Wow, it’s been a while – I have lots to catch up on since I posted last. Winter finally ended, though I can tell you, it was a long one for here, and good riddance. Then we had quite a bit of HOT and days of torrential downpours; TS Alberto just went through here last week, and that’s the first time I can recall a named storm happening in May. I think this year is going to be a strange one for weather. I do have the garden in, though still need to get my trellises in and get it mulched. I put out green beans this year, for the first time – we’ll see how my luck is with them. We also scoured Lowes in 2 counties to clean them out of cacti to replace all the ones we didn’t bring in last winter:
My irises didn’t do ANYTHING this year, for the first time EVER – I got 2 new ones and 2 old ones to bloom – that’s it 🙁 I can only assume it was the weather – I did not do anything differently putting them in than I have ever done, so I am at a loss as to what was different this year. The plants themselves all look very healthy, they just didn’t produce blooms. We’ll see what next year does for them. Here’s one of the new ones:
The tiger lilies, on the other hand, look great this year – they were pretty scraggly last year, but I think all the rain we’ve gotten at the time we’ve gotten it this year made a difference.
We have had a LOT of visitors to our backyard this year. I looked outside one day a few weeks ago and saw: 3 Indigo Buntings, a pair of Goldfinches, Purple House finches, Brown-headed Cowbirds, the usual retinue of cardinals, and all the LBJs. I also saw a Rosy Breasted Grosbeak – thought I imagined it, until he came back and I got his picture; he must have been passing through, as he was here for a few days, and I haven’t seen him since. We have had a racoon come to the feeders, and we’ve seen a lot of lizards, including new-to-us (we think) Broad Headed Skinks.
In stitching news, I have only worked on a couple of things since my last post; if you can believe this, I actually started something and worked only it until it was done! I haven’t done that in a LONG time. Even more amazing, it was a project on black, a Stoney Creek no less, and for whatever reason, it was the easiest black-fabric project I have ever worked, even though the fabric (28ct jobelan) is the same fabric I have used before. This one was just easy so I kept at it. For the record, I used to think white floss on white fabric was hard, but have since revised that to say black on black is harder. For my great-nephew Britton, Stoney Creek’s Passing Saturn:
I also made a bit of progress on a travel project, Halloween Resurrection by Lone Elm at the April & May PINS get-togethers. This is a fun design – I just happened to see someone’s finish on FB, or I’d have never run across it. I put this on Vintage Stormy Night linen – pretty good match, I think:
When I finished Saturn, I pulled out my Desert Mandala for a turn – working on Part 6, which has the beaded Scorpion, and then the landscape panel will have Window Rock in it. I am almost done with the scorpion; he & the rattlesnake are going to have to go on something else someday 🙂
Our trip to Mexico in March was great! The wind was really strong the first day out, so we didn’t spend a lot of time out on deck. We definitely enjoyed our balcony room, keeping the door open all night so we could listen to the water. Our excursions were cool, though I do have to say, we didn’t have quite enough time sitting in the sand; while we both enjoyed the cruise, it doesn’t replace just going to the beach for a week.
Last week, we traveled north to say goodbye to DH’s mother, Sally. She was a great lady, she will be greatly missed by all.
That’s the news from this part of the world. Happy Summer – hopefully no remarkable weather anomalies to report next time, but I doubt we’ll be that lucky… Until next time, Happy Stitching!
