Around OakMeadows

The barn swallows are gone, left yesterday.  it is kind of lonely out on the back porch with no swallows zooming in and out burbling their chatter to each other. We had 18 baby swallows that survived and fledged from 3 nests this year. The last nest produced only 2 fledglings. But on the whole a pretty successful year. I wish them a safe trip to their winter home.

The departure of the barn swallows means about 10 days before the migrating hummingbirds start arriving.  I have only 1 feeder up right now but can put up 3 more if needed.  Sometimes they arrive in crowds and sometimes in small groups.  We have had stragglers until mid-October. 

No camera until this Friday so an old photo.

Gulf Fritillary

Around OakMeadows

 

Rain, glorious rain!  I know there are parts of the country that have experienced more than enough snow/rain but that is certainly not the case around here along the Texas Gulf Coast.  We very much needed the 3 inches of rain that we got last night. The thunder and lightning upset the cats so that they woke me up by standing on my chest meowing that something awful was going on outside and I needed to wake up and stop it.  Soothed the cats and we all went back to sleep. 

We have more hummingbirds than we have ever had in the 10 years we have lived here. There are 6-10 hummers at the feeder almost all the time. In addition to the feeder we have large beds of saliva and many blooming bottlebrush bushes for them to feed on. I have even seen them feeding on the crown of thorns plant on the back porch.  I guess word has gotten out on the hummingbird internet that there is plenty of food at our house.  Anyway, it is a pleasure to look out and watch them. 

Speaking of birds, the 4 baby barn swallows in the nest on the back porch flew last week. That makes a total of 8 barn swallows that have been reared on our porches so far this year. There is another nest on the front porch with 4 more; they look like they will need another week in the nest before they fly.  The more barn swallows the better; there are certainly enough flying insects for them to eat around here!  

I did my summer clothes shopping online. I am a long time L.L.Bean fan. In fact, last year when we went on a fall foliage trip to Maine, we went by the Mother Ship -as Joe called it.  Anyway, all I needed was 2 tees and a pair of black walking shorts. And Joe needed a shirt and socks. I had a $10 off coupon and they were having a 10% off sale and they always have free shipping. I love L.L.Bean clothes because I know what size will fit and the clothes and shoes wear like iron. 

May 5 is the anniversary of my retirement and I always go in to the Fidelity office and we go over my retirement portfolio and see if any adjustments need to be made.  Since they are on straight salary, they have no incentive to advise me to make unnecessary trades. I consider it a very valuable service they provide. 

Joe is going in tomorrow to fill out paperwork to work 2-3 days a week. He wants to work part time for a couple of years to finance some projects around OakMeadows--a well, a shed/barn, and an irrigation system.  He is about the workingest person I have ever known. He always has about 6 projects going at a time. 

My quilting on the baby quilt is coming along. I'm working on Block #2.  I am sure not as fast a I used to be but OTOH, I am in no big hurry. It isn't like the last baby quilt I made where I was worried the baby would get here before the quilt was finished. I have 5 whole months before this one is due. 

Reading has been very good. I finished The Light between Oceans by M.L.Steadman. It was excellent! Good story, well developed characters. 
I also finished Pandora's Seed by Spencer Wells. I read it as it was the Goodreads Science & Nature selection for the month. I was less than impressed.  Not well organized, jumped from topic to topic some of which were only nebulously related. 
Still plowing through George Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner. It is taking a long time to read but what an excellent book it is! 

Lots of cooking:
    I made Chicken Noodle Soup in the Slow Cooker. I decided to leave the noodles out because I had some sourdough bread that I toasted to go along with the soup. It was so good with the celery, onions, and carrots. 
    Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies....nuff said...
    To counter the calories from the CC cookies, I made Beef and Bok Choy stir fry.  I'm not sure what effect it had on the calories but we really enjoyed the stir fry. 
    Tomorrow will be Beef Stew in the slow cooker,

That's all the news around OakMeadows. 

Around OakMeadows

 

Old things. Two of the oldest things I have are sewing machines.  One is my grandmother's Singer treadle. The other is my mother's Singer that she bought in 1961 to replace the Singer that was lost in Hurricane Carla.  My mother was a talented seamstress and made many clothes for herself, for me, and for my daughter on that sewing machine. When she died in 1975, I inherited it and I have used it ever since. In recent decades, i have used it for piecing my quilt tops.  It works perfectly. This past week we took it in to the sewing machine repair shop for cleaning, lubricating, and adjusting the tension. I doubt that today's sewing machines with their computer chips will still be sewing perfectly when they are 50+ years old. 

Our first swallow babies for this year have flown.  They were in the nest on the front porch; the ones on the back porch look like they will be in the nest about 2 more weeks. It is so sweet to see them first wobble out of the nest--the first one out of the nest, two more who follow, and one who decides he likes it just fine in the nest and doesn't want to leave.  Then one after the other they will take the plunge and flutter madly and semi-crash land on the potted palm or window ledge.  The parents meanwhile are zooming around chirping "Look, this is how you do it!"  And soon there are 4 more swallows zooming around.  I would imagine that the parents are tired and glad the the babies will be catching their own bugs. 

JMM has esophageal sphincter spasms every once in a while and he had a particularly bad bout of it Thursday evening. We were getting ready to eat dinner and he ate one piece of pork chop and had an immediate spasm. Usually it lets up within a few minutes but this time it wouldn't let up.  He tried walking around to no avail. To make matters worse he started hiccuping. I looked on the Internet for information on treatment and there really isn't any definitive treatment. Calcium channel blockers and long acting nitrates are sometimes helpful and sometimes not. About 11:30 I suggested that he crush a promethazine tablet and put it under his tongue so that it would be absorbed sublingually.  I don't know if the promethazine relaxed the spasms enough that he could go to sleep or if it just made him sleep and the spasms resolved on their own. I checked on him at 1am and 3am and he was sleeping.  Friday morning I made soft scrambled eggs for him and he was able to eat them and drink some water. Needless to say, Friday was spent recuperating. 

Still reading:
     Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner.
     Pandora's Seed by Spencer Wells. 
     The Light between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. 
     Our Hidden Lives by Simon Garfield. 
All 4 are really interesting and well written. 

Since we don't have television, we watch Netflix DVDs.  We are currently I watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have the last season's Downton Abbey in my queue but it is marked "Very long wait." Oh well.  We really enjoyed watching the most recent season of Foyle's War. 

Finally layered, pinned, and basted my baby quilt. Pictures coming soon.

Around OakMeadows

 

 

Much of last week was taken up by Aunt Liz's death and funeral.  But life has a way of just keeping on going. 

My missing MistyKitty was not eaten by the coyotes. She is home-- thin, dehydrated and weak but alive. Each day she is eating a bit more and getting a bit stronger. I was just stunned because she had been gone for 7 days and I was certain the coyotes had eaten her. So nice to have her back!

I did get the baby quilt cut out and I have begun the piecing. I think it will go together well. 

No birding last week. But the Louisiana trip is back on for next week. Still haven't made it out to Brazos Bend State Park.  

Exercise and Weight Watchers were a non-event too. Ack!

The one project that I have made some progress on is spiffing up the guest bedroom.  The blinds came in and JMM installed them. That certainly brightened up the room. And I left the 2 antique map prints to be framed. I found a frame for one with a 40% off coupon. The other one had to be custom framed but it just happened that Hobby Lobby was having a 50% off sale on custom framing. I was sure happy about that because custom framing can be $$$. 

We got the auto insurance renewal policy.  We have had USAA for auto and home insurance for the past 40 years. I called and got a policy review. Since Joe's Ford Ranger has 200K miles and has a blue book value of $2000, we kept liability and dropped collision on it. No changes on my van. We are taking the AARP Safe Driver online course which will save us another $70 a year.  All in all, I was able to save $178 on the 6 month policy.  

I am jumping through insurance company hoops to get my Lunesta refilled. I know they don't want to cover it because there is no generic and the brand name is expensive even though I pay a $85 co-pay for it. Anyway, I won this round and got it refilled. 

We seem to have a resident possum who loves the peanuts & oranges that I put out for the bluejays. The usual raccoons but no armadillos so far this year. Lots of birds at the seed feeders and at least 2 hummingbirds at the sugar water feeder. The wildflowers are so lovely this time of year. Joe has planted a flat of Butterfly Weed and I want to plant another flat of it next week. 

I'm still plodding through Hot: Living through the Next 50 Years on Earth by Mark Hertsgaard and Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan MacNeal.  I am enjoying Mr. Churchill's Secretary but not so much Hot.  I just started Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner. 

Next week: On to Louisiana. 

Around OakMeadows

It has been a pleasant week here at OakMeadows.  The weather is moderating and we are able to get outside more. The yard is green with clover and thistles and Joe has been busy finishing clearing out the freeze damage. The live oaks are loaded with yellow pollen which should be coming down any day now. Achooo! The first hummingbird arrived Saturday. I was pleased that we had the feeder up and filled with sugar water. So we have the swallows back and now the hummingbirds are starting to come through. Spring is well under way!

I made Shrimp Jambalaya for the first time yesterday. I really should give half the credit to Joe because he did all the chopping and helped get it all together.  It was really good.  Usually when I make something for the first time, there are changes that I want to make the next time I do it. But this really doesn't need any changes at all.  I will post the recipe next Monday.

We went to the Houston Symphony last Friday and it was wonderful! The violin soloist was Frank Huang and he was perfect! They performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Vivaldi always makes me smile. Just a beautiful, beautiful evening.
Tickets for next season are on sale and I am once again getting our season tickets.

Almost finished with the quilted table runner. I should start binding the edges this weekend and will post a picture as soon as it is finished. I have so many quilts and wall hangings floating around in my mind that I'm not sure what to do next. Maybe get the fabric and start the travel quilt? Maybe do a scrap hearts lap quilt? I have an idea for a wall hanging...So many quilts...so little time...

I finished reading The Walnut Tree by Charles Todd. It was a light historical romance set during WW I.  Good but not outstanding. The two outstanding books that I am still plowing through are To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild and The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert.

Travel plans are:
     1. Birding trip to Louisiana
     2. Wedding/Birding trip to central Texas
     3. Alaska cruise
     4. Yosemite May 2015

Around OakMeadows

The big news around OakMeadows this week is the return of the Barn Swallows. They returned last year on March 10 and again this year on March 10. They are to me one of life's miracles. We have some warblers that I haven't been able to get a good enough look at to identify but most likely they are Yellow-Rumped Warblers.  Also the usual Red-winged Blackbirds, Cardinals, Blue Jays, and Titmouse.  I must get out the hummingbird feeders and get them filled because we have had arrivals as early as March 18.

I have made reservations for our next birding trip.  We are going to southwestern Louisiana March 31-April 4. DD is going to be the cat concierge while we are away. On the list of places to see: McFadden NWR, Sea Rim State Park, Texas Point NWR, Sabine NWR, Palmetto Island State Park.  Of course, we cannot possibly do all of them but whatever we do, it will be good to be out in the beautiful natural world.

Reading two excellent books: The War to End All Wars by Hochschild which, of course, is about the First World War but instead of being about the chronology and battles, it is about the people behind the war, leaders, commoners, and resistors. Very well written and interesting.  The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert chronicles the 5 previous cataclysmic extinctions and the current mass extinction on earth. Very interesting and heartbreaking. 

Friday evening we are going to the Houston Symphony. An evening of Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. Immersion in beautiful sound.

My quilting and painting projects are slowly progressing. My other big project: the guest bedroom makeover is also making slow progress. JMM has ordered the new blinds, I bought new bedside lamps, and next week I will be purchasing another bedside table so I can move the one in the back bedroom back to the guest bedroom where it belongs.  And I have decided on framing prints of antique maps to go somewhere in the room, haven't decided where yet.

Usual cooking, cleaning, laundry. I absolutely love being retired!!




So excited!

Just a quick note to say how thrilled I am that the barn swallows are back!  Right on time, to the day! They arrived at my back porch this morning! How do they do it?? From Central America to my back porch every year!!  How I love them!! Soon they will be refurbishing last year's nests and then there will be babies (and the poop below...) I will have to go on sparrow patrol though to keep the sparrows from invading the swallow nests. This just makes me so happy!

All my swallow pictures are too dark, so these are from Google images:

Around OakMeadows

Cold, windy, and a little rain.  We need every drop of rain we get!  It is weather like this that reminds me how glad I am to be retired. As a hospital pharmacist, I had to be there no matter what the weather. Now, I can enjoy a quilt, a cup of hot tea, and a cat on my lap on these inclement days. 

Our goldfinches have left. They picked a bad time to move north, IMHO. It is cold here and much worse farther north. I've had to break ice on the birdbaths. We have the usual crowd at the feeders. I've been filling the feeders twice a day since it is so cold. 

I made the best soup last night! I posted the recipe for Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Soup yesterday. The next time I make it I will decrease the amount of meat from 2 pounds to 1.5 pounds and increase the barley from 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Also I used all beef broth instead of half beef half chicken stock. I toasted and buttered some sourdough bread. So good!

The quilting on the table runner is finally moving along. I think the problem was that I didn't have an audio book to listen to while quilting. I used to listen to NPR while quilting but here lately I just have no patience listening to the crisis du jour. Audio books are so much better. 

Lots of good books. I finished listening to The Last Original Wife by Dorothea Benton Frank on audio CD. It was good but not great.  I enjoyed it. I am almost finished with Basilica by R.A. Scotti about the building of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome during the tumultuous Renaissance, Reformation, and Counterreformation. Excellent! Other books in progress: Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (group read for GoodReads Science group), The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, and The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass. 

Still no trip to Brazos Bend for birding but the trip to Louisiana is all set for the last week in March. Now if only the weather will cooperate!!

I did get tickets to the Houston Symphony for March 14. An evening of Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi! Lovely!

I have been giving some thought to the situation in the Ukraine. More on that tomorrow.  

Around OakMeadows

 

Around OakMeadows

Pine warblers have moved into OakMeadows. We don't see them every year but they have recently shown up. Pretty little birds!  The goldfinches are still here stuffing themselves with thistle seed. Just about the time they start putting on their breeding colors, they will leave us which just goes to show how ungrateful they are after all the thistle we have given them.  Cardinals, blue jays, doves, and the inevitable red winged black birds have been at the feeders.  We have seen the little skunk several times, a rabbit, raccoons, a possum, and the deer. Nothing unusual. 

We didn't get to go to Brazos Bend State Park as planned. The weather has not been cooperating. Foggy and overcast. And this evening we have a cold front coming through; I hope it brings some rain since we are still in drought condition. 

Speaking of travel, I think we are going to cancel our trip to Washington, D.C.  I'd rather spend the time, money, and effort going birding. Maybe a trip to the Louisiana coast. I know in June we will be going to a wedding in San Marcus and we will spend a couple of days birding the Texas hill country. 

Quilting is moving along at a glacial speed. I don't know why the little table runner is taking so long to do!  I have several projects mulling around in my head that I would like to get started on if I could get the runner finished! I want to do a baby quilt and I want to do a travel quilt using the patches we have accumulated on our travels all these years. 

I am really enjoying reading Basilica by R.A.Scotti about the building of St. Peter's in Rome. Quite a cast of characters. I finished listening to Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham on audio CDs. It was fascinating to learn about that brilliant, complicated man.  I have a book coming from amazon.com and one coming from the library. So many books, so little time!!

Cooking has been just the usual fare, no new recipes or dishes. I did bake chocolate chip cookies and this morning it had 3 overripe bananas so I made a loaf of banana nut bread. 

JMM is happily settling into retirement. He usually does outside work all morning, comes in for lunch and a nap, and then reads and helps me get dinner together. Oh, that reminds me, our DD recommended the television series Sherlock and we got the first of the series on Netflix DVD. It is excellent! We watched the two episodes on that DVD and are looking forward to the next. If you haven't seen it, check it out!

Around OakMeadows

We have had temperatures all over the scale this week. Down in the 20's a couple of nights and now we are supposed to hit 80 tomorrow. We have signs of spring--the dandelions have sprung up deep green blotches on an otherwise brown yard. It is also the time of year to be thankful you are not a male mockingbird. He begins announcing his territory well before dawn and spends the rest of the day chasing other mockingbirds away.  It must be exhausting.

My bedroom painting project is well underway. JMM very kindly does the brush and roller washing up for me and that is the only part of painting that I don't enjoy doing. It always surprises me how much better the wall looks after painting than before. The other side of that, of course, is how awful it makes the wall beside it look so you can never stop with just one wall.

It has been too cold to quilt much of the week as the cold just makes my fingers too stiff. But I should be able to get a lot done before the next cold front comes through. I hope to have the table runner finished by the end of March so I can get going on the Travels Quilt.

We have had the usual Blue Jays, Cardinals, Collared Doves, Titmouse, and Chickadees at the feeders; the Goldfinches are still with us and I am glad because the weather is still so horrid up North. We were very surprised to see a group of Cattle Egrets last week; they usually stay down in South America for at least another month.  The gorgeous Sand Hill Cranes are still out in the rice fields; JMM counted 30 in the flock. I wonder when they will leave.  Mammal sightings have included a small skunk, a rabbit, and the usual deer.

The flower beds look horrid with the dead lantana and milkweed stalks. I am thinking of paying someone to just come clear it all out and be done with it and have it all ready to plant. JMM will burst a blood vessel though--but he will get over it.

I read an absolutely fantastic book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I just couldn't put it down. I will write a review later this week as I am still digesting it. Other reading: I finally finished all 700+ pages of Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood; it was an excellent history of the years after the American Revolution through the War of 1812. It was so well written and such an interesting period about which I knew zip, zero, zilch. Just getting started on Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder and am wandering through Winter Hours by Mary Oliver.

Daughter and SIL are looking to buy a house.  I always enjoy house hunting. My friend (and realtor) Vicki Haislup and I are having lunch to discuss what is available. Houston is a booming city and it is a sellers market. I am not sure if they will be able to put it all together and be out of their rental by June 1. We shall see.



Gulf fritillary butterflies

This beautiful butterfly is common along the Texas Gulf Coast. 

The larvae or caterpillar is not so pretty and is quite toxic so that the birds give it a pass.  It typically feeds on passion flowers.