June Stitching

House sitting for my sister in rural Virginia provided lots of opportunity to stitch and I got a lot accomplished. My sister has dozens of plants and hanging baskets on her wide wrap-around porches and a porch and yard full of bird feeders. I got books on tape from her library and sat on the porch watching the birds and stitching. Doesn't that sound like heaven? She also has a large flower garden with a goldfish pond and waterfall, benches and ornamental trees and a food garden as well. It's idyllic, but takes a lot of care, hence the house-sitting.

I also got my granddaughter, Eli, 4, and brought her over to make doll clothes and have a picnic on the porch. She enjoyed watching the little hummingbird defend his feeder from his "wife" and "children." He was so selfish, she thought he needed to go to "time-out"! Hummingbirds will share their feeders during the courtship and nesting, but once those hatchlings fledge, it's every man for himself! We enjoyed seeing the fledglings hiding in the bushes and attempting to sneak a sip of nectar.

Just as hummingbirds are more aggressive than I ever imagined, we also saw 2 bluebirds dive bombing squirrels at a feeder. What a shock! I had no idea they could be so aggressive either. Since they don't really use the feeder much, we figured that they must have a nest near; probably in the tree above the feeder.

There was even more raw nature to hear about when Mary Beth and Bobby returned. They have a screech owl box with a tiny camera in it and we have enjoyed seeing the owls care for the little babies, but one night an owl got a cardinal that was feeding on one of the feeders. Bobby checked the owl-cam and sure enough the owls were feeding the cardinal to the babies.