Floral Friday

We've had some beautiful weather recently. Spring has definitely sprung, and summer is right on its heels. Sue and I met up for a nice breakfast yesterday. We met up at our usual place at the bottom of our hill, the South Store Cafe.

It's a fun place to meet. In the time Mike and I have been in our house (17 years), it has had a few changes in ownership. It has been in its current form for quite some time, and even survived the unexpected death of its owner a few years ago. If I'm remembering correctly, the daughter took over and now runs the place. It opened in 1903 as a general store. It was named to differentiate it from the North Store located about a mile north.  The North Store is still where it always was, only now it has been renamed.  It still does business as a general store, while the South Store has become a gathering place and a restaurant.  There is a brief history of the South Store Cafe here. 

Sue brought me some pretty flowers from her own garden.

We enjoyed our oatmeal and a long gab session. She was limping on her knee, and so we decided not to walk. As we were leaving to get in our cars, I noticed the South Store's pump house...at least, I think its their pump house. It has its own little quilt block.

My straight-on image is a little blown out in the bright sunshine. This looks like a Friendship Star, but it's actually a Spinning Star.

When I got home, I filled the bird feeders and then took a little walk around to see what's new among the blooming things. The lilac is oh so close to bursting into full bloom.

I caught the clematis in the morning sunshine.

More blossoms are opening on the rhododendron, and it looked pretty with the sun shining through its petals.

These wild strawberries are planted next to the culinary herb garden as a ground cover. I noticed them many years ago growing in our field. They were dug up with the heel of my boot and then stuck in the ground closer to the house. It's an ongoing battle to keep them from invading the herbs, and so I mark them appropriately.

The first goldfinches have arrived here at the Three Cats Ranch...a true harbinger of spring heading into summer. That's his friend the house finch there.

With the birds set for a few more days, I got back to work on the pansies. The ninth section was nearly finished, and so it took only a few minutes to add that to the bottom.

And then there was just one more section to finish. It took most of the day, but the mosaic portion is done. Yahoo!

It still needs borders and cornerstones. The cornerstones will be square-in-a-square made with these two fabrics.

And then I pulled the green and the floral from my stash for the other two borders. I'll use the same purple from above for the binding.

This next fabric was pulled for the quilt back, but then I realized I probably have enough fabric from the border fabric to use for the back. If that's the case, I'll use that instead. All of these fabrics are long-time residents of my stash.

So, I've been alluding to our trip to the beach this weekend. On Sunday we're heading over to Bandon, Oregon, for the Circles in the Sand project. You can read about it at that link I've given you. It's the project of a gentleman named Denny Dyke. All summer long, he's out at low tide with a group of volunteers creating the labyrinths. They can be seen in their entirety from the Face Rock scenic viewpoint, and my understanding is that it's possible to get down to the beach and walk among the circles. 

We're expecting good weather, if a little chilly, and so it should be a nice little getaway. Also, there's quilt shop in Bandon, so we'll pay them a visit too. Bandon is a fun little beach town in southern Oregon. We spent a little time there many years ago. They used to have a cheese factory, but I haven't seen Bandon cheese in a long time. I'm not sure it's still there. In any case, we usually just drive through on our way to some place else. We're both looking forward to spending a little more time there.

And all of that to say that today I'll be cooking and packing. I like to make some things ahead to cut down on cooking time on the road. It also cuts down on packing the ingredients I'll need. I'm planning to blog while we're away, but it always depends on whether we can connect to internet. For now, I'm signing off for a day or two. If there's time today, I'll sew the borders on the pansy mosaic and call it a finished flimsy.