Back to the Garden

I'm so excited to finally have time in my garden again. I feel as if I totally neglected it last summer, and I'm getting a really late start this year.

Of course, I did get some help this year from the explosion of bunnies in our neighborhood.

I purchased several close-to-hopeless plants back in May and June from the clearance racks. I'd been able to nurse similar specimens back to health in the past. But I'd put time into the garden then.

The bunnies made quick work of my ground-level critter salad. I was so perturbed!!!

At the beginning of the summer, I had decided I wanted to devote a segment of the "upper deck" in our backyard to giant sunflowers. I always loved going east in search of miles and miles of sunflowers during August, but I've not been able to put much time into that the last couple of years. Naturally, I thought I could plant my own, not have to go anywhere other than my own backyard.

As I began leveling the first tier for a row of Mammoth sunflowers, I realized although young sunflowers follow the sun, once mature, they'd all face the fence. I wouldn't be able to snap the gorgeous photos I'd envisioned. My property faces the wrong direction!!!

I planted multiple individual seeds in yogurt containers, then transplanted the seedlings into the bricks lining our irrigation rocks. The bunnies ate them. I planted a second round. The bunnies ate them. I'm now on my third attempt, with barely enough season left for the seedlings to reach maturity. I haven't transplanted yet...

I'd strategically planted red sunflower seeds throughtout the garden back in May. Most became bunny food. But I have had one fully red sunflower so far this summer! It is located in the porch rail planter, where bunnies cannot reach!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Autumn Glory

I didn't get to do our traditional autumn leaf road trips this year. Or last year. Or the year before. But, this year, I got to shoot neighborhood leaves. And all kinds of fall scenes I might have missed had I not been suffering from aspen withdrawal!

Lizard's health issues prevented us from viewing even neighborhood leaves the last two years. So this year's brilliant colors were beyond thrilling for us.

I cannot wait until we can get out in the mountains again. There are days when we wonder if it will ever happen. But we won't give up.

In the meantime, thank heavens for autumn leaves in areas we can walk during my lunch hour and after I get off work. God sure created a beautiful world for us to enjoy!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday

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Baby, What a Big Surprise

I chopped down (or pulled out of the ground) all my sunflowers as the petals fell off this year to prevent (I hope) another forest next year. (Although I absolutely love sunflowers!) I made a huge pile in the backyard in one of the areas I hope to terrace this season. I expected to compost the now withered and crunchy sunflowers, along with all the spent bachelor button, cosmos and lavender mint plants and seed heads from throughout the year.

One day, I noticed, through my window as I worked, finches feeding in the sunflower pile. I took a few photos but wasn't horribly pleased with the through-the-window quality. During my lunch hour, I sat still outside on the retaining wall with my camera waiting for the finches to return (because they took wing the instant I stepped out the back door). About 20 minutes later, I got something even better than finches!!!

I got a few more shots before they found unguarded faire elsewhere, but nothing outstanding because, it turns out, blue jays do not like people. They are social, but not with humans. Everything I could find about attracting blue jays said watch them from the window. I also learned they don't like to share their food. They will intimidate other birds.

They may scare other birds away from the feeders, but they sure sparked interest from winged creatures within earshot.

I stopped feeding the birds and the squirrels and the raccoons earlier this summer because I couldn't keep them out of my tomatoes, even with a makeshift scarecrow made of old clothing worn out by me and by Lizard. I'd be willing to tolerate squirrels and raccoons (as long as they stay away from my tomatoes, which are dead now until next spring) for the oppotunity to get better shots of these guys and gals! They have the most beautiful wings! Definite quilt inspiration!

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Bird Brain

After patiently waiting and watching out my window for about three weeks, I finally heard the tanagers and grosbeaks returned while we were attending a celebration of life with my in-laws. We were gone for five days, and I assumed the colorful winged favorites would be gone by the time I could watch for them again.

Within two hours of putting out two orange halves, I had 11 western tanagers and three Bullock's orioles feasting in my viewfinder!!!

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Quarter Flimsy

The first quarter of Lizard Toes is on Ringo, ready to be quilted. Why didn't I get it done???

I dug deeply into my green batik stash to create a 12-inch by 49-inch braid for the backing. This means I didn't finish a WIP in April. I haven't given up hope yet I might be able to finish two this month to make up for it, but, even without the finish, at least I'm making progress. Lots of things are vying for my attention, and Lizard Toes just doesn't scream at me loud enough, I guess!

One very exciting thing, in addition to using up scraps for inserts in the back quarter panels, is using up four baby quilt-sized and lap quilt-sized batting leftovers that have been hanging around for up to three years for the four quarters of Lizard Toes. I will have a couple of days of no computer access next week, and I'm thinking I might be able to do the hand-sewing then to finish up the quilt, if I can finish quilting the individual quarters in time. That's the goal. But I'd like to do green batik inserts for each back panel, so it really depends how fast I can finish them. And how good I am at breaking free from other commitments...

I recently picked up a couple of Chili Smiles charm packs because I thought they might make a fun project for Lizard to try to take up quilting again. (He LOVES them!) I'm going to have to start over from scratch in teaching him, but I don't mind. I actually look forward to it. He wants to try another rag quilt, so I cut 84 coordinating Kona solid charms and about 30ish batting squares. I used up a BUNCH of batting pieces for what I've done so far, but I will need to do more for Lizard to have enough to finish his quilt. But, perhaps that will take a while, and I can go back to my own quilting for a while. Fingers crossed...

The garden is calling, and thankfully, I didn't have to build the second tier raised beds that now grace our backyard. But I did have to measure the beds Lizard built before Parkinson's took away his math prowess, then do the math so I could buy the wood, then draw pictures for the Young Men who volunteered to build what I could see in my head but have no idea how to construct myself! I still have to put chicken wire in the bottoms without cutting myself, then fill the upper tiers with shredded cardboard I've been saving specifically for this project, branches and twigs the wind has piled up for me to use specifically in this project, all of last fall's leaves I saved specifically for this project, and dirt I haven't bought yet. Then the bunnies will still be able to nest and dine in the bottom tiers, but the top tiers are MINE! I don't think the bunnies will be able to jump that high. I hope!

And then there's that unfinished landscaping project. I think we've finally taken care of the leaky window well for once and for all with some tube extentions that direct roof runoff to the French drains and some silicon patching of a leaky gutter and downspout. And not a moment too soon! We've had rain (and snow/rain mixes) every couple of days for a week straight now. Much needed moisture. But I haven't had to bail the water out of the basement for two weeks now! Can you hear me squealing with joy? Can you feel the earth shake when I dance my little raindance jig?!?

Now I'm trying to edge the border between the landscaping and the rocks that surround our house with more hollow bricks that make perfect planters. When I first began hauling these bricks from our little truck to the backyard last summer, all uphill, I often had to have help because the weight of each brick hurt my back so much. But I must be getting stronger; I can make eight brick trips now all by myself before my back begins telling me to stop.

After placing bricks one at a time and making sure they are level, I dig up volunteer grape hyacinths, as well as any other flowers that will be homeless when I complete terracing the sloped section of the landscaping, and I plant the flowers inside the bricks.

My brick border may not look like a masterpiece right now, but next year, when hopefully everything is done and the flowers are comfortable and productive in their new homes, it's going to be fabulous. I will hide the black tube against the border with river rocks. Hopefully when I get done, it won't look like it was done by an amateur.

I have to redo the flagstone "stairs" I built last year because the red sand eroded over the winter and spring, and the stabilizers I used beneath the flagstone are not big enough to withstand the erosion. I also have to lay a bunch more red sand and build more terraces that won't wash away. But I should have four months of good weather, so it doesn't seem overwhelming yet.

It just makes my longarm, my sewing machine and my crochet hook very, very lonely!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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