Nature and New Skills

I haven't written in a while but was thinking lately about how much "nature" there is here.  When I was a kid, my favorite thing to do was go camping.  I loved being out in nature and enjoying the trees and birds and everything that goes along with camping.

Living here reminds me of the same feelings. There's a forest in the backyard.  Pine needles could be swept off the deck every day, but seems like a lost cause.  Birds fly in and around the yard and sing all day.  I've never seen a bright RED bird fly through my yard until now.  One song of the cardinals sounds like they're saying, "pretty, pretty, pretty."

There are squirrels scampering around and breaking into walnuts and pine cones on the deck railing.  Abby thinks she can catch them but they're too fast for her.  
I've seen caterpillars that are the strangest looking critters.


   But they turn into these:

Of course there are a few things I'd rather not deal with like the salamanders, lizards, and mosquitoes.  If the lizards and salamanders stay outside, not so bad, but I don't want them in the house.  As far as mosquitoes go, I have very bad reactions to the bites, so I'm trying to stay away from them as much as I can.

This guy lives on the front deck

Then there's the morning I woke up, went into my bathroom and found a frog in my sink.  Yes, a frog.  I called Elaina to come in with her "frog catching device"  (plastic container with a lid). She's used to doing the catching.  We think he came in on something else by accident.  He was more scared than I was.  
I know, I know, the lizards and frogs will eat the mosquitoes, so God bless them.

I've been making use of my sewing machine too.  I learned to make a pillow case with french seams and border. Thanks to youtube tutorials.

I made a little bag with an old hankie for decoration.  I'm still a novice, so I haven't tried anything too complicated, but I'm willing to keep trying.

Never too old to learn something new I guess!  Thanks for reading.