Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Country Music

If you live in the city and think the country is quiet, you need to spend the night at my house.  The last few days I've been waking up about 4:30 am.  Now that it's spring/summer (106 degrees here yesterday), we sleep with the bedroom windows open, and by dawn the noise is almost deafening.  Let's start with the birds.  Mockingbirds are the leaders of the noise brigade. Anyone else get to listen to these bastards sweet cherubs?  They usually begin the symphony along with the occasional rooster.  Then there's cattle behind us that arrived during the night by the truckload.  I like to pretend they are gentle Jerseys, doe brown, little bells tinkling around their neck, quietly munching on meadow grasses, making cream for my coffee. Nope.  These are Angus beef cattle, led down metal ramps, hooves banging, bellowing loudly because they've arrived in a strange pasture, milling around trying to locate their kin in the crowd, and irritated as all hell.  The next stop for them is probably a local CAFO.  I'd be screaming too. (now I know where the phrase "have a cow" comes from)
Dairy trucks bump down the country road, frogs and other birds join the fray, a tractor starts up somewhere, a train blows through town......
At some point I just get up and sneak down to my sewing room so I don't wake the dog.  She is 8 months old now and has a full set of adult teeth which she sharpens daily on anything not nailed down and sometimes that doesn't even matter. The casualties this week include 1 pincushion (thank goodness there were no pins in it!), 1 coaster, 4 inches of baseboard in the den (nailed down), 1 shrub, several zinnias and a steak waiting on the table to be put on the barbecue.
And it's only Tuesday.  Dog training continues.
So I finished the Haiku shawl, it came out smaller than most shawls I've made but it is oh so pretty and blocked out quite nicely.  My girls are going to a baby shower next week, and I was requested to please make a quilt with a safari theme.  I found some novelty prints on sale and backed it with a flannel from Joann's.  It's for a boy, and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Watching for Mockingbirds.  Good girl.


Shawl: Haiku found at Quince
Baby quilt fabric: Safari Soiree by Dan Stiles, border Kaffe Fassett shot cotton.
Pattern: By me, just made it up, 44x34 inches
Local grass fed beef: Eat Wild

7 comments:

  1. I like your new header picture! (At least I hope it's new and I'm not just now noticing something that's been there weeks!) The haiku shawl looks really pretty. I had to go back and look to see it in your other post because I didn't remember it. It looks so much different and so much better all blocked out! I may have to go look that one up and print it out for when I'm in a shawl mood. The safari quilt is too cute!

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  2. I remember the puppy teething stage. Still have the chairs to prove it ; ) Indeed your quilt turned out cute!

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  3. Ah yes, life in the country! It is noisy, but I'll still take it. Your shawl is beautiful, and dang! Your photos are divine. :)

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  4. Country life is loud but so worth it. I would love to be out where I could see cows and sheep and have space to roam. I'd love to be near a lake or a mountain, ah I can dream. Love your shawl the color and the pattern are beautiful.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  5. This made me laugh, I grew up in the countryside and I have to say it was really quiet........but Mr Pixie and I do like to head out to the countryside at the weekends, for a pub lunch or a wander by the lake.......and it does seem that you can guarantee that there is some git either using a really loud hedge trimmer or mowing a massive garden so any sounds of the country are drowned out by machinery........which in turn means any sounds of a lake lapping or birds tweeting are always drowned out............buggers......ha.

    Love your post
    Pixie xx

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  6. I am laughing LOL!!! but I do understand because when I go home to the UK to visit my family and stay with my sister who lives in a little rural village situated in the Lincolnshire countryside one would think I go home to rest,relax in the quiet of the English countryside .....sigh....far from it ....if it isn't the rumble of the tractors about 5ish in the morning it is the whoooing of the owls (yes lovely right .... and they are but I think 80% of the owl population of all the British Isles lives in the trees in the fields at the back of my sister's 17th century cottage. They also seem to have such a lot to say early mornings. I suppose if I lived in the countryside I'd get used to it but I live in a city and birds hardly exist here! That is except the little wrens I feed who inhabit the palm tree in front of my kitchen window. I like to hear some chirping it makes me feel healthier!! I so loved this post ! It is good to laugh :-)

    keep well

    Amanda xx

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  7. Groan! I can sleep through most of the noises in my village, but the wood pigeon who sits on my chimney at 5am calling his friends is a different matter! Grrrrr!!

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You guys are awesome! Thank you for the comments!