More Blooming Things

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy day here, as usual. Not everything got finished, but most everything did. My first trip outside was to take a look at the garden to see if I could put off the hoeing for another day. It looked pretty good to me, and so I'd planned to do that first thing this morning. Then, I awakened to the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning. It rained for a bit, and then the sky turned this weird shade of pinkish red.

It’s hard to know how much rain fell, and the forecast shows this “storm” short-lived. So, maybe I’ll hoe. At this point, who’s to know?

As for the garden, everything is looking pretty good, although I'm pretty sure something has been munching on some of the leaves of the zucchini. I blame rabbits for this newest outrage.

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been trying to get the green beans to climb the bean poles, rather than their protective fencing. Each morning I direct them where I want them to go. Within a few hours, they’ll be back where they started. Finally, when I went out yesterday morning, one of them had succumbed to my wishes. Hopefully, this one is their leader, and they’ll all fall in line. What are the chances?

A little more of the sunflower is showing itself.

And yay! The Bumble Rumble dahlia has bloomed. It looks a little beaten up…not sure why.

Also, the echinacea is blooming. 

Soon it will be covered in flowers and bees. It’s a good thing because the bees’ favorite, lavender, is nearly bloomed out for the season. They’ll be happy to have a different flower where they can take care of their bee business.

In the greenhouse, I’m seeing two sprouts of the second round of red leaf lettuce. These little window boxes can accommodate five seeds, and so I’m hoping the other three will show themselves soon.

Now, maybe it’s just me, but does that tomato I’ve indicated below appear to be changing colors? Does it have just the faintest pink blush? Maybe it’s just wishful thinking. Maybe it’s Maybelline. Who can say?

Whining about the lack of ripe cherry tomatoes in yesterday’s post seems to have worked out for me again. When I looked yesterday morning, I saw several ripening cherry tomatoes. These are the Sungold cherry tomatoes. They turn orange when they’re ripe.

Okay, but let’s just back up a bit, shall we? Before heading outside, I stitched Tiny Treasure #61. I’m hoping I’ll have pickles to can soon, and so this seemed a good place to start. This one has straight stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch, and French knots.

After lunch, I quilted another row of the Shop Hop quilt. There’s just one more row, and then I’ll start on the sashings. 

It’s always hard to see the quilting from the back, but here’s a peek anyway.

It was left needle down on the final row of blocks, and I’ll start there today.

In the sewing room, Sadie agreed to help me top-stitch the applique on Kate Carmack’s block.

It took most of the rest of my day, but it’s finished.

These are the three blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Next, I’ll get back to work on the Northern Wilderness project. These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far. There are 20 blocks in all. I’ll be working on blocks 13 and 14 this time around.

We’re meeting up with the family for a dinner out tonight. I’m looking forward to that. There is at least one housekeeping chore on the day’s calendar, and I’m still hoping I’ll be able to hoe the garden. Aside from that, it’ll be a mostly sewing day. 

As I’ve been writing, the storm has been waning. One wonders what got into the weather gods this morning. It’s been lovely, if a little warm, but we’ve been able to open the windows at night. The pink color has faded now, and it’s just looking a little gloomy. The forecast doesn’t show the sun making an appearance until later this afternoon. 

Okay, so that’s all I have for you today. I’ll just carry on with my hoeing and sewing. (Did you see what I did there?) Please feel free to carry on at your end too.