mixed bag Sunday...

Sunny, but still cool at night time.... what little water is in the birdie bath still freezes each night... today I am going to scrub it well and put out some fresh for the little visitors.

This year there are lots of little warblers or thrushes..I am not sure, I need a lesson from a true "birder"... but we hear them trilling away all day now. This is something quite new to the neighbourhood. We have decided that perhaps it is because so many of the huge, old poplar trees have been taken down (finally) and maybe that is deterring the bigger birds from building in the immediate area. Great! There is nothing worse than watching a huge crow or magpie stealing a baby robin. I have hurt my arm and shoulder several times throwing boots, brooms, balls, (whatever is handy when I dash out to screech at them and throw things!) .. those murdering big ugly birds. Sorry...I know it is nature...but...I can, and will, draw the line at letting it happen in my yard. Two years ago, we tried in vain to stop the magpies from beginning a nest in our big blue spruce... lobbing golf balls at them...but we couldn't throw them half way up the silly tree. Mr. Bumble decided he could climb the tree and do it ... he is pretty agile.... but I wasn't sure about him doing that. In about 3 minutes flat he was 30 feet up the inside of the big branches... throwing out the huge twigs they had hauled in since 6 in the morning...they had quite the pile of junk in there already. They flew past a few times while he was in the tree..but never did come back ... and nobody fell out of the tree, so all was well. Whew.
























This is a little sketch from a few weeks ago. My eyes don't always feel up to looking at tiny stitches if I am sewing... or even concentrating on where I am stabbing sharp felting needles if I am doing some felting project... ..... so, on those days, I just do something else. There are so many cute dolls on the covers of some of the magazines I have in my small collection. ... and I kept looking at his little girl.... finally took out my sketch book and pencil and gave it a try. I had never done any drawing or sketching until '04, when I took my first online class and actually had to draw eyes on fabric to make my first doll face. My imagination doesn't provide me with original stuff...but I like to copy things.... animals...pictures....the like.... I find it fun to see if I can make it look "sort of like" ...... I am a copycat.

Update: sunny till about 2:00...then the cloud rolled in.... the birdie bath was sparkling in the sun ... .... some robins discovered it....