Garden update

Just a quick update on my gardens.... Veggies are coming, slowly! Now that summer really seems to be here, the best thing for this stuff is the sun. So, the carrots, the lettuce, spinach, radishes, cauliflower, cabbages, broccoli, zucchini, turnips, beets, peas and cucumbers seem to be OK. However, the tomatoes, not so much! I do have more out front and they seem to be doing better. We will see! Also, I got more herbs today and some ground cover in addition to some perennial poppies - the orange ones. I am convinced that I need to put in only those plants which are pretty much native to our region. My wonderful neighbor gave me columbine, lovage, sedum, and lots of coral bells last fall in addition to some other plants. The coral bells are already blooming along with the columbine! I will have lots to share!

This and that

Nothing in particular today to share ....just a few little tidbits. With the weather in the mid 80's this weekend and no rain, we were finally able to work out in the yard a little. I began dragging all of my garden junk out into the appropriate spaces. To me it is like arranging furniture. Each year things go in a different place depending on how the gardens are looking. The columbine are blooming and the purple one, which is really called a blue columbine was a gift from a dear friend several years ago. I couldn't bear to leave it behind when we moved so I dug it up. There were two originally and now I have four. With a little breeze blowing, the yellow and coral one (a little blurry) was one of two given to me by my next door neighbor last fall and both of them are blooming!

Because I have been able to get outside, my quilting is suffering and I so want to finish Sylvia's Sampler top. Oh well, a few rows at a time. My little boys need a good grooming and today I was able to get them both bathed at least. They are shaggy, but 'til next week, I hope to keep them clean and untangled. The garden? Well, the carrots are up as is everything else. It is a little early for a follow up picture since things are still so small, but soon I will post the progress. That is if I can keep the rabbits from devouring it. One night I happened to look outside and discovered a rabbit INSIDE the fenced garden! I quickly let the dogs out and the rabbit jumped through the fence. Our solution at the moment is a radio out there 24-7 and so far so good! But I am skeptical. Time will tell.

Tomorrow is the last quilt shop hop day and we plan to go to Estes Park and Lyons, again across the border to the state south of us. Yes, I will have my purse, my money, my phone and my plastic.

Shop Hopping

Two new terms to describe this generation ...CRS and Boomer-itis. I am finding out that we don't remember anything important and pertinent to the present, but can remember every detail of something that happened 50 years ago. Those injuries happening to the baby boomer generation as we try to stay in shape by going to the gym, running for our health, and exercising the old joints and muscles are keeping doctors and surgeons busier than ever.

CRS----yesterday, my quilting buddies trekked to Laramie and Windsor (across the border) to visit quilt shops and get our quilt shop hop passport stamped. The wind blew, but the sun was shinning and the temperature was in the 70's. I didn't drive on this trip, but half-way over the first leg of the trip, I realized that I didn't have my purse. I had water, a jacket and my bag with which to hold my treasures of new fabric and notions...but no purse, no money, no passport, no phone--no plastic! I had forgotten it!

We had a great day, visiting wonderful shops and I begged a passport from one shop and was at the mercy of my friends for lunch, and the DQ Blizzard we always treat ourselves to, but no fabric in my bag to bring home!

Our next trip is planned for next week and if I don't injure myself and get Boomer-itis, I will try to get my CRS under control and not be embarrassed.

The pictures above are blocks and construction of the quilt I referred to as the pancakes I was sewing. I am behind on this blog so will post the finished quilt and a little more about the construction next time.

"Friendship is the golden thread that ties all hearts together." ~ Anonymous
(And it is the purse that feeds the stomach that forgot hers)

Garden continued

As Mother Nature tends to humble us, this is the morning after my last picture. The following day we left the winter behind and began our journey to Sunny California. Not knowing what I would return to in the garden, I left my green thumb behind.

It was wonderful to see our son and his family again and we played tourist for a few days before attending our granddaughter's high school graduation. We bid them all goodbye and arrived home here only to learn that it had rained every single day!

Not totally disappointed, I found a few brave seeds have popped through the soil, but most of the plants that I spent so much time nursing to small seedlings did not survive. Either they drowned in their own tears or the rain, or the lack of sun just depressed them to the point of giving up! Now I start over! I am not quite ready to call it quits yet!

"There are fairies at the bottom of our garden!" ~ Rose Fyleman
(I think there must be witches at the bottom of mine.)

Garden ready

Because we:
Changed our internet provider,
Purchased a new laptop,
Spent lots of time importing files,
Changed the blogger E-mail, Went quilt shop hopping, Fenced and planted a garden, Spent time updating legal docs, Arranged for new dental care, And so on, and so on, and so on.....
I am finally finding an opportunity to get back at this blog!!!

I will be updating this garden as it is the first time in several years that I have been able to plant veggies and it doesn't look like much yet. This first photo is the front flower garden, and I added foxglove, columbine of a different variety, rudbeckia, and others from seed. In the veggie garden, I have radishes, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, turnips, peas and will have tomatoes later. In the herb garden, I have sage, cilantro, mints, chives and will add more later also. Now the real challenge will be the rabbits and for the next week or so the downpour of rain which is making everything a muddy mess. My plan is to post every week or so as things progress. Wish me luck!

Sixty six years ago today was born a baby girl to a young couple in San Diego--- Me! I am thankful every day that I was blessed with wonderful parents and that they instilled in their children values which make us who we are today. We were taught to respect others, to be honest, productive citizens and we were loved.

Even as my years on this earth grow shorter, I continue to learn and haven't decided what I will be when I grow up!

Happy gardening!

Unfinished business

Tea anyone? My daughter sent me a link to a crafty blogger and this is my version of the teapot birdhouse she sent which I totally fell in love with. Drilling the holes in the teapot was a disaster and I knew better than to try a large bit first, but I am a little impatient. First of all,when you are using a drill press, it is much easier to control the drilling process. Try drilling with a hand held drill, holding the pot with the other hand and trying to keep water on the surface to cool the entire thing. I could have asked for help, but I need to know that I can do this as it will be a project for summer and the girls expect me to know what to do. (Mom can do anything can't she?) I ended up breaking the bottom of the pot, but since I was using only a fence board and I was able to make that pretty with my scroll saw, I decided that I could drill small holes in the board and attach the pot by securing copper wire wrapped around the handle and spout through the holes in the board. This can then be screwed to a fence or post. Voila! I still intend to work at this project and tweak it a bit.

A few posts ago I promised to show the "Spinning Stars" table project, which was the result of a quilt class that I took so here it is. Such a simple project and just a version of another quilt which I finished and will post eventually also.

"Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you." ~ Aldous Huxley

Quilting

If it would ever quit raining and dry out and if the wind would quit blowing, I really need to get outside and work in the yard. I have seedlings struggling to get any sun...they are getting so "leggy" I may have to knit leggings for them! So I stay in and quilt. This is the wonky log cabin I am working on now which will be a queen size quilt and as you can see, it has been a good place for me to practice my free motion stitches. Each square is quilted differently and I have discovered what stitches I won't use again and which ones I really love. The leaves are particularly easy and I like the way they are looking on this project.

I do hope to get started on the teapot and light projects this weekend. With the construction project downstairs, which will entail more painting eventually, and the fencing needed on the garden (if the weather ever permits), and the 101 other things on the list...who knows?

My little dogs keep chasing the bunnies out of the yard so I imagine that if the Easter Bunny comes near our home, he will not stay long enough to leave goodies. I really don't need any goodies, but I am reminded of the time when our son was in 2nd grade, and I eagerly volunteered to hide eggs in our large yard for his class to hide. That was so much fun watching them search in the unkempt spring weeds and grasses. With school out in summer and me working to keep the weeds from taking control of the garden and strawberry beds, I had uncovered at least half dozen of rotten hard boiled eggs that the children had missed.