest and no one seems to be concerned about the egg. It's just sitting there. Later in the afternoon Agnes was hanging out on the island, completely ignoring the egg.

In other duck news, I acutally saw Agnes walk up the ramp. Here I was thinking we were silly for having it there, but she swam around to the side with the ramp and waddled on up.

They have taught us well, we keep them fed. I had to go out yesterday and re-stock the cracked corn.