Springtime in the Tropics

Boy is it ever spring here.  Mockingbirds are flitting all over the place, hopefully setting up housekeeping in some nearby magnolia so I can listen to them all day.  Unbelieveably, our neighbor to the right CHOPPED DOWN their perfectly lovely magnolia because it was blocking their view of the street (!!!).  I, on the other hand, am painstakingly training our bougainvillea to screen our front porch and my delicate eyes from... well, let's just say gentlemen of a certain age really should wear shirts. 

So anyway, the sand hill cranes are nesting in the grasses of the pond next door and someone says two babies have hatched, tho I can only see Mama's head so far.  The osprey pair have built another nest on top of the light pole by the pool and this morning I saw one fly in breakfast, either a very long-legged frog or a small dog (oops!).  Something large-ish, I'm telling you! 

It's a constant battle with nature here in Central Florida.  I haven't told my next-door neighbor mother this yet (and when she reads this I'll hear her screech, I'm sure), but the other morning, I got up before dawn as usual, walked into the bathroom and found myself looking eye-level at a frog on the wall.  He was only about 4 inches long while quietly clutching the wall, though sensing me he decided to flop wetly from wall to wall.  I slammed the door shut, but knowing I was the one who had to capture the thing (Jimbo is SO not a nature boy), I finally cornered it on a picture frame with a yoghurt container and we set it free in the neighbor's yard (the magnolia killers, not my mother's).

So it goes here in the tropics.  Spring is on its way up, dear Northeners, never fear.  Then perhaps YOU will have to worry about frogs in your bathroom.  --cds

Finishes, Part II

More completions from the Unfinished Projects Grab Bag:

Whoops!  How did that get in here.  Above is some of Mother's strawberry shortcake that she made for Chuck and Sue who visited with us last Monday.  It's strawberry season in Central Florida, believe it or not.

The quilt below is a smallish square, maybe 60" by 60", that I started probably 15 years ago.  The pattern called for a bigger quilt, but I had to quit because it was horrendously time consuming.  It's all pieced from these little 6" strips of fabric and meant to be a sort of modern-ish take on your basic log cabin design (yeah, I know). 

I think this is about the time that I quit making quilts from book patterns and just starting designing my own, made to the dimensions I wanted, etc.

Also I could never figure out how to quilt the darn thing so after 15 years of pulling it out of the bag, trying something, hating it, throwing it back in the bag, I finally decided to just give it some curved machine quilting and called it a quilt.

Looks nice in my living room draped over the sofa and it's just big enough to keep my legs warm in the mornings when it's only 50 degrees (sorry, Northerners, but really, come visit!  It's quite pleasant here).  --cds