Following the Flowers

There wasn't much time for sewing yesterday. I spent a little extra time on the hand quilting, and then I spent quite a bit of time outside in the garden. Sunday was supposed to bring rain, and then didn't. So the watering and weeding was off by a day. I needed to do some catch-up on things, and so the bulk of my time was spent there. Here's what's going on in the garden right now.

First, I'm getting so excited for the cherries. Fingers crossed we get to harvest some this year. 

The first echinacea flower is trying its hardest to open. I expect it has opened by now. There are lots of buds on the plants, and so there should be lots of flowers this year.

The hydrangeas are the stars of the garden right now. Only two of the five have bloomed, but there are lots of flowers on the other plants too. This first one is the variegated flower. This plant was the slowest getting started. It was planted in full sun, and hydrangeas don't like that much sunshine. It struggled for about five years, but then it took off, and now it is always the first to bloom.

It's neighbor to the left is the craziest one. It's showing flowers in three colors now. These are the blue, and you can see that the flower on the left has some lavender in it too.

This flower, on the same plant, is more lavender.

And then, here's one of the pink ones. Crazy, huh?

This will be the next (and the last) peony to bloom. This one is called Joker. The petals seem to be loosening up a bit, but the buds are small. This one is the largest...only about the size of a marble...and the other two are even smaller. 

When it blooms, it's supposed to look something like this:

Around the other side of the house, this is the wine-colored hydrangea. It's covered in flowers, and one of them is starting to open just the tiniest bit. You can see that the Gracie Memorial Catnip Garden to its left is in fine fettle too.

In the vegetable garden, some of the green beans are starting to put out little climbing tendrils.

Also, the zucchini are starting to form blossoms.

Now, here's something: Remember the golden chain tree that fell over while we were traveling? Our tree service guy was up yesterday, and he makes regular visits. He happened to be up here one day while we were gone and saw a buck rubbing his antlers on this poor little tree. He says that's why it fell over. A buck pushed it over. (Shakes fist...DEER!!!) See how the bark is rubbed off the tree on this side? 

By the way, the tree guy says it will be fine.

I sat watching the bird parents for a while and I witnessed the changing of the guard a couple of times. Here we go...one bird in:

One bird out:

Looks like it has something in its beak, doesn't it? They are hard at work, day after day, keeping those babies fed and cheeping.

Now here's the saddest story you'll ever hear. Remember our pretty blue clematis?

Well, I'm afraid we chose poorly when we decided where to plant it. During the warm weather, the warmth coming off the wall of the house cooked the poor thing. We were both heart-broken.

We're hoping we can revive it, and we're going to try, but we'll have to dig it up. It doesn't stand a chance surviving the summer if we leave it where it is. It gets full sun for at least three-quarters of the day, and it's simply too tender to survive that kind of heat during the summer. 

So, we went to the nursery yesterday to see if we could snag another. The blue ones were all gone, and we went to two nurseries. The second nursery had another one that was very pretty, and so we picked that one.

Although the photo shows it being red, it's really more burgundy like this one:

The plant is larger and more established as well. We have a spot picked out for it where the sun will be less intense.

It has quite a few buds on it, and so we should be able to enjoy some blossoms this year.

So it was late in the day by the time I got into the sewing room. There, I was getting ready to work on Luna's pawtrait. Sadie helped me with fabric selection. She's very good with color.

Smitty was a little put out. 

Wait...you're going to make yet *another* cat quilt, and you didn't consult me?

Fortunately, I could mollify him with a little catnip in a dish, and we got along fine after that.

Sadie and I sorted through all the off-white, white, brown, gray, and black scraps and pulled out all the ones we thought had potential. I won't use all of these, but it's good to have them out where I can see them.

Now it looks as if a bomb blew up in the sewing room. 

As I mentioned yesterday, I wanted to redraw the template. The first one had too much detail added in, and so I simplified it a little bit.

I know...it still looks pretty messy, doesn't it? 

When I had that finished, I really wanted to get started before quitting for the day, and so I started with her eyes. 

After that, I needed to give my own eyes a rest. It gets weirdly hard to discern lightness and darkness after looking at so much fabric. When I get to that point, I know it's time to stop.

So...happy day!...we're going to the grocery store! And you know how much I love the grocery store. Yes, I rank it right up with being kicked in the shins, or a red hot poker to the eye, or sewing through my finger. Our governor has ordered mandatory masks state-wide beginning tomorrow. I'm glad of that. In previous trips, only about half of our fellow customers were wearing masks, although everyone we saw at the two nurseries yesterday was wearing them. I'm glad for the state-wide order. Honestly, people...wear the mask! It's the only way we have any hope at all of containing the virus. Okay...stepping off my soapbox now.

And as long as I'm off my soapbox, I think I'll go take a shower. The grocery store awaits.