Sunny Days

Good morning, my friends. Our good weather continues. We're expecting it to get downright hot over the weekend. We practiced whining about the weather during the rain and snow. Now that it's warming up, it's time to get out our summer weather whining words. 

It was a lovely day yesterday. It was a good day for planting the lunaria in the spot I selected for it. It's new home will be outside the fence in one of the wild areas of our property. Unless I'm out for a walk down the driveway, I don't usually venture outside the fence when I'm home. So when I made my way to the bottom of the field and looked back, I couldn't help snapping this picture. You've seen the Three Cats Ranch through our living room windows and from the outdoor patio. Here's how it looks when you stand on the mountain side of the fence and look back.

When we moved in here nearly 21 years ago, that field of weeds was nearly waist-high. Matthew was still living with us then, and the three of us just about sneezed our heads off until Mike invested in a tractor with a mower deck. Sheesh. The allergy relief shouldn't have been surprising, but it was. 

Mike was busy locating a little auger attachment for his cordless drill to help dig some holes. As it turned out, the soil was pretty soft, but I still appreciated the help. While I was waiting for him, I noticed a patch of wild forget-me-nots that I'd never seen before. Like I said...I don't come down here much.

Here's a close-up of the flowers.

Just outside the fence line, I planted five little pots of lunaria and marked them with a popcicle stick. I want to be able to locate them again, but mostly, I don't want Mike to spray them with weed killer.

I had five little pots. The sunlight is filtered by the leaves overhead here, but it moves across this area throughout the day. They should get about the right amount of light.

And then, I just walked a little way down the driveway to check for any more wildflower surprises. I didn't see anything I hadn't seen before. Nevertheless, I was reminded again how much I like this "duck's foot."

Just now, I looked it up online. As it turns out, its snotty botanical name is Vancouveria hexandra. It's also known as "inside-out flower," and apparently produces a flower at certain times of the year. I can't say I've ever noticed. There was quite a showing of these yellow mountain violets as well.

I really need to get out more. Maybe today I will take a walk and see what else is blooming at the top of our hill.

Back near the house, these are the only rhododendrons I've seen blooming so far. The rest of the plant is still in buds, although I'm seeing more color every day.

Around the back, I noticed there's a blossom on the little blue clematis. This one is planted with a free-standing trellis. It will bloom with a deep blue flower. I'm thinking I should probably give it its own pinwheel. Last year, we barely saw any flowers since the critters bit them off almost as quickly as they appeared.

Also, I noticed a bud on the patio poppies. Now I have buds in both poppy barrels, and this makes me very happy. It will be a while before they bloom, but it makes for slightly more excitement than watching the grass grow.

Finally, the lilacs are starting to open. They're mostly at the top of the plant.

There was much to distract me yesterday. For one thing, Mike and I have been trying to figure out what to do about our Colorado trip this fall. There is a place we would dearly love to ride our ATV's near Crested Butte. The area is remote, however, and we simply couldn't find an acceptable place to stay. We finally opted to return to Taylor Park Reservoir where we road a few years back. We really enjoyed our time there, and so we're happy with our decision. That allowed me to finalize the route for our trip.

When we leave Colorado, we'll do some sight-seeing near the Utah/Arizona border. We'd planned to see that area the last time we were in Colorado, but then the weather turned cold, forcing us to return home. Hopefully, we'll have better luck this time around. It's still several months away, but I'll be locating places to stay and making whatever arrangements I can ahead of time.

With so many distractions throughout the day, it was late in the afternoon before I was able to sew the binding onto the Dancing Chickens quilt. As it turns out, I was able to cut enough backing around the edges to make the binding. Also, I was able to manipulate the folding and sewing so that it mainly shows flowers and leaves but no partial pigs. Now, it awaits my hand-stitching downstairs. That's probably how I'll spend most of today. Sometimes I really like the mindless relaxation of just sitting and hand-stitching.

Smitty was completely disgusted by our lack of progress in the sewing room. He moved himself to his afternoon sunbathing spot and gave me stern looks while I loafed at my iPad, figuring out our trip.

Okay, so aside from hand-sewing, I have a couple of kitchen things to do today. Erik requested a Seven Layer Salad for our Mother's Day dinner tomorrow. Also, it's National Apple Pie Day today. Obviously, I'll have to bake a Dutch Apple Pie for Two. And since I just baked one for Pi Day back in March, I'm well-practiced. Also, I have to get myself into flower pot-watering mode. The season for watering has arrived.

The challenge piece is still awaiting my arrival. Possibly today I'll get going on it. Also, I'll be starting to sew together the blocks for the Shop Hop 2.0 quilt. Here are all the quilt blocks. I'll probably add a small border around the outside.

In other Shop Hop related news, you might remember the two blocks I made for the Shop Hop 3.0 quilt. These are the first two blocks, and so I'm not too far along.

Well, my sharp-eyed friend, Karen, pointed out that the names of books on spines run from the top of the book to the bottom. I hadn't noticed before, but she's right! When the closed book is lying on a table, you can read the name of the book right side up. Initially, I wasn't going to fix that, figuring that it's a quilt, not a book. Nearly a month on, I find I can't stop thinking about it. I know that if I stay the course, it will continue to bother me, and so I've decided to fix it. It's a matter of removing the spine, resewing the background piece to the bottom of the strip, flipping it over, and then sewing it back together. No biggy.

So, there's plenty to keep me busy on this Saturday. What's going on in your neck of the woods?