A Little of Everything

Before I go on, I need to announce the winner of my Lucky Leap Day Giveaway. Mr. Random has spoken, and the lucky number is:

#12--Siouxzq64!

Congratulations, Siouxzq64. We've already communicated, and your prize package will be off in the mail ASAP. I realized this morning that I'm fresh out of padded envelopes, and so a trip to the local megamart is in order to pick some up. (Yes, the megamart sells groceries and all manner of household items.) 

So there's that. The Hocuspocusville block is coming along. 

Who doesn't love a steaming bowl of Spider Soup on a rainy day? There's still a lot to do on this one, and so it continues. 

Then, I spent the morning puttering around doing different little household chores. For one thing, the birds were starving. I usually fill their feeders every other day, but several days had gone by and the poor things were famished. In my wanderings, I discovered this:

Holy sh*t! It's a tulip! Now, if you haven't been reading along, you might not know the terrible tragedy of the tulips. Well, let me just tell you, and you might want to have a hankie handy while you read this tear jerker of a story. 

So, we moved into this house in 2002, and so happy was I to be here that I planted bulbs all over the place, kind of randomly. Among them, lots of tulips. Little did I know that deer absolutely love tulips. Practically the second their little green tulip shoots peered over the surface of the soil, the deer ate them down to the dirt line. This went on for several years. Green shoots, and dashed hopes. Finally, I gave up on ever seeing a single tulip blossom...except the white ones. The deer apparently do not like the white ones. I've never actually seen this, but I imagine them tasting the white ones and then spitting them out. Ptooey.

Several years later, I purchased some discarded whiskey barrels to use as planters for tulips bulbs. You see, I hadn't yet given up on the tulips. I figured if I put the whiskey barrels on the sidewalks and patios, the deer wouldn't cross over to eat them. And it worked!

I caught her looking, but not eating. It worked out great for a year or two. I had beautiful tulips in the spring!

Until the squirrels moved in.

When they discovered the tulips bulbs, they dug up and ate every single one. Sometimes I tried saving the tulips by running out, banging a wooden spoon against a pot and looking really scary. And the squirrels would pause long enough in their munching on tulips bulbs to look up and say, "Huh?" And then they'd go back to their munching, laughing amongst themselves at the crazy lady who lives in the house. And that was pretty much the end of my tulip trials. I gave up after that. A few seasons ago, we moved one of the whiskey barrels within reach of the deer, and one day I went outside to find this.

Yeah, she was happily eating the tulips the squirrels had left behind. And that is the terrible tragedy of the tulips. Gut-wrenching, isn't it? 

So anyway...it was a nice surprise to find one left yesterday. I took a picture of it because if I step outside this morning, it will probably have been consumed by wildlife.

Smitty has chased most of the squirrels to the bottom of the field, which is just fine with me. They can live down there, safely away from my flowers, to their hearts' content. As I said, he's chased most of them away. There are still a few stragglers, and they've been hard at work chewing their way into the bin that holds the bird seed. 

If I know my squirrels (and I know them better than I would like to), they'll be into this bin within a day or two. They chewed their way into the peanut bin once. When I opened the bin, it was full of empty peanut shells. They'd had a great party, I'm sure. I imagine them drinking tequila shots and throwing confetti. So, anyway, another thing they sell at my grocery store is the lids for these bins. I'm less worried about the squirrels than I am about it leaking. And that too has happened. One can open the bin to find a whole bin full of sunflower seedlings. Ick.

So what else did I find in the garden? This is the Daphne my dear daughter-in-law Mae gave me several years ago. She promised me fragrant blossoms, but it's never done very well. It always seems done in by the cold weather, but this year...not so much. It has more blossoms on it than I've ever seen before.

They're so pretty...about the size of a nickel from petal tip to petal tip.

I texted that image off to Mae yesterday so that she could see all the blossoms. She reminded me that I need to go out and enjoy the fragrance. I'll do that today. Yesterday I was still in my PJ's while I was wandering around, and this little plant will require that I kneel down to get a whiff.

After that, I checked on the tomatoes. There are tomatoes in all the pots now. Query: Why do people think it's funny that I'm growing these in red Solo cups? They make great starter pots, and I use them every year. Someone always comments about the red Solo cups. Is there some dirty joke that no one has shared with me, or something?

After that, I saw Miss Maggie here looking, to my eyes, suspiciously mischievous.

When I rounded the corner, I saw this. If only they had little kitty swords, they could have a medieval sword fight up these stairs. (Note to self: Check Petco for kitty swords.)

There was a little housework to do, but then I pieced together the back for the Stars & Stripes quilt. 

I wish I'd moved that center strip of blocks a little higher up, rather than in the center. It's about 10 inches longer than I need, so I'll just put the quilt top more toward the bottom of the quilt back and that should take care of it.

Today I do think I'll head out to the grocery store. I don't really need food for a few more days, but we're nearly out of kitty treats. Perish the thought. And besides, it's senior discount day...not that I qualify or anything...I just like seeing the seniors. It's such a hefty discount they give to seniors. I'm estimating that, on average, I probably save about 47¢ per shopping trip! And (let me just do the math here) that totals up to about $24.44 per year...enough for about two yards of fabric! Whoa! If I wasn't convinced before, I am now. Senior discount, here I come. (Again...not that I qualify or anything.)