Nips and Buds

We were expecting rain most of the day yesterday. It never really materialized. I was busy with my slow-stitching when I realized the sun was shining. I really wanted to get out and weed the vegetable garden, and so I packed up and wasted no time getting outside while the getting was good. Along my way to the vegetables, I took pictures of every blooming thing.

There aren't many blooming things in the garden right now...just the promise of lots of blooming things to come. The sage blossoms are continuing to open. I'm kind of tempted to add a few more to my sage blossom vinegar. It still has a week to go on its infusion process, and I started out with barely enough flowers.

The clematis blossom still looks good despite being hammered by rain the past week. You can see it still has several buds, and so I'm hoping it will put on more of a show.

Our little rose bush is doing really well, but it too has been hammered by rain. 

I'm actually kind of surprised at the number of flowers. Deer come by and drink from our nearby bird bath at night. We can hear them lapping up the water from our open bedroom window. They sampled this little bush in a couple of places, but avoided eating every single flower. The flowers are looking pretty beaten up, but here's one that's been sheltered by some foliage.

This is a floribunda, and there are lots more flowers coming. Our weather is supposed to improve, and so I'm hoping it will be able to take advantage of the better weather, and show us some more flowers.

Checking in on flower buds, the echinacea is beginning to show some color.

It's neighbor, the lily, is looking good too. 

The daylilies look ready to burst. They just need some warm weather.

I think the next stars of the garden are going to be the hydrangeas though. They are covered in buds. We have five bushes in our yard. This next one is one Erik and Mae gave me for mother's day a couple of years ago. It is the most beautiful wine-colored flower.

This next one is planted around where the peonies are. It's a variegated variety, and it is showing some color on its petals.

Yesterday, I spent a little time making a collage of the progress of the Rosy Prospects peony. I think I started watching it a little too soon. I started taking pictures more than a month ago, and here is its progress.

Every day, I check to see if it has opened. It continues to grow larger, and the "nodules" are growing longer and spreading out. This is the picture I took yesterday evening.

I just know I'm going to walk out one of these mornings and find it burst open. Maybe later this week when the weather warms into the 80's.

The fruit trees are doing well too. There are plenty of plums on the plum tree. My challenge with the plum tree is to be at home when they ripen. We're already planning a two-week trip mid-September (I'll say more about it later), and so I'm hoping it ripens either before we leave or after we return.

The Bing cherry tree has cherries, but the Black Tartarian is the one with the most impressive amount of fruit. I'm really hoping we'll get some this year.

As a reminder, here is our Sad Little Apple Tree. I'm thinking of changing its name to "The Little Apple Tree that Could."

It is loaded with apples for the first time in its life.

With so much fruit, it's bound to shed some, but I doubt it can support the weight of even half this number of apples.

We're thinking if we give it a taller stake, we can stake up the portion that's leaning over, effectively providing it with a little "sling" or a "crutch" to help it support the fruit. I'd love to get a good crop of apples from it after all its hard work.

Mr. Smithers caught yet another squirrel yesterday. We've taken to calling him "The Exverminator."

Hunting cats have dirty feet.

They were free to come and go while we were out yesterday, and the catio door was open. Still, I found them nibbling at their beloved cat grass as I passed by.

For yesterday's sewing, I made another Shop Hop Block. This one was from the last quilt shop we visited on our winter trip. We were in a rural area of Northern California (north of Yosemite) visiting some of the gold rush towns. The owner of this shop was already expressing concern about whether she could stay in business with concerns about COVID. At that point, no stay-at-home orders had been issued, but her business had dropped to nothing. I chose this fabric because it reminded me of some things we'd seen in the area.

Checking in on her website, it looks as if the store is still open, although there is a notification that all classes are still on hold. You can read my blog post about this shop right here.

These are the three blocks I have for the quilt so far:

We're looking at a day of rain again today, and so I'll probably spend my day in the sewing room. I'll be making the "Enchilada" block for New Mexico Kitchen. Here's the picture from the pattern cover.

Sorry for the blur. It's blurred on the cover. This is the recipe that accompanies the block.

We're expecting better weather by Wednesday, when it will dry up and warm up significantly. I'd love to get out into the garden with my bucket and pull some weeds. The focus has been on the vegetable garden for the past week or so, but the rest of the garden has its own share of weedy intruders. Also, I need to make up a shopping list. Tomorrow will be grocery shopping day.