AJ got a new paddle board so he could go out with me, and we took it for a test drive last night.  Whiskeytown Lake was beautiful, and it felt a lot cooler!  It was 105 in the parking lot when we got there, according to my watch, but getting a little wet and sitting in the water, it was perfect!  I didn't even go involuntarily swimming this time!  Of course, I didn't do a lot of stand-up paddling either. 

AJ's way of paddle boarding.....

We had a couple of ducks come see if we had anything to feed them.  They came straight at us - on a mission!!

They swam around us for bit, came in to visit and left empty-handed.

Here's the Sapphire Gem that's broody.  She sits in the coop - after she's moved the fake eggs into her cubby - as much as she can.  AJ and I take turns going out and moving her off the nest so she can get some water.  Every morning, I put three fake eggs in each cubby.  Every day she moves most of them so she can sit on them.

 

 

 A couple more cat blocks done on the "Summer Reading" quilt. 

I was vacuuming, and when I turned around, "someone" had knocked one of my plants onto the floor.  I have no idea which :someone" it was, but I have my suspicions! 

 

I finished the top for a baby quilt - it is adorable!!  Carolyn D's baby shower is in a couple of weeks, so I need to get it quilted pretty quickly, but the top turn out great!  I had a few issues - mainly remembering which green I was supposed to using.  I had to "unsew" quite a few places where I had the wrong green in, or worse, flipped the wrong way.  (One cheek of the frog did not want to play nice - I had it in wrong twice!).  The pattern is available through Etsy Etsy shop - Counted Quilts 

We are back to or normal summer temps now - nothing under 105 forecast for this next week - ugh!  Not my favorite time of year, but at least it waited until August to do that.  A couple of years ago we started in June with the 105+ days.  

One of my new chickens has become broody - odd for such a young hen.  It's my Sapphire Gem (a beautiful blue/gray) and she's just six months old and only been laying for a month.  I keep fake eggs in the nest to discourage the hens from pecking the real eggs, and she is gathering all the fake eggs to sit on.  Now she's staying on the nest as much as we'll let her.  We go out frequently during the day and move her, just to make sure she's drinking, and find her sitting on a dozen plus eggs.  She puffs up and growls at us when we move her and it takes her a while to get "unpuffed".  She looks so funny stomping around, all fluffed up.  Luckily all she does is growl at us.  (I have memories of being pecked by chickens when I gathered eggs as a kid.)

One of the Easter Eggers is laying double yolk eggs - the eggs are extra long.  Both are laying green eggs, so I hvae a nice collection of green and brown eggs this year.

Decisions, decisions!  The "reveal" is out for my mystery quilt, and I like both options!  I think I'm leaning toward the second quilt, dark spirals in the center.  I like the layout of options #3 and #4, but I don't like how the color of the background fabric on the side is highlighted.  You don't notice as much on options #1 and #2 that the background fabric is different (there are three different background fabrics and five different brown fabrics).  I'll leave it up for a while and see if I still like it after a week.  (And, after I finish up other projects - I have a few!)

 

Once again - new "it's official" news - I'm turning in my resignation -aka retirement - letter today.  My tentative last day at work will be September 18th.  I say tentative because I'm leaving room to train my replacement.  If they replace me earlier, I can leave earlier, but I can also stay longer to train.  The bank and my team have been good to me and I don't want to abandon them.  It's been a wild ride.....but I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

 

I took Monday off as a vacation day and took myself to Mt.Lassen for a walk to Bumpass Hell.  It was a beautiful day for a walk - the weather was perfect (mid 70's and a light breeze) and the butterflies are migrating through the park.  There were butterflies in the air everywhere!  They weren't landing anywhere so I didn't get any good photos of them.  They are small butterflies (California Tortoiseshell).  This Instagram link has some good photos of them from a couple of days before I was at the park. (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbLoLyGgaQp/) 

 

You can hear the eruption: 

One baby quilt completed!  Andrea and family welcomed a baby boy to their family a couple of weeks ago, so I need to get this shopped off soon.  I really like how this turned out .

 

And it's official - I'm old.....I was just approved for Medicare..... 

Week 3 of the Surf's Up Mystery Quilt is complete. 

 

Here are week 1 and 2 - I'm liking the colors, even though brown is not my usual pick for colors, which is why I got this kit.  I'm trying to change up my colors a bit more.
 

And the 2026 RBD Challenge quilt top is finished!  I started it in January, and got the last set of instructions at the end of May, so not too bad (for me)!  It's 60 inches square, so a nice size quilt.