Taco Tuesday

It was a reasonably nice day yesterday...the first extended sunshine we've seen in quite a while. I took advantage of it and did some weeding outside. When I finished what I was working on, I took a short walk around to see what's what. There are itty bitty pine cones forming on the trees that line one side of our driveway. They are about marble-sized.

Our sad little apple tree is blooming. It has quite a few flowers on it. Last year, it put out several apples. If memory serves, I might even have made a small dessert with last year's tiny crop.

Some of the rhododendrons are opening. They are usually the stars of the garden this time of year. 

The ones around the back of the house get the most sunshine, and so they are ahead of the others. 

Little flowers are forming on the blueberries we planted last year. They were, thankfully, protected from the snow falling off the roof. They are planted on the back side of the garage and the peak of the roof sends the snow off in the other direction.

Back inside, Smitty and I readied ourselves to make the 11th of 12 blocks for the New Mexico Kitchen quilt.

This will be the Taco block, and here is the accompanying recipe.

We first made the background for the block. All the striped fabrics I've picked up for quilt bindings have been invaluable for the backgrounds in these blocks.

It took most of the afternoon, but the fusing is finished now.

Today I'll work on top-stitching around the applique, and then I'll be adding in thread details. It will need two borders, and then I'll finish it off with the dreaded fringe. Thankfully, it's the last one that will need fringe. It'll make the job go down a little easier.

Later in the afternoon, I did a second round of slow-stitching. I've finished off the right side of the sugar bowl, and started on the left side of the large center bowl.

This morning, I'll stitch the last of the sugar bowl, and then start working on the bottom of the large bowl.

Smitty was beginning to think the sun would never again shine on his kitty pole for a morning sunbath. He was soaking it up this morning when I came upstairs to write this post. It's too bad his life is so challenging.

Today I'm prepping for everyone's favorite medical procedure...a routine colonoscopy scheduled for tomorrow morning. For breakfast I made myself some gourmet lemon jello. Later I'll have some delicious chicken broth. Then at dinner time, I'll start guzzling the gallon jug of who-knows-what's-in-it. After that I'll be, shall we say, indisposed. My procedure is scheduled for early tomorrow morning, and so I'll probably take the day off from blogging. Maybe I'll feel like it later in the afternoon, but time will tell.

Today I'll keep working on the New Mexico Kitchen block. Maybe I'll have time to finish it off. With it being such a nice day, I'm tempted to distract myself by heading into town and purchasing some annuals. I'd like to get them planted, but our sunshine has been so infrequent, it's been hard to find a time to get out and do it. Having them at home and ready for planting would help in that regard.

No doubt, you're going to have a better day than I am, but we're going to try to have a good day here at the Three Cats Ranch too. Smitty is setting the tone.