What Bird Is Making That Call?

Part of moving to a new region involves hearing new bird calls. And me being me, I love to find out what bird is making that call–like what calls do the Red-Shoulder Hawks that live in the trees in my neighborhood make?

It’s spring, so there are so many birds calling when I walk or when I’m just sitting on my porch. Figuring out what these birds are makes me feel like I’m more connected to my environment. Besides, I’m endlessly curious.

You can get a free app from Cornell University for your phone called MERLIN BIRD ID.

I love it.

And it allows me to identify and save bird calls it records as I walk. It’s easy to turn on when I hear birds I don’t know.

Here’s what a user posted online about this app:

“The Merlin Bird ID app (by Cornell Lab of Ornithology) is a highly recommended, free, and accurate tool for identifying birds via photos, sounds, or 5 simple questions. Its standout “Sound ID” feature acts like “Shazam for birds,” identifying species in real-time. While occasionally misidentifying sounds in noisy areas, it is an essential tool for beginners and experts. Laura's Birding BlogLaura’s Birding Blog.”

Merlin also can identify a bird from a picture you take. You can also save the bird calls you easily record which can remind you what each bird’s calls sound like. Or you can explore what you have not heard, like what do Blue Birds sound like? Cornell sends informational emails off and on that educate you about birds and that are fun to see and read.

I’ve already learned a lot about the local bird calls I hear in my area, and for me, at least, that is a very fun thing.

Merlin is easy!

Try it. You’ll like it.

PS: Merlin is addictive…

Why Does Raw Honey Crystalize And What to Do When It Does

I haven’t used white or brown sugar for anything in probably 20 years now.

I keep white sugar on hand for visitors who want white sugar in their coffee or tea, but I use local raw honey to sweeten a drink. And, sometimes (rare) real maple syrup drizzled over raw organic fruit–a habit I think I’ve broken now.

I can get wonderful local raw honey here in coastal South Carolina, and back in Maine, in the fall I took enough jars for a year’s worth of honey to a local honey harvester who filled them up for me.

I don’t bake or eat baked goods due to gluten intolerance, so that makes this sugar issue easier.

Ok. I confess that I would use white sugar in my grandmother’s chocolate fudge recipe, which I would only make as a gift for someone, and I have not in…years. And I would eat some of it too as it is one of my very favorite recipes and as it contains so many wonderful childhood memories.

Anyway, local raw honey can crystallize. But why? And what to do? Here are your answers–in a very good post sent from my DIL who is the cofounder and director of The Bee Cause, which now has sponsored bee hives in all 52 states and, also, some elsewhere.

Honey is a complex product involving glucose and water ratios and what kind of flowers from which the bees have gotten pollen. And, how warm or cool it is where you store your honey.

What Causes Honey to Crystallize and How to Fix It

Enjoy!

And find and buy local raw honey from a beekeeper in your region.

Giovanna McCarthy: Master Knitter

Look what I found in my kiosk mailbox the other day–an unexpected gift from my Maine friend Giovanna McCarthy.

Giovanna and I have been friends for almost 20 years now, and she has given me so many of her beautiful shawls and here and there, a blanket. I treasure each and every one of her beautiful works gifted to me.

Giovanna is a master knitter, and her work over the years has gotten better and better so that now it is…unbelievable.

Look at the fringe on this shawl. I can’t even…

I learned to knit way back in high school in the 1960s, taught by a high school friend. And I’ve made many knitted projects over the years, especially the Maine years. I’ve made sweaters, scarves, socks, hats, blankets, decorative linen towels–in Maine so many women knit a lot–it’s a portable project that can go everywhere easily.

But…

Giovanna’s work is at a whole other level.

Boy am I happy she is such a generous friend.

Improv Quilt Done–Named “Shape Shifter”

***But first, a correction to the post on Leila Gardunia’s scrappy stars pattern. I paid $12, not $25 for the pattern I featured.

My youngest granddaughter asked what this quilt’s name was, and I told her I didn’t know yet. She suggested “Shape-Shifter,” so there you have it. “Shape Shifter” it is.

“Shape-Shifter” measures 65 by 80, so she is perfect for a long bed or a long person. And did you know that if you “accordion fold” a quilt top for your bed you can just reach out and grab the edge to pull it over you if you are cold.

The field fabric is Kona Titanium, the thread is Oyster Shell by Signature, and the Pantograph is Check and Chase by Herione Agee. **Note how a pineapple block looks when one uses the field fabric for the featured non-color pieces. Hmmm…that is…super interesting, to me, at least.

The backing is “Celebrating 250 Years Blue Stars,” by Jessi Rose Fabrics, for Northcott.

This is my second fairly recent improv quilt, and I really enjoyed making this one. It was all about play–with ideas, with rulers, with block projects which I trialed. This project took almost a year, and I only stopped when the blocks outgrew their design wall space.

Here a recent improv quilt: “Improv Blocks” made from all the blocks made in an earlier Tara Faughnan “Blocks” class.

Here’s “Improv Sandbox” made in March of last year. I hand sewed these log cabin blocks from scraps while watching tv. I saved it for one of the grands to choose. It’s more of a baby size.

There have been other improv quilts across the years, though they have long since flown from my house. I guess we can say I do like to make them.

Month 5 of Blocks3 Class

Tara Faughnan called her month 5 block in this year’s 6-month Blocks3 online class “Pillars.”

My effort wound up to be part Tara Faughnan and part Maria Shell. I’m not sure how that happened. It just did. And it took me several sewing sessions to complete as it was a bit more intense due to the smaller strips and getting it all to fall into a pattern I liked.

But I like it. And I especially like the diagonal matchstick quilting as I think that making the quilting directional adds to this design.

This piece measures about 11 by 12 inches, and this piece is the first where I sewed the binding down on the front with my machine–using a Janome foot I ordered called a “left side bi-level foot.” This foot’s right side is higher than the left side, which allows the foot to run along the edge of the binding. One moves the needle to where it will hit the binding’s edge. (There is also a right-edge version of this foot.). I secure the corners by hand for neatness.

I need more practice with sewing on binding and with this foot, but this is the first time I have not removed machine binding stitching and sewn it down by hand.

I am…encouraged!

For now, my “Pillars” effort is on my kitchen bar under a flower vase.

I think it adds something interesting, don’t you?

Leila Gardunia’s Scrappy Stars

Here’s my trial scrappy star designed by Leila Gardunia.

Leila Gardunia has designed many patterns for the center of this star block and surrounded the blocks with sashing and cornerstones. She has also made block sizes in every size you might want to make–from three inches to, I think, 12 inches.

I bought and downloaded this 8-inch size for $12. The patterns are designed for foundation paper piecing, but I will use Tara Faughnan’s folded paper piecing method as much as possible–some centers might need traditional foundations–but Tara’s method means no paper to tear away after sewing. And, one can reuse the paper foundations over and over.

The center of the 8-inch block is 4 inches finished–and I’ve already made one of my own design–a circle. But I have not yet sewn it all together, so more on that later.

Anyway, this project will be a leader/ender and “play” project for me going forward.

Wisteria Graces Our Woods

The Wisteria is in full bloom in the woods all around us. Here’s a picture from my neighborhood, and there is another tree I can see from my house that has Wisteria wound around it. Beloved Neighbor says it is fragarent, and it is, for me, up close. My nose doesn’t always smell as powerfully as it used to smell.

Beloved neighbor and I walked the Fort Palmetto Trail yesterday. It is 1.5 miles total, going and coming, and is so interesting, as it winds around a site that fronts the marsh and Dewees Sound (between the coast and Isle of Palms barrier island) and has Civil War levees where troops were stationed to prevent US Federal troops from invading and catching the Confederates by surprise. The soldiers built extensive levees through this lowland stretch of the coast.

These waters behind the string of barrier islands were also used by Confederate privateers to sneak needed goods into the Confederate states. If you have ever read Gone With the Wind, you know that Rhett Butler’s family was from Charleston and during the war, he was a privateer, which is where he made some, at least, of his money.

This site also goes back to very early Indian presence–perhaps as early as 1000 AD. It isn’t good for farming, but was used for timber harvest and, likely, access to the water beyond.

Here’s a link to this fun trail, which ends with an observation tower one can climb to see the marsh and sound, the Isle of Palms Connector bridge, and Isle of Palms barrier island.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/south-carolina/fort-palmetto-park-trail

And, here’s a close up picture of blooming Wisteria I took along the trail, where the vines had overgrown plants along the trail.

The tree leaves are out, and there is new leaf growth in many plants, like my roses. The azaeleas are also now blooming, or about to bloom, as are the early spring blooming trees like the redbuds and the Tulip Magnolias. Along the edges of the sidewalk where I frequently walk my daily mile, all kinds of wild flowers are blooming. This one is called “Innocence,” according to my plant identification app (Rubiaceae, or Houstonia procumbent).

The grass is trying to green up, and mine got mowed this week. But we are also very, very dry, and there are now fire warnings for our area. We are all hoping that our rain issue does not get solved with…the dreaded “H” work (hurricane).

Spring continues to tease us as the temps are still going into cool territory on a regular basis. We are all moving between turning on the heat or the air conditioning, sometimes in the same day.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Birthday Soup

I’m having a really good birthday week, for which I am grateful.

Last Sunday, I made a bone broth as my small refrigerator freezer was getting too full of frozen chicken bones and organs. I can’t cook a bone broth for too long as long cooking produces too much histamine for me. Back in the day I would make bone broths in a big crock pot and cook them for 24 hours, and I recommend that way to make a bone broth as it is easy.

To my broth–made with filtered water–I add savories: onions, carrots, celery, and garlic.

When the broth had cooled, I refrigerated it.

Tuesday morning, I made my chicken soup in between birthday calls, visits, and texts. I gently sautéed onions, carrots, celery, and sweet peppers in duck fat–stirring frequently and cooking on a medium heat until the vegetables begin to slowly caramelize. Don’t rush this step.

Next I added my saved broth and two packages of bone in, skin on, chicken thighs. There were eight in all. Cook gently until you are sure the thighs are done–the bones add to the bone broth. When done, I fish out the thighs and remove the meat, throw the bones out, and add the meat back to the soup. Look at the gorgeous color of the broth now!!!

Next I add fresh herbs–I had some frozen parsley I had chopped and saved last fall. From the garden, I added oregano, sage, thyme, and rosemary. And I add chopped garlic at this point as I like for the garlic to have a fresher taste in my soup. AND, I would add the greens at this point: this time, collard greens.

For a starch, I added some frozen corn I had on hand as I love all things corn. I could have used rice, potatoes, squash, or cauliflower as a starch component. (Note that with this expensive Creuset iron/enamel pot, I don’t use any metal instruments as they can and do chip the enamel over time.)

And for my Tuesday birthday noon dinner, I sat down to enjoy my soup, which I’ll have for few days.

DIL Corinne (whose birthday followed mine on Wednesday, dropped by with flowers and the birthday art wishes from my three granddaughters in that family. My older grandchildren all sent text messages, and my DIL Tami and son Mike will host a joint birthday brunch on Sunday for me and Corinne. Son Bryan came last Sunday and changed all my house filters and smoke detector batteries–something he does for me each year for my birthday (among much other help all year long).

Wednesday morning was my monthly Patchwork Gals meeting, which is always such a treat. And Friday beloved neighbor and I will attend the Cobblestone Quilt Guild show, which is done every other year.

It’s been a great birthday week! For sure!

And I am so grateful.

My Improv Quilt

…is off the longarm, trimmed, and bound.

I don’t have a name yet. Something about…joyful…as I have had, for many months, so much fun playing with new blocks, orphan blocks, rulers, and Blocks3 (Tara Faughnan’s online class) ideas/methods.

I’m so, so, so happy with the quilting, and I love how the pineapple block looks using the same field fabric in its construction. How fun is that!

Now I have some hand sewing for night tv watching–the binding will take a while.

We are hoping for rain today, but the storm passing through the south today went mostly west of us. Our temps are dropping into the 40s tonight. Oh well, spring is fickle, even in the coastal tropics.

Spring Garden Time

It’s late afternoon Sunday, but not really late as we just “sprang forward” with regard to time, and I will need several days to adjust. LOL.

It has been a quiet week on the sewing front as I’ve been in the yard for 4 full days now working at the spring clean-up, uprooting plants that are not working, pruning, raking grass, weeding grass and just loving being outside in shorts and and a short-sleeve t-shirt in warm sunshine. I think I was spurred into going outside by the fact that our brown grass is turning green.

I’ve never raked the Centipede grass before, but it has been 3 years now, and there was a lot of thatch that this grass doesn’t like. I did what I could with a wide leaf garden rake. I hesitate to have a professional person thatch with a machine as the sod has a net of plastic on the bottom, and I’m pretty sure a thatch machine would pull it up and make a huge mess.

I’ve also replaced all the dirt in my outdoor planting containers as it was well past time to give new plants a dirt uplift. I visited the local plant stores, but we are apparently between very early plants, like viola and pansies, and the summer annuals that can take heat. So I didn’t come home with any plants for my containers. Maybe later next week.

As I wrote months ago, I saw an orange blooming Tea Olive last fall and fell in love. I think I have a spot where one could go, especially as they are slow growing and prune well. Remember this picture, taken outside Local Jo’s Natural Foods, where I get my raw milk, raw butter, raw honey, local clean eggs, and so forth?

Tea Olives are famous for their strong fragrance in the late fall or early winter. The white ones are more common, but…I loved this orange one. And look at that gorgeous foliage. Tea Olives are one of the iconic plants here in the Charleston, SC, coastal, tropcal area.

I’m also gradually refolding my t-shirts so that they look like this picture in my bedroom shows:

And I’m liking the result a lot. I can see what I have without pawing through stacks, and the shirts do not wrinkle as they do when folded flat, especially when they sit for several seasons to pass.

Have a terrific week everyone!