Busy Week!

 

This week I have been busy, always something to do around the house and yard, but I have been working on my projects. I also made an Americana wreath, but it needs the finishing touches. I have set up a new garden area for the birds with a bird bath and it has had a lot of new visitors. My resident Hummingbird is back and still territorial.

Today we finally got out on the bikes. We went to the bike path that starts at the train station. It goes through woods, marshes and ponds and we ended up in town since the last part goes across busy roads. The area has bridges and a pond, so we took a break there to enjoy the wildlife.

Lots of turtles in the pond.

The floats are a favorite place for the cormorants to hang out.

On the way back we took a side route to visit the farm. 

Lots of cows in the field and they were fun to watch. Lots of young ones.

This one was running all over the place, just having fun. 

And this one was taking a lunch break.

Tomorrow will be rain, so we plan on having the kids over for dinner, for an early Mother's Day. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Friday working on!

 

This week I have been working on a Christmas quilt panel. I am hand quilting it, stitching around the black outlines. It also has some greenery and red that is not outlined, so I am using red and green single floss to stitch those areas. I have a few more small areas and then I can get to the outer border and add an edge, so not too much more.

Last week we took a ride and took a back road route. I wanted to see the old mill area, since they said it was being torn down and made into a park. Well, the building is still there and nothing has been done. I would love to explore it, but there is no way in, the area is too overgrown.

We headed to the beach areas to see if any birds were hanging out. There were a lot of egrets and herons clustered in the middle of the salt water pond, on their way south. On an inlet, I spotted this Great blue heron. He was just hanging out and then noticed the egrets and started puffing up and making funny gestures. 

Then he chased one away.

Then he went after the other and got a whack in the head, as it flew off. I think it was a young one who was being territorial, even though he was just passing through.

Another day we went for a ride into Connecticut. We drove down a road that passes through a reservoir. The colors were getting darker, but still pretty.

Then we stopped at a preserve in the area. It was a farm and they donated it with the stipulation that the farm and animals were kept private. We parked at the farm area to start the hike.

The path we took, went though wooded areas to an overlook.

And this was the view.

Back into the woods we found an old cellar.

We tried the trail on the opposite side and passed old farm equipment, a river and it ended up at a pond. With the droughts, it was more of a marsh. It was a nice walk and another place to revisit in the spring, when the birds come back.

We have rain coming in, so we will try and get out during the clearings. I got a new bike coming in, something better for trails, so I am giving Nick my mountain bike, and today we picked up a new one for Alex. He had his stolen, so now they will both have good bikes that fit their size. Tomorrow we will take them riding after the rain stops, so can't wait to surprise them.

I hope you all had a good week and can get out and enjoy the good days, before winter sets in.

Fall adventures!

 

( A day late, since Blogger decided to act up last night and not let me post photos. )

This week I have been working on a quilt and another project that will be done by next week. Our church is having a yard sale, so I spent a lot of time, gathering up items. 

With the nice weather and fall foliage, I am enjoying getting out, to get some exercise and enjoy the beautiful colors. Last Friday we went to a pond that has a nice trail around it. 

The colors were popping all over.

After we finished the hike, we drove up to another area that has a trail to a rocky cliff. We ended up taking longer since I took the wrong trail, then got to the right one and took the wrong path, but we finally got to the right path and enjoyed the short hike up. 

The next day we went to pick up the boys but got our signals crossed and they weren't home. So, we went to a nearby area, the boyscout camp, to do a short hike. We ended up going around the whole pond, which can be quite the hike in some areas. Lots of old log bridges, planks and rocks.

lt was Quite the hike, but beautiful views and a nice stop at the rocks for a snack break. When we came off the path, we walked to the smaller pond.

Yesterday we went for a ride to a local pond and enjoyed the views. It was a cloudy day with some sun, so a lot of the photos went dark and it is hard to get the full effect of the beauty, of the fall leaves.

We walked along part of the bike path. They still have not leveled it out and there are a lot of areas that have caved in, but still nice to walk on.

Then we rode into Connecticut to check out the farms in the area. I thought this barn was a nice scene with a bit of fall to the side.

Then we headed to Mt. Misery. In this area, farmers were giving land and nothing would grow and with all the bad luck, they blamed the devil and moved away. We hiked up the steep side, which I forgot was steep and rough.

But, we made it to the top.

Beautiful views for miles, but hard to capture all the colors.

I decided my knees couldn't take going back down the steep side, so we took the easy way back, an old fire road. It was nice getting out and the air is fresh and cool now. I hope you all enjoyed your week and following along with me, on my adventures.

Friday Finish!

 

I made my last piece for Halloween this week. It as a free design by my friend Kelley and it was just right for a little wall hanging for an empty space on my wall. I seem to have fewer of those, with all the pieces I have been making.

I colored it for a fun look but still kept it prim with the fabrics. The pumpkin fabrics was gifted to me, years ago, from Kelley, as well.

Last weekend we were able to get out for some bike rides. The first was in a town in Connecticut, along the Quinebaug river. It was a nice ride, not too long and it ended at the dam.

Since it was a short ride, which I later learned was over 5 miles, we decided to go to the trail we did last week, but from the other end. It was a nice trail, fairly flat and went by several ponds and mostly wooded.

I had a destination, to end at the reservoir that we stopped at, from the other end. I did not realize how far we had gone on the first ride and this one was longer than I realized, so I was getting tired each time I had to try to go up hill on the cross overs and of course I fell, not once but twice. The first time I fell on my tailbone, but I have no sense and kept going. Then I fell again when I died on the hill and fell over on my knee, so I realized it was time to give up, lol.

Luckily I always carry bandaids and taped up my cuts and walked around the area to relax before we headed back. I found a beautiful farm on the road we stopped at and took some photos. The lady came out and told me about her farm and what they do. They have rescue horses and also a working farm with meats and fresh produce. They have programs where you can learn about the horses, have a picnic and they even have bikes if you want to ride a portion of the trail. If you are ever in the Connecticut area and looking for something different to do, you can visit their website, Hidden Springs farms.

After that day, I decided that riding was out for now and we went for drives. The first day we rode up the Shetucket River and visited a few waterfalls, along the way. The first stop was the boat launch at BUtts Bridge. The scene was beautiful from the main bridge, but at the launch, it was so overgrown  that I had a hard time finding a spot to shoot from.

The next stop was in Occum. The views were beautiful but the river was high, so another place that was hard to find a place to stand.

Next was Baltic, the river was just as high there and the places we usually sit to relax and enjoy the river, where flowing with water.

And on the way home, we stopped at our favorite falls. It started to rain at this point but I was able to get a few shots before it got worse.

Our last day, we headed to Coventry Connecticut. Our first destination was the Nathan Hale Cemetery. It was was a beautiful old cemetery and of course I took photos of all the interesting stones.

 

Our last stop was the Nathan Hale home. I was surprised at how big the area was, lots of land to walk around on and they even have trails you can hike on.  The museum was closed but we enjoyed walking around the grounds. The rides we take are nice this time of year since there are pops of colors every so often. 

This weekend will depend on how much I can walk. My tailbone hurts if I bend too much and my knee hurts if I use it too much, but I will still get out and enjoy the scenery and maybe find some new places to explore. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Happy New Year!

 

I hope everyone has had a nice holiday week. We do not celebrate the new year, just another day for me. I just live for the day, trying to find joy in the moments and keeping busy. I also got a request for masks, 22 of them. I prefer to do a few at a time, it is rough on my arms, lots of cutting and sewing with the 3D masks, but I do like making them. I just wish there was an easier way so I could make more. I see so many people selling masks that do not fit properly and made with thin materials, and they charge more. 

These masks are going to a vet office, that my Niece works at. I made three styles so they can pick the ones they like.

Bill and I have been getting out when we can. The weather is colder and we get rain, but some days are nice enough to do a little exploring.

And we took the boys out,  to the lighthouse. 

It took about five minutes before they decided it as too cold, as you can see from this photo. We headed back to our house and all Nick wanted, was to jump in the hot tub, lol.

Today we got out for another ride and ended up going for a short hike. It was cold but nice to get out and get some exercise.

Along the ride we passed a lot of farms and quite a few Red Tailed Hawks.

And lots of old barns, most were falling down. 

We ended our ride at a pond, where the eagles hang out. We were lucky enough to spot them, but too far away and it was getting dark so I couldn't get a decent photo, but it was still nice to see them.

I hope you can get out and explore in your area, you never know what you will find.

Weekend Wanderings!

This weekend was cold, way too cold to be out long, so Saturday we went out shopping for Thanksgiving table items. Well, I never did find that, but I found some new lights to decorate with, one fall set, and a set of bottles with sand and shells, as well as sea glass, for my beach room. And I decided it was time to get a tree and Michaels had pencil trees on sale, perfect for a small space but nice and tall, so I can enjoy decorating it with my kitty ornaments.

Sunday was not as cold, so we decided to take Nick to the owl sanctuary and walk around the shops at Mystic Village. But, he was having so much fun exploring, we decided to stay there longer and pay the fee to go inside too.

Nick helped me hide rocks along the pathways.

He loved walking on the boardwalks.

We walked up to the balancing rock and gave it a push and got goofy.

He really loved hiking on the paths and we let him lead the way, so we ended up on a longer path that took us on the outskirts of the sanctuary and back to the beginning. I was teaching him about path markers and we followed the red ones. Rocks seem to be his favorite thing now, he wants to climb them all.

Inside we got to look at the displays, watch a man feed the turtles something that looked like grub worms and they had a play area for the little kids. A nice respite from the cold.

We decided to get some apples on the way home, then I realized we had to drive out to go up to the orchards, but Nick was tired and fell asleep for the ride. Picking is over, but the store has apples from the orchards that they keep in cold storage, so I got a couple of bags, love eating fresh apples.

I realized it was almost time for the sun to set, but we couldn't make it down to the ocean in time and I was watching it as we drove home, I was hoping I could catch it as it went down over the farm, but it had gone down already and getting dark. I took a photo of the barn area,  you can see the last of the sun rays on the hay. I had to lighten it up a little, the sky was darker.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. This week I started a new project, from one of Cheri's free designs.