Bumper Crop

 

What a lovely display of peonies this spring! 

I have to give credit to my neighbor, whose kitchen window looks oout over the peony bed.  He has been weeding them for the past couple of years and they have responded to his care.  Because these flowers are at a side of my house that I rarely pay attention to, next to my neighbor's driveway, I've sometimes forgotten to care for them.

I'm wondering how old the bed is.  I'm guessing maybe 50 years, but that's only a guess.  Peonies are happy on their own, and mine don't pay attention to the rules.  They don't get much sun, the soil isn't rich, and yet with weeding they are happy.

And the deer don't like them.  How great is that?

finally Done

 

My sweet niece sent me two linen dish towels for Christmas, but they wee too pretty to use for drying dishes.

One is serving as a pretty kitchen wall hanging, and the other will turn into six potholders.  It's taken a while, but two of the six are finished.

A friend and I were talking about this type of machine quilting and I decided to give it a try.  It won't be repeated, but it worked out ok for this application.

Here's hoping it doesn't take five more months to do the next two potholders, especially since I like practical art.

Bacl Agaom

 

Ten days is really, really a short time for machine service, but it seemed like a very long time.  

There wasn't anything wrong with it, but it just needed a regular service to keep it happy.  And to keep me happy.

I tried using my machine-before-this-one, and it's a lovely machine, it's just not this machine.  This one threads the needle with the push of a button - magic.  And this one has an integratd dual feed foot - if you know, you know.

So this morning I hemmed a pair of pants, put binding on a potholder, and stitched a portion of a quilt block.  All long, long overdue.

And there was a needed mental reset in my mind, that maybe, just maybe I can do things, I can be pracical and I can be creative, and I can complete things.

This Is Lucky

 

How lucky am I?  My granddaughter's college job is working in a flower shop and she brought me Mother's Day flowers.

One of my own favorite part time jobs was working in a small town flower shop.  It was next a grocery store - not like now, when a floral department is part of the grocery, but a stand alone shop owned by the same person who owned the grocery store.

When Mothr's Day came, part of the grocery cold storage turned into flower and bouquet storage.  It was a sight to see.

Sometimes I drove the delivery van, in the days before GPS.  That would have made it so much easier.

But the best part - stepping into the shop's cold storage area on a winter day.  The smell was heavenly.

But just as good, was working with the floral designers.  They were happy, they were friends, there was lots of chatting.  It was the best. 

Or Maybe Yellow

Or maybe yellow roses are my favorites.

I had a call from the sewing store this morning, and my machine service was finished and ready to be picked up.  Just like that, my other plans for the day seemed less important.  

I need to ask someone to carry my machine into the house and put the steps and my life will feel more normal once again.

I got updates from Aaron's track meet and that was fun.  He was first in discus, pretty good for a kid who's thrown for like two weeks.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I'm making a simple dinner to take to Steph's.  She's the mom in the trenches and I'm just enjoying.

Pink Roses

 

My favorite garden flower is whatever is in bloom, and right not it's pink roses.  

The iris put on a pretty show, and are now gone.  

Some of the new pollinator plants were slow to come up this spring but everything is accounted for now.  I'm on the lookout for a few more milkweed plants, maybe one for my neighbor too.  He's been enjoying the morarch activity on either side of him.

I'm also on the lookout too for a a post so I can hang out the Cincinnati Zoo pollinator garden sign.  It's pretty small.

A few different pollinator plants are on my list too.

Christmas in April

 

Every few days, a new bud or two shows up on my Christmas cactus.  And then later produces the largest, prettiest bloom.  It's almost like the the Christmas cactus is competing with the spring blooms starting to show up outside.

The milkweed plant has emerged and I'm so happy about that.  The iris are blooming.  Some late emerging plants are starting to show up.  I think there's a life lesson in those plants that show up just when I've given up.  

(Did anyone else read Leo the Late Bloomer to their kids?)

There has been a weekend out of town - but not very far.  More about that later.  Sarah and Winnie are traveling back home.  I always hope they will get home before dark but that rarely happens.  I guess it's a mom wish.