Kestrel on the Hill and the Crazy Quilt by 2012 Challenge

I love my back patio. It is really special in the morning when it is shaded. I like to sit out there and drink my morning coffee and watch the birds. This morning I took a book by Michael Connelly called The Brass Verdict. It is the follow up book to The Lincoln Lawyer that I thought was great. It is starting off really good so I have high hopes for it.

This morning, there was also a Kestrel hanging out looking for a meal, so I took a couple of pictures of him in a dead tree on the hill.



They are those birds that you see hovering in the air by the roadside looking for prey. I love my hill view!


On a Crazy Quilt email list that I belong to, we have put out a challenge to get a major Crazy Quilt done by 2012.

I love this antique CQ and have wanted to do my take on it for years. I started it once before but decided I didn't like what I had done. There is a previous post about it on my blog here. I think the fan blades are too wide. They need to be narrower like the original, plus, I don't like the colors of my first attempt.

Allie of Allie's in Stitches is doing a take on an antique CQ and has inspired me to start mine again. I have started planning it out on a muslin foundation.

Rattlesnake! Not a Statue!

Ok, this is for my friends. It is one of those "You had to be there, jokes" so please bear with me if you don't understand. This snake is not a statue! It may be dead and a little stiff but it is not a statue!

Bruce took this picture after he put the snake on the hill.

Forest Fires By My House

There were 2 fires that started near my home. They were both across the highway.

The first fire was the Oak Glen Fire. It started on 8/30/09. The second fire, The Pendleton Fire, started on 8/31/09. They were right next to each other.

The smoke was bad at our house the first day but the wind changed and it moved away. We could see the plume from our front door. My Husband and I parked by the highway and I took this video of an airplane dumping retardant on a ridge. It goes on to show the flames as it is getting dark outside.

On another note, and the fun keeps on happening, someone or something killed a very large rattlesnake and left or drug it in back by our fence. The rattle was over 2 inches long and the snake was over 3 feet long. I made my Husband take it up and chunk it on the hill. He took a picture with his phone camera and emailed it to our friend Gretchen. She called very soon after and said "Oh, Hell No!". LOL!

Zelda Gets a Bath

We have two Power Towers on the hill behind our home.



I always name everything eventually so I had to name our towers. I thought the one on the Left looked like a Transformer, kind of a macho male type. I thought the tower on the right had a feminine look, like she has on a skirt. So, they became Megatron, Tron for short, and Zelda. Zelda is actually taller than Tron and I think younger. They look the same height from this viewpoint.

Anyway, back in June, the Power Company had guys come out and climb the towers and clean the coils. (I am not sure what they are called.) I guess this was to remove debris and bird nests. I grabbed my camera and took a short movie of them giving Zelda a bath. Here is my little video on Utube.