Road Trip, Day 5 and 6 - East Texas

The fifth day of our trip started in Austin, Texas with a short drive to East Texas to see family. The drive was gorgeous!  We went through rolling green hills with lots of trees, flowers and farms. It looked like a story book.  Perfect and beautiful!

We made a stop along the way to visit a yarn shop called, iPurl in The Woodlands, Texas.  I found it online when I started planning the trip.  I've been following them on Facebook and in May they posted some great tools they'd gotten in the shop.  I was hoping they'd still have some by the time I got there.

We received a warm and friendly greeting when we walked in and the entire visit was nothing but enjoyable!  The people were super nice, the selection of yarn and supplies was wonderful, and they had lots of inspirational projects displayed around the store.  And, yes...they had the tools I was hoping for.

I finally got a lucet!  I've been wanting one for a while but haven't found any in yarn shops until now.  This one is made with beautiful cherry wood and it comes with directions complete with photos.  I'm so excited to give it a try!

The other tool I was hoping they'd still have was one of these yarn ball holders.  It spins and keeps yarn easily available but doesn't let it tangle.  One of the sweet ladies in the shop said it's one of her all time favorite yarn tools.  They not only had some left, they also had a choice of finishes.  I chose this dark wood one.  I love it and I'm so excited to try it out too.

I looked up the company that made these wood tools and it turns out they came from California....where I'm from!  Funny how I never saw them in yarn shops at home and had to come all the way to Texas to find them!  I'm just happy to have them and happy they're handmade in America.

I'm so into crochet thread lately and always on the lookout for pretty colors.  iPurl had lots of it in a few different brands.  I had to get some!  I already have in mind what I want to make with it!

While my items were being added up, I noticed some cute purse handles hanging near the cash register.  Yes, I had to get some of those too!  Aren't they cute?!

They had them in several different colors but I had to have the red ones.

I think they'll look super cute on a black felted purse.  Or, who knows...maybe another color!

As she bagged up all my goodies, she put a little gift inside for me...

a set of cute little stitch markers...

My daughter even bought some yarn!  It's a beautiful sock weight yarn with pinks, oranges and (I think) some purple in it.  It's pretty!  She's planning to crochet a lacy cowl with it.

We enjoyed our visit to iPurl so much!  I think they enjoyed our visit too as we chatted a lot and before we left they took our photo and posted it on their Facebook page...

I wish we had a local yarn shop where we live.  And, I wish it was like iPurl!

Not only did they have great stuff and wonderful people but they also have lots of classes, stitch-alongs, charity project stitch-alongs, groups, etc.  It sounds like so much fun!

Back on the road...we headed north to visit my wonderful aunt and cousins.  We had a wonderful visit!  I love them so much!  I'm not posting any photos of them though as mine all turned out blurry (my daughter got good ones). It's always wonderful to see them and spend some time together.  Since we live so far apart, we don't get to see them very often.

We were excited to find out they have Cardinals and were quickly on the lookout for some.  It didn't take long.  My aunt re-filled her bird feeder and they were there in no time.  They were, however, quite hard to get pictures of.  In fact, they seemed camera shy.  We could walk near the window and they didn't always fly away.  But, as soon as we tried to take a photo, they'd fly away.  I did get a few from a distance though.  I just zoomed in with editing to get a closer look.

Here's a wider view to see her lovely yard.  It's so green!

Here's one of the Cardinals.

See...he's looking at me and about to fly away!

There were lots of other pretty birds there that we do don't have at home. I just wasn't able to get pictures of them either.  Oh...and my daughter saw her first firefly!

My aunt had Passion Flower vines on her fence .  I'm always fascinated by them.

I posted this one on Instagram.  I used an effect but it really was purple.

Isn't it amazing?!

Hopefully, Ladybug won't mind me posting her picture.

She's my aunt's dog and she's such a sweetheart.

I finished knitting my Gap-tastic cowl while I was there. It was perfect timing too!  It may be summer but people and businesses seem to keep things extra cool in the south with AC's turned up high.  I actually wore it for a while in my aunts house.  Ahhh...it felt so good!  I'm happy to report that my handspun Merino yarn is very soft and not itchy.  Yay!  I posted this on Instagram that day...

I had to get a photo of this before we left.  It's an antique child-sized desk that someone gave to my aunt when she was a child.  My mom played with it as a child too.  And, I got to have it for a while when I was little.  I have great memories of having this in my room.

Our visit was short but wonderful!  After a day and a half we had to hit the road again for our next destination...New Orleans, Lousiana!  I'll start posting about that as soon as I can.
The hotel we are at right now has bad wifi and I am finishing this on my cell phone.   It is quite challenging...to say the least!

Wildlife in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National park

Our week in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park was accompanied by the singing and sounds of a lot of different birds.  They spent most of their time up in the dense forest of trees and we rarely saw them but they almost continuously filled the air with their songs.  Many of the sounds were unfamiliar.  It would have been fun to have seen what the birds looked like that were making those unique sounds.  I did, however, recognize one and eventually saw many of them....the Steller's Jay.  They're so pretty dressed in blue.

We knew there was a lot of other wildlife in the park but it was very rare to see too.  We only saw a few deer the whole week.  They were difficult to capture on film because we were in the car each time and they didn't stay in one place for very long.

Once they 'dnotice someone was near, they'd start moving...

And, then running...

Then...in almost a blink of an eye they were gone.

We've learned that when we're in areas like this and we see people stopping their cars in the middle of the road or pulling over to the side for no apparent reason...there's probably something to see and that something is often an animal.  That's how we found the one and only bear we saw the entire week.  I'm glad we only saw one because they should be shy and avoiding humans.  This one was quite a distance away in the woods...which explains why it's hard to see it in these pictures.  I did zoom in on this photo to see him but wanted to show how it's off in the woods.  Look very carefully in the very center (if you click on the photo it should enlarge a bit)...

Here it is zoomed in a bit more...

It was munching on plants and seemed like it didn't even know we were there.  Although, I'm sure they probably have very good hearing and it not only knew we were there but also kept tabs on us.  Luckily, for the bear, there were just two cars and five people watching him and we were all smart enough to keep our distance.

The only other wildlife we saw during our stay were bugs and butterflies, a few chipmunks and squirrels and some wild trout.  But, that's just fine with me.  Wild animals should be just that, wild.  It's not normal for them to want to be near humans.  And, not safe!  That's why many parks have signs asking visitors not to feed them or try to pet them.  It's best to let them be and they'll let us be. 

Next time...Morro Rock in Sequoia National Park. 



Super Sized

Our weekend, mountain getaway had a daily visitor...this super sized bird...

It was standing in the meadow and looked like it was hunting for gophers.

When we tried to get closer for a better look it got nervous and flew away. 

So, all of these photos are from pretty far away. 

They're a little blurry because I zoomed in on my computer and cropped them to get a better look.

We thought it was big when it was just standing there...maybe three feet tall or more...

but, when it flew and spread it's wings we gasped at the large span.

Incredible!

Lil' Hummers Update

I'm happy to report that the little hummgingbirds I blogged about last week are doing great! Their little nest stayed where I put it, a little tilted, but fine. By the weekend they had grown and changed and were blinking their little eyes and looking at me when I checked on them...


They started venturing out today. Must be nice to get out of that cramped little nest. They're so cute with their little beaks crossed...


This afternoon they started venturing out even further. I bet they'll be trying out their wings very soon.


I wonder how hummingbirds learn to fly?! Most birds can at least spread their wings and glide a little while they figure out the whole flapping thing. This seems a bit more challening. Good luck little ones!

Feathered Friend

Pigeons may be cute at the park but NOT in the neighborhood. They're destructive and messy. We haven't found a way to make them go away and we've had to do a lot of things to prevent damage and clean up their messes.

Luckily, there's another kind of bird that's willing and able to help. Hawks! They've been very busy the past few weeks as evidenced by feathers in various yards where they have feasted. A hawk chose our yard to dine in yesterday.


We were just about to open the front door and go to the store when we noticed what was happening. We watched for a while and then tried to sneak out the back and around the side of the house as not to disturb it's meal.

Click on the picture to see it larger. We were amazed at the hawks long legs and thought it's fluffy striped "pants" were really cute. :-)

Ooops!

I woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise and warm cloudy weather. It was a perfect morning to spend in my garden clipping old roses off so they can keep on blooming. And, that's just what I did. One of my rose bushes has been very ambitious this year and had stems that had grown to seven or eight feet high, at least. I clipped and dropped them into a pile, carried them over to the trash can, dropped them on the ground, started clipping them into pieces and throwing them away. Uh oh...I noticed a little nest on one of the long stems. It had white on it like spider webs. Was it from a spider or bug? Nope. I noticed a tiny little gray thing hanging out of it but it wasn't moving. I gently touched it with my clippers (to avoid getting human scent on it). It was soft and seemed to be alive. Ooops! I'd cut a stem that had a hummingbird nest attached to it with two tiny babies inside.

I clipped the stem to about a foot long and carried it back to the rose bush to figure out what to do. I propped it in between some other stems and the thorns helped to hold it in place. I later propped a stem of rose leaves above them to give them shade. They're so tiny and cute!


I kept an eye out to see if the mommy would find them. Sure enough...she did! Whew!


She quickly got back to feeding and carrying for her little children.


I'm so glad I noticed them before I tossed that stem into the trash! What a wild ride that must have been for them. I wonder if mom was watching me the whole time, worrying about her babies. So far, they seem to be doing okay. They have feathers on their wings and I bet they'll soon be ready to fly.

Bye Bye Birdies

I like birds. And, I like the trim around the windows of our house. After we moved into our current home (about eight years ago) we realized that pigeons also like the trim around our windows. That's NOT good! They're very messy! We've been trying ever since to keep them off. Our most successful solution has been to hang netting (fine landscape netting that barely shows) from the eaves to just below the top of the windows (the pigeons only seem to like the tops of the windows on the second story). Other than a few times that the netting has fallen and hubby had to re-hang it, it's worked pretty well. Problem solved, right? Well...maybe not.

We recently started seeing little white balls of foam on the ground on one side of our house. At first, we had no idea what it was...


We kept seeing more and more of it and one day when I was out there I noticed a few pieces falling from the sky. I looked up and quickly realized what it was. Before we were successful in keeping the pigeons off of the trim ledges, they must have scratched off some of the stucco. Even though the pigeons can't go up there anymore because of the netting, the sparrows can and missing stucco makes it possible for them to pick into the foam underneath. They not only picked, they dug tunnels! I saw one fly out of a hole! Argh!

We had to do something and we had to do it quick! We made a trip to Lowe's and bought a really long ladder (not cheap but it's 20 feet to the eaves!), foam to fill up the tunnels and holes, a long slat of aluminum to cover the top of the trim and prevent further damage, and some spikes to keep birds off.

After lots of fiddling and adjusting of the ladder, we finally got it in a good spot, at a good angle, and hubby felt pretty safe. It's really high up there! He sprayed foam into the holes.


While it dried, he drilled holes into the aluminum slat and attached bird spikes with stainless steel wire. The aluminum will protect the top of the window and cover the holes. Attaching the spikes to the one slat also allowed him to attach all six feet at once (they come in 12" sections).


If this doesn't work, I don't know what we'll do!


He had to trim some of the spikes to make them fit around the eaves. And, it was a challenge to put it up there. It's not pretty and some of the foam and damage shows but, hopefully, it will work.


Now that we've figured out how to get the spikes onto the ledge, the other windows should be a little easier. They'll be cheaper too because we now have a big ladder. Who knew little sparrows could be destructive and expensive?! Certainly not us! We'll be working on more windows this weekend. Then, it'll be time to call the window washers!