4/22/16

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.

7 comments:

WoolenSails said...

Beautiful flowers and we do have the red wings here, can always see it as they fly by.

Debbie

quiltzyx said...

Lovely photos from your walk, drizzly rain not withstanding!
I hope all the new seeds germinate for you too.
My knee has been very evil to me lately. Just woke up with sore & don't know why. It was REALLY bad this week. Tuesday I could barely walk part of the time. The big boss came in in the morning and brought us breakfast burritos & noticed I was limping. He went out to his truck & brought in a jar of Turmeric capsules. Said he takes them for his joints & that it would be about 3 days for them to work. What the heck, worth a try, right? Well, I started that day. Wednesday was the worst day, but then it started getting better. And even better today! Still gimping a bit, but only a fraction of the pain!!! I have to go get more for myself now. Anyway, thought you might be interested in it. All natural, and supposed to be good for joints, heart & other stuff too.

Quilting Babcia said...

Surprising that it took so long for the red wing blackbirds to arrive there, ours have been raiding the bird feeders for at least a month along with all their black cousins - grackles, cowbirds and even a crow. I love hearing the red wings calling in the early morning and evening.

Dana Gaffney said...

The echinacea flowers are gorgeous, I'll be looking for them next time I go north. Now that you've done a full rectangle with the green thread it looks like you meant to do it.

gpc said...

I love the way the blackbirds cling to a single stem of grass. We see them in the ditches here all the time. The lemon dessert looks and sounds scrumptious -- gotta add that to my next-cheat-day list! :)

Kate said...

More beautiful flowers. My Guy and I are going to have to come to your part of the country in the spring. Maybe once the dependent child is off at college, we'll be able to schedule a trip in the spring without worrying about leaving one at home.

Lee said...

I was in Oregon for 3 weeks and so enthralled with all that was in bloom and how green everything was. My aunt & I even went to Schreiner's Iris farm in Brooks (Salem). I was most pleased that I got to see lots and lots and lots of lilacs. I always enjoy seeing your flora posts from up there. I have one possible correction though, what you identified as lupine is, I believe, actually the camas plant. They are easily confused. I'm still catching up from having minimal internet during my time away from home.