Next in Line

Good morning, my friends. Sorry...it's Moanday again. It was a nice weekend here. Not too hot...a little breezy, and we're expecting a warmer day today. It always gets windy as the warmer air moves in. Our weatherman has promised us just one overly warm day, and then pleasant temperatures for the rest of the week. 

The morning was leisurely, and I spent enough time on my slow-stitching to decide to move my hoop to the left. There's still a long way to go on this piece.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was excited to get out and check on the clematis yesterday morning. When I took a look, I found it only a little farther along than the day before.

Smitty accompanied me on my morning movements. He's so happy the umbrella tree has returned for the season. It's the best spot for watching, sleeping, and cooling his tummy.

We like it because he's well-hidden, and we can almost always find him there.

It was time to hoe the weeds in the garden...a never-ending job. And it was a hot job yesterday too. When I finished, I treated myself to a seat on the garden bench and a bottle of Mike's Lemonade (no relationship to the actual Mike).

The birds were all over the freshly-filled bird feeders. We had lots of goldfinches at the feeder yesterday and a lot of the black-headed grosbeaks as well.

Here's another one.

And, as always, these intruders. They've worn a path in the grass leading to the feeder from their holes in the ground.

As I headed back to the house, I was surprised to see this guy. Yuck. It was kind of surprising to find him out on a warm day.

One time, while perusing a bookstore, I came across a book about how to cook and eat slugs. It was intended as a joke and included such delicious dishes as "sluggos rancheros" where the slug was served atop a fried egg on a crispy tortilla. There were also ideas about using them as garnishes for cocktails. It was actually hilarious, and I wish I'd bought the book. Every once in a while, like just now, I ask the Google to find it for me. This morning, I hit on a blog post about how to prepare and deep fry slugs for your culinary delight. And if that doesn't whet your appetite, then I would encourage you to Google "slug recipes," where you'll find all kinds of tasty concoctions for them. Hmmmmm...not this gardener. I know...I'm not particularly adventurous. I did order l'escargot on the night of my senior prom, however. Six were served. I ate two, my date ate two, and we left two. It's my one and only foray into the consumption of mollusks. It was enough to last me for the rest of my life.

In the sewing room, I finished off the "Using a Rotary Cutter" block. 

I had to look at the book because the center button on the rotary cutter was shown in the picture.

There were different suggestions about what to do there. The one in the book was fussy-cut and fused, and that's what I did.

Here are the three blocks I have for this quilt so far. The blocks are large, and so I expect to do nine altogether. When nine are finished, I'll see how big the quilt is becoming, and then decide whether to add more.

It was nearing dinner time by then. But let's just take a look at that clematis before we start cooking. Well...lookie there! This is the Red Cardinal clematis.

Three flowers have opened, and a fourth is close. You can see it on the right side of the image below.

Today we're going to take a stab at moving the poppies from their rotted out whiskey barrel into the new large pot we purchased for them a few months ago. Mike switched the whiskey barrel for the pot at the front door yesterday. It didn't exactly go as planned. Our plan was to disassemble what remained of the whiskey barrel, and then hopefully, shovel everything into the new pot in one fell swoop. Well...it didn't work out quite as planned and dirt went everywhere. Fortunately, Mike thought to pull up the tulip bulbs before he went to work, and now they are all safely buried in their new pot. I want to pick up some California poppy seeds and black eyed Susan seeds and see if I can get something established there.

As for the other poppies near the greenhouse, I wanted them to bloom before we tried moving them. They're bloomed out now, and so I want to move them before they go to seed. I want the seeds in the new pot in case the plants don't survive. Having done it once, we have a strategy for how to move these. Fingers crossed. Wish us luck. I'll tell you how it goes in tomorrow's post.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot. We'll be celebrating Sadie's Gotcha Day with a giveaway tomorrow. 

Be sure to stop by and leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway!