Getting Stuff Done

It was a productive morning at the Three Cats Ranch yesterday. I did my housekeeping chores, finished off the laundry, and did my morning workout all before noon. After lunch, I filled the bird feeders and took a little walk around. There isn't much more to show right now, but several of the flower buds are being watched closely. One of these mornings, I'll go outside and find something big has popped open. For now, I'm keeping an eye on the dogwood, trying to watch these flowers transition to maturity. They seem to be getting lighter in color and softer.

Also the lithodora is putting on a show right now. It puts out a mass of dark blue flowers carpeting the area around it. The flowers are small...about the size of a dime...but they pack a visual punch.

The kitties went out with me. Sadie took a luxurious dust bath.

That looked good to Smitty too, and so he joined her.

Back inside, I went to work making the next embroidery block for the Domestic Affairs quilt. This one had some applique. It was a little tricky getting those pieces fused down. The lower part of the curtain on the left gave me some trouble. On my first try, I didn't cut out the area where a bird will go, and so I had to peel it up and start again.

After it was fused, I traced in the embroidery lines.

After that, I just needed to top-stitch the applique, and now that puppy is ready for hand embroidery. Of course, I still have several days work left on Pieces of the Past. At least I won't have a stitching emergency after it's finished.

And it was still too nice outside to spend my afternoon in the basement. I went out for another walk around. I noticed the thyme is blooming. It has tiny white flowers, not much bigger than the head of a pin.

And, finally, I spied a bud on the fifth of five peonies. There are two that are very close to opening, and so I was glad to see this one making some progress.

As I walked around to the front patio, I noticed these two popping their heads up from beneath one of our evergreen shrubs. I warned them to stay out of my flower pots or risk being relocated to a new zip code. That had them shivering in their squirrely little boots, let me tell you.

There are multiple Mans coming today. This is never a good thing for the kitties. The window washer guy is coming. It'll be nice to have clean windows again. Also, the tree-topper guys are coming, and so it's going to be busy with bodies and loud machinery for much of the day. I haven't done anything with my Animal Kingdom art quilt, and so I'll probably spend the day working on that. 

I've been busy reserving campsites for the part of our summer trip that begins before Labor Day. This morning I claimed a spot in one of North Dakota's state campgrounds. Score! They tend to be more scenic and less expensive than private RV parks, but it isn't always easy to snag a spot, especially in the week leading up to Labor Day. The parts of the trip are falling into place, and it will be here before we're ready, I'm sure.

But now I'm ready for breakfast. It will be a busy and noisy day. I'm looking forward to getting a good start on my art quilt this afternoon.