ranuculus plus

Although we had a wintry mix this weekend, the season is progressing.  Birds are flooding back...

The herons are out almost daily.

A wood duck pair visited our front pond.  I hope they're nesting nearby!

I picked the first bouquets of the year...

Claudia is loving the warmth of the sun.

I haven't felt like working outside, and it's been awfully cold, but the ranuculus had to get into the ground.  From just 20ish corms 2 years ago, I planted 60 thriving plants this week!

My Icelandic poppies are bursting out of their containers, too. If I don't want to lose them, I'll need to get them planted this week.  It's a nice, rainy forecast, with spring asserting itself all around us.

Inside, Calliope is positively loving her status as the only cat.

Todd and I are both missing Tabitha a lot this week, though.

One of her last photos, snuggling on my lap

But we have to keep moving forward. 

I've been working away on my Tilda postage stamp quilt.  The long paired rows...

...were sewn together to make units of four, and then sub-cut into 1 3/4" sections.

These will be sewn into groups of four (sixteen squares per block).  I'm excited to start putting it together!  I've been knitting a bit, too.  A new yarn for me this time is Lopi, spun from Icelandic sheep.  It's very hairy and rough, but the colors are so beautiful!  

Hopefully I'll have more time to work on this soon.  

Otherwise, work work work and enjoying the changing season!  We love our spring hikes, even if there's not a lot of color in the woods yet.  Soon!  

Have a great week!

Goldblum Boom

Although it will be 70 degrees here by Wednesday, it's been cold, and we recently had snow flurries.  Very light...just enough to fill up the spiderwebs that have started appearing in the garden.

The flakes were so light that they themselves were caught suspended in the debris, looking like a tiny snowstorm frozen in time.  

Even with a couple of deep-freeze days, I wasn't worried about our bulbs, and they're continuing to grow with no issues.  Inside, growth has been even better.  I have to pull out my old Jeff Goldblum meme...

...because despite my many mistakes, my ranuculus are doing just fine.  Last year, I left them in the field too long.  Then, after finally digging them up, I left them out to dry for FAR too long...weeks!...and in a freezing cold barn.  I finally brought them in, soaked them, but without much hope.  They were desiccated and gnarled, but I went ahead and stuck them in my cold, dark attic anyway.  Two weeks later...LIFE!!

Ditto with my sweet peas.  After a couple of weeks in the attic, they're up and looking great!  

My little indoor grow area is quite crowded now.

Soon it will be warm enough to move out to my barn potting area!

I'm seeing so much more activity outside now, too.  Every day, herons stalk the bank of our front pond, looking for (and catching!) small fish and frogs.

A group of turkey vultures played a game of tag on a nearby hill.

After a mini-hibernation in February, the muskrats are bustling about, repairing their eroded roof.

I, too, have been gathering materials.  As my physical therapy draws to a close, I'm starting to dabble in quilting again.  I cut my Tilda fabric, layered with Kona Cotton Snow, into 1 3/4" strips.

The next step is sewing these colored strips into rows, alternating with white...

...and then cross-cutting these strips into 1 3/4" sections.

These will be mixed up in a random assortment (more random than this!) and sewn into blocks...

...and then the blocks will be joined and make up the final quilt top, like this one from Red Pepper Quilts.

This method is SO much quicker and easier than sewing each tiny square together.  In just a few minutes, I have a finished block!

I love the scrappiness of of the Red Pepper quilt, and I've worried that there's not enough color variety in my Tilda fabric...but I've got plenty of scrappy quilts, and I love the cohesiveness of this color line.  We'll see how it goes!  

I'll continue to work on this as the season progresses and time allows.  It's going to be very busy here soon between work and the growing season duties.  In just one month, the garden will be fully awake!  I like to look to past years for clues...

photo from mid-April 2019

photo from mid-April 2020

photo from mid-April 2021

I can't wait.  Have a great week!  

ankle biter blighter

 Green at last!

Right on schedule, signs of life.

Claudia has been so tired of her hard toil on the porch...

...and is happy to resume her warm-weather duties.

Our muskrats are swimming, goz are visiting the front pond...

Once again, the spring peepers are calling, so loudly that they drown out all other sounds at night.  The red-winged blackbirds are back, too, but it's a strange situation.  Because of a combination of mysterious flooding and muskrat-chomping, the five-foot deep band of cattails around the pond's edge is basically a bare fringe now.

The blackbirds, who've been nesting here for years, are confused.  They perch on solitary cattails, but have been unable to find even a small pocket of protection for their nests.  I hope that they can find another place nearby, because I love their calls and jaunty attitudes.

We've had a bit of a tumultuous week here!  We "borrowed" a cocker spaniel for a week-long trial run,  to see how she fit into our household.  She:  howled nonstop; managed to nearly rip my arm out of its socket the very first day with a leash tug, a tug that resulted in a strain that left me unable to use my left arm or turn my head for a week; growled and lunged at the cats; busted through our screen door (twice); jumped on our coffee table and couch and seemed impervious to treats or instruction; sailed over an embankment behind the house and landed in the pond; COULD NOT hold still for brushing of any kind...in the end (mainly because of the cat aggression), we decided that she was a little too rambunctious for us.  But Borga had fun while it lasted!

Well, Borga is still pretty happy with her OTHER playmate.  :)

Calliope...sigh.  What is it with our animal struggles this past year?

She's always nipped, and that's been manageable.  But she's graduated to out-and-out biting, and HARD.  I have a big bruise on my right arm from her last attack.  She comes out of nowhere, bites hard enough to draw blood, and dashes off.  She's an ankle-biter too, and it's a mystery.  She has tons of play time with and affection from me, but has turned on me. I'm afraid of her, so we keep her locked in a separate room at night and watch her warily during the day.  I still fuss over her and pet her, but from a safe distance.  Meanwhile, although she's still chasing Tabitha and they're constantly hissing at each other, we had a bit of a breakthrough yesterday.  

Calliope commandeers Tabitha's perch.  Tabitha is outraged.

Calliope warns her off with a single cold, withering stare.

Accepting defeat, Tabitha naps in a nearby bed.

A NEARBY bed!  Oh, this gives me hope that even if Calliope can't be a snuggly, loving cat to us, at the very least, maybe someday soon the fighting will stop and we can have an uneasy peace!  For someone like me, whose anxiety issues MANDATE a calm and harmonious home environment, this gives me great hope.  

Have a great week!