Slowly I Turn

Everything moved in slow motion for me yesterday. I'm not sure why I was so lazy, but I was. It isn't as if I wasn't accomplishing anything, but getting dressed was at the bottom of the list. Just before lunch, I was about to make myself presentable, but then...lunch. Heck, I could put off getting dressed just a little longer, couldn't I? And that's how the day went. Sometimes one just needs a day of sloth, I think.

Each morning, I turn on the grow light for the seedlings. Yesterday, I was happy to find lots of sprouted melon seeds with lots of little leaves. Looks like we'll get some cantaloupe in the garden this year after all. Now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some actual fruit. 

You might recall we had hundreds of branches down from the ice storm this past winter. We arrived home to find our landscape looking as if a war had been fought while we were away for the season. Mike has been dutifully tractoring around picking them all up. Yesterday, he touched off one of the three piles he's created. He came inside and announced excitedly that he'd just touched off the biggest fire of his life. (You must understand that Mike has been building fires for me since I was 18.)

I left him there in the picture for scale. In the image below, you can see the three piles, each as big as the one beside it. As the day wore on, he shoved the two piles on either side into the burning pile in the middle. Backyard burns are supposed to be out at sunset, and ours was burned down to smoldering ruins by the end of the day. I expect it's completely gone this morning, although I haven't walked down to check.

There are still a few more trees and branches to deal with, particularly the big Douglas Fir below. The branches are up too high to reach, even with a tall ladder. (A tall ladder would be a bad idea in any case.) We're either going to hire a crew to come in for this, or else rent a cherry picker to get those final branches down. And they must come down. It's dangerous as it is. 

While Mike was out lighting fires, I was in being slow. I stitched up another hoopful of Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. This one is close to being finished. I know I keep saying that, but this time, I really mean it.

After that, I got to work stitching up May's "Posies" block. This is my rainbow scrap challenge for the year. I'm combining the color of the month with the little monthly stitcheries from Jenny of Elefantz for her free "Posies" BOM quilt.

Last year and this year, I've been making a concerted effort to pare down my quilts-to-be-quilted pile. I didn't make a rainbow quilt last year, and I wasn't planning to do one this year until the Posies quilt pattern came along. It was irresistible, and now I look forward to seeing the new block on the first day of each month. These are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

This morning, I'll be linking up to

and to

The only other sewing I did yesterday was to make a back for the I Believe in Snowmen quilt, and I cut the binding strips. You can see the fabrics I used in the image below. That red batik has been in my stash for a long time. I had a swatch of it in a "layer cake" that I won in a giveaway. I liked it so much that I went online and bought five yards. It's been in my stash for years. Now I'm glad to have a place to use it.

Just before dinner, I went outside to fill the birdfeeders. While I was out, I noticed these little daffodils blooming. They are so cute...about half the size of a regular daffodil. Suddenly I remembered ordering them when I ordered the crocus bulbs last year. This daffodil is called the "Original Poet's Daffodil."

At the same time, I ordered some of these "Riot" daffodils. This is the picture from the catalog. You can see they appear to have bright red centers...or maybe not.

Because I think these ones I've been showing several times might have been the new "Riot" daffodils. In any case, I've really enjoyed the daffodils this year. 

Now that I remembered these are the new ones planted last fall, I've realized one of my favorite things about bulb flowers is how you forget all about them, and then they come up as pretty little surprises in the spring.

Also, some of you might remember the teeth gnashing I did last spring over the Rosy Prospects peony.

It's suppose to look like this when it blooms.

Last year, mine seemed tantalizingly close to blooming for weeks. I was going outside first thing each morning to see if the magic had arrived. Never did it ever. It went straight to seed without ever blooming. It's a cruel plant. It broke my heart.

So fast forward to this year: the peonies are forming buds, but I hadn't seen a single bud on the Rosy Prospects peony. I thought it might break my heart yet again, but yesterday, I noticed this bud. Yay!

Fingers crossed it actually blooms this year. You might want to keep your fingers crossed too. It shouldn't interfere with your sewing too much. And besides, we're only talking about a month or so. You can do it. We'll all do it together. It might help to chant something too. We can start with "ommmmmmmmmmmmm." Who's with me?

As I was gathering up my camera to come upstairs and write this post, I happened to look out the dining room window. This is what I saw: the dogwood tree peeking out from behind the lilacs. So pretty.

Today I'll try to be less slothful, but no guarantees. It's Sunday morning, and that means blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Maybe those will put a spring in my step...it is Spring, after all. 

As you might guess, no housework got done yesterday, and so I'm determined to get caught up on that today. After that, I'm going to get to work on quilting the poppy quilt. 

I've selected a single thread to use in the bobbin, but I'm going to use different colors on the top. It always takes a while to get the machine set up and tension adjusted, and so I'm not sure I'll do any actual quilting today, but I should be able to get a righteous start on it no later than tomorrow. It's a lap-sized quilt, and so I don't think it will take long.

It's a sunny day, apparently, although these things have a way of changing. It might also be a good day to get out and knock down some more weeds.