Good Time of Year

Yesterday was a good afternoon to find some sale plants at Lowe's..  This isn't my spring for doing a lot of planting so I'm filling in with planters and hanging baskets.  I usually choose healthy-looking petunias and geraniums since they bounce back pretty quickly..

A squirrel is digging in the back porch planter that has the precious marigolds that I planted from seed.  I have some unplanted shallot bulbs and I'll add a couple in the planter in hopes that they keep the squirrel away.

I'm impatient for my yard to look as pretty as the across the street neighbor's, but I'm trying to be patient.  It' not summer yet and we usually have a long fall.  There is time.

In the mean time, I'm enjoying just going out in the morning and admiring the pretty plants and seeing what has come up.  It's a good time of the year.

Elusive

 

Saturday meant a visit with my local daughter to one of my favorite restaurants, The Elusive Cow, in  Bellevue.  You can see the sort-of-blurry reflections of Steph and me in their window decal.

I had the best vegetarian sandwich with fresh mozzarella plus the usual suspects on a lovely artisan bread.  The Elusive Cow is that kind of place.  Beef is elusive, although they do have a really good hamburger (according to the grands.)

And then there was some Memorial Day weekend sale shopping  Lands End is my weakness, especially when there is a 50% off holiday sale.

On Sunday my church small group met at Ault Park, which is huge and lovely.  We got chased out by the rain, but we were about done by then anyway.  It absolutely poured.

Check Out This Cake

 

The birthday cake was for my chainsaw-loving daughter.  Note the two interested little dogs looking on.  They each got a small bite of the birthday-pizza crust but probably didn't score a bite of cake.

For Sarah's mom (that would be me) it's one of those how did the time go by so quickly moments.

Note to anyone who needs one:  there is a pop-up birthday card on Amazon with a candle to be blown out, celebration lights, and music playing the Happy Birthday song.

Recovery from my eye surgery continues in those small increments.  I've been cleared to sew (although I haven't) and to do my physical therapy lower body exercises (which I have.)  This coming week has no follow up visits.

Lot of trucks in my neighborhood because of a sewer line break.  This won't be a quick fix.  One unfortunate neighbor had sewage coming into his basement - twice.

Baptisia

 

Baptisia, I think.  Looking lovely beside the railing by the front steps.  It was a nice gift several years ago.  I'd like to find a few more perennials just as pretty.

I drove to the grocery store today to pick up my grocery order.  My vision is a little better each day and the eye is less red.  It took a lot of  trips to get the groceries inside without going over the five-pound lifting limit, but extra steps make me happy

My neighbor and I went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and their pancakes were so, so good.  There are a lot of bad pancakes in this world, but these weren't some of them.

My grandson and son-in-law were in Louisville today for the PGA tournament.  It was their first time as spectators for a PGA event and they were excited.  There was more of a story than they'd expected - you can read about it in the news if you hadn't heart about it.

Favorites

 

It starts in early spring - pansies are my favorite. flowers. Two weeks ago it is  iris.  Purple with white, and white with purple, and my neighbor's gorgeous yellow.

And this week it's peonies.  Those huge blooms that faithfully come up every spring.

The peony bed beside my house has been there for many years.  I've lived here for seventeen years, so longer than that.  As far as landscaping goes, they were about the only thing planted.

And they thrive on neglect.  They don't care for much fertilizer and don't like to be moved.  Planting them close to the house keeps them out of the wind and they will be happy there.

Thanks to my daughter Sarah for weeding them last weekend.

Another

 

Another day, another eye surgery, now another post-op day.  I'm so  grateful for outpatient surgery.

This was the roughest, as these things go, but now comes the relaxing time.  No longer counting down the days. until surgery.  No more delays, no more pre op visits.

I had some double vision when the patch first came off but that's almost gone.  And, unlike last time, no black eye.

Now I can sit and plan my next set of goals, enjoy just looking at the garden.  

More

 More pictures from Bloom With a View at the North Carolina Arboretum.

This last one is a bronze statue of Frederick Law Olmsted, known as the father of American landscape architecture.  He designed many parks, including the Arboretum.

One of the little dogs just stood and stared at the statue, trying to puzzle out if the person was real.

Quilt Garden

This is the quilt garden at the Blooms with a View exhibit at the North Carolina Arboretum.  

We spent a lovely early Saturday afternoon admiring all the wonderful exhibit flowers and checking out the trails.  The colors were amazing.  

Then we headed for Greenville, South Carolina, for a meet and greet with a few of the puppies from Small But Mighty Dog Rescue.  We met the foster for Bulter, one of Sarah and Winnie's dogs.  Shy Butler tolerated the event quite well, but Hatch was so happy to be there, getting lots of attention.

It was almost Derby time so we went looking for a bar/restaurant with tv's and we found the perfect one, where we could sit outside with the dogs but still watch the race.  My horse came in third - chosen because of his red hood.

Always, always, we wish we had more visiting time.

Mitered Corner

 

There is a back-up of comforters in my sewing space that need binding.  Yesterday I tackled one for the first time since before my December illness.

All went well until I went to turn over the sewn-down binding and realized that I'd done something wrong at the corners.  I've done mitered corners hundreds of times, have taught classes about how to do it, and done a handout (wish I'd kept one.)  And it was like I'd never even seen one.

Eventually I looked up someone's kind tutorial and figured it out.  But the experience was humbling.

I've cut out the binding for the next comforter - maybe if I do another one fairly quickly, and do it right, it will stick in my head.  Fingers crossed.