Focus on Flowers

Today might be the first day in weeks, I haven't shown you the progress of the peony. Possibly it's all a ploy. (Are you catching the awesome alliteration?) Perhaps the poppy is pretending to be a prime pearl of the garden. Perhaps it's all a plot to bring down our president! Okay...I didn't mean to get all political there, but "president" starts with "p," so I persisted. Probably I should proceed with the rest of this post. So, the peony is still playing coy, but the poppy has produced two more flowers.

They are so amazingly red that I have to stop down the saturation in Photoshop by one step to bring out the details in the petals. There are still many more buds on both plants. Also, I've planted more in the whiskey barrel by the greenhouse, and some in the whiskey barrel by the front door. They should be able to keep me entertained for years.

Back inside, I've been making progress on the 10th snowflake. The section that appears as satin stitch is actually done in long and short stitches. Since it's a little tedious filling in so much space, I work on different colors and in different areas to break up the task a little. That meant that just filling in the whole of the one arm took several days.

There are also tiny seed stitches in some of the other areas, including the center star. I've left open the very center because a hot fix crystal will be applied there when it's all finished.

In the sewing room, I finished three of four 49-patch blocks for Jenny's Flower Garden. This row will be complete when I finish the fourth, and then make three "blanks," for the triple Irish chain. With three rows finished, I'll have 21 blocks to lay out, and I think the "chain" will emerge nicely.

There was enough time to finish off the fourth block, but I really wanted to bake this Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Bread, which was made with the discard from my sourdough starter. I had a partial can of pumpkin puree in my freezer as well, and so it was good to use that up. The bread was really good. It has substantially less sugar than my regular pumpkin bread recipe. For a tea bread, it wasn't terribly sweet. If you prefer less sweetness, you'll probably like this bread.

Inside, it has raisins and walnuts. The spice comes from cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.

And I loved putting that sourdough discard to good use, rather than just throwing it out. I've linked to the recipe back there. It also includes a link to making your own starter if you don't already have one.

We're going to do a bit of running around today. Mike's truck has to go in for a couple of recall items, and we'll stop into the grocery store to pick up a few things. Our list is short since we were there earlier in the week. Also, I've been neglecting my housework again, and so I need to get a couple of things done there. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to Jenny's Flower Garden this afternoon and finish up the rest of the blocks for the third row.

We're still in our Oregon gloom here. Next week looks brighter and warmer, and so we'll hold off planting the vegetable garden until then.