Above the Clouds

Good morning, my friends. We're above the clouds here at the Three Cats Ranch this morning. I love this kind of a day.

It was a busy day here yesterday, with a little of everything thrown into the pot. I finished up the first of two stitcheries for The Story of My Day quilt.

When I looked outside, I saw this guy admiring the cherry tomato plant. I gave him a stern look and shook my fist at him. When I looked again, he was gone. It's a good thing. I was getting ready to get my gun. If I had a gun. And if I knew how to shoot it. And I probably still wouldn't shoot a squirrel, but I'd think hard about it.

The kitties were champing at the bit to get outside. I still needed to get dressed, and so I sent my shadow self out with them.

My agenda had me picking a bucket of weeds yesterday. The culinary herb garden was so weedy, I nearly filled the bucket right there. When the herbs were de-weeded, I walked around the house with an eye out for more weeds. The day lilies are beginning to claim the title of stars of the garden.

Right beside them, I noticed the echinacea are starting to show their centers.

Can you stand more pictures of the Red Cardinal clematis? It's so pretty right now. I counted 14 flowers yesterday. Some of the earliest ones are starting to fade now.

In other fauna, I watched the violet-green swallows coming and going from the nest. We can hear the nestlings cheeping softly inside. When one of the parent birds returns to the nest, they make quite a racket.

I didn't have any work to do in the vegetable garden yesterday, but I walked around to have a look. Along my way, I noticed this tree squirrel grabbing up sunflower seeds beneath the bird feeder.

One of the green beans has put up a shoot. This was good to see. I expect they'll start climbing the poles this week.

And lookie there! The first zucchini! There are about a half dozen spread among the three plants.

The garden is finally getting some size to it. Looking at the whole thing...

Most things are looking good. The corn came in a little sparse, but there is plenty to feed the two of us. It's supposed to be knee high by the Fourth of July. I think we just might make it.

Checking the bee garden, I didn't see anything new. These purply things are still blooming though. Most everything else is either pink or white.

Leaving the garden, I noticed Smitty doing his tiger-in-the-weeds imitation.

When I sat on the garden bench, he joined me for a little chat.

After lunch, I went to work on the quilting for the Ribbons quilt. This is off to a very poor start. I hadn't even stitched a whole line yet when I let the needle hit my favorite "Line Tamer" ruler. It broke the ruler in half. 😢 This is really the only ruler I ever use, and so I was sad to break it before I'd barely gotten started with the quilting. Mike was able to fix it using a combination of super glue and baking soda. Apparently, the mixture makes it more like the plastic the ruler is made from. Whatever works. I've ordered another one, but this one will probably see me through this one quilt.

I was nearing the end of my quilting day when my emotional support cat showed up.

He sympawthized with my sadness over the broken ruler.

Purrhaps you should stop for today. My dinner bowl is empty. I'm sure you'll feel better if you feed me now.

Good idea, Buddy. We left the quilt needle down, closed the window, lowered the shade, and turned everything off.

It was slow-going. Aside from the broken ruler, I was having trouble for a lot of different reasons that aren't worth going into. I'd estimate I'm about one-third of the way with it.

Here's a little closer up view...

Here's how it's looking from the back.

Before dinner, I took another walk around. When the weather is warm, it's surprising how much things can change from morning to evening. I found Miss Sadie lounging on her catio.

Also, I noticed some flowers forming on the hydrangeas.

Mike has spent the past week working on the electrical problem in the fifth wheel. You might recall we had to abort our last camping trip when we couldn't get our electricity to stay on. It was too cold to be without heat, and so we headed for home. His job has involved taking the entire underbelly off the RV and then following the lines to find where the break is. Yesterday, he found the culprit. 

Initially, we thought this was the work of squirrels, but he now thinks it got wedged between something in the frame of the trailer and was just worn through by friction over time. Whatever...I'm just happy he was able to find the problem. He has it fixed now, and he's in the process of putting things back together.

We had hamburgers and leftover potato salad for dinner. Is there anything better than a home-cooked hamburger? That was a nice way to end the day.

I have a few housekeeping chores on today's calendar, and I need to water the annuals. When I've finished my to-do's I'll get back to my quilting. I'm hoping for a better quilting day today. Also, I hope those of you dealing with the terrible air quality and record-setting heat are doing okay. We watched conditions on the news last night, and I starting worrying about you guys. Please stay inside and stay cool if you need to. Just be careful out there.