Wining and Every Blooming Thing

It was a busy day yesterday, ram-packed with lots of good stuff. I finished up my latest stitchery, and then headed downstairs to trim it and photograph it. Before I did that though, I petted this yardage. It's the back yardage for And On that Farm. It was put on hold for the rest of the day's business. I'll get it cut and made into a quilt back today.

Here's the third plate for Pieces of the Past.

Just before I took that picture, I realized I'd neglected to finish stitching one of the roses. And that made Sadie and me so mad!

She gave me soothing cheek rubs while I finished stitching it.

When that was finished, she manned the phone and took messages when people called. She's an excellent admeownastrative assistant.

Here are the three plates I have for this quilt so far:

After that, I traced out the next block for Appalachian Memories. I always color in the quilt block. This time, I colored in the cardinal as well. There is only one other block with any extra coloring on it...the one with the American flag.

Okay, and so now it's hooped up and ready to go. This will be the next stop on today's agenda.

We were expecting Erik and Mae to arrive at 2:30 for our wine-tasting event, and so I hurried up in the garden. Honestly, it's been so long since we grew vegetables, I'd forgotten how gratifying it is. The garden is looking fantastic. There are zucchini close to harvest, and I expect I'll be inundated with beets soon enough.

Behind where I'm standing, the garden wasn't planted, and it has all grown up into flowering weeds. The bees love it. We call it the "bee garden." I really should take a picture to show you. We've learned from this year's garden that I can probably handle a little more. We've also learned the bee garden is probably worth keeping, but we need about a five foot perimeter around it to keep the tallest weeds from casting shadows over the vegetables. I'll try to get out and take a picture soon, and this will all make more sense. For now, just enjoy this visitor. I saw several ladybugs yesterday. They were hanging out on the sunflowers.

As for the rest of the fruits of the garden, the plums are nearly full sized now, but a long way from ripening. 

The apples are still coming along. They are about the size of racquetballs now.

Checking in on the tomatoes in the greenhouse...there are lots of tomatoes, but they too are a long way from ripening.

Kitties do not like the greenhouse, but usually when I leave the greenhouse, I find Himself sitting on the wall across from me. It's the catbird seat. A cool, mossy wall to cool his tummy furs, and shade from a tree overhead to keep his back furs from getting too hot. Although...just looking at him, I'm saying the lady cats think he's hot all the time.

In the rest of the garden, the echinacea are putting on quite a show right now. I'm charging the battery on my DSLR camera so that I can get some macro shots of these flowers.

I'm checking the purple poppy obsessively. I can't wait for it to bloom.

There was just enough time left to finish my housework before our wine event. Erik and Mae are members at the Gran Moraine Winery in Yamhill, Oregon. What a lovely tasting room and location!

We took a little walk around the grounds before being seated for our tasting. The grounds were beautifully landscaped.

You'd be disappointed if I didn't show you every blooming thing, wouldn't you? They had the most beautiful gladiolas.

I always love the echinacea.

More gladiolas...

and black-eyed Susans.

I don't know what these are, but they were pretty.

The valley here is expansive and beautiful.

We enjoyed the tasting very much. We shared two "flights," which meant we each sipped 12 different wines.

It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. By the time we left, it was late in the day, and so we got takeout Thai food and took it home to eat.

I can't end today without telling you it's Smitty's Gotcha Day. This is the first picture I took of the little squirt, 12 weeks old.

All I can say is it was the first day The Troubles landed on the doorstep of the Three Cats Ranch.

Today I'll get back to quilting the Shop Hop quilt. I really want to get it finished and out of the quilting room. There's also some watering to do, and a little housework. (When isn't there?) Time to get going.