my summer salad this year, and some fun finds

on our date night this week, as we were driving to go to our favorite hiking trail, there was a garage sale. i found some nice fabrics. one was an unused king size duvet cover, that i am excited to use for a few quilt backs, or blanket backs possibly, for a project like this. i like the plaid. and the sweet little vintage bathroom towels. and the fun hot pink silk sarong i might just wear as is?? oh, and some plain cotton place mats, that i am thinking about using as the inside thickness for patchwork place mats. after our hike, i found this little hummingbird nest on the ground. i think it's my fourth one to find. i've given two of the others away to my most special people. finding these hummer nests make me so so happy. i mean, they have fallen from the tree, and won't be used again, so it's okay to take them home to admire, right? they always have these fine little gray hairs in them, that i imagine are deer hairs? how do they find deer hairs? and then little pieces of lint or string, too. one of them was built around a pinecone in the coolest way. and one had bits of newspaper in it. this one is very uniform and simple, with lots of the gray hairs, and a piece of soft string. but right before i found that, we saw something else that was a little disturbing, but very natural and earthly at the same time. a snake had just caught a bird, and was in the process of swallowing it down. i hope posting the picture here doesn't offend anyone. the snake was very beautiful. i really like snakes. in fact recently, i came across a rattler on the road coming home, and got out of my car to make sure a car did not hit it, not knowing it was a rattler cause the rattler had fallen off. i got way too close, and was just lucky that it didn't strike. i learned a lot that day about my naivete, and about the need to wake up a little, especially around wild life.

greek barley salad. so delicious and perfect for hot days, with vinegar and feta, and parsley and cuke!! and lots of other colorful foods. i'll share the recipe if anyone wants it....i tore it out of a life extension magazine that david gets.