There is a lot happening in our backyard!

Early this morning I looked out the back window and saw two coyotes walking quite near the house. Naturally, I ran for my camera!

They did not seem one bit fazed by my presence and just slowly walked over to the woods and disappeared.

Both animals looked to be healthy with a full, glossy coat of fur.

One last look back at the maintenance crew that stopped to watch.

Our friendly Fox Squirrel has been by almost everyday.

He very carefully checks the yard before crossing to the feeders. Since the Bobcat has been around - we haven't seen a grey squirrel.

Today our contractor added the birdcage over our patio and outdoor kitchen.

The birdcage connects to the new Florida room. Next week, the windows and doors will be installed.

This is the One-block Wonder I just completed. I just love this technique!

This is the back of the quilt showing the original fabric.

Once the new room is complete, I hope to move my sewing so everything will be in one room - but I heard Bill and the builder talking about support beams to hang airplanes. We might have to talk...

He's Back!

Our Fox Squirrel has returned! We have seen him at the feeders every day this past week. Last year we had one with a very short tail, but we have not seen him this year..... yet.

The Fox Squirrels are welcome at our feeders. They are polite and eat only one seed at a time, do not shake the feeders to empty them and only take what they can eat. The Grey Squirrels??? Not so much.

I love this cute little Tufted Titmouse!

I thought we had lots of House Finches in Colorado - but we may have even more here!!

We have plenty of Bluebirds! I'm sure this is a juvenile. Cute!

This must be the proud Papa.

This Red-tailed Hawk spends his days in the trees beyond our backyard - sitting and looking for dinner....

While we were watching him he flew down onto the golf course. We knew he had something - but what?

When he flew back to his tree we could clearly see the snake in his talons.

Bill says he wants to build an RC squirrel to tease the hawk. Wouldn't that be cool!!??

Florida Fox Squirrel

I never tire of seeing the Florida Fox Squirrels at our feeders. They enjoy the sunflower seeds that have dropped. This is the one with the short tail.

Another regular...

We see lots of Red-bellied Woodpeckers but not many of the smaller Downy Woodpeckers.

The red on his head indicates it is a mature male.

Backyard Visitors

We have bird feeders in both our front yard and in our back yard. It's amazing to me that we see different birds and creatures depending which way we look. In our front yard we see lots of common grey squirrels - but they never venture into our open backyard. We think it is because of the hawks and owls. The Sherman Fox Squirrels, however, prefer the back yard to the front yard.

The Florida (or Sherman) Fox Squirrels have very long tails - except this one. We've also had a baby Fox Squirrel visit - but I haven't gotten a picture of him yet.

The American Goldfinches are getting yellower by the day. Migration has begun and we are seeing them in lesser numbers than last week. They like the feeders in the back as do the Pine Warblers. We are more likely to see Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice in the front yard.

Unusual Florida Fox Squirrel

Florida Fox Squirrels are regular visitors to our backyard but this year we have an unusual one - he has a short stubby tail! Normally, Fox Squirrels have very long tails - as long as their body - but this one has either had an accident or is an interesting variety.

He is still cute.

We also have lots of Doves that feed on the dropped sunflower seeds under the feeders. Most are Mourning Doves, but today we had two Ground Doves. They are much smaller and have different markings.

Our Goldfinches are getting more yellow color every day.

New Bird

We have a nice Live Oak tree with two bird feeders in our front yard that attracts a variety of birds including Blue Jays, Cardinals, Finches and Titmice. Today we spotted a new bird - a Brown Thrasher.

Look how long his tail is! His wings are a rich red-brown with two black & white wing bars.

His chest is speckled and his bill curves gently downward. This is the first Brown Thrasher we've seen here in the yard - so we were quite excited. (It's a yucky rainy day here in Central Florida so we are easily amused.)

Spring is definitely in the air. The Goldfinches are back but don't have their bright yellow color yet. This Mockingbird was singing his little heart out and we're starting to see more vivid colors on the Bluebirds and House Finches.

Momma Dove was showing her baby the sights from the roof of our neighbors house.

And this adorable baby Sherman Fox Squirrel was using his tail as an umbrella to keep the rain off his head as he searched for sun flower seeds under the backyard feeders. Bill took this shot from the lanai - through the screens, which is why it is so blurry.

Sherman Fox Squirrel

Isn't this the cutest squirrel you ever saw? She is a Sherman Fox Squirrel - a species of "special concern" here in Florida. My sister had never seen a Fox Squirrel - and immediately fell in love with this one - as did my son when he was here over the holidays.

Sister Beth posted pictures on her blog ( http://quilterb-bethsblog.blogspot.com/ ) of our "sport model rat" (Bill's name for our little critter) and my son has abandoned his mother's blog for his aunt's blog because she posted cute pictures first.

These pictures are my attempt to lure my son back.

Quilts for the Kids

I can finally share pictures of the two quilts that I made over the summer - one for son John and the other for daughter Pamela.

This is a One-Block Wonder that I made for John. I really enjoyed working with the blues, greens and yellows. The kaleidoscope effect comes from cutting triangles from 6 identical pieces of fabric.

And this is Pamela's quilt - a French Braid. We selected the fabric together just days before she delivered my newest grandson, Leandro. I am currently in Maryland visiting and celebrating Gabriel's 7th birthday.


Before I left Florida, we had a visit from one of my favorite squirrels - the Florida Fox Squirrel. I'm sneaking this blog entry in while Pamela, Orlando and Gabriel are saying good-bye to the birthday guests. I'd better go help clean up.

My Valentine Tree

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Bill asked me over the weekend what I wanted and I said I wanted to plant a tree in the backyard. We already had the plan approved by the landscape committee and the utilities had marked the underground cables so we knew where we could dig. Off we go to Lowes to select our tree - but they didn't have what I wanted - a Live Oak - so we checked Home Depot, and they had a nice selection. Since we weren't going to plant the tree until the next day, we came home empty handed. Bill dug the hole - 3 times bigger than what we remembered was the size of the root ball. We soaked the hole with water. It looked like a man-made lake and we expected to see flocks of migrating ducks land in our yard.

After Bill returned from flying his RC plane on Valentine's morning, we headed back to Home Depot to buy our tree. The master gardener helped us select a nice healthy Live Oak - and the other stuff we would need: 50 pounds of potting soil to mix with our sandy soil and Quick Start fertilizer. Bill borrowed a wheelbarrow from the neighbor.

The hole was a "little" larger than we needed and we didn't have enough potting soil so Bill headed back for more. While he was gone, a sparrow landed in the tree and knocked it over.

This is my tree. I love it. I hope the birds don't knock it over again. Oh, and Bill says that next year I'm getting a dozen roses.

I'm having a great time learning to quilt.

This is the top I just finished. The pattern is "Cascades." At one point, I didn't think it would get finished as there was an error in the pattern and the triangles for the sides were too small - but I was able to get more material and finish putting it together. Before I start another pattern, I will check the website for "updates."

This is the top I'm making in my beginner class. I have one more session - to do the binding - and I'm finished. It's been a blast.

We are still enjoying the birds in the yard. This is a beautiful American Kestrel.

While I was looking at the Kestrel, this blimp flew over. We've seen it quite a few times in the neighborhood. Rumor has it that it's one of our neighbors - John Travolta - showing off the horse farms to his friends.

Mr. Fox Squirrel has been a regular visitor. I don't even mind if he eats from the feeders.

I took this shot right before he fell off.

But he got right back up.

Florida Fox Squirrel

We have some interesting squirrels here in Florida. Along with the common Eastern Gray Squirrels, we have endangered Fox Squirrels. There are a couple of varieties of Fox Squirrel and I spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out if this one that was in our backyard was a Sherman's or a Big Cypress Fox Squirrel - but read that the only way to tell the difference is genetic testing.

They are about twice the size of Gray Squirrels - and look at the length of his tail! This shot isn't too bad considering I took it through the screens.

Bill went outside with the camera to try and get a better picture, but our little friend is shy and scampered off into the woods. We spread sunflower seeds on the ground hoping he'll return.


This picture was left-over from the zoo pictures I posted the other day. It's a Red-legged Seriema. I haven't taken many new pics as I have a cold - and don't want to share my germs. I need to get over it before Wednesday because Bill's oldest daughter Laura, hubby Tim, and their four teenagers are coming to visit.

Epcot and Ocala

Okay, okay - it's been over a week since my last blog and my "regulars" are getting antsy -- well at least one is. You know who you are.

And quite a week it's been! A week ago Friday, Bill and I met daughter Pamela, husband, Orlando and my handsome grandsons, Gabriel and Sebastian, at Epcot for the day. Bill earned his ticket volunteering at The Bridge - a non-profit center for at-risk youth in Fort Myers.

Gabriel had his face painted like a tiger. He was very proud and scary.

He really wanted to make sure the artist did a good job and I was exceptionally pleased that he sat so very still the whole time she was working. Afterwards, we went to lunch and he found a mirror in the restaurant. He kept going over to see how he looked. It was very cute!

Pamela and Sebastian. I wish it had been warmer but the kids didn't seem to mind the chilly weather. Pamela is wearing Gabriel's "ears." They just did not go with his tiger face!

Sebastian was a little young for most of the rides but he seemed to enjoy the sights and sounds of the park anyway. Bill got him to take a short nap while mom and dad went on the rides with Gabriel.

Here we are - Pamela with Sebastian, me, Gabriel and Orlando. Mickey and Minnie are in the background - along with an unnamed couple who was in the wrong place at the right time.

We had a great day and enjoyed the kids before heading north and dropping off another load of furniture at our storage unit in Ocala.

On Monday at 11:30 a.m. we made settlement on our new house in Ocala. At 1:00 p.m. Stanley Steemer came to clean the carpets, at 2:00 p.m. the guys arrived to measure the floors for new carpet and flooring, at 2:30 p.m. Jeremy arrived to set up the Internet and after that our new bedroom furniture arrived so we could spend the night in our new house. It has been non-stop - buying, fixing, adding, assembling new, etc. ect. We actually made friends with our sales-person at the furniture store and purchased some new furniture she had stored in her garage. I'm waiting for the last of it to be delivered any minute.

This is an endangered fox squirrel and we took this picture across the street from our new house. The locals call it a raccoon squirrel because of the dark face mask. It is the largest species of squirrel in the U.S..

One of our priority jobs was putting up a bird feeder in our open backyard. Our first visitors were Bluebirds followed by Chickadees - lots of Robins, Cardinals and Blue Jays. This is going to be fun!

This is our new bedroom...

And living room...


eating area in the kitchen...

and Florida Room. A Florida room (I learned) has both screens and windows under air and heat. We had a lanai in Fort Myers - which is an outdoor room with screens. In Colorado we have a patio. Regardless of the name - it's where we spend most of our time.