Black Swallowtail Caterpillars

It's been a wild time lately for the 2 Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillars that have been hanging around on my dill.  They come out when the sun shines and feed on the dill and hide away at night.  They haven't gotten large enough to go into their chrysalis yet but I am hoping they will do so.  The weather has been so windy and the cold has been creeping in so who knows what will happened.  I also have another 2 chrysalis from the Eastern Black Swallowtail.

And these flowers are still blooming!

quilt blocks for Sunshine Quilters

Each month Sunshine Quilters has a block lottery where you send in blocks to one of our members.  For each set that you send in, one block goes into the pile for Sunshine tops and one into a group for the winner of the block lottery.  Your "ticket"  is the sets of blocks you make and at the end of the month a name is drawn out to receive the blocks.  I have been going through all of my stash and blocks looking for extras, samples and orphans blocks.  I have some 12" blocks but also a number of  9" blocks.  Since they need to be 12" I have been adding borders to the blocks to bring them up to size.  I have a total of 25 blocks to donate to the pot and all are to go to Sunshine.  I also don't enter my name into the drawing because I am trying to pare down  and not take on any extra projects.  Here are a sampling of the blocks.

Merry Christmas

A posting of some of the fabric Christmas postcards I received as part of a swap on Postcard Pizzazz.  It's always fun to see the exciting mail I receive.

A sampling of more Christmas fabric postcards I've made

Boxed Squares Quilt

Here's the last quilt I am quilting for 2012.  It's a top I put together this fall.  Love the colors.  It will probably be donated to Wrap-A-Smile but I haven't made a final decision yet.

Thoughtful Thursday - Sunrise

“Sunrise paints the sky with pinks and the sunset with peaches. Cool to warm. So is the progression from childhood to old age.”  ― Vera Nazarian

Cape May Point

For several weeks I have been going over to the point to find the Red Crossbills and I haven't had any luck which is usually what happens to me when I try to "chase" a bird.  Today I decided to just go over and see whatever crossed my path.  I started my morning at Alexander Avenue beach where I found my brother-in- law birding with a group of friends from PA.  In 27 years I have never run into him by accident.  There were about 8 birders peering through their scopes over the ocean.  Turns out there was a Dovekie in those scopes and graciously let me have some looks also. This as a life bird for me.  After we split up I went up to the beach access at St Pete's and was thrilled to get some great looks at a flock of Red Crossbills that were feeding in the pines along the dunes.  They stayed for about 10 minutes before the flock just up and flew away down the dunes.

From there I went our on the beach by St Mary's to see the Common Eiders and the immature King Eider that having been hanging out near there the past few weeks.  I had good looks but poor pictures as the light wasn't good and they kept moving further out in the ocean.  So then it was over to the State Park where I saw a total of 6 butterflies.  3 of them were Red Admiral Butterflies while the other 3 I was never close enough to ID.  This butterfly sure is worn with lots of chunks of wings missing.  I also saw the Bafflehead Duck that has been in one of the ponds for a few weeks - again good looks but not good on the pictures between the light and the distance away from me.