Happy First Day of Summer!

Summer has arrived bright and beautiful. We're in for at least a week of sunny and warm weather. After finishing up my slow-stitching yesterday, I went outside for a walk around and discovered flowers on the lavender.

Here at the Three Cats Ranch, we like to welcome the lavender and the first day of Summer with a round of Bees Knees cocktails. Here's a rerun from last year:

We're grilling tonight, and so those will go down nicely.

Continuing on...the Fairy Princess peony opened all the way, and I noticed another one was open by day's end.

The Coral Sunset peony is looking marvelous.

The bush is fairly covered in flowers now.

It's in competition for the most beautiful with its neighbor to the right. This one is called "Joker."

Okay, so I'm starting to think the cruel peony, called "Rosy Prospects" might actually have made a little progress this year. In years gone by, it's never progressed farther than what you see below. This photo was taken last year.

It's supposed to look like this when it's in full bloom:

When I looked at it yesterday, I noticed it had opened farther than I'd ever seen it, and it actually has a row of white petals at its outer edges.

There are still lots of buds coming. Maybe one of them will give me the full meal deal. If not, I'm thinking I might give it a reprieve for one more season before giving up on it. If I decide to replace it this year, I'm in a bit of a bind because we'll be traveling during the time when it would ship and when it would need to be planted. I could have it shipped to Erik and Mae, but then I'm not sure it can wait a month or so before being planted. 

Now that I'm seeing this one make some progress, I'm thinking it makes sense to give it another year. I've checked with peony lovers on Facebook about this. People have told me it could take as much as five years before it blooms. This will be its third season. It might have won itself another year by displaying those white petals. My threats of doom are paying off, I think.

Okay, and moving on, the poppies are still blooming, but I'm afraid the rain has pretty well destroyed them. It's too bad because they were having a good year with lots of enormous buds. Many of the buds opening now have only rotten flowers inside.

I noticed some rosebuds. This is usually a signal for the deer to come down and enjoy them with a nice glass of chardonnay. If they bloom before the deer notice, we might actually get some very fragrant roses.

Across the sidewalk from the roses, the purple rhododendron is in full bloom. Behind it, you can see the dappled willow is having its best year ever.

To its left, the red cardinal clematis is looking good. I worried about it when we got snow in April, but it seems to have come through just fine. There are several flower buds, but it's probably a ways from blooming just yet.

To its right, the first flowers are forming on the hydrangea.

Back inside, Smitty was ready to get to work sewing borders on the French Roses quilt.

When I left off, I was adding a scrappy inner border, and I was explaining that I'm too old for math. I couldn't figure out how to make these 4-inch blocks come out evenly. If I used a calculator, I ended up with fractions of blocks, and so I committed a quilting crime: I sewed them to the sides, and then cut off the excess. 

Call the Quilt Police if you must. She looks like she needs something to do.

By the time I'd rounded all four sides, it looked like this.

And then, I just needed to add one more border, and my quilt top was finished. Yay!

I've made a back for it, and it's ready to be sandwiched for quilting.

I'll tie this one. It's made from flannel, and so I want it to stay nice and soft.

I tried another new recipe last night. This is for Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs. 

I served it over some reheated leftover rice. These were really good. They were a little salty, and so I'd reduce the amount of salt if I make this again...and I will. Also, the recipe calls for crushed Ritz crackers in the meatballs. I used panko instead. It was all very tasty. The only thing missing were Bees Knees cocktails and eating outdoors. That will be for tonight's dining pleasure.

Okay, so I think we're in for a string of good days. I'll probably get out for a walk this morning. It's only going to get warmer as the week wears on, and then I'll be ready to start complaining about the heat. In the sewing room, I've moved onto my next project, which is to quilt one of the "small quilts." A quilt qualifies as "small" if I can sandwich it on the work table in my sewing room. So that brings me to the Grandma's Thimbles quilt top, finished last fall.

Already, I know how I'm going to quilt it, and so it shouldn't take long to get it to binding stage.