Happy Birthday, Jenny

My sister, Jenny and I spend a lot of time together these days.  Today's her birthday so I decided I'd post some pictures of her from over the years.  Happy Birthday!

Jenny's the little one in the front. Leslie, my older sister is behind her with me on the car bumper.  Jeff, our brother is to the side.  Leslie has a broken arm.  Taken Easter 1958.

Jenny, Beth and Les playing on the beach in about 1962.

Al & Jenny's wedding day - June 23rd, 1973















(below) Al & Jenny in CA - September 26th, 2012

Sunshine Quilting - Raffle Blocks

There are so many ways to be involved in charity quilting.  Our online Sunshine Quilters guild has a block raffle every month.  There is a monthly list of colors and for every 2 blocks you make and send, your name goes into the pot once.  The blocks are split two plies -one to Sunshine and one to the winner unless designated to be all for the charity tops.  At the end of the month a winner is chosen from those who want to be in the drawing.  The winner gets whatever blocks are to go to her and she can do anything she wants with them though most use them for more charity quilts.

 Tammy who runs the block raffle keeps all the blocks designed for Sunshine and makes them into tops for the children to whom we send quilts.  So Tammy helps out, the block makers help out and the raffle winner helps out.  This sure is a win-win for everyone but especially the children!  Here are 5 of my raffle blocks for February.

Sunshine Quilting

So many members of Sunshine quilters have now challenged themselves to make a block per day for each day of Lent.  That would be 43 blocks in total and great for more scrappy quilts so I decided that I am up for this challenge.  But to add a twist I think I am also going to make a quilt top each weekend of Lent which means 6 quilt tops.  This weekend's top was fun to put together and will be great for either a boy or a girl.

Birding - Avalon

Yesterday afternoon I left work after just 3 hrs so I could spend the afternoon out doing some birding and taking some pictures.  Just need to recharge my batteries after working so much since the beginning of the year.  I'd been to Nummy Island in the morning.  I'd debated about where to go but decided to go again to  Avalon.  I started by going to the approach to the Townsend's Inlet Bridge that connects Avalon to Sea Isle City.  The roadway is actually closed to cars due to the damage done by Hurricane Sandy.  It has ripped up the roadway in several areas and in others moved massive boulders from where they were and deposited them elsewhere.  It makes you realize how powerful water can be.  Who knows when it will be fixed as there has been no work done on it yet.  Because of the damage though you can walk along the roadway and look at the birds and ducks in the inlet.  The afternoon brought great looks at about 2 dozen Long-tailed Ducks that were calling back and forth, some Common Loons and about 1/2 dozen Red-breasted Mergansers.  The Red-breasted Mergansers were in close which was super as they tend to swim away every time I see them in the back bays.

I just love the "hair-do's on these ducks.

Then it was down to walk out the 8th Street Jetty where I saw more Long-tailed Ducks including one male who was no farther than about 15 ft from me.  He swam and dove frequently in the waves at the end of the jetty.  There were shorebirds flying and roosting out the wind which had started to pick up, Ruddy Turnstones (with one still in breeding plummage) and lots of Purple Sandpipers.

Birding - Nummy Island

  

This morning I stole 2 hours to go birding before I went to work.  The forecast for today is 50 degrees with winds about 10 MPH so I'll be leaving work early.  I normally only work about 24 hrs per week but have been working 32-40+ hrs per week so today's a day to recharge my mental batteries.  First stop was Nummy Island where at first I saw my first of the season Yellow Legs. I also saw a Great Blue Heron fishing, Red-throated Loons, Horned Grebe and had close looks at about 2 dozen Greater Scaup.

Happy Valentine's Day

For Postcard Pizzazz I was in a Valentine's Postcard swap.  I had fun making the cards as I always do.   I made about a dozen cards so I could send some extras to my friends.

Valentine's Postcards received

Here's the postcards I received for the Valentine's Postcard swap on Postcard Pizzazz.  It's a Yahoo group where we make postcards to exchange which gives each of us a creative outlet.

Avalon Jetty - con't

More pictures from yesterday's visit to the Avalon Jetty - pictured (in order) Brant, Purple Sandpiper & Ruddy Turnstone bathing.

Birds at Avalon Jetty

 I got to leave work a little early today which was great because I'd heard that the Avalon 8th Street Jetty was open again after the dredging project finished.  I got good looks at Common Loons (above), Purple Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones and Long-tailed Ducks.  I had great looks at about 2 dozen of the ducks.  I might need to go back tomorrow to see them all again.

Lake Champlain - Villas

A return visit to see the Common Mergansers, the Northern Shovelers and the American Coots

The Fight --  Immature male Merganser biting the Adult Male

Northern Shovelers (above)

American Coot

Common Mergansers - Lake Champlain

I like to check out Lake Champlain several times during the winter.  Last year there were Hooded Mergansers, Northern Shovelers, American Coots among the Mallards and various gulls.  I went today to see what was there and was pleasantly surprised to find 3 Common Mergansers which are uncommon in this area.  There were 3 Mergansers - an adult male, immature male and a female.  I didn't stay very long as the winds were blowing and it was bitter cold.

Common Mergansers

Hooded Mergansers

Wordless Wednesday - Chipping Sparrow

New yard bird

Super Sunday Sunshine Quilting

My online quilting group decided that instead of watching football on Superbowl Sunday we would have a special quilt retreat with each of us in our own homes but talking online as we worked on our projects.  We were challenged to see how many quilt or quilt tops we could make in one weekend. We decided any tops made during Friday, Saturday or Sunday would count in addition to tops already made but quilted during the weekend.  By Sunday's end we had 19 tops that were quilted and 39 tops that were pieced plus 61 blocks were made.  I made these 2 tops in addition to a top I'd made earlier in the week which didn't count in  the totals.

Eurasian Collared Doves - Cape May Point

New life bird