I think it’s a bit obvious, but I’m not much of a blogger. And to be honest, I really don’t like writing or reading what I’ve written. I much prefer a photo.
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The container garden plants aren’t doing too well. The watermelon succumbed to my brown thumb. And the zucchini succumbed to squash vine borers, despite multiples attempts to save them. And the rosemary crapped out during this recent heat (hotter) wave. But the tomatoes and basil are doing well.
Finally settled on a design I’m happy with for the doll quilt swap. The yellow strip patchwork is paper-pieced and then combined with Kona cotton in Ash. I really like how calm the yellow and grey are together, despite being contrasting colors. I’ll probably just stick to the ash for all the sashing and maybe throw in a snowball in a contrast color, like so:
Completely unrelated, anyone have any ideas on the identity of this plant? The previous residents of our place left behind a plastic pot filled with dirt, which surprised us by sprouting this pretty plant a few months ago.
I’m still struggling with a design for my doll quilt swap contribution, so I am going to take a step back for a few weeks and work on other projects, including the addition of butterfly/hummingbird/flower area to our front yard. I didn’t get much work done on it yesterday, due to some relaxing obligations ($1 movie date) with the husband and the insane blistering Texas heat. But before long it’ll be filled with Texas sage, red bird of paradise, orange esperanza, mounding lantana and maybe more from a nearby nursery.
Last night’s dinner of colcannon and 40 cloves of garlic chicken involved quite a bit of dicing and chopping. It was my first foray into cooking with leeks and kale, both of which I am happy to say I enjoyed. Thanks to Jess for sending this recipe to me. I subbed kale for the cabbage & omitted the nutmeg. It was delicious and I am glad to have more ways to work greens into my diet. Also, I cannot wait to enjoy the leftovers. I mean, look at that pool of butter in the middle. So decadent.
I’ve also been fairly successful with the plants in the front of the house. There is a nice fragrant smell when you walk up the sidewalk and lots of the plants are flowering, including the lantanas that I planted barely a month ago and thought had died from neglect during my surgery recovery. There are at least 3 different colors of lantana bloom and I think they’ll look really nice when they completely fill in the window bed and start intermingling. And they’ll require much less help from me once they’re larger and established. The butterflies love them and the cat loves to watch the butterflies out the front window. Most of our lantana are sterile, due to their inclusion on several invasive species lists, but I must have accidentally thrown unsterile pot into the cart at the nursery, because the plant below definitely has the berries necessary for propagation.
And in crafting news, sign up for Doll Quilt Swap 9 started this week. There’s a handy little form this time around, but participants will be chosen by lottery, so even the early birds aren’t guaranteed a spot. I have to admit, I’ll be super bummed if I don’t get to participate. Researching your partner is so much fun. I love pouring over the Flickr favorites and coming up with a color palette and design. It also doesn’t hurt that I have received two amazing quilts from folks assigned to me.
Heading in to another weekend with blurry vision, making crafting and reading virtually impossible, I hit up the local nursery on Friday’s drive home. I could easily spend an entire paycheck at this place, so it was probably good that I only had 30 minutes until closing. I managed to get out of there with just a few lantanas and a bag of micro-brewed garden soil. The other plants on the back porch, also needing more-permanent homes, from a previous trip to the nursery, made it a little easier to curb my spending.
I’m hoping these colorful lantanas will cheer up the window box on the front of the house. And maybe attract some butterflies for nitro pickle to lust after.
Blueberry bushes that have been hanging out on the back porch for over a month now have a better home in some clay pots. I’m really loving the chocolate brown color of those pots.
Unrelated to any effort on my part – the loquat tree that we inherited with the house is starting to produce fruit, but most of them are too high up for us to reach. I’m not sure what one really does with a loquat fruit, anyway, but wikipedia says I can make pies with them, so they may be worth harvesting after all.
Here’s hoping this time next week I’ll be off all those blurred-vision-meds and can get back sewing the binding on a long overdue quilt and finally finish the Margaret Atwood book I’ve been reading for the past 4 weeks.
bumbles & lu 