Rainy Morning

Sue and I walked in the rain this morning, although it didn't rain hard. Mostly it spit on us the entire way, and we were just grateful not to be in a downpour. The sky was dark, and it was raining hard an hour earlier.

Along the way, we saw the first of the red-winged blackbirds. They are frequent visitors to the Fanno Creek Trail, but only just now returning to the area. Sue has the sharpest eyes when it comes to birds.

 (Image credit: By Walter Siegmund )

Also, we passed by a field of lupine. We saw these on a walk last year, but I didn't have my camera with me. When we passed by the next time, they were all bloomed out.

A few days ago, I showed you a pink Hawthorne. Today, we saw a white one.

The wild roses are starting to bloom as well. The rain had them looking a little bedraggled.

Before leaving this morning, I was able to finish quite a bit of stitching on the Gingerbread Square block.

Just the southeast corner remains now. I couldn't fit the last of it in the hoop, but in one more rehooping, I think I'll have it all...or maybe I just need a bigger hoop.

Yesterday morning, I checked in on things in the greenhouse. The new echinacea seeds arrived, and I wanted to plant them. As you might guess, that meant the original ones finally decided to germinate. I've circled the one on the left because it still has the seed attached to its little leaves, and so it's hard to differentiate from the pebbles in the soil.

Despite showing themselves, I'm going to plant their new cousins. These will be different colors. I love the names: Cheyenne Spirit and Pow Wow Wild Berry. Not sure why they've been given names suggestive of our indigenous peoples, but there you go. 

The Cheyenne Spirit will look like this.

The Pow Wow Wild Berry will look like this:

Pretty, huh? You can see why I'm so insistent about having some in the garden. They are perennials if you can get them growing, and the bees will love them.

Also, I replanted one of the Cherry Rose sunflowers that hasn't yet germinated.

If it decides to grow, it will look like this: 

The only other seed that hasn't germinated is the Red Sun Sunflower, and so I replanted one of those.

When it grows, it looks like this:

As for the rest of the sunflowers, they're ready to be planted in the ground. The next spate of sunny days, that's what I'll be doing.

After finishing up in the greenhouse, I took a walk around the house. The chive blossoms are beginning to open. Can chive blossom vinegar be far behind?

Also, cherries are beginning to appear on the cherry trees. The raccoons will be happy about that.

Another of the rhododendrons is starting to open.

And the iris are heading up. They're probably still at least a week away from opening.

With my outdoor responsibilities completed, I went back to work quilting the Sweet Tweets table runner. I needed to finish up the border around one of the sections.

And then I moved to the one at the opposite end. I've drawn lines down the center and also for the binding seam allowance. I want my leaves to stay within the part of the border that will show and these lines help keep me on the straight and narrow.

Here's how it looks from the back. I still wish I'd remembered to switch out that bobbin thread to pink, but oh well.

When I had both ends finished, I took a picture of the full back.

Then I started on the flowered sections. I'm letting the fabric do the talking here, outlining the major elements and stippling in between as I move from one to another.

I was able to finish one section, and that's where I left it.

It's late in the day as I'm writing this, and I've made no more progress. I'm still hoping to get it finished before the weekend is out.

In yesterday's post, I promised to report back on my recipe test of these Lemon Cheesecake Mousse desserts. Oh. My. Gosh. These were absolutely delicious. They're like the best lemon cheesecake, but light and smooth like a mousse.

I barely had enough Redi-Whip left in the can to garnish these two, and I used some fresh mint leaves from the garden. Another suggested garnish from the recipe was fresh blueberries, which would be very nice. You can see that they have a little graham cracker crust in the bottom of the ramekins. I made just half the recipe (which served 10-12). I served them up in 7 oz. ramekins, and my yield was four...a more tolerable number of desserts to split between two people. We ate these last night. We'll have the other two tonight. And, yes, I have replenished my stock of Redi-Whip. You can find the recipe for these right here. They weren't difficult, although they did make a remarkable number of dirty bowls.

So there you have it: two days worth of activities from the Three Cats Ranch. Tomorrow I'll begin sorting fabrics for the class I'm taking next week, and I need to print off some pictures as well. I'll say more about that tomorrow. We're expecting more rain, and so it'll be good sewing weather.