Bridge Walk

Good morning, my friends. It was a good and tiring day yesterday. As I mentioned, my friend Sue and I walked across a newly-opened pedestrian bridge in the neighboring community of Sherwood yesterday. We started on the far side of the bridge and walked across to where the new high school is located.

It was hard to position myself to see the whole bridge without getting a lot of lamp posts and power lines in my photo.

And then we walked back to where we started and headed on down the road to find the historic part of Sherwood.

We passed some pretty blooming things along the way. I haven't tried identifying any of these blooming trees. 

There were pretty two-toned iris.

The sun shining on these tulips makes them look as thought they're emitting light from within.

Here's another blooming tree that I don't know.

We walked around the block in Sherwood and happened upon this memorial dedicated to Sherwood's sons and daughters who served during World War II.

It was a nice day for a walk. We probably walked about 4-1/2 miles all told. Back at home, I iced my aching knees, had some lunch, and took a nap.

When I woke up, I had to decide if I had enough energy to plant the annuals. There was rain in the forecast for Friday (today), but not until late in the day. I could have waited if I trusted the forecast. But with rain in the forecast all next week, it seemed most advisable to do it while I knew the weather was cooperating. I'm glad I did, because it's done now, and it really wasn't that taxing. 

In the three patio pots, I planted African daisies, alyssum, and calibrachoa. I'm told the common name for that last one is "million bells." They're looking a little bedraggled after being roughed up in the transplanting process. There's also a volunteer snapdragon in the mix.

All three pots have the same combination, but in different colors.

I'm realizing that I need to give them some fertilizer too. I'll add that to today's list.

To their left, I planted a Sun Gold cherry tomato in the whiskey barrel there. It has a lot of equipment associated with it...a tomato cage with a stake to prevent the tomato from pulling the cage over with it and falling down. Also, we put fencing around the bottom to keep the squirrels from eating it.

In the pots that line the sidewalk, I planted geraniums. The squirrels won't eat them, and so that's what I plant. I like the variegated one in front.

Something else the squirrels won't eat...marigolds. (Sorry for the blur.)

The next two pots are in shade for most of the day, and so I planted shade-loving impatiens...

And begonias. I've never tried begonias in these pots, so I don't know if they'll become squirrel food, and I don't know if they'll be happy in this level of light. The tag said partial shade, and that's what they'll get here.

Finally, I re-established the Gracie Memorial Catnip Garden. The little rock to the right of the Gracie stake says, "I came, I purred, I conquered." I have to put rocks around the catnip. The kitties get overly zealous. They like to roll around in it, effectively killing it. The rocks are there to protect it.

I still need to plant three slicing tomatoes. Those will go in pots in the greenhouse. Also, I want to plant some lettuce seeds. That stays in the greenhouse with the tomatoes. There's also some tarragon for the culinary herb garden. I started to plant the tarragon yesterday, but the ground was dry and hard after a week of dry weather. I'll get to that next week after we've had a little more rain and the ground will be softer for digging. I have other seeds to start as well, but I'll hold off on those for a little while longer.

So that brought me to the end of the day. I had about a half hour to rest before I needed to start dinner. For dinner last night, I tried this recipe for Creamy Lasagna Soup. It's not hard to make, but it took a full hour. I used bulk mild Italian sausage in mine, but otherwise followed the recipe as written. It's made with broken up lasagna noodles, and it was tasty.

Mike was expecting something more like traditional lasagna. He was expecting a tomato-based soup. His comments caused me to write a note for another time. I'd like to try reducing the amount of chicken broth by one cup and adding in an undrained can of diced tomatoes. It might be good that way, and it will give Mike the tomatoes he's expecting with something that has "lasagna" in the name.

While we cleaned up, I noticed Smitty enjoying the afternoon sunshine on his catio. It's a good time of the year for kitties.

Today will be an easier day. I'm going to debone a turkey carcass. I'll divide up the meat into two-cup portions and freeze it in sandwich bags. Then, I can use it in casseroles or soups. Also, I'm going to make a stab at the Bow-Flex. I've been threatening to do it ever since we got home from our trip, but so far, I haven't attempted it. With my shoulder hurting, I know I won't be able to do all the exercises, but nothing is stopping me from doing some of the leg work. It'll be an experiment to see what parts of my body haven't yet given up the ghost.

Right now it's time for breakfast and some more slow-stitching. I'm coming to the end of the Tiny Treasures for this go round, and so I should probably trace the next block for Home is Where my Flock Is. These are the blocks I have so far.

Also, I want to get back to my quilting today. And if there's time, I'll get started on the new Gumballs quilt. It's a lot for a single day, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Early Bird

Good morning, my friends. Yes, it's true I said I'd be posting later today if I posted at all. And so if you thought you were going to be able to drink your coffee in peace this morning, you'll be disappointed. Here I am flapping my lips again. There was an early start to my morning, and so I find myself with time to spare.

Since I knew I'd be leaving early this morning, I did this morning's slow-stitching yesterday evening while we watched the news. And so I have two Tiny Treasures to show you this morning. This one is Tiny Treasure #43. It has stem stitch, straight stitch, and backstitch.

And this is Tiny Treasure #44. It has stem stitch and satin stitch.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it was a pedicure day, and so I left around 11:30 a.m. Before that, I had some time to spend in the sewing room. My first task was to rework those half square triangles I'd sewn together wrong. They also needed trimming. There were 16 of these.

Smitty helped me with that, and then he helped me arrange them.

When they were sewn together, I could finish sewing the blocks together.

When it was time to leave, I had them this far.

After I got home, I finished sewing them together. They just needed borders from here.

And there's March's red block.

And there's April's pink block.

With those finished, I'm caught up on my Rainbow Scrap project for 2026. Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

That pretty well used up what remained of the day. I was outside for a bit and noticed the first tulip has bloomed. There are about a half dozen tulips in this whiskey barrel, and there's one around the front of the house. The tulips are celebrated only when the deer don't eat them first.

Okay, and as I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm leaving early this morning to walk with Sue. We're going to cross a newly-opened footbridge in a neighboring town. It'll be a short walk back and forth across the bridge, and then we'll walk to the historic part of the little town of Sherwood. Sherwood has expanded in the way small towns do, and it borders the highway leading to the Oregon coast. Most people only see that "highway" part of Sherwood. There is, however, and older and more charming part of town about two miles from the main road. When we've walked over the bridge, we'll walk the rest of the way to Sherwood proper and get ourselves a snack there before heading back. Sounds like a nice way to spend a sunny morning, no?

And with that, I must go. Have a good day, Everybody!

No Sewing Day

Good morning, my friends. It isn't often I go a day without sewing, but yesterday was one of those days. Of course, there's almost always time for slow-stitching, and so it isn't exactly true that there was no sewing at all. This is Tiny Treasure #42. It has fan stitch, lazy daisy, stem stitch, French knots and satin stitch.

And then I realized I still had my Easter quilts out with Easter two days gone. So, hop on off, Easter Bunny and make way for some Spring things. On the wall between the kitchen and dining room, I hung this design from Jenny of Elefantz. This was fun to stitch at the time. It's called My Vintage Kitchen. Mine was modified a little bit to add the mixer in the middle block. Hers had a block with the name of the quilt.

On the breakfast bar, this "Freckled Fruit" runner. The pattern appeared originally in the April/May 2011 issue of The Quilter magazine. I finished this one way back in February of 2014. 

On the dining room table, this "Posies" quilt. It's another one from Jenny of Elefantz. It was my 2021 Rainbow Scrap project. It was originally a free BOM, but it's now for sale in her Etsy shop. It's probably supposed to be a wall-hanging, but it works for a table topper too.

So, I did a little housework and got the laundry going, and then I had things to do in town. I made three stops yesterday. First, I needed to fill my gas tank. Oy. After that, I wondered if there were instructions or forms on the internet that would allow one to declare gasoline bankruptcy. Sheesh. 

Then, I gulped hard and headed to the garden shop. There, I picked up annuals for my outdoor pots. I'm not remembering the names of all of these, but I'll put the daisies in the three pots along the patio along with some other flowers I can't name. 

For the pots that line the sidewalk, I'll plant geraniums and marigolds in the sunny areas. Where the pots are mostly shaded, I'll plant begonias and impatiens. I have to choose things the squirrels won't eat. On the other hand, their appetites seem to expand depending on what flowers are planted each year. Beggers can't be choosers, you know.

Also, I picked up some catnip to restore the Gracie Memorial Catnip Garden. And I got some tarragon to add to the herb garden. Also, a Sun Gold cherry tomato and three slicers...two red tomatoes and one yellow. 

And since our garden shop is in the same complex with our grocery store, I picked up whatever grocery items had accumulated on the list. 

It was about 3:15 when I got home. Probably, I could have done some sewing, but I really just wanted to sit on my butt and put my feet up. I still had groceries to put away, and I moved all the plants to the greenhouse for now. Probably I'll get them planted before the weekend is over. 

In my wanderings, I noticed the bleeding heart has an actual flower now. This is the most watched thing in the garden for the time being.

So, it felt as if I accomplished a lot yesterday, and I was tired. Sadie was tired just watching me. She retired to her studio apartment early in the evening. 

Today will be another busy day. I'm getting a much-needed pedicure...my first once since we've been home. I'm looking forward to having groomed toes and the TLC won't hurt either. Probably I'll be home early enough to get back to my quilting, but it'll depend on my energy level too.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting Sue for a walk. In Sherwood, our neighboring town to the north, they've finished building a very cool footbridge across the main highway. It leads from the YMCA and a large nearby neighborhood to the new high school. We've watched the process of building it over several years, and it appears to be complete. I've been itching to walk across, and Sue and I will do it together. (I know...walking across a new footbridge. The excitement never ends here in rural Oregon.)

So, all of that to say that if I post tomorrow, it will be later than usual. And if I don't post at all, you can assume I'll be back on Friday morning to tell you all about it.

Wild Things

Good morning, my friends. It was such a beautiful day yesterday, how could I resist getting outside for a walk? Truth is...I couldn't. First, though, I needed to stitch Tiny Treasure #41:

This one has French knots, stem stitch, fly stitch, backstitch, and lazy daisy.

With that finished, I walked around the house to see what was blooming. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the cherry trees are starting to bloom. It's a good time for them, with plenty of sunshine in the forecast for the coming week. We're hoping for plenty of cherries this year.

The bleeding heart is starting to show its colors.

The Andromeda has developed sprays of white flowers all over the whole bush. It'll add in some red foliage soon enough.

Heading on down the driveway and up to the main road, my phone was kind enough to identify all the wildflowers I saw along the way. These are stream violets.

These are cutleaf geraniums.

This is the bloomed out head of Queen Anne's lace.

This is yellow rocket.

Lowly dandelions. There were lots of these.

This is Oregon grape...Oregon's state flower. Eventually, it will get purple berries. I'm told they're edible, but then, people say lima beans are edible too. Let's just say I'm skeptical.

This is a plum tree in full bloom.

This is Maule's quince.

Forsythia.

I saw lots of daffodils in all colors growing everywhere. Is there any flower that says spring more than daffodils?

This is annual honesty, aka lunaria.

I bought seeds for these a few years ago, hoping I could get them started along our fence line or else at the edges of our woods. I started them in pots, and then transplanted them. By the next morning, the critters had eaten every single one. (Shakes fist...CRITTERS!) I gave my extra seeds to Mae, and she was able to get hers going. I'm hoping she'll share some of her seeds with me.

Next up, stork's bill. These are tiny little flowers...about the size of a dime.

This is a large-leaf maple.

Here's a little closer shot of the flower.

And this is California blackberry.

Looking north, there was a pretty view of Mt. St. Helens at the top of the hill.

Looking south, I could see an expansive view of the Willamette Valley.

Here, I was looking a little more toward the west.

Nosey person that I am, I had to zoom in on this barn a little bit.

There was some new livestock in one of the pastures. These horses are new neighbors.

There were two more to the right.

And then there were these alpacas. They're so funny. Sometimes they're shy, but these guys ran up to the fence, as if they were excited someone stopped by to chat. We admired one another's hairdos.

This one seems to have had his hair frosted.

Okay, and then I headed for home and got back to my sewing. I quilted the fifth and final row of blocks for the Amish Sampler. There were three more pieced blocks. This one is identified in Quilters Cache simply as "Star."

This one is a pinwheel.

And this one is the Oregon Trail block.

There were two more panel blocks, both of which already appeared in other parts of the quilt.

And that brings me to the borders around the panel blocks. Although I avoided straight lines in the rest of the quilting, I'm afraid getting to fancy in these borders will be too busy. I decided to quilt a straight line on each side of the border. I can align the groove of my Line Tamer ruler right next to the seam line and then quilt straight lines around both sides of the border strip. I sewed just a few inches there to see how it would look, and then I left it needle down in that position.

I'm not sure how long this will take. There are ten panel blocks, and my goal is to do five today and five tomorrow. We'll see if that's doable.

From there, I headed into the sewing room to work on the Inverted Stars for March and April. The first step was to make and trim 48 half square triangles.

Check. And then I made the corner units for each block and laid them out thus:

I just needed to fill in the missing pieces there, and then I could sew them together. But then, when I laid them out, I realized I'd sewn some of the pieces together wrong, and that I'd misunderstood the color placement when I read the instructions. I still need two more of these in each color.

So I spent some time taking apart the ones I'd sewn together wrong, and cut more of the white pieces. If I can make my way into the sewing room today, I should be able to finish these off.

And "if" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that last sentence. I have one housekeeping chore to do, and I've decided to tackle Mt. Laundry today. Also, I want to head into town. It seems like a good day to buy some annuals for my flower pots. I didn't plant annuals last year because were were in Alaska, and there was no one around to water them. So, I'm looking forward to planting some this year. 

Also, I'm on the hunt for some catnip and some tomato starts. There are some vegetable seeds to get started too, but I'll hold off on those. It's never really safe to plant in our area until the latter part of May. In previous years, I've started things too early, and then they get tall and gangly before I'm ready to transplant them outside. For those, I'll wait until the end of April.

With all that going on, I'm going to have to work fast if I'm to get everything done that I want to get done. The life of a quilting retired social worker is never boring. What about you? How is your garden growing?