Let's Take a Walk

We here in central Ohio have had a tremendous amount of rain this month, and more is forecast for the coming days. Last Thursday was a beautifully sunny, albeit cool, spring day, so I took a little walk around our house and property to see what I could see. I was specifically interested in the wildflowers and spring flowering bushes and annuals that we've planted.

We'll head out of the garage to the woods. We have some pretty cool wildflowers growing out there - some we planted, most growing there naturally. About 15 years ago, after searching and searching for Jack-in-the Pulpits and trilliums and finding none, I asked a farmer about 3/4 mile up the road if I could transplant some I could see in his roadside woods over to our woods. He graciously permitted me to dig around a bit, and now we have a growing population of Jacks and trilliums.

Pink trilliums surrounded by pinks.

There's the lone Jack-in-the-Pulpit I found. I am certain that if I go out in a few days, I will find several more. This one is a bit of an earlybird, I believe.

Once in the woods, we see lots of new growth. The trees are not leafing out just yet, so we have greater visibility to see the sky. While I walked around out there, a busy woodpecker could be heard tapping away on some upper tree branch, oblivious to my intrusion into his neighborhood.

The cardinals trilled out some beautiful mating calls. They could be heard from quite a distance, and the one right above my head sounded like he was trying to break the decibel level for songbirds! He must really in love!

These are mayapples. I had to walk pretty far back into the woods to find these. If I'm not mistaken, these flower under their leaves; I looked for flowers and didn't find any. I will check again in a few days.

Exiting the woods, I head down toward the lane. These brambles straight ahead are going to be full of blackberries and wild raspberries this coming June and July.

My good buddy Steve happily accompanied me on my walk.  He loves it when his people come out.

Turning around and heading back toward the house, we can check on the lilacs. They are finally opening their buds! I clipped several to take indoors.

Yesterday, I took my machine to Sharon's to spend the day sewing. I got quite a bit done on my Bento Box.

I've now made 16 blocks. These are really fun to put together. Notice how well my herbal iced tea matches my blocks??

Sharon worked on another project from her precuts book. She's using a layer cake for this floral, cottage-y project.

"Old Gold" is the name of the quilt; from the book Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts.

Isn't it beautiful? I will need to check on what the line of fabric is. I'm thinking Aviary, but I could be wrong.

I am loving this new thing we're doing - sewing together every Tuesday. In addition to getting a good amount of sewing done, we also get to visit and dream and plan. Dream and plan future projects, future trips, books to read, and on and on and on...great fun together.