Tetris plan; Framed Rectangle progress

Ann Marie shared a great idea with me for my Tetris blocks:  Placemats!

Using six blocks (the duration of the QAL) as suggested by Ann Marie would give me a placemat larger than what I would like, so I decided to play this week's pieces again to come up with another Week 1 block.  I played it MUCH better this time (pictured right) only have 2 "open" spots.  I was even able to get part of the final orange square into the grid.  Woo-hoo!

Anyway....using some green yardage at 1.5" and 2.5" strips, I ended up with a 10" x 17" placemat.  Tonight at dinner, Candace asked "Why do you only get one, Mom?"  

LOL

I set Christmas Goose aside for the day and picked up the prepped Framed Rectangle units.  I was a bit tired (still am!), so I wanted to do something simple.  The thought of cutting and organizing shirts for some Goose blocks did not sound very appealing!

All 10 Block Bs have been pieced and 20 of Block Cs.  

Cassie was sewing downstairs with me again this afternoon;  no pictures of her today :(  But as I was wrapping up a cycle of Block Cs, she commented she was hungry.

4:45PM.  YUP!  Me too!

Everything was shut down.  Dinner was prepared.  Sweet-n-Sour pork; definitely one of our favs.  I've shared this recipe about three other times in the past.

Judy has been posting about her double-yolkers lately, so I'll jump on that wagon for a brief moment.  I'm not sure which chicken, but we've had our share of double-yolkers lately too.  Could it be Big Mama (after going a month or so NOT producing eggs because she was sitting on them and then playing Mama Hen)?  Such a shame to toss the yolks of a double-yolker, but I only needed the white.

Baby Robin has flown the nest!  We think this is the only baby that survived the spring/summer.  S/he has a distinct noise/call that attracted my attention when coming back from the garden this morning.  After a little bit of searching, I finally found her/him bouncing along the bottom of the hand rail.  Do you see the little fuzzies still left on the head?  The location of them almost gives an appearance of fuzzy eyebrows! :)

Baby Robin update

I stepped outside around 7:00 to enjoy the lovely July evening; it was a nice LOW HUMIDITY 80 degree day today, and really is a shame I wasn't more motivated to have accomplished something more than just pick raspberries. The evening was even nicer!!! AND had I been motivated, I SHOULD have gone out for a 5-mile run instead of sipping on my Amarretto-sour and eating homemade eggrolls. {{BUT, they were soooooooooooooooooooooooo yummmmmmy!!}} I'll feel guilty tomorrow ONLY if I don't get my butt outside running tomorrow. Maybe I'll do an interval workout and try to cover 6 miles.

Anyhoo, I was peering around to see if I could see any of the baby robins in the area where I knew them to be last. I didn't. However, I heard this "bird" noise coming from the spot on the deck where the nest had been built (underneath). I wondered if it was Momma calling her little ones because it was so loud. As I turned the corner of the deck and walked near the stairs to head down.....well.....GOODNESS ME! I was startled to see one of the babies sitting right in the middle of the deck rail. My first thought...."how in the HECK did YOU get up there??"

I must have scared it because it skittered off in its feebly-flying form again, and I paid attention where it landed; then went in the house to get my camera.

I snapped a few pictures, keeping my distance, and just watched it. After about 5 minutes, it started "chirping" again.......and I kept my ears on alert.

Sure-shooting! I heard another call below in the long grassy area, down below our lower garden. So, off I scurried to see if I could find another of the three babies.

I looked.....
I listened.....
and I heard it
BUT, never found another baby.

HOWEVER! I DID FIND THIS!!!!! As I was walking back up to the house, I JUST about stepped right on these plants!!! And, for those of you who were around my blog last summer, you probably remember THIS POST! And, of COURSE Paul rolls his eyes ANY time I'm peering at the bottom garden's edge to see if there is any poison ivy growing; the last thing I want is for the girls to get in this stuff without realizing it's there. Paul either doesn't want to believe me or....well....I dont' really know WHAT goes through his mind sometimes.....

I took a gander around the area to see how much there was.....

**GASP**

I was STANDING in a small patch AND I had just walked through other small plants.

It is SUCH a good thing that I slipped on Cassie's "mucking" boots instead of my flipflops! Oh......that would not have been good :0(

This whole time, I was still hearing the chirping chorus of at least two baby robins; still having no luck at finding the 2nd one. I glanced back up to the area where I had last seen the 1st baby.....and.......at first I thought the hawk was back, dive-bombing after it. It was hard to determine exactly what had happened, but it appeared that the baby bird was being "shooshed" in the air by another bird. Momma????

I kept my eye on the baby, which was now sitting on a low branch of our pear tree, and off in the distance.........I can only assume this is Momma. I walked at a leisurely pace towards it, and she never ONCE flew away until I was within 5 feet of her. So, yeah.....I'm thinking it was Momma.

So, I feel a BIT better now that Momma (may) be back in the picture and that at least two of the baby robins are around the yard somewhere.