Feel the vi-BURN-um

Another weekend, another walk through the botanical gardens.  Todd and I love to take early-morning walks and spring is the perfect time.  It can be bittersweet, because I saw a few favorites from my Indianapolis garden.

There, I'd planted viburnum on either side of the front door.  It's an attractive shrub (if you prune it into submission) and the flowers in the spring have a delicious scent.

Oh, the daffodils!

I just finished a book on garden theory and design by David Culp (The Layered Garden) and he advised that you can stretch out the growth of a favorite flower by planting early-, mid-season, and late-blooming varieties.  I did this with the lilac bushes I planted in our Indianapolis back yard.

Deer love hydrangeas, and I have yet to find a cage that lets our hydrangeas spread and grow but keeps the deer out.  In Indianapolis, I had both Endless Summer and Little Lime growing all season along our side fence.  At the botanical garden, I discovered something that I never knew existed...a hydrangea TREE!

My mind positively boggled at the bouquet, wreath, and landscaping possibilities.  Needless to say, this tree is going to the top of my list for our FRP, or "final resting place" - the property where we settle for good and where I'm able to throw myself into making the cottage garden I've dreamed of since childhood.

But there are things here, of course, that I've never seen thrive in the midwest.  Camellias, for example.  The botanical garden has over 60 varieties.  They've mainly bloomed and dropped by now, but the walk is still lovely.

Nice to meet an old friend on the trail, too!

I love seeing the semi-wildlife out and about, whether napping...

...or having a very serious meeting of the minds!

By the way, a group of turtles is called a bale.  This discovery led me down a rabbit hole of delight (a group of caterpillars is an army!  A group of ferrets is a busyness!  A group of wild cats is a destruction!) but I was able to pull myself away to read more about the next creature we found...a banded water snake.

Non-venomous and totally benign, just having a rest in the sun.

The dogwoods are in full bloom, both at our house and at the botanical gardens.

Redbuds are still going strong.

I love walking on petal-strewn paths!

Borga doesn't care either way...she just wants to be out.  Check out that smile!

I recently finished knitting a pair of socks, Jaywalkers.  It was a bit of an experiment.  When I first started knitting, I stocked up on any yarn that appealed to me without being particular about a specific project need or fiber content.  Now that I'm more knowledgeable and discriminating about what I buy, I have a big box of these "guilt yarns" in my cabinet.  I don't want to use them, but I hate to waste the yarn.  I'll probably end up donating a lot of it, but I'm trying to find uses for some of it first.  Self-striping yarn is just not my preference, but this pattern cleverly draws it into a kind of zig-zag design. Still, I'm just lukewarm about these.  At least they're a good fit!

I've also started  a quilt.  No, I didn't finish the big star quilt from last week.  I put it away until I feel more excited about it.  I bought a coordinated layer cake set (42 10" x 10" fabric squares, all different) called Strawberry Fields Revisited.  Beatles reference aside, I like the cheerfulness of the pieces and feel like it's a perfect spring quilt.  I'm paper-piecing large stars that showcase 8 different designs.  I'll have four (five?) squares like this:

...and four (five?) squares each of four other fabric combinations.  I'm grumpy that even with paper piecing my points still aren't lining up perfectly or even very close in some cases, but I'm going to push forward.  Practice makes perfect, and the quilting itself will hide a multitude of sins.

Have a great week!

Rain on the Brain

More signs of fall!  Some much-needed rain.

My sweet *autumn* clematis has begun to bloom!

Fall-blooming ginger lilies are opening up.

Our Japanese maples are definitely starting to turn.

More liriope, and more evidence of fall-grazing deer nibbles too!

Beautyberries are finally changing colors.

"Stage one" acorns!  My favorite - a lovely green.

A large group of ruby-throated female hummingbirds have swarmed our house this week.  They typically over-winter in South America, so they're working overtime to get enough sustenance for their fall migration.  They're incredibly territorial and have been chasing each other like mad!

Love their beautiful iridescent feathers.  Speaking of iridescent, check out this Chrysis nitidula-complex, or cuckoo wasp!  They get their name from the way they, like the cuckoo bird, lay their eggs in the nests of others.  Then their larvae eat the host larvae and thrive. 

Another cool insect I recently found is the spider wasp.  I was working at my desk and kept seeing a wasp dragging spiders across my window.

I went outside and got a better picture.  These wasps use spiders as hosts for their larvae.  These spiders you see have been given a paralyzing sting, and each will receive a single egg.  As with the cuckoo wasp, the larvae will have a built-in source of food when they hatch.  I think it's so interesting!

A South Carolina mantis sits on a zinnia blossom, waiting for its next meal.  They're so small compared with the Chinese mantises in Indiana!

Doesn't he look a little grumpy?  I left him alone so he could get back to hunting.

Lots of tiger swallowtail butterflies around...

...but many of them are looking a little ratty, like the one below.  They only have a one-month life span and they can get a little tattered by the end! 

When not outside prowling around for seasonal clues or working, I'm spending time on my sewing.  I made two 10-inch paper pieced quilt squares this weekend.  Both are the same pattern, but have a look at the one on the right.

I chose the colors and put it together, only to realize that the diamond sides and half of the star points faded into the background.  I studied the example and saw that the author chose dark complementary colors for the stars and tips.  My second attempt (on the left) has much more "pop" than the first one!  I finally felt confident enough to make a large online fabric order for my first "no more practice" quilt!  I chose more contemporary colors and designs (snails!!) than I have traditionally used, but the patterns really spoke to me and I just decided to go for it!  I can't wait until it comes.

Have a great week! 

Planning ahead...

After an absolutely frigid week, we're finally warming up.  The cats have assumed their customary stations.

I've been too busy with work - and too cold - to do much outside.  I've brought in a few flowers that survived the cold...

...to add a little color to the dining room.  Camellias and helleborus are in full swing...just waiting on the bulbs and forsythia, and finally, the azaleas!

In the absence of outdoor activity, I've mainly enjoyed the view from my office window...

...and planned future projects.  I'm bored with my octagon quilt project, even though I'm only a row away from being done (lap blanket size), so I started a large square that I'll hang up somewhere when completed.

I finished the second panel of my embroidery project.

The two identical pieces fit perfectly in the front wooden panels in our back living room cabinet.

As soon as I locate the first fabric panel, I'll wash, iron, and frame both pieces.  Hopefully it will fit my vision!

I measured the dining room hutch that holds my German pottery for shelf edging.

It's kind of an old-fashioned European style, with embroidered lace or fabric edging hanging down 2 - 5 inches from each shelf.  Sometimes the fabric is embroidered with pictures, or sometimes words.  I'm thinking of embroidering in German one of my favorite quotes about marriage:

"Es ist niche mehr schon, freundlich und charmant Beziehung, Gemeinschaft oder Gesellschaft als eine gute Ehe."

Or, "There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion or company, than a good marriage." 

I found one I *loved* on eBay, but it was $65 and also too long for these shelves.  I'll probably start on my own this spring! 

Speaking of love, we had company on Valentine's Day so didn't do much in the way of "officially" celebrating.  I did make a batch of cookies to mail out to friends and relatives, although much smaller than I usually do due to lack of time.  I just baked basic chocolate sugar cookies and dipped them in melted candy melts.  Then, sprinkled them with candy hearts.

They were individually bagged and I made a little Valentines-themed label for each bag.

Hopefully I'll have more time at Easter for a bigger baking session. 

Have a great week!