Meet the Neighbors

We have been going to the mountains every weekend this fall, with just one more to go before a little break.  We have a family compound in the North Carolina high country.  My sister and her husband live across the pond from us, and have a little farm in their back yard.

I took some close-ups of some of neighbors.  Introducing:

Buckwheat, the newly acquired miniature donkey.  He looks just like Donkey in the Shrek movies.  He came from a niece's house, where this amorous little guy was optimistically harassing their female horses.  He now has been moved to a large fenced-in hilly pasture with some little bull calves.  He seems happy there.

The Calves:  

My brother-in-law lived and worked on dairy farms for most of his life, and I think he has missed having some Holsteins around.  They now have three in the field and two smaller ones still in what I call the "play pen" with the goats and assorted chickens and playground equipment.

                                      


The Goats:  They started with a Billy and two Nannies.


                                                       

Here's the old man, Billy.  He now has fathered three kids and is quite a grump.

But how could you not love a little face like this?

                                

Aww, shucks!

                                   

 Hi, Neighbor!

                                     

There are numerous chickens, both roosters and hens, some of them banties.  My sister has raised quite a few from eggs, using an incubator.

        

It's a lot of fun to take the grandkids over there and let them see all the animals.  There are some fluffy white rabbits, not to mention the dogs Fred and Daisy.  Fred is sixteen years old and looking it.  In his day, he was very handsome and super smart.  Daisy is not much more than a puppy.  She can run all day and loves to play.  They both spend a lot of time at our place when we are there, hoping for Uncle Charlie to give them a treat.

    

This past weekend we had our granddaughter Charlie with us, my sister had three of her grands, and our other neighbors Ricky and Mary had two of theirs.  It was fun seeing these cousins playing together.

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That's a little look at our family and friends.  The leaves are falling fast in the High Country, but it is still very pretty.

Trip Around the World

Here is the Trip Around the World Quilt that I finished for my friend Marcia.  She and her husband joined us at our mountain cabin last weekend.

It is so large that my husband and I had to hold it up and take a picture remotely with his iPhone camera.

She was thrilled to have it done.  Her mom made the top before she got ill in her last few years.  We found it in her stash when we were going through her bins of fabric.

The quilting does not show in the top photo, but I did lots of swirls and feathers to soften all the lines and squares.  The photos are from when it was still being quilted on the machine.

We enjoyed a good time in the mountains.  It is getting very pretty up there with the fall foliage.

That's Marcia and I on top of our mountain.

How about this sunset on the way up on Thursday night?  Spectacular!

Tom and Pauline also came back up, and Tom and the guys finished the stone steps from the upper to lower driveways.  Now we need to decide how we will finish the walls.  Probably paint or some fake rock.

It was a relief to get the drain system and retaining wall done before the winter sets in.

Some Autumn Quits and Autumn Scenery

I recently copied some pictures off one of our old computers onto a CD, so I thought I would share a few of the autumn-inspired quilts.

This one is called Autumn Wedding.  I participated in a Sharon Craig challenge with 13 members of the Cyberbee.  We all got the pattern for the eight-inch star block and about a half yard of a bittersweet print fabric. 

I used my star blocks in the outer border.  These blocks were incredibly difficult to piece! And they all looked different depending on the placement and colors of the fabrics each quilter chose to use.

                                      

The large center medallion and the smaller stars in the border are from a commercial pattern called Star Spin.  I love the colors and the glow in the this quilt.  I gave it to my son Bryson and his wife, who had an October wedding.

The marriage sadly did not last, but Bryson still has the quilt.

The next quilt was made by Nancy Kinane of Capital Quilters Guild.  I quilted it for her.  Usually Nancy does her own quilting by hand, but she wanted this one finished in time for a grand-daughter's graduation.  It remains one of my favorite quilting jobs of all time.

Another customer quilt was made by my friend Carolyn Ormond.  I believe the pattern was called Chutney.  She hung the finished quilt over her sofa, and I always enjoyed seeing it when The Whacky Ladies met at her house.

The last quilt for today is made from the Turning Twenty quilt pattern.  It is practically on fire with bright autumn colors.  I think I saw this one at the Hartsville, SC Swamp Fox Quilt Guild show several years ago.

I got some good news medically this week:  my Deep Vein Thrombosis in my left leg has completely resolved, and I can now discontinue the hated anti-coagulant medicine.  I decided to celebrate by taking Kasey for a walk at Mill Bridge Nature Park this morning.  I walked from the Rolesville end to the Trail head at the other end of my street.  It rained last night, and it was partly cloudy and partly sunny.  The trees are starting to change color here.

We did not run into any deer, just a squirrel and a few turtles sunning themselves.

Don't pick the pretty red leaves...Poison Ivy!

Don't pick these either...Poison Sumac!

I even walked Kasey down to the creek where she enjoys long sips of waters near the cascades.

My sprained ankle is still bothering me after three months, but I am going to continue my walks.  I have missed them!

After seeing all the colors starting to turn in our Wake Forest landscape, I can't wait to get to the North Carolina mountains this weekend.  It should be "the peak" weekend for leaf viewing in Ashe County.

Another beautiful, sunny, but much colder day. Here are some photos from a neighborhood walk.


The morning sun creates a blaze of light on these yellow trees.

This is a pond at the former end of our street. Nice autumn reflections!

The ducks have been clustering near the spring head where the water enters the pond.

My street looks pretty rustic in this view. There are several vacant lots across from the pond that are preserved as natural areas due to the springs. You can just see my dog Maggy at the bottom.

This is the driveway entrance to the house with the pond. They have about six acres of land, some of it very woodsy.

Went into the "big city" today to get some supplies for my next journal project. I had a 15% off coupon at the Teach Me Store, and got some wonderful Christmas gifts to put away for the grandkids. A nice day!