The Cutting Edge

There was quite a bit on yesterday's agenda. We had to go grocery shopping. Along the way we picked up more bird seed and peanuts. We're filling the bird feeders on a daily basis now. Also, I picked up some flat-rate boxes at the post office for some items I need to ship. Before we left, I filled the bird feeders and then took a little walk around.

Quite a few of the flowers on the bright pink azalea have opened. We're expecting warmer, dryer weather today, and so I'm hopeful a lot of these flowers-in-waiting will open.

There's more activity on my favorite rhododendron. Their speckled centers remind me of orchids.

The dogwood tree has developed a pink sheen. Some warm weather will put it over the top.

The rhododendrons at either end of one of the walkways are covered in flower buds. This one is at the top.

This one is farther down.

It has a few open flowers.

I love these delicate apple blossoms.

All along, I had in mind to plant another vegetable garden this year. I have seed packets for sunflowers, beets, carrots, zucchini, and cucumber. I was limiting myself to vegetables that would ripen early since we're leaving mid-August for our Great Lakes tour. Now we're in the latter part of May, and the ground is still too muddy and cold to think about tilling and planting. So, I've adjusted my expectations. I'm going to grow some pickling cucumbers in large pots, and then I'll grow some of the shorter sunflowers in the flower bed with the blueberries. As for the rest of it...I'll plant again in a year or two. For now, I've started my seeds in little pots in the laundry room. A vegetable garden is a lot of work, and I've spent too many summers tending to ours only to take off on a trip before anything is ripe. I won't go down that road again.

With so much non-sewing going on yesterday, it was way late in the afternoon before I made my way into the sewing room. I had a goal to cut the pieces I'd need for the Flannel 4-Patch. Sadie likes the flannel. It feels so good against her furs.

Smitty likes it too. 

I was able to get everything cut except for the scrappy squares. As I mentioned yesterday, I'll alternate the gray polka dot and the solid blue on the quilt back. On the quilt top, I'll alternate the two reds. For the smaller 4-patch blocks, I'll put those two plaids at opposing corners and then use randomly selected scraps for the other two corners. It's going to be a scrappy quilt, but I like some pattern. We'll see how this works out.

While I was making dinner last night, Sadie was enjoying the relatively warm weather on her catio. 

We're expecting warmer and dry weather today. I'm planning to weed the herb garden. The weeding process has taken so long this wet spring that I'm needing to start at the beginning and weed areas that have already been weeded. That will have to wait for another day since I'll be done-in by the time I'm finished with the herb garden. I neglected to get some flower food while we were in town yesterday, and so I'll make a quick trip to pick some up. I can mail one of my parcels while I'm at it. I'm hoping to get into the sewing room by afternoon and get started sewing the first two rows on the flannel quilt together. And so you can see it's another busy day ahead. There's never a dull moment at the Three Cats Ranch.