Month: April 2014

Turkey Tracks: April Update

Turkey Tracks:  April 7, 2014

April Update

 

We are finally getting some warm weather, and near me, the Megunticook River is thawing out fast.  I was a little shocked when I went by Megunticook Lake Sunday on my way to see Rose Thomas as the Lake is still pretty frozen.  This view is from the top of Barrett Cove, looking north.  (This lake is 15 miles around and filled with interesting islands and “necks” that jut out into the water.)

100_3800

The ice looks bluer towards the middle though, suggesting thinness.

Chickie Diva Queenie has been healed up for some time.  I have only been waiting for the night temps to get warm enough to risk her in the coop.  She can’t take any more frostbite probably ever in her life.

She did not seem unhappy in her kitchen box, but on a bright sunny day last week, I put her outside.  She prowled the yard, scratching and digging, but not getting near the other chickens, who did not seem to notice her.  That night, she came to the back door and when I opened it, she came right in, and hopped in her box.

The next day, I put her out again, and she wanted to come right back inside.  I had planned to clean out the coop, so I gathered up the buckets and the shovel and started to work.

What followed was shocking!

The chickens found her and immediately attacked her.  Even the rooster.  They weren’t trying to dominate her.  They were trying to kill her.

I rescued her from where she had wedged herself behind the sandbox and the house wall.  Her comb was torn again, and she had wounds on her feet again.  She was dazed and stunned and so happy to be put back into her box.

I consulted with the chicken whisperer Rose Thomas, and we formulated a plan to integrate her into Rose’s flock, which is larger and far less territorial.

So, on Sunday, I took her to Rose.

Rose’s chicken house is a lot bigger than my little coop, and there are MANY egg boxes.  Diva Queenie put herself into one and seemed quite happy.

 

100_3798

Rose has three roosters at the moment–Guy, the father of my rooster Pumpkin; the brother of Pumpkin; and Merlin, a guina rooster who is ferocious.

Rose distracted her flock by throwing them some scratch feed to them while we put Queenie into the chicken house.

 

100_3799

 

I called Rose this morning.  Queenie is just fine and is out in the yard with the rest of the flock.

* * *

Look at these–I have 12 out of 15 done and have another one half done now.

IMG_0241

Here’s a close-up of one:

IMG_0239

This large “hexie” is made from the kite shape you can see with the dark blue.  I first saw a quilt made with these medallions at Alewives, a quilt shop in Damariscotta Mills, Maine.  The hexies get linked by big diamonds, and the pattern comes from the book Material Obsession 2 by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.  Other blog entries here show their TWO quilt versions using this block.  Rhea Butler made the quilt at Alewives.

I’ve finished the red/green quilt, which remains nameless so far.  It’s loaded on the long arm.  It’s pretty big–I used 7 yards of fabric for the backing–a Kaffe Fasset I bought on sale about a year ago.  And I had to piece a column of about 20 inches to get enough width for the long arm–which was fine as I used up a lot of orphan blocks.  I really draw the line at buying 9 yards of fabric for a quilt backing when I’m only missing ten or so inches.  With the long-arm, I need about 5 extra inches of width on the sides, but I could always put on a temporary outside border that would come off when the quilting was done as well.

IMG_0242

I  am going down to Manchester, New Hampshire, with Gail Galloway Nicholson this week to the big MQX show (Machine Quilters Expo)–where we will both take some classes.  I am taking both pantograph and free-motion quilting classes for the long arm.  So…it seems to make sense to wait until I get home to quilt this quilt.  The pantograph class may change how I currently quilt with a pantograph.  Also I ordered a different green quilting thread as I did not like the color I thought I would use.  Funny how that happens…

So, here’s my current project:

IMG_0245

I am sewing together colorful 5-inch blocks from my stash.  I will put a 3-inch border on this grid and use it to cut out “Lil Twister” blocks.  Here’s a clue of what I am talking about:

 

Lil Twister block images – Google Search.

 

Canton Village Quilt Works has a very nice tutorial on how to use the Lil Twister tool.

 

Blog Readers’ Quilts and Quilting Information: Bonnie Hunter’s NEW BOOK is out

Blog Reader’s Quilts and Quilting Information:  April 4, 2014

BONNIE HUNTER’S NEW BOOK IS OUT!

MORE ADVENTURES WITH LEADERS & ENDERS

 

It came yesterday!

I had been haunting the mail box all week.

So, I made a cup of tea and sat down to ENJOY leafing through the pages:

IMG_0236

AND, the book is a treasure.

You can see the quilts in the book for yourself in the url below:

Quiltville’s Quips & Snips!!: More Adventures With Leaders & Enders! Pre-Order Time!.

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: Renata Adler, PITCH DARK review

Books, Documentaries, Reviews:  March 31, 2014

Renata Adler’s PITCH DARK

 

I promised I’d “let you know” what I thought about Renata Adler’s novel Pitch Dark,  published in 1983.

IMG_0204

You may recall in an earlier blog post that I’d heard this novel recommended during a pre-New Year’s “Best Books of 2013” NPR program.

This novel is a very “modern” novel–in that it is challenging the very form of the novel itself.

You may recall that I also wrote recently about Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel The Marriage Plot, wherein Eugenides attempts to forge a novel that does not fall back on the “marriage plot” since with divorce, women are no longer tied to marriages they want to abandon.

IMG_0208

But Renata Adler moves light years beyond the still-entertaining story of The Marriage Plot.  Adler does not have a plot at all.  This “novel” consists of a series of vignettes that are not even loosely held together and that are all mixed up in time.  There is no narrative flow.

Is it interesting?

Yes, some of the vignettes are.  And she does circle back to at least one so the reader gets some sense of the final outcome.  And I think she circled back to show just how deep the moral abyss can be in modern society.

I enjoyed the protagonists musings on social and historical events and on how some of our systems work.  These musings certainly provoke one to think a bit more deeply.

But, I do think Muriel Sparks, who wrote the Afterward, is correct:

This, I think is the vision of life reflected in Miss Adler’s fiction.  Nothing evolves, nothing derives.  Effects do not result from causes.  Episodes are recorded without any connection with each other.  Fortunately, they are fascinating episodes.

So, what happens to the moral fabric of society is one can no longer be certain that certain desired effects stem from causes, that if one does bad things they will be punished in some way?  Truthfully, bad people are not always punished.  Some of them make and enjoy a great deal of money.  And good can come out of bad, as we clearly see in Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH, also discussed on this blog.  What happens if we are all more adrift in society than we ever thought?  What happens if some of us are “disciplined subjects” and follow the rules, but others don’t.  And, prosper.

This novel is not for everyone.  It’s not an easy, enjoyable read with a pleasant narrative that takes us away from ourselves.  No, rather, it focuses on truths and questions most of us would rather avoid because there isn’t anything we can do about them at all.  And that’s not going to change in a modern world where people are so detached from one another, where a community is not viewing the actions of its individual members with an eye toward protecting the health of the community.

 

 

Interesting Information: How Foxes Hunt in Snow

Interesting Information:  April 1, 2014

How Foxes Hunt in Snow

Remember the blog post on how dogs often turn and turn in circles before stopping to defecate?

And, that they statistically meaningfully line up on the north/south polar axis?

Well, here’s more to that story.  It seems foxes can detect mice beneath three feet of snow by sensing the same kind of polar magnetic pulls/energy that the dogs use to “line up” in a way that gets their prey.

Fascinating!

The included video demonstrates just how foxes get a mouse that has burrowed deep into the snow:

Enjoy.

Microwave News | Inordinate Love of Foxes.