Sunny Skies

It looks like we'll be getting some better weather for the weekend. We are so ready for it! Mike will be gone Saturday night, attending a road rally with Erik and some of his friends. I've been threatening to weed the herb garden for weeks. I believe it might actually get done this weekend. Yesterday's weather brought a little of everything. I hurried outside during a sun break to take some pictures. The flowers are happy for some warmer weather. 

While I was out, this little red tree squirrel was scolding me. I was getting in the way of his eating the dahlias I planted the other day. The nerve of some humans.

The rhododendrons are really starting to put on a show. This is the peachy one at the top of the walkway.

I love this color.

The pink one at the bottom of the walkway is no slouch either.

Turning the corner, I'm amazed at the stargazer lily this year. It's putting up multiple stalks, no doubt picking up the slack for its neighbors. There were four lilies in this area. Two of them failed to make an appearance last year. The calla lily poked its head above ground and grew some foliage, but it never flowered. I'm considering replacing all three of them. Either way...this one is looking very promising.

Here's a shot from last year when it was a single stalk. It put out nine flowers and even more buds.

One of the peonies is getting close to blooming. These always take a lot longer than I think they will.

I counted 11 buds on the lower poppy. There are still none on the patio poppy. Don't know what happened to it this year.

The buds are huge! This one is as big as my fist. I expect it will open this weekend.

From a distance, the dogwood is putting on a show.

The flowers are not yet mature though. I'm not sure what happens as they progress, but they will be lighter in color, and the petals will be more delicate. I believe these darker petals are "guard petals" and that more petals will come from the center. I'm going to watch them more closely this year and see if I can follow their maturation process.

The lilacs are at their prettiest now.

And the azaleas are starting to amaze with their bright colors.

This white one is a little sickly. It has just two flowers and all the top foliage appears to have been burned by ice or snow. I'm hoping it will make a comeback.

This is the dappled willow. It never really has done what I thought it would do in the spring. It is developing the lighter green and pinkish tips at the ends of its branches. Until I took this picture off the camera, I didn't notice the longer stalks running vertically through the image. They look as if they might flower.

I've seen them put out a spray of pink "flowers" like the one you see in the image below.

Mike pruned ours and shaped it last year. I'm hoping it will do something pretty this year.

Moving toward the front door, the wisteria we planted last year is doing great. It's starting to climb across the front porch fascia now. I don't see any flowers forming, but I hope there will be some soon.

Back inside, Smitty was anxious to get into the sewing room. We were making a cat, and he likes to be front and center during fabric cat construction.

With his expurrtise, I was able to finish the fusing for the first section. This section is called "Tomato Vine." Don't ask me how you get tomatoes and strawberries growing from the same vine.

There is some piecing to do to finish it off, and of course, I'll be doing some top-stitching too. There are some details to stitch in with the legs of the birds and a few strawberry stems. 

While we watched the news, I stitched up the next section of Pieces of the Past. I know that looks like a blue hand grenade, but it's actually a "sugar shaker." 

Some happy mail arrived yesterday from my friend Tracy. Tracy was out thrift shopping and came across this piece of fabric. I love all that vintage sewing stuff.

Okay, and for dinner last night, I was trying to clean some half-used stuff out of the fridge. I'd purchased a head of cauliflower to have as a side dish with another meal, and then I ended up not using it. Also, I had a hunk of fontina cheese leftover from yet another dish. I needed to use both. And, frankly, fontina cheese is too expensive to allow it to go to waste. So, I went in search of a recipe that might use both. I came up with this one for Rigatoni and Cauliflower al Forno, and it was so good.

It made an absolute ton, using a whole head of cauliflower and a full pound of rigatoni. I split the amount between two 8 x 8 baking dishes and froze one of them for a future RV trip. We devoured the rest. It was very tasty. It's a bit of a process to make it with boiling the pasta and roasting the cauliflower, but it can be made ahead and refrigerated until you're ready to heat it up.

Okay, so today we're expecting some more people today. The tree guys are going to give it another shot, topping our too-tall trees. Also, another crew is coming to do some work on mold remediation downstairs. We don't have the lab report back on how much the mold is permeating the air in the room, but there is visible mold that will be cleaned up before the rest of the work can proceed. If the lab report comes back showing more work needs to be done, then they'll return to do more. Frankly, I'm not sure what all that entails. Today, they'll be removing more of the insulation and wallboard. It's going to be a lengthy process. 

Also, we're fit to be tied about the response from our insurance company. You might recall it took over a week to get anyone to call us back when the leak was first discovered. Now, six weeks on, we're still having the same problems. Call after call after call, and no one calls back. It's outrageous! I'm afraid we're going to have to file a complaint with our state insurance commissioner. More on that later.

I'll spend a little more time in the sewing room today, and I should be able to finish off the section I'm working on for Purrfectly Pieced. After that, I'll be starting on my next quilt for the Endeavourers art quilt group. This prompt this time around is "Animal Kingdom." There's no reveal this time until August 1st, and so I'll only be able to show you peeks. I'll be doing something with a photograph a friend took. Here's a little peek at that.

I know...it's not much to work with, but that's all you get for now.

Okay...so time to get going. I'll have some breakfast, and then do a little slow-stitching. I'm looking forward to some nice weather this weekend.