167th I Like Thursday Post

 Welcome to my 167th I Like Thursday post.  LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color encourages a group of bloggers to share things that they have discovered that they like/love during the week.  A way of throwing a little positive vibe into our universe. 

While Bobbin and I were traveling, it was during the crazy heat wave in Oregon, Washington and Western Canada.  Driving from northern California to Portland the temps hit 116 eventually.  I snapped a picture of the car thermometer at 112 to share with my daughter back home in Michigan. 

As stated previously Bobbin demanded the A/C on and was kind of a miserable little girl for the day.  She loved to get out of the car to walk, but she was more than happy to get back inside for a drink and the A/C.  

I love plants and am always so thrilled when I find new or different ones.  My mom had this interesting petunias that looked like someone had splashed them with bleach.

 

I saw this gorgeous coleus at a store nearby!  

What is it about variegated plants that fascinates me?

I love the ditch lilies.  For years Jeff would bring home buckets of day lilies to try to plant them in the ditch.  He never was successful, but the past couple of years we have had lilies and they seem to be growing more abundant every year.  

Of course one of the other things I love are foxglove.

 

These were growing wild in my parent's field.  The white flowers behind are blackberry blossoms.  June is a bit early for them to be blooming, and some bushes even had the beginnings of berries, but I am sure with the heat they will just dry up.  

I liked these tiny cones.  They are from a Red Alder.  I was always fascinated by them when I was a kid.  I miss seeing them. 

I have had some critter sightings too recently.   One morning I came out of work and saw this guy under my rear tire.  

A pretty big guy.  I think it is a snapping turtle.  

My mom got a new pup and she and Bobbin seemed to hit it off. In fact Good Golly Miss Molly has been kind of sad since Bobbin left.  One day I was left to baby sit.  Molly came in after running with Bobbin full of burrs.  I was told I am a terrible babysitter since my parents returned home to this.  It is hard to see, but her hair on her face and head were matted down she was so full of burrs. 

Molly is an Australian Terrier, she is a cutie, but man she has a lot of energy. 
 

On the way home I went by The Medicine Wheel in the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming.  There was a family having a ceremony while I was there so no pictures out of respect for them.  But as I was doing the 1 1/2 mile hike in I spied a moose in a meadow down the mountain side.

I decided that it was time to put a dent in my scrap bins.  I decided on a scrappy pineapple quilt using the creative grids mini pineapple trim tool.  

These are just 2 of the bins.  These are 1 1/2 inch blocks and strips.  I also have another huge bin full of "string" scraps which I dug through also.  My first block.

I wonder, do you think I will have enough scraps to make a quilt?  :D  

I loved this metal frog that I saw at the local feed store.  I think it has awesome colors. 

 I found a new way to listen to books.  My library uses an app called Hoopla.  I discovered that I can download it to my phone and so while I was traveling I listened to books I actually listened to 3 different books on my way to Oregon. 

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner.  In 1791 London Nella is an apothecary in a back alley.  Her specialty are poisons to liberate women from men who wronged them.  Nella keeps a register with the person who has made the purchase, what the purchase was, and the person that the purchase is intended for.  Present day London Caroline Parcewell spends her 10th anniversary alone, after discovering her husband's infidelity.  While mudlarking Caroline discovers an old apothecary bottle which reignites her passion for history.  Little does she know that the bottle is linked to the apothecary murders from 200 years prior.  

The next 2 books are by Micah S. Hackler, and are part of the sheriff Lansing mysteries set in the southwest.  

Legend of the Dead...a body is discovered in an arroyo.  Sheriff Lansing is investigating the death on the Anasazi Strip when a US Senator, a high powered business man, and pot hunters all discover that perhaps the ancient myths aren't just stories.

Coyote Returns...Sheriff Lansing is investigating the death of a man found dead on the road after being ran over by an 18 wheeler.  An invasion of coyotes in a nearby town, land deals and the Murder of a Navajo leader.  

Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson.  Midwife Sarah Brandt delivers a baby in a boarding house and spies a face from her past, at least she thinks she recognizes the face.  When the girl she has spied turns up dead, and Sarah realizes that the victim is part of her old world of the Elite and powerful in New York.  Sergeant Frank Malloy who is sent to investigate the murder is surprised when Sarah notifies him of who the dead girl is, and helps him investigate in 1890's New York, where the wealthy live in a completely different world, and will do anything to hush up the scandal.  

A Stroke of Malice by Anna Lee Huber is the 8th book in the Lady Darby series.  Kiera and Sebastian are invited to a Twelfth Night party at the estate of the Earl of Helmsdale.  Kiera is looking forward to finishing the portrait of the Duchess of Bowmant.  But during a ghost tour or the old crypts that connect the manor house with an ancient abbey a body is discovered.  Is it the Earl of Helmsdale who is supposed to be on a trip?  

 

Now head over to LeeAnna's at Not Afraid of Color to check out the other I Like Thursday posts!