Bee Skeps and Filbert Husks

I Hope you noticed that "Free Bird" was on my 2011 Stitching Goals List.  I actually finished something on the list for the first time since May 3rd.  So to celebrate that accomplishment, I've kitted up my August Goal - Chessie & Me's "Quaker Bee Sampler" (it's still August after all!).  As I did so I noticed that Quaker Bee has the dreaded stitching over one for some of the motifs!

  

It's the last day of August, and the colors outside are hinting at Fall.

Tom-Cat says it's a fine day to Take a Walk!

The big old Cottonwoods have begun to turn color...

And someone, Steller's Jays perhaps, have found and eaten all the ripe Hazelnuts.  The path to our driveway was littered with empty husks.

There are plenty of ripe blackberries.  My sister has already picked and frozen over 10lbs worth.  

I recently notice a new variety of Oak. I think it is a California Black Oak (Quercus kelloggii).  The leaves are much larger than those of our Oregon White Oak.

I walked to the quarry pond in hopes of seeing some turtles.  No turtles, but oodles and oodles of frogs. We think maybe they were bullfrogs because they "yelled" as they hopped into the water.  In Oregon, bullfrogs were introduced in the early 1900s, and were probably brought here as a food item.  The males have a booming call; juveniles give a chirping call when startled—often as they retreat into water.  I went to this website to listen to "Alarm Calls" and it sounded just like what we heard!    

The thistle seeds make lovely clouds before the wind carries them off one by one.

The wild honeysuckle is still blooming.

We'll end our walk today at my sister's garden gate.  This glass art dragonfly decorates the bright blue gate entrance to her Dahlia Garden.