Birds, Ponies, Chemises, Friends & Toffee Bars

Second Post of the Day

(Like that title? Much better than the usual "Mish Mosh" or "Hodge Podge," right? LOL)

First, I can now confirm that there ARE two baby barn swallows in the nest cup over our front porch.

Here they are, sitting on the edge of the nest and just about ready to fledge. The parents were swooping in and out with food, and at one point I saw all four at once, confirming the presence of the second baby. I suspect they will be leaving the nest soon.

I will really miss watching them.

I've begun sunning the PAF I found during my BreyerFest virtual "CHIN" shopping (a local antique store.) 

There is just a hint of pink on its muzzle, so I've covered it with masking tape to protect the color from fading.

Currently the outside temperatures are moderate so I feel comfortable letting it sit outside and get some sun.

An alarm on my phone is set to go off every two hours to remind me to go outside and check on it, turn it, etc. I think this little foal will look nice when done!

Sewing for The Feast of the Hunters' Moon has begun and the first chemise has been completed.

The ends of the sleeves are pleated when the cuffs are added. (An option would be to gather them, but I prefer the look of pleats.)

I love how pleats look on the finished garment, but pleating two sleeves takes up almost every one of my favorite pins. (Not to worry, I have nine pincushions and more pins if I need them; I just prefer these.)

I love the look of sleeve buttons in the cuffs, too.

Today's sewing plan is to complete another chemise and then either cut out some pockets or to start working on the green cloak that is cut out and prepped.

"I know it's very short notice, but I'm going to be in town tomorrow. Could I stop by around 2:00 for a quick visit?"

When your bestie (who moved away two years ago) sends you that kind of text, you rearrange your schedule and reply, "YES!!

Lisa and I had the best time being together again, and I baked her some toffee bars to nibble on as she drove home.

Here's the recipe:

Toffee Bars 

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. brown sugar

1 egg yolk 

2 c. flour

2 c. chocolate chips (approx.)

chopped almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, brown sugar, and egg yolk. (Do not use the egg white - it will change the consistency of the bars.) Beat in the flour.  Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray (or line with parchment paper - my choice.) Pat the dough evenly into the pan. Bake 20 minutes until firm and golden brown.

Turn off oven and pull the pan out of oven. Immediately top with the chocolate chips, sprinkling them evenly over the top of the bars.  Put the pan back into the oven (leave the door ajar) for 3 - 5 minutes until the chocolate chips are softened. (They will look shiny.) Pull the pan out again and spread the softened chocolate chips over the bars and if you wish, sprinkle with the chopped almonds. Cool, cut, and eat!

Enjoy, and stay 'tooned!

It's High Summer

It is high summer in Indiana and we've had a brief break from the extreme heat and air quality issues that we endured just a week or so ago. (Canadian readers, I hope you are safe from the wildfires and that all is well where you are.) 

There are a lot of good things to see and enjoy this time of year.

Curt and Vanessa have a gorgeous hibiscus that has really put out the blooms this July.

Each one is as big (or bigger) as my hand; I had to take a picture when I dropped off some sweet corn (another perk of high summer) for them the other day.

Not the best picture as I had to snap it fast, but as I continued my sweet corn delivery route and pulled into Lisa's driveway, Nash and Rosie (standing on her hind legs) spied me approaching from Lisa's office window.

Rosie is a little firebrand and loves Nashie. Fortunately he likes her, too, and tolerates her antics.

Florida Boi Tammo doesn't mind the heat and enjoys sitting out on the patio with us.

Pepper's black fur picks up the heat more than his does, so she prefers lying in the cooler grass.

I've been in physical therapy for a couple of months now and I am improving. Right now I am doing what they term as land therapy; in two weeks I will begin aquatics therapy. (I tried my new swimsuit on and Nashie leaped up and barked at me when I walked into the living room - he didn't recognize me in it!)

I was sitting in the waiting room this past week when someone very familiar and dear to my heart walked in for her own appointment. 

Jackie! We worked together at Hershey Elementary for twelve years and although we were in different parts of the building, our paths crossed most days and we got to be good friends. We caught up as quickly as we could - it was good to see her.

High summer can have its down side, though.

Leslie and Rick had a scary incident - Rick was mowing and the mower caught fire.

He'd stopped it, turned it off, and gone into the shop to get more gas when it suddenly ignited.

Rick grabbed a fire extinguisher and got the fire out, but the mower is a total loss. We are all grateful that he was not sitting on it when it caught fire. 

Why did the fire start? We don't know but we feel very fortunate that things were not worse.

The barn swallows living over our front porch and who lost their first brood to an aggressive male sparrow had another clutch.

Susie, Kate, and I enjoyed sitting on the stairs and watching the parents feed the chicks. We only saw one baby but there may have been two.

We have Red Shouldered and Cooper's Hawks in our neighborhood, and several times I watched the adults bravely chase off one of the Cooper's hawks. 

One day I even watched five or six barn swallows drive the Cooper's hawk off its perch on the neighbor's roof. I am pretty sure the hawk knew about the nest and was watching it.

Yesterday the nest was suddenly abandoned - the baby(ies) had fledged. And then later that afternoon while out with the dogs, I spied two tiny baby wings lying in the grass by one of my birch trees.

It was the baby barn swallow. Taken on its first day out of the nest.

Not the first time that's happened - a few years ago I actually saw the nestling fledge and the hawk swooped down and grabbed it before it even got across my front yard. Apparently something similar happened yesterday.

Sigh. Sometimes the circle of life can be hard to watch.

I am back in the sewing room (no surprise there, right?) and getting things organized and ready for a lot of 18th century sewing.

Cole gave me some electric scissors and I am learning to use them. They've very effective and make a nice cut, but currently the only speed seems to be GOGOGOGOGO. There's a bit of a learning curve but they are really fun to use.

I finished all but the hem on a chemise yesterday - Monday's project will be to hem it and then I will start on the next chemise.

Finally, last night Lisa came over and we did a high summer family tradition, always done as close to July 25th as possible.

Can you guess what that tradition is?

Stay 'tooned!

Feeling Like Capistrano

The swallows have returned!

I live five miles from the barn on the north edge of town. A woods edges one side of my neighborhood, and farmers' fields the others. We see deer, foxes, bluebirds, bald eagles, coyotes, and other wildlife frequently. I love living close enough to town to have access but enough outside of it to see the animals.

We have some very special "guests" again this summer. Barn swallows have made a nest inside the arched overhang of our front porch!

This is our third year "hosting" them. And while we love birds (and have feeders out), Craig took down the first two nests as the swallows make a terrible mess on the concrete right outside our front door. (He removed the nests after their babies had fledged, hoping the birds would look elsewhere the following nesting season.) 

No such luck. It's year three and they are back again.

When the swallows began working on this nest a few weeks ago, he discovered it just as they had begun. He shooed the birds away, got a ladder, and took off the small amount of mud they'd pasted up there, thinking that if he took it down before they were too far into building the nest, then they would have time to find another location before the mama needed to lay her eggs.

Well, let me tell you, those are some determined and very fast birds! The next morning, in the time it took Craig to mow our lawn, the barn swallows began and completed another nest!

They've had to struggle against some highly territorial birds who are nesting in a tree close to our home. A sparrow got up there and threw three eggs out and they shattered on the porch. That was a sad clean up for Craig and me.  But things have settled down and a new clutch has been laid. You can see the mama's tail sticking out of the nest as she incubates her eggs, and the father on watch while perched on our porch light.

My fingers are crossed that soon I will be able to see the babies pop their heads up as their folks fly in to feed them. And, I've got to get the poop scraper (actually, an ice scraper from winter) out and begin working on keeping our font stoop as clean as possible so that nasties aren't tracked into the house!