The Birds are back :)

So, last Sunday I was enjoying my usual morning in the sunshine and watching as first a couple of squirrels, a chipmunk, then a chickadee or two, ending with Mr and Mrs Cardinal all came to visit my bird bath. Even though it still has it's winter cover, the bowl has filled with snow melt/rain so the birds and wee animals all have something to drink. Last year was the first year I put the bird bath in the back yard, but I filled it with plants - lavender... Hmmmm, so I started thinking maybe this year I'll leave the bird bath free for the birds.

So later in the day I'm back in the kitchen making next week's lunches & prepping dinner when I hear from the walkway behind the Forsythias, a father tell his small child "It's a dead bird - leave it! Birds eat worms, cats eat birds, dogs eat cats, that's the way of it". Well, I was somewhat alarmed so took a good look behind the Forsythias and, yep, found one dead Mr. Cardinal!!! Oh No!! Did my sweet Simone (she who can not be touched) kill a beautiful bird? or do competing male Cardinals actually kill each other? Is Simone doomed to a life as a inside prisoner this summer ?
So I've been sad all week, upset that my lovely Cardinal family barely got started. But wait!! Today as I sat in my kitchen we had 3 Robins come take a bath in the bird bath, and a new Mr Cardinal with Mrs Cardinal come for a drink  - YEAH!!

I'm happy again :)

Word/Phrase for the week:

Melopoeia - when words are changed beyond their normal meaning with some musical property, inducing emotional correlations by sound and rhythm.

No sewing again this week - sorry. It was the Pater's 88th birthday this weekend so we took him out to dinner. Tomorrow is my sister's Bday, so another family dinner and another cake! I made a mess of the Angel Food Pineapple cake, so they're getting a Lemon cake!

TTFN

Dare I say it?

Spring has sprung!! Yippee :) Overnight my forsythia bushes blossomed. Thank you Vince & Mark (B-I-L and nephew) for trimming these bushes last fall, they look lovely this spring :) I can't believe how big they have grown from the small bushes I planted just a decade ago. A decade ! WHAT ! Has it been that long since I bought this abode? OMG! Recently I was chatting with another, younger, staff member who I rarely get the chance to chat with. She asked me how long I have worked with the Libraries, 37+ years!!! Well that deserves another OMG! Never did I imagine so many years ago that I would work FT for most of my adult life. 'Bout time I seriously consider retirement. Oh how I wish !

 I was reading my favourite website (Arts & Letters Daily) this week and came across an excellent article on the rise of ISIS. The Anomaly of Barbarism from Lapham's Quarterly. If you are at all interested in world affairs and are curious go read this article. It explains a lot !
Word for the week ...

Cognoscenti - those who are considered especially well informed about a particular subject.

No sewing to show you this week, sorry
TTFN

So where is our Spring????

Boo hiss, we're getting MORE snow!! and ice pellets on top ! Give us a break. My poor Daffodils are all bent over, trying desperately to blossom, and the Forsythia are stuck between almost budding and full bloom. Really getting so tired of this winter that will never end :(.
Ok, enough ranting about the lousy weather. Here's last week's POTC Lucy block

Really love this one. This makes a full 5 rows, so I decided I need to start working on some of the connector blocks. Well, I could remember where I put the neutral for the elongated hexies, but do yo think I could find the alternate colour? Nooooo, then I found this great black and decided to go with it. I think it's going to work great, don't you? Here's a closeup

They surround the POTC blocks, 4 units per block, then you also make a secondary cornerstone block between the POTC blocks (see below), so I have A LOT of these to make!! I'll be alternating making more of these and making the final rows of Lucy Boston. This is going to take awhile!!!!

This week's word

Crucesignati - signed or marked with a cross.

TTFN, happy Spring - if it ever gets here ....

Quiet week

Well, it's been a quiet week, busy but quiet, at least at home. At work I got a new "tiny" computer with Windows 10. Of course I lost 2 programs I used every day because they are older and not compatible with Windows 10, and I was moved to Outlook as our new email program. Had to scramble to find new ways of doing the same old thing. Too many new things all in one day for this old brain :O !
The weather is still being schizoid, sunny to start but cold with snow squall warnings, supposed to get 5cm today - Boo Hissssssss, my Daffodils are budding! Just to top off last week we had a mega email confused conversation as to our condo tree walkabout .... which got re-scheduled for tomorrow, when the weather prognosticators predict 5+ cm of ice/snow !! Oh well, oatmeal cookies are made and the soup's on - so I should be good to go for next week :) Here's last week's POTC Lucy block

Yesterday  went to a flick (Lady in the Van) with the Pater then started working on my last prepped POTC block. Once this is done I will have 5 rows completed so think I will spend my "spare time" today prepping connector blocks. Time for a change!
This week's new word:

Glissando - a continuous slide  upward or downward between two notes.

TTFN