Budding Out

Good morning, my friends. It was a day spent on my feet and on my posterior yesterday. I hoped I'd finish pulling weeds. After two buckets, I was ready to call it quits. For sure, I'm going to finish it up this morning. When I got out of bed this morning, my back felt a little stiff. Moving around has it feeling better, and so I believe I can take another day of weeding. Also, Mike has the hot tub up and running again, so I can ease my aching bones with a good soak.

After yesterday's weed-pulling effort, I took a walk around the yard. There isn't anything new blooming...yet. There is lots of promise, though. First, I was surprised to find this little rosebud on our poor neglected rose bush. 

Our previous home was owned by a woman who was British. We inherited 64 rose bushes from her when we bought the place. I really enjoyed the roses while we lived there. When we moved up here to the Three Cats Ranch, there was precious little landscaping, and no roses. We selected an area and planted five rose bushes. Honestly, I couldn't get a single bloom. Just when they were ready to open, I'd come out in the morning to find every flower eaten by deer. 😠 

After a couple of years of tending roses for the deer's dining pleasure, we took out all the roses and planted culinary herbs. (Dusts off hands.) Problem solved. Then, for my fiftieth birthday, two neighbors gave me this little rose. We planted it. Occasionally, we get flowers when they escape the notice of the deer. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to walk out there this morning and find that this one has been someone's breakfast.

Moving on to the area where I was weeding, I noticed one of the hydrangeas has bloomed.

Here's another one from the same bush. It's not quite there, but close.

Part of yesterday's gardening effort was to cut all the dead stuff leftover from last year on the echinacea. When it was all cleaned up and cleared away, I noticed there are flower buds coming. 

The daylilies are days away from blooming. Also, you can see the Fairy Princess peony still blooming up a storm.

Happily, the stargazer lily still has its buds. Hopefully, the critters will steer clear. I'm not sure if squirrels or deer are to blame for eating last year's flowers, but whoever it was....(shakes fist).

In our running around of two days ago, we bought replacements for two casualties of our cold winter. First off, the daphne died. When we arrived home, we found the whole plant black and dead. It produces a very fragrant flower, and Mike enjoys that. We decided to plant another. It doesn't like the cold of winter much, but it survived many cold winters before dying. Hopefully, this one can do as well. It's the one on the right.

On the left is a replacement Bleeding Heart. When we replaced our shingle roof with a metal roof, it turned out the bleeding heart was planted in a very bad place. The snow slides off our roof and buried the poor thing in feet of snow. You might remember this image from two winters ago. It was buried nearly to the top of its trellis.

It came back after that winter. When we returned home last month, I could see no signs of life on the poor thing. So we'll replace it, but we'll put it someplace where it won't get inundated with snow.

Okay, so that was enough gardening for the day. I had some lunch and took a shower, and then I went to work on my "Vintage" art quilt. I set the timer for an hour, but when it went off, I was at a place where I didn't want to stop. So I set another timer, and continued on my way.

One section of my piece was complicated enough that I created it separately, and then fused it to the whole. Here's your peek at that section.

When the timer went off a second time, I was nearly finished with the collage portion. I worked on it for another 20 minutes or so. Happily, the collage part of the piece is finished now. Here's your peek.

So today's agenda will include finishing off the weeds. And then I can get to work creating a background for my art quilt. Already I believe I know the fabrics I'll use. There are lots of tiny pieces on my collage. Peeling it off the teflon pressing sheet will be a bit of a challenge, but I'm confident I can get 'er done. From there, I'll be ready to add in thread details and top-stitching. It's moving along. I can see the light at the end of the finish tunnel.

No day can start without a little slow-stitching, though. And so I'll leave you to your day, and I'll get on with mine.