An early morning view from the veranda this past week showed fog in the valley, and low clouds. We so desperately need rain that this was a welcome sight. The fire danger in this area is huge, as the downed trees and dead limbs from Helene are still prevalent all over the county, and may never be cleaned up.

Hearing a commotion one day last week, I looked out the front to see about 2 dozen crows were pecking around in the front yard. As the least bit of movement will startle them, they all flew into the trees.

There are five in this photo, hidden among the branches. The rest were hanging around in other trees nearby.

A moment later, they began flying away a few at a time.

I really wanted them to lift off at once, so you could see how many there were. But they didn’t cooperate with that.

Later on, an indigo bunting stopped by. I wasn’t fast enough to get his picture this time, but he looked just like this one.

A downy woodpecker took advantage of the seed bounty. The easiest way to distinguish these from a hairy woodpecker is the red patch on the back of the head. The downy is red all across, while the hairy has a black vertical line bisecting the red into two sections.

In the garden, a lone iris bloomed. I thought I had dug up all these small lavendar ones.

In doing the planting last week, I found my yard art project needed a new coat of paint. This was a plastic cake topper that was on our wedding cake many, many years ago. See how I originally did this project on my post Creating Yard Art.

Yesterday, a Quilt of Valor made by Karen K and Crystal was awarded to USMC veteran Heather M. in a ceremony at the library. Thank you, ladies, for helping us reach our goal on quilts.

At retreat, I picked up a bunch of quilt theme stickers, and thought they would be fun to use on cards.

A fun few hours of stamping later, and I had more cards ready to put in our guild shop for the upcoming show.

Added to the ones I previously made, the basket is full and ready for browsing.

In the kitchen, I had to get these luscious strawberries when I saw them at the store. I’ve been craving them since seeing a fellow blogger harvest buckets of them out of her own yard.

You still have time to enter the giveaway for the EQ8 Starter Box. Entries close at noon today! Click HERE to enter the drawing.

This week is our Area A meeting, and I’m looking forward to a day of sewing with friends. I’m finishing up a very small art piece for a challenge, and I’ll show it to you when it is done. I have a panel and some blocks for a Quilt of Valor to put together. Then, I still have the embroidery and fabrics for the tote bag I want to make. I think I have the dimensions and design ready, so that will be up next.

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New items on sale in the Milk Street Store including a two book special on both Tuesday Nights books. Plus, the Season 9 Cookbook has all the recipes from 9 seasons of Milk Street on PBS. Then, try some new flavors in the Milk Street Pantry.

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