An Idea

As soon as I posted my last entry, I thought ... Hey, you could make your own transparent Post-It Notes using vellum paper or tracing paper and a Post-It Note glue pen! Do they still sell those? Well, there is always the Scotch Restickable Glue Stick.

I heart office supplies

Transparent Post-It Notes. At Cool Hunting. Via Not Martha. What a great way to highlight pages without ruining the book!

The Pen Addict. Via Not Martha.

I love paper -- especially high postconsumer content processed chlorine free paper, but I digress. I learned a new (new to me) paper-related word yesterday -- quire. A quire is:

: a collection of 24 or sometimes 25 sheets of paper of the same size and quality : one twentieth of a ream

Ta ta for now,
Sylvie

Today

We birded my husband's office today.

Blue Grosbeak in the road
"There's a Grosbeak on the road ..." sung to the tune of "Riders on the Storm"
Blue Grosbeak in action

California Blackberry

There were over 70 American White Pelicans. If you look closely, in each of these photos you can see one with a protruding plate on its maxilla-- this is common in breeding adults.


My husband saw this Pacific Treefrog crawl out from under a dirt clod. It had survived the farmer's discing of the field. What a cutie!

I banged my knees and shins on a log trying to sneak up on this Swallowtail.

The neighbor's cat was napping under our truck when we got home. They haven't named him, although they have had him for 12 years, so we have given him several names -- the latest is Caruthers (after Caruthers Canyon in the Mojave National Preserve).Ta ta for now,
Sylvie

Embroidered birthday card

I made this birthday card today. The colors are much brighter than they appear in this scanned image. The pattern is from Simple Embroidery (part of the Klutz series). I used two strands of embroidery floss -- if I use this pattern again, I think I'll use at least four. Overall, I really like it, and I hope that the recipient does, too!

Yesterday

Clarkia, 5-16-08

"What dreadful Hot weather we have!--It keeps one in a continual state of Inelegance.--If Miss Pearson should return with me, pray be careful not to expect too much Beauty..."
-- Jane Austen

The weather has become beastly -- fortunately, the heat in our neck of the woods is a dry heat, unless you are under a canopy of trees in a hollow near the river. Then, it is 100 degrees and a bit humid. Perhaps that is why the Hooded Warbler showed up -- he thought it was the Boy Scout Woods Bird Sanctuary of High Island in Texas :-) My husband was birding with a friend by the river a week ago, and the friend said that they needed to find a Hooded Warbler in that spot. And a week later, the friend called to tell my husband that he had found one! We headed out after work yesterday and spent three hours enjoying the bird, guiding a couple of other birders to its location, and sweating. The bird's song is SO sweet. Another sweet song we heard was the music of an ice cream truck. On our way home, we saw said truck, pulled over, and bought some frosty treats.

The Hooded Warbler was a beautiful male. Oo la la! He is way off course -- he should be with my mom in Ohio, not in California. My husband got photos and video of him.

The Clarkia is blooming near the river. A few of the flowers were more richly colored than the Clarkia I usually see.

Equisetum

Unknown bug

I was scandalized by the scores of box elder bugs copulating on the ground. I didn't get any photos (too dark), but they join up bottoms and one of them walks forward dragging the other one (who is walking backwards) behind it. They have no shame! :-)

Ta ta for now,
Sylvie

California's Supreme Court Stands Up for Equality

I'm proud to be a Californian today -- our State Supreme Court stood up for equality and affirmed the right to same-sex marriage. According to this article in the New York Times, the court’s 4-to-3 decision drew on a ruling six decades ago that struck down the state’s ban on interracial marriage. The Chief Justice said that “tradition alone” does not justify the denial of a fundamental constitutional right. I give a secular "amen" to that! My husband and I are of different races, and I am so glad that we were born in 1971 instead of, say, 1921.

Ta for now,
Sylvie

Finally

Our California Blackberry vines produced fruit for the first time this year. We planted them several years ago (2002 or 2003), and while they have flowered for the past few years, this is the first time I've seen fruit! I tasted one -- it was small and a bit dry, but fairly sweet.

Random Thoughts of 5-12-08

My husband identified yesterday's dragonfly as a Pacific Clubtail.

Today

We went birding at my husband's place of employment (it's hard to call it his office, since he works outside 70% of the time) today. Highlights included three Blue Grosbeaks, several Western Tanagers, at least two Bullock's Orioles (one of them was a male that looked like a Blackburnian Warbler on steroids), a Townsend's Warbler, Yellow Warblers with candy stripes, and an Anna's Hummingbird building a nest -- she sat in it and wiggled around a bit, as if she were shaping it with her body.

This was a VERY successful Bushtit family. The young were so cute all lined up on a branch being fed.

Cottonwood fluff is everywhere.

Dragonfly

Fly

These oak apple galls looked good enough to eat.

A beetle?

Salsify

This snakefly landed on my husband's pants. I got several pictures of it in some really cute poses on my husband's hand, but of course all of those photos were blurry.

We had crepes for lunch at the same place we went to in February. Once again, we each had a Mediterranean Crepe with a side of rosemary-garlic potatoes. This time, we had a strawberry crepe (with vanilla ice cream, of course) for dessert.

Ta ta for now,
Sylvie

Random Thoughts of 5-10-08

I went to an outdoor event today, and I pet every animal that I could -- a young pygmy goat (soft fur under the chin), a small Black Lab who is used to educate people to pick up their dogs' poop (I didn't ask for details), two sheep, a prehensile-tailed skink, and a rabbit. Ahhh ...

I keep hearing a commercial on the radio that references "California's six thousand avocado growers." Six thousand?! Sounds pretty high to me. Maybe they included everyone who has an avocado pit balanced with toothpicks on a jelly jar in their window :-)

Check out the Tiny Animals on Fingers Flickr pool.

Random Thoughts of 5-7-08

• The border fence that the government wants to build is a bad idea for so many reasons. Here is some information from Audubon.

• I like this Unwanted Guest Towel.

• Sashiko Embroidery. I could do this.

• Check out this cool beaded necklace -- a spider in its web
  

• I like the Zentangle piece (the black and white line drawing) that iHanna did.

So proud!

My mom is leading her first tour as a volunteer docent at the Holden Arboretum this Sunday!! The focus will be on rhododendrons and azaleas. She is great school teacher, so I know she'll do well. She is very happy about her volunteer work there, and I am very happy for her. My husband and I visited this arboretum with her a few years ago -- a very nice place.

Good night,
Sylvie

Today

My friend significantly brightened my Monday with these flowers -- Blue-eyed Grass and Tiny Rubies -- that she presented to me at work this morning in a very tiny bottle (the bottle is four inches tall). It's like a bouquet of irises and carnations in miniature. Here they are in my kitchen:

The Tiny Rubies have a delightful carnation fragrance. The Blue-eyed Grass flowers were closed when she brought them to my desk. As I worked, I grabbed the bottle and sniffed the Tiny Rubies every so often, and during one sniff, I was shocked as there was now an open Blue-eyed Grass blossom half an inch from my glasses.

My husband has a cold/flu, so he stayed home from work today. When I got home, he was feeling a little better and he asked me if I'd like to go for walk by the river, then grab some dinner, then go to buy a camera (a certain one that works well for digiscoping). Well, halfway through our walk, he started to feel very sick again, so we headed for home. Poor thing -- he's dizzy and feverish; he has a terrible cough; and he aches. We never used to get sick that often, and we've each had several colds over the past year. We're getting old, I guess.

We did see some cool things on our walk -- turtles interacting, Tree Swallows copulating, a Black-chinned Hummingbird (saw a flash of purple), this butterfly (a Lady? Perhaps a Painted Lady?):
Giant bees in the vetch:
Good night,
Sylvie

Button flowers

I enjoyed making these button flowers. The Crafty Crow has a link to the instructions from Morgan Moore.






Ta ta for now,
Sylvie

May 1st

It's May 1st, and I am thankful for all of the workers who gave their lives to give us the eight-hour workday.