It's been a while! :)

 (Header art courtesy of Audrey. She took 40 years off my age!)

What a nice cool day! Have you guys been hot? We've been pretty warm, so today's mid-70's were a welcome relief. I took a morning walk and this evening I sat in a lawn chair and watched the antics of the chickens and guineas. It was their first day "free ranging". They stuck pretty close to the coop. Now Adam and the kids are rounding them up for the night. That's the chicken tractor with a tarp slung over it. Very temporary shelter to get them used to being outside before their real freedom began. 

Granny Marigold, you asked about the marsh I had mentioned. I've shown a few pics of it in the past. It's almost half a mile down the road from me. It's just where a little river passes under the road through a large culvert. It's a slow windy river with lots of rushes and cattails. It connects a chain of lakes called the Crow Wing Chain. You'll recognise the area, I'm sure. I show it a lot. 

East side of the road...

The culvert under the road. Where I've seen Mr. Water Rat.

West side of the road.

The culvert is right between the yellow and white road signs. The river cuts through woods, so it's not highly visible unless you're looking for it. Home is less than half a mile behind me.

This is a favorite car that passes me sometimes when I'm walking. There's also a Model A (or is it T?) that passes me sometimes, driven by an old gentleman. I think this is a 1940-something Chevy.

Earlier today I heard some loud bird calls outside and wandered out to see if it was what I thought it might be. I wasn't quite sure where the birds were. It sounded like they were in the woods to the west of us, but it turned out they were northeast of my house in the pasture. It was a pair of sandhill cranes making a lot of racket. Their calling was so loud it was echoing in the woods to the west. They were kind of far away, so I couldn't get a picture, but it was still fun to watch them. I was hoping they would take flight, but I eventually walked away. Then, they flew away. Sheesh.

Two of my latest books. The Phil book is kind like a devotional with excerpts from two of his books. I know, I have strange taste in books. Oh well. *wink*

I just re-read The Apothecary's Daughter. I like Julie Klassen's books. The other is a mystery that I picked up at the library book sale, I think. It's next.

Adele was drawing Pokemon characters. She's six.

Speaking of books, I picked up these two at the thrift store. The one on the left because I've heard so many people say that Dorothy Sayers is one of the best mystery writers ever. Just thought I'd sample her work. Not sure I'm going to get that far. Murder mysteries aren't really my forte. But also, I wondered if any of you have read Barbara Pym's books. Once again, I've heard her name a lot, but don't know if she's a decent (meaning clean as well as good) writer. Any opinions?

Other thrift finds included this box full of various games circa 1950's! And the pieces are all there. Now I just have to learn how to play them all, ha ha.

I also found a very vintage book starring cats. The backgrounds of the pictures were all crewel work. Sorry, but this is getting used for collage material. It's the sort of age that modern kids wouldn't be interested in reading it, but I'd like others to enjoy some of the crewel work and cat photos. A lot of the ladies at my ATC site are cat lovers and I think we all appreciate needlework!

I couldn't resist this little syrup pitcher with a squirrel handle. (At least I think it's a squirrel!)

I bought this old tin file box thinking I could put it to use storing craft things, but when I opened it, it was full of baggies which were full of puzzles...with no pictures. Should be interesting trying to put them together. 

Okay, warning. The rest of this post will be an excruciatingly long list of cards I've made for the Continuous Random Round Robin ATC swaps. Some are starter cards and some are completed, but I think I'll just post them without comment. Feel free to skip this if you aren't interested. And thanks for visiting!

This is some of the crewel work from the cat book.

And some of the cats from that book.

More crewel work...

So now I'm at the point that I suspect I may be showing some repeats, so I'll cease and desist. I always seem to get the urge to blog after 9 p.m., so now it's getting late and I'd better hang it up!

Oh! Be sure to pop over to MK's blog and see the fun video she made about Jolly's visit! (The video is on her July 24 post.)

Thanks to all that endured the ATC thing! I love all you folks out there in blogland and family that happen to pop by! Have a great week!

Shalom!