A Little of Everything

Good morning, my friends! Happily, I announce that I'll have the house to myself today and tomorrow. It isn't that I don't enjoy having Mike around...I do. On the other hand, a chance to go a little bohemian is always appealing. There were a couple of housekeeping chores on the calendar for today and tomorrow, but I moved those to a different day. Aside from watering the flower pots, these two days are mine, all mine.

Backing up to yesterday, there was a lot to do. It was tempting to get right to work, but I wanted to stitch the little bit of the design still in my hoop.

Now I've hooped the last of it. I should have this finished within the next day or two.

And then, I wasted no time getting outside to repot the tomatoes. I wanted to do it while Mike was here to help me lift heavy bags of potting soil. It's a pretty quick job once I get going on it. Now the tomatoes are happily ensconced in their biggest pots of the season.

After many years of use, the tomato cages are in poor shape. Some of them are turned upside down with their tines bent down for eye protection. Some have plastic fencing around them to fill in where rings have come apart and fallen off. Nevertheless, they'll get the job done for another season.

Outside the greenhouse, the poppy barrel is loaded with buds. We're on poppy watch, although I expect these won't open for another several days.

Up on the patio, those poppies are covered in buds as well.

A squirrel gnawed on this one, but it doesn't seem to have hurt the flower petals much.

And...miracle of miracles...I believe we may have eradicated the California Gray Squirrels (gray diggers, as we refer to them) from the junipers where they've lived for many years. Mike has been judiciously trapping them and transporting them to a new zip code. It seems as if he's moved the entire neighborhood. As I write those words, I expect one will show up today. However, we've heard nothing in the ceiling of the basement for many days, and we aren't seeing them pop up from the junipers either.

Walking on, the peony bed is impressive, and there are lots of buds.

We're on peony watch now too. Sue tells me her peony has bloomed and she sent a picture yesterday. I have the same peony...this coral sunset in the picture below. Sue lives in the valley, and so her flowers are always a little ahead of mine.

Also, after our discussion of peonies and ants of a few days ago, I wanted to show you an example of
"biological mutualism." This might actually qualify as "flower porn," so avert your eyes if you're sensitive to that sort of thing.

The purple rhododendron is in full flower now. I always say this is my favorite.

On the other hand there's a very dark purple rhododendron on the other side of the house. It's always the last to bloom, and so in a little while, I'll be claiming that one is my favorite.

The azaleas and the rhododendrons are competing right now to see who can be the most spectacular. This next azalea has grown to an enormous size. It tries to inundate the daffodil. So far, the daffodil is holding its own.

The purple clematis is still blooming away, but it is nearly done.

And look at this: IT'S A BEAN!!!!!!! HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY!

Ahem. Okay. Both feet are on the ground now. 

Back inside, I went to work baking cookies. These are the Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries. I've linked to the recipe there, although it was Christmas when I made the ones I've linked to. I substituted dried cranberries for the dried cherries. The ones in the image below were made with dried cherries.

Generally, the ones above are the only cookies I bake any more. They have something for everybody. Still, I was enticed by a recent recipe from Smitten Kitchen for The Browniest Cookie. And who doesn't love brownies? It seemed worth a try. They can be made on the stove top with a whisk, and no mixer is required. They are not as sweet as some cookies, and more cake-like, as a brownie is. I'm holding my comments about these until the guys at the road rally have had their say. We each had one yesterday, and we both lived to tell about it.

Okay, so it was a busy day up to that point. I needed a nap before doing any sewing. Sadie joined me. She was tired out from her morning nap, and so she decided to take another nap while I finished off the 18th Tiny House.

And there it is. I'm half finished with them now.

Here are the 18 Tiny Houses I have so far.

That was all the sewing I did yesterday. It was time to get the kitties out to enjoy the warm evening air. Sadie always runs all around. Smitty is happy sitting under my chair and codging the occasional head skritch.

And he was exhausted by all that relaxation, so he took a nap in the sunshine when we were back inside. Are you getting that Smitty has a terrible life?

Okay, so I expect it will be NBS for the next two days. For sure, I need to make up the next block for the Domestic Affairs quilt. These blocks are from a BOM Jenny of Elefantz did some years back called "Gentle Domesticity."

When that is ready to go, I'll get to work on my challenge piece. For now, I'm instituting the one-hour rule. I'll work on it for at least an hour, and then decide whether to continue or whether to work on something else. If I decide to work on something else, I'll start sewing together the blocks for the Shop Hop 2 quilt. Here are all the blocks I have for that quilt:

I believe I'll just add a black border when the blocks are all sewn together, but that is yet to be determined.

As I've been writing this post, Smitty has been keeping me company while enjoying the morning sunshine. He's waiting for something more interesting to happen.

And now he's beside me, head-butting my shoulder. I guess it's time for me to go. When your cat calls, you must answer.