Boogie Nights ~ a Nature Walk

 

Hi everyone. Spring and melted snow and ice mark the beginning of my nature walks. I visit the dunes  often now that I'm walking alone, dogs aren't permitted on my beach, so Mo and I would rarely venture out there. In the daytime the beach dunes are silent and still, just the wind rustling the grasses and scrubby trees, maybe a few gulls or a hawk overhead. The storm-ravaged back dunes and swales are ugly and brown still, no water, no nesting mallards and babies. I'm dying to know what that red thing is, center right. Plastic--a kite?

 So days are silent, but the nights! Oh the nights must be very different, the dune world comes awake and must teem with activity, especially now, as the creatures hunt for food and mates and nesting spots.

Look at the evidence left behind. 

someone travels back and forth, back and forth, using the walkway as a guide.

Cats , dogs, mice and rats, raccoon and possums. 

The odd upper line of tracks here must be a bird with a tail that leaves a line in the sand? Or the possum, or a rat? 

Rabbits abound. In all my years here I have only seen one rabbit! And that was a moonlit walk with my mom as the crescent moon set with the waning sunset.

Tiny prints are probably mice. Then along the boardwalk are toads' prints or frogs', which live under the boards. Hard to see, I'll get a better close up after the rains.

These are prints of a large raccoon, below. I have never seen a raccoon; one possum, in my yard! And a muskrat visited for a while after H Sandy.

I stare and wonder, take pics. How will these creatures survive with no vernal ponds? The sals are, I presume fresh water from rain, but perhaps not; salty or brackish is more likely. Still, most years there are tadpoles and butterflies, and water ducks like mallards nest and raise families.

Later, as my tea brews, I search out my guide books.[ oh---another cupboard that needs sorting, I see].

And the winter weed book must be with my journal supplies.  Another day I headed inland. The forsythia is a favorite of mine. 

And what is this lovely shrub? Mimosa? I'll ask google lens. "Viburnum" it says. The shrub is ancient and two stories tall.

...............

The rain persists so the afternoon sewing is resumed. So far I am persevering on Boardwalk. Right now it's pretty awful, I know, I know! Bummer.

Not a pretty workspace

and not a pretty progress wall.

I'm still in the planning stage for Posies as I await the background neutral print. The choosing and planning is my favorite part of quilt making, so I'm in no rush. This is posy centers and leaves.

I pulled out this mini quilt pattern by Julie Porter. Pieced flowers but different. 

The birds I plan to sub for Posies' star borders. My sparrows instead. [will they come now that Mo is gone, they loved his treat crumbs and water dishes. I have not yet seen them, sadly.]

I love this little quilt, it may go to the front of my To Do Someday stack.  I love the colors. And I'm pretty sure low volume and improv will not be a path I choose going forward. Addicted to cute and colorful, I admit.

From IG: I took a screenshot of this interesting small quilt. Make-do but planned. A good project for all the repro prints I have collected, patriotic and historic aren't fitting my mindset these days.

And a fun idea for my little friend and me this summer. She draws adorably. Though I know her mom and dad don't like o use quilts, so I'll keep it myself I suppose.

I also ordered basic patterns for the larger 18" American Girl doll. Just hope my little friend is over wanting the ghastly named K Pop Demon Hunter look [it was a 2025 Disney hit movie w Korean pop girls as heroes. Ick ick ick.]. The finished outfits online run $25-35.oo!!!  Plus more for their crappy plastic weapons. So far I have refused.

.........

Nothing fun in the food category this week. My friend installed a new high tech smoke alarm and now I'm afraid to cook in case it sets it off. Hopefully he'll stop by tomorrow and explain  all to me again, boy do I feel stupid.  I thought I could turn it off w my phone, but no. Scary, scary.

Today's rain is odd. April showers, not a storm. Big blobs of rain interspersed with tall swirls of fog. Looks like ghosts. 

Have a good week. May is almost here.

love, 

lizzy

gone to the beach....

the sky is not always blue, is it...