Not-red tail and the quilt, all hail!

We're rushing to get the yard stuff done before the real heat of summer hits, so we've both been out working in the yard.  Mulch, gravel, and sand delivered, and we both have lots of blisters on our hands from hoeing and raking.

Lots of blisters, and lots of bites!  I was bitten by a fire ant again.  Thankfully it was just one bite, on the top of my foot, but there was a 4" diameter of swelling around the bite.  No hives, no ER, just a super stiff and sore foot.  Poor Todd was bitten/stung over fifty times by fire ants, working in that same bed where I was bitten.  We haven't seen a nest mound, and the ants were so small that Todd didn't even see the swarm on his ankles.  Thankfully he didn't have a reaction...just pain and itching. He was standing up, weeding...and his wrists and ankles are still peppered with welts.  This is why I'm afraid to get into those beds now!

From my "safety zone," I was still able to get some good observations in.  Love all the mushrooms that are coming up.

All sorts of flies are attracted to the mulch.  These tiny grey flies are everywhere.

I thought this was a hornet at first.

I was totally fooled because of his markings.  I realized, though, that it's a type of fly that uses protective coloration to fool predators.  I think he's a kind of syphid fly, although they're normally about a quarter inch long, like this one:

This fly was about 1 1/2 inches long.  His coloring really gives him a LEG UP on the competition (bada BOOM!).

First came the ladybug larvae, and now...the ladybugs.

Ladybugs are beetles, but they look a lot different from this black beetle on our driveway!

Love seeing the wide variety of leaf hoppers.

They're so tiny...no more than a quarter inch long...but have such an amazing variety of colors.  I love their "Muppet" eyes, too!

We've had a bit of a nature mystery around here.  There's a hawk that has been shrieking from dawn 'til dark almost every day for weeks.  It's maddening.  At the same time, I've been seeing a hawk that looks like a red-tailed hawk, except for the conspicuously not-red tail feathers.

He looked so much like a red-tailed hawk, though.

What a beauty!

I consulted some on-line forums and discovered that despite his size, he is a juvenile red-tailed hawk. And I was finally able to find a recording of the non-stop shrieking (fast forward to second 21).  Lord have mercy, I hope he matures quickly!  That shriek!

Incidentally...my personal observation has been that most birds defecate immediately before flying, although I can't seem to find any internet confirmation.  Still, when I saw this hawk lift his tail, I knew he was getting ready to take off...and I was right!

Finally, in crafty news...I finished my quilt!  I love it.

I think the half inch quilting makes it look kind of contemporary...and I love the texture.

Here's a picture of the whole thing, although the light is harsh and it's not a very good representation of how it actually looks.

Quilting is kind of amazing to me.  With knitting, I critique my work pretty harshly, and I'm never fully satisfied with the finished project.  But with quilting, I easily overlook the imperfections.  It's a long run-on sentence in my head:  "I picked the colors...picked the fabric...sewed each line...those margins!...did the block layout...managed to sew the top together...made the quilt sandwich...then quilted every inch of it...all of the disparate elements and little mistakes came together to make something beautiful!"  I try not to romanticize it by saying that quilting is a metaphor for life, but I have discovered that if I'm patient and don't become crushed by discouragement, little steps forward really do tend to culminate in something surprisingly good.  Hey, I'll take encouraging metaphors wherever I can find them!  :)

Have a great week!

[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!

Volunteer Cheer

Volunteerism is good. Everybody says so!

Even the cats are infected with it. Tabitha has volunteered to keep our love seat nice and warm for us, in case we'd like to use it when she's done.

Bosewichte, similarly, has volunteered to share our bed to add some warmth and softness to our evenings. He doesn't seem to notice that it's still over 80 degrees at night!


These tomato plant volunteers are popping up everywhere in this hot weather. Even though I've pulled several from my zinnia beds, they keep coming up.

It seems like I find more of them every day! At the beginning of the wave, I plowed up a patch of ground in a dusty back corner and replanted 24 volunteers. But they keep coming!

I've got lettuce coming up everywhere, too!

Queen Anne's Lace is definitely a volunteer in the yard, but I let it grow in some places. I love how beautiful it is...

...and how it attracts all sorts of interesting butterflies and insects, like this small black beetle.

In particular I let them grow by my lilies and achillea. I think they all go together nicely!

I've got many other things growing in that same patch. Many years ago, a gardening acquaintance volunteered to give me several clippings from her yard. I planted all sorts of things and happily, they come back every year, like this nice patch of false dragonhead.

These double lilies are from her yard, which I love because they're beautiful...

...and because they shelter all sorts of interesting insects!

A small female squirrel volunteered her services while I was working at my outdoor potting bench.

She was very interested in my work.

She came closer and closer...

...and closer...

...until she touched my foot before darting away! It reminded me of the Native American custom of "counting coup", where a warrior comes up stealthily behind an enemy and touches him with a stick or his hand before fleeing without having inflicted injury. It was simply a show of bravery. And this was one brave squirrel!

Volunteerism isn't restricted to the garden (and my helpful cats). A month or so ago, I found an abandoned robin's nest in wonderful shape. To kill any mites or parasites, I placed it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer for three weeks. Then, I thawed it out and doused it several times in Lysol.

Once it was definitely parasite-free, I filled it with hand-painted ceramic eggs...

...and placed it in a .99 candy dish from Goodwill. This normally isn't my style, but I needed another accent for the upstairs bedroom I was decorating and this fit in nicely. It sat in the darkened room for a week before I noticed...the volunteer.

Despite 3 weeks in the freezer and several Lysol baths, and a near-dark environment...my nest sprouted.

A tiny seedling grew out from between the twigs. It was unbelievable! It looked a bit like a morning glory seedling to me. It worked so hard to live that I almost dug out the root to replant it, but I'm forever pulling up morning glory seedlings and I'd never forgive myself for actually planting one in a moment of weakness. But it really was an amazing sight.

Besides knitting a few top-secret projects, I've been playing with my rubber stamps. Since Todd is nearing the end of his dissertation days, I made him an Advent-like calendar that counted down the days until the dissertation was done, complete with the silly, "The tassel is worth the hassle" slogan at the top.

Each day is a card that is opened...

...to reveal an inspirational quote.

Todd is working so hard and I'm incredibly proud of him!

I got in some new banner rubber stamps so I used one to make a card for my nephew's birthday. It was really fun! I am definitely a rubber stamp addict.

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, and we didn't have anything special planned because of Todd's dissertation push. I couldn't let it go by without some kind of culinary acknowledgement, though! I found a recipe that was just perfect for what I wanted - a little sweet treat that could easily be thrown together with things that were already in the pantry. Cupcakes for two! A sweet bite at the end of our all-American cheeseburger meal. :) Best of all...everything is made in one bowl.

Cupcakes For Two
From "How Sweet It Is"

Cupcakes
1 egg white
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup white flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Frosting (my own basic recipe)
1 - 2 ounces of neufchatel cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
3 - 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together egg white and sugar. Stir in your butter and vanilla and combine. Then add your flour, baking powder, and salt and mix together. Finally, add milk and stir until smooth. This mixture should fill 2 greased cupcake receptacles in your tin. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes. Cool.

This makes two delicious cupcakes!

To frost, beat all ingredients together. It's really simple! I made a mistake with yesterday's batch...I was in a hurry so I added some milk to speed up the process. Big mistake. It was definitely too runny. I didn't really mind, but when I tried adding food coloring (how much red do you have to add before your icing isn't pink?!?) and actually icing the cupcakes, I had to admit that it was a true decorating failure and not much like the red, white, and blue cupcakes I'd imagined.

It doesn't matter...they were still delicious!

In the name of...research...I made a second batch and gave the icing more time to come together without milk. It was perfect!

I hope you try it the next time you want a sweet nibble. Have a great week!