A New Day

Good morning, my friends. Mike and I were up and at 'em this morning. It was warm yesterday. We ran our A/C for the first time this year. We turned it off last night, and it was cool enough, but neither of us slept very well. I don't know about you, but I like cocooning under the weight of the covers. If I can't have the covers over me, I don't sleep as well. In any case, we enjoyed this morning's pretty sunrise.

Hoeing the garden was my first stop of the day. Knowing it would be hot, I was out early, and had it all finished before 10:30 a.m. Things are still small, but growing. The size of the garden is good for me this year. I can do the whole thing in one hoeing session. It's challenging enough to make me feel as if I got some exercise, but it doesn't wipe me out for the rest of the day.

Checking the bee garden, I noticed something new and pink. Also, I barely captured this bumblebee taking advantage of the lupine.

The pinky thing I was seeing was this. Sorry the focus isn't better. It was breezy. My phone tells me this is "Checker Mallow." It also has a snotty botanical name, but I can never remember those.

Walking around other areas...Lookie there!!!!! Blue blueberries! I can't wait for these. 

Fresh local berries are appearing in our grocery stores now. We're at about 1,400 feet of elevation here, and so ours are always a little behind. I expect we'll have some blueberries no later than the end of next week. I have recipes for you, my darlings!

To the left of the blueberries, I spied an Oregon Swallowtail butterfly on the lavender. Butterflies are so hard to capture in pictures, and so I was thrilled when this one opened its wings for me.

A few moments later, I noticed the Painted Lady below. I took about a dozen pictures, hoping to catch the wings opened. They would open momentarily, but I was never able to capture them fully open. The Painted Ladies are shy bugs.

I was able to capture the one below when we visited the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve in Southern California. We were there during their migration, and it was a large migration that particular year.

The Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia is opening. I expect it will open all the way by day's end.

And I'm happy to see the poppies are re-establishing themselves. I'm thinking we'll be able to remove the fencing soon. (The fencing was to keep the squirrels from digging in the pot when they were newly planted.)

And in another "Lookie there!" moment, it's a cherry tomato! Just yesterday, I was whining about how the plant was huge, had produced hundreds of flowers, and not a single cherry tomato. Well...as usual...whining pays off.

By then, it was getting warm. Smitty had been out with me. When we came inside, he stretched to his full length to adequately cool his tummy furs.

Later in the day, he helped me finish quilting the "Seasons" quilt. His best helping efforts come from his bed across the room from me.

And Ta-Da! Sorry. This is a terrible picture, but the quilting is finished. It's almost impossible to see the quilting, and so I left the flash off, hoping I could at least show some texture. 

It's taken its place in my basement sewing room now, and I expect I'll have plenty of time to get the binding sewn on by machine today. In the meantime, Smitty has claimed this quilt for his own. He claims all the quilts.

There was just enough time left in the day to finish top-stitching the dresses and hair bows on The Yoder Sisters. All that remains to be top-stitched now are the sisters' braids, and their hands and necks. So little of the neck portions are showing, I'll probably just do some straight stitching there, rather than my preferred buttonhole stitch.

And that was the end of my day. On today's list, I want to water the annuals. We're expecting rain this weekend, but it's been warm, and I expect they're thirsty. 

Also, I'm going to bake another Moravian Sugar Cake. When I baked this last week, 

I was able to use some instant mashed potato buds that have been on my shelf, probably for decades. I'm guessing I used them in the RV at some point, and they've just been sitting there. (Isn't it interesting how this "food" can still be good after so long?) It worked fine in the recipe, and there's just about the right amount left in the box for another batch. It'll be good to get that box off my shelf, and the morning snack is nice too.

Aside from that, there isn't a lot going on. I'll spend most of my day sewing. I'll finish the top-stitching on The Yoder Sisters and cut a back for it. Then, I'll set it aside for quilting down the road. My number one goal is to get the binding sewn onto the Seasons quilt and ready it for hand-sewing. I'm hoping to have a finish by week's end.

If there's time left in the day, I'd like to get to work finishing off the Hawksbill Honu. 

This will be quilted on my domestic machine. I have some ideas about it, but I'm not sure what I'll do in the border. I'll have to think on it for a bit. Pinterest is usually my friend when I'm looking for inspiration.

Okay. I'm off to do my slow-stitching. After a poor night of sleep, slow-stitching can usually lull me into a morning nap in the same way reading can make me sleepy. I'm nearing a finish on my piece too, but it won't be this morning.