New Quilt!

This weekend while I was away at Chincoteague for the last time this year I finished my latest quilt. I had my doubts about bringing it while I was away but I was glad because I finally finished it. It took me more than a year because I prefer to hand sew. The night it was done I had a nightmare that I was working on a quilt and every time I thought I finished it I found something else that needed serious work. Also, everyone hated it. This quilt, however, is really not for public show but simply because I needed a new quilt for my bed.

Evening at Chincoteague

This is on the wildlife loop at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

Eagles at Chincoteague

A couple of weeks ago we went on another trip to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Now, every time we’ve gone there we heard about eagles. There used to be a video monitor in the visitor’s center, which showed some baby eagles in a nest. But, we never saw any until this last trip. Note that there are two here, and one flew by just as we saw these. This was on the wildlife loop in the late afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday - Beach Wood at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

Flowers From Eden

I’ve been a little bit under the weather these days. Besides my arm problem (which is slowly going away) I have this weird tiredness. I have a friend who went though this and can only assume it must be a virus of some sort.

The flowers above came from How Sweet it Is, which is located in Eden, Maryland and on the way to Chincoteague. I always look forward to getting a flat of plants from there each year. They have annuals we don’t have in the city such as double petunias and pink stocks. Some of these are destined for the front of my house, but others I don’t know what to do with yet. They are just so appealing I had to buy them. Also, they have good produce and I got some excellent strawberries from them.

Wordless Wednesday: Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

That Elusive Delmarva Fox Squirrel

I’m sure I’m going to tell you lots of squirrel stories as I write this blog. In my neighborhood we are blessed/cursed with the common gray squirrel, which is cute but can be destructive. I am more enamored with the Delmarva fox squirrel, which my friend and I have had brushes with on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

The first time I went there I read about this squirrel in the visitor’s center. Oh, they are shy, retiring, hard to spot and endangered. People we knew had been coming to Chincoteague for years never saw one. Well, yes, we saw one, on that very trip. As we made one last trip through the wildlife loop before driving back to Baltimore, there he was! The elusive Delmarva Fox squirrel was sitting on the side of the road and sunning himself. Well, since we were leaving the cameras were packed and by the time we finished our fumbling he was gone.

This squirrel, though shy and retiring, likes to sit by the road and taunt passers by. We saw them on subsequent trips, but they always ran just out of camera range. In fact, most of my pictures of them show them streaking away. But, one day last fall this squirrel decided to pose for me, and in range of my zoom lens.

So, that is what prompted me to write “Types of squirrels found in Maryland”. I was just curious about the Delmarva Fox Squirrel in particular. It was also interesting to see that we have gray, red and flying squirrels in Maryland as well.

Next, I’m going to write an article about deterring them as pests, which is less romantic but more practical.