More Peonies

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Over the weekend, I read that the peonies are in bloom at Brooks Gardens Peonies in Brooks, Oregon, near Salem.  Apparently, the gardens have been open for touring since Memorial Day weekend, but our local newspaper is only just now getting around to letting folks know.  It sounded like fun to me, and an opportunity to take some pictures.  This morning, I packed up my photography gear and headed out.

Brooks Gardens is only about half an hour away from where I live, which was a nice surprise.  I expected a longer drive.  On the way, I passed through St. Paul, Oregon (population 322).  Whenever I pass through St. Paul, I admire this little church.  There always seems to be some reason why it isn't a good day to photograph it.  Maybe the rain.  One time there was a truck parked right at the front door.  No idea why.  Today, it was a perfect day, and I finally was able to take a picture of it.  This is the Catholic church in St. Paul.

The windows are stained glass.  I don't know when the church was built, but it appears very old.

After that I headed on down to the peony fields.  They were so beautiful and fragrant.

This was the first one I saw up close.

Of course, I took a lot of pictures.  I'll just let you look.

I spoke briefly with a woman who was cutting flowers for sale, and asked her about the area where I live.  She seemed to think they would do just fine at our elevation and with our winters.  She told me there used to be a peony farm right near by where I live.  I'm seriously considering ordering some bare root stock to plant this fall.

They also had iris.

Did I ever tell you I love bird houses?  I do.  I have a collection in my kitchen greenhouse window.

This is one of the seed pods from a peony that has lost its petals.

On the way home I stopped at a fabric store to pick up a couple of fabrics I needed for my June NewFO project, which is this pattern from the October, 2006, issue of Quilter's World, called Forest Giant.

I needed the green on the right and the brown at the bottom.  The rest I was able to pull from my stash.

When I got home, the power was off.  From what I could tell, it had been off for a couple of hours.  It didn't come back on until after 5:00 p.m.  So...no sewing for me this afternoon.  No blogging either.  No taking my pictures off the camera.  No nothing.  I took a nap.

Yesterday, I finished the last of the petunia blocks for the Quiltmaker's Garden quilt.

These are the eight petunia blocks.

Also, I repotted all but one of my tomatoes.  I ran out of potting soil, but the last one is too small to need transplanting just yet.  These are set for the season now.  Today I stopped in and got more potting soil too.  Even though I want to hold off on repotting the last tomato, I still want to start another round of lettuce, and I needed the soil for that.

And that was my whole live-long day!  Oh yes, I found the first of the Oregon strawberries.  As I write this, I'm waiting for the oven to heat up so that I can bake some short cakes.  Strawberry short cake is on the menu in about half an hour.

I had a wonderful day despite the power outage.  How did your Monday go?