Drink your tea!

A lot of smiling faces around here!

We've settled into a more "typical" Southern weather pattern - temperatures in the 40s and 50s.  This is perfect hiking weather, so we've been able to get out quite a bit.  Some nice discoveries, like this white-tailed deer jawbone...

...and many signs of spring.  Not only did the Eastern Towhees start singing their spring song this week, I see shoots coming up everywhere. 

I love going to the Botanical Garden this time of year to get ideas for "winter interest" plants, both those with color and those with interesting seed pods.

I've been moving along nicely on indoor projects.  I started a cross stitch weeks ago and have been slowly plugging away at it evenings.  I stitched on a water-soluble grid.

It washes away, leaving only the stitched image.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it...make it into a pillow?  Frame it?  No rush.  I'll fold it away until I figure it out.

I finished my Farm Girl Sampler quilt!  It's hard to take a photo of the whole quilt, but...

Some pictures of the various sections:

I quilted 1" horizontal lines.  Since it's a little less densely quilted than my other quilts, it's wonderfully soft.  I absolutely love it and I'm so glad I went the extra mile to add those 100+ red gingham flying geese around the body of the quilt.  It really makes a difference! 

I've already picked out my next quilt and am just waiting for the fabric to arrive.

Meanwhile, I'm working on other little projects and enjoying the nice weather.  We all are, even though the cats pretend that it's still cold by curling up on quilts and hot water bottles.  They're a little bit spoiled.  :)

Have a great week!

Hydrangea Hideaway

The sun has come out at last!  It seemed like we alternated cloudy days and rainy days for weeks and weeks.  Truthfully, because of the rainy weather and the swarms of mosquitoes that seemed to come with it (including the Asian Tiger mosquito, who doesn't bother with the 'dark or dusk' rule of most mosquitoes and feels comfortable attacking at any time of day), I've been staying inside most of the time.  At the first sign of sun last week, however, we packed up and went to the South Carolina Botanical Garden.

Because of the near-constant shade at our property, I was naturally drawn to the shade gardens there.  One of my shade favorites, the hydrangea, was blooming in full force.

White hydrangeas...

Pink hydrangeas...

Blue hydrangeas...

And one of my favorites, oak leaf hydrangeas...

Look at those flowers!  Green and white is one of my favorite combinations, too.

The "non-ruffled" are still beautiful, though.

My blue hydrangeas never bloomed, probably because of overcast skies and too much rain.  I have high hopes for next year, though.

I'm still learning about how colorful shade gardens can be.

It's still strange to me to use leaves instead of flowers for impact.

Next year I'm going to fill in our bare shade patches with impatiens.  They're annuals, but they bloom all summer long and provide nice color.  If you're lucky, the leaves help out too!

Even though I'm laser-focused on shade, I couldn't help but admire the sun-lovers there.  Crepe myrtles are blooming all over the Upstate area, in pink, purple, and white.  They bloom all summer long and have lovely, smooth trunks.

Coneflowers are great too, and very hardy.

Where you have coneflowers, you have butterflies!  This yellow swallowtail butterfly is very common here.

 Butterflies also graced the aptly-named butterfly bush...here we have a black swallowtail.

I bet these plants were happy to finally see the sun!

This interesting plant's petals formed a kind of balloon when closed.

It's a kind of bellflower (campanula), I think.  Very unique!

Borga *loves* a walk in the park.  The more new friends, the better!

SCBG has a large lake lined with lily pads.  Someday I want to have a huge water garden, and these plants are at the top of my list.  The "dirt" on top is debris from the trees, brought down by the rain.

No self-respecting lake is without a few turtles.

This turtle was sunning himself, but most turtles were swimming close to shore.

Of course we saw lots of dragonflies...

...and a motley assortment of ducks.

Hooray for the sun!

I've been "clicking" but not really "knitting" or "stirring" much.  I've finally started a new knitting project, and hopefully I'll be whipping up a new recipe when more company comes in two weeks.

Have a great day!