A Day of Sunshine

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we had a single day of sunshine this week. This morning, we're back to our usual Oregon gloom. When I came upstairs to write this post, Smitty was looking hopefully out the window, but I'm afraid his hunting plans for the day might be short-lived.

Before we got to work on our weeding, I stitched up this section of the latest Dancing Chickens block.

All that's left now are these few words, and then the running stitch around the perimeter of the block. 

It should be easy enough to finish this one off this morning. Later today, I'll trace out a new project. My embroidery dance card has one open slot. I'll say more about it when I have it ready to stitch.

With our stitching finished, we headed out to pull up that dastardly hairy bittercress before it could spread its demon seed. Smitty was at the ready. 

Before getting my hands muddy, I walked around with my camera and took some pictures of every blooming thing. There isn't much, but there are a few little things. These are some little mini iris. They're about 3 inches across from petal tip to petal tip. I can only think the squirrels planted these since I didn't.

Here's one of the white crocus.

The daffodils are ever so close to opening. We really need some warmth, and they'll burst forth. Even though the sun was shining yesterday, it was still chilly. I was dressed in two sweatshirts.

But enough romance...it's weeds we're after today. Now all those suckers are in my 7-gallon bucket...and I filled my bucket. 

I've worked hard the past two years pulling up weeds before they could do their dirty work of going to seed and reproducing, and it's paying off. There are far fewer this year...but still plenty. The rest can be sprayed, and so the next time we get some sunshine, I'll focus on dead-heading last year's blossoms from the hydrangeas. When I'd filled my bucket, my arm was telling me it was time to stop, and so we all went inside together.

The kitties were disappointed they hadn't killed a single thing. Sadie decided to take it out on one of her kitty toys. She's the only cat we've ever had who actually plays with her toys.

After that, I spent the rest of the day working on my challenge piece. It has three subjects. I finished the first two the day before. Yesterday, I finished the third, and then added two borders. Now it's ready for quilting. Here's a peek:

It ended up larger than expected. The suggested size is to keep our projects no larger than 36 inches square. Mine ends up at 24 x 28 inches. I'll work on getting it quilted today.

Also on today's agenda is to do one housekeeping chore and to get my next stitchery traced out. It should be a pretty low-key day. I was exhausted last night...mainly because my back, my shoulder, and my thumb were aching. I'm looking forward to a little less excitement today. Sometimes rain is a welcome sight, even in rainy Oregon.