Empty nest syndrome

Sorry it's a fuzzy image, but I was trying to keep out of the way of the adult quail while they were feeding. As you can see, while I was on vacation, the quail hatched and flew the proverbial coop! I haven't seen the babies yet, but my son saw them while I was in Walla Walla today and said that they were amazingly cute and they were being attended by three adults--one female and two male. Not sure why, but with that many kids, it's great to have a "manny", I'd imagine.

While I was on vacation my mother had a "mini-stroke", recovered mostly from that, but now she's in the care center of her retirement home. She's still pretty weak but I'm determined to start beading and sewing again this week. I'll go down and visit her one day next weekend, again, but I'm going to start making better use of my evenings. (It is hereby resolved.)

The lake was incredible. Beautiful, warm, calming as always. I'll post pictures of that and the amazing parasailing adventure when I have time to reduce the size of the pictures.

Not yet!

Well, the quail is still sitting on her nest, so I'm hoping that the eggs will hatch this week while I'm gone. The dogs and the cat won't bother her, and the house sitter knows not to disturb her, so my ideal situation is that they hatch this weekend and she has a good week to get them going before we come back and mess up her life. (Albeit unintentionally.)

I haven't done anything on my bead journal project in the last two weeks. My 85 year old mother was hospitalized in Walla Walla (2.5 hours away) for three days last week, so I'm behind on everything. I'm hoping that things will settle down after vacation.

And I'm armed for the lake (Priest Lake in the northern part of Idaho) with a host of lovely books. One as yet unpublished book I'm reading as an early reviewer on LibraryThing (www.librarything.com), One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson, My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman, and Charms for the Easy Life by Kay Gibbons. I'm also going to take small bites of The Quantum Zoo because I've heard it's possible to understand *some* of quantum theory. (I'm sort of doubting it.)

And when I get back, I'm sure I'll be all rev'd again for sewing and beading. I am now, actually, but I need a little non-doing time. Have a good week!

The nest!

Here it is--our beautiful quail's nest. The mom was out for a bite to eat, I think. She's a very dutiful mom, though, and stays still on that nest no matter what.

Quail nest!!

I have a quail nest in my back yard! The mom hid her nest really well in a tangle of ivy right up close to the house. I didn't stop to count but it looks like she has close to a dozen eggs in there. Now the challenge is going to be to keep the cat and two dogs away from the eggs (which they haven't found so far, and she must've been there for a while) and the chicks once they're hatched. Our yard is fenced, so she won't be able to get them out until they can fly, but there are a lot of good hiding places under spruce trees and in my huge row of (ugly) junipers. She's right in an area I should be watering now that it's hot, but I'll give up any flowers to help her keep her babies safe. (I'm also going to tell my contractor not to put up the new gutters until they're all safe.)

If anybody has any experience with being a quail nursery or has tips for keeping the dogs (who use the backyard many times daily) away from them, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!

BJP - Finishing June...slowly

Still working on my June page for the Bead Journal Project. What I can see while I'm working on it is that I'm getting too uptight about the whole thing. I need to loosen up and not be trying for the most perfect thing in the world. Easier said than done. (Of course, I'm not achieving perfection by a long shot, either.)