[spider]worts and all

It's been quite dry here, so it's been nice to have a few days of steady rain.  It's been great for the garden, too.  The irises are coming up, one after the other.

Thin stalks of spiderwort are spiking up through the liriope.

Best of all, the peonies are starting to open!

I'm so glad I let the helleborus run wild.  They've nicely filled in the front beds! The relatively empty spot on the right is where one of our massive ferns used to be.  We rooted them all up and moved them to the back yard.  I've planted yarrow and catmint in their place and it will take a while for them to fill out.

Because of our bumper crop of acorns, we now have a literal forest of tiny tree seedlings - in the yard and all throughout our mulched beds.  If they aren't taken care of now, we'll have a terrible time eradicating them.  I've spent many hours outside, digging up the cracked acorns with their 6" taproots.  As usual, lots of activity going on just beneath our notice!

Some small animal has created a run or den here.  It's the perfect size for a toad, too!

This slug was suspended from a hanging fern by a thread of slime.  Quite the acrobat!

A little snail stays indoors in the mid-day heat.

This beetle is a whiskery-faced little walrus!

Ants are building their tiny towers.

At first I thought this was a beetle grub, but its coloring looks almost millipede-like.

I love seeing the little mushrooms pop up all over.

Bi-color clover, too...

...and wild strawberries.

Someone watched me working from the protection of a fern...

...while Bosewichte watched the whole scene from a living room window.

I haven't had the time - or the energy - to work on my quilt.  I did finally finish knitting a hat!  This is Deep Woods Toque on Ravelry.

It took me forever to knit it with my old and finger-straining method (American throwing).  I modified my cast-on number after reading several comments about the hat being too big.  However, when I tried it on after knitting, it was too small. ARGH!  I blocked it mercilessly and now it fits nicely.  I'm trying to learn a new method (flicking), which will be easier on my hands, but I haven't picked out a practice project yet.  I've been so busy outlining gardening books at night that I haven't had time for anything else!  I'm excited about that project.  I have stacks of gardening books that I never reference.  If I have a question, I Google it.  Now I'm culling information and plant recommendations from each book and putting that information into a master chart.  When we finally have our farm, I'll be able to pull the chart and create a 3-season garden by plant color, bloom time, height, and light requirement.  It's a daunting task but I am really enjoying it.  Hopefully I'll have time to quilt soon!

Have a great week!