Saturday, May 20, 2023

Glorious Springtime!

Bruce and I have both been working hard out in the garden. All the vegetables are planted! YAY! We did forget one basil plant, which I discovered while watering a still-to-planted rose on the patio. But I feel we’re over the hump. I still have another couple hours of shoveling soil to finish off the big cubic yard we got, but that might possibly happen today or if not, then on Monday. All my flower pots are planted with their annuals and most of the perennial flowers and shrubs are as well. Another trip to the nursery is in order, but that won’t happen for at least 10 days because of other things, which I’ll explain momentarily. 

This little flower bed, with the beautiful blue brunnera I showed last week (must.get.more!) has some friends now. The wilted tulip greens along the bed curbing will be removed once they turn yellow - have to let their bulbs soak up the leaf nutrients first. The three grasses in pots in the rear of the bed (hakonechloa - Japanese forest grass) are shade lovers.  I hope to fill in that whole area in the shade along those windows with them. But they’re a bit pricey, and so I’m going to have to plant fewer and just wait for them to grow. 


In the meantime, I’m adding annuals and pots and picking up cheap flowers where I can find them. And I’m cheering on the hostas that have finally broken ground and are really pushing their new growth! 

A few little begonias and a single blooming iris make a cute little vignette in the bed under the living room window. That whole expanse under the window used to be filled with irises, but they had to be thinned out and the dead rhizomes discarded. Now I need to transplant some back - a project for July or August.

The drip lines still show all over the beds as we tweak where feeder lines need to be attached. But it’s all coming along. We hope to have that all done so we can clean up the patio of drip irrigation supplies and detritus and get the furniture set out for the upcoming Memorial Day long weekend. 

I did get some orange blocks sewn this week for Orange May in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s blog.

Here we have ten Split Nines …


And then I made six Four-in-Nines. The first two are with a gray constant:


And the last four are with a dark navy constant: 


On tap for the next project is the assembly - FINALLY - of my International Sisters quilt. Here is an in-progress photo as I begin to sew rows together.


Tomorrow (Sunday) I’ll be able to sew on it a bit, hopefully. Cousin Kim is coming over to sew, but first she’ll be giving Bruce a haircut and next we have rhubarb to harvest for her. Then we have three quilts to baste, two of them being large ones that Kim has made which are ready for finishing. Ruby won’t be joining us this week because poor thing - she’s in Europe (Austria, Hungary, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic). Yes, I’m properly jealous! 

On Wednesday, Bruce and I head out to Western Colorado for 4 days for my Cousins Reunion. We’re staying at my brother’s house. There will be Bruce and I, Steve, Cousin Dan, and Cousin Julia and her husband David; six total. We haven’t seen our cousins in 25 years, and they’ve never met Bruce. I hope to get lots of pictures and hugs!

14 comments:

  1. Oh! Your Sisters are looking fabulous! My project box with mine are on the bottle of the stack! I had forgotten! Thanks for the “kick in the pants” reminder. Your gardening efforts are making for some glorious beds! Good job you two! I hope you have fabulous Cousins Reunion! We did that several years ago, there were 15 of us counting spouses. Now we are down to 13. We probably should plan another one soon!

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  2. The new landscaping is coming along. Good luck with the Hakonechloa. I tried one, but it never took hold. I don't really have enough shade anyway. I just had 4 yards of mulch delivered Friday and thankfully it's raining today (after 10 dry days) so I'll be busy spreading mulch and hoping to stay ahead of the weeds. Enjoy your visit with the cousins.
    Pat

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  3. Oh how funny--I got my sister blocks out this week and worked on them too--think I will make 2 quilts--one small one with my favorite prints and a larger on with all the rest--we--will see--but first I have to hand baste a 12 block embroidery snowman quilt that I got layered and press and taped down--
    have fun sewing with your friends--hugs, di

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  4. You did an excellent on both fronts: the garden and the sewing room. Love the sisterhood blocks. Enjoy! ;^)

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  5. The gardens look great. Love your oranges in your split 9's! A popular one this week. Have a great time at your reunion.

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  6. Good luck with your garden. Have fun with the cousins!

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  7. All your orange blocks are inspiring as are your ladies!

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  8. I would be jealous of the travels to Europe also - I would love to see so many of those countries!! It looks like your flowers are off to a good start - I wish I had a rhubarb crop but the plant is not doing well - it is just too warm here for it I think

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  9. Your garden is coming along beautifully - such a lot of hard work! Hope you manage to do some sewing this afternoon as well as fitting in all those other projects. Have a great Cousins Trip!

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  10. Oh my gosh your sisters are stunning! I have the pattern so some day.... Your gardens are really looking nice. Today's plan is to get my plants into the ground.

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  11. I love how your garden is coming along! So pretty! I love my brunnera too. The truly love the shade. You made great progress on your orange blocks. Here's to a great reunion. Definitely long overdue!

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  12. Love your juicy orange blocks. I see some familiar faces in those sisters on your design wall...like a joyous reunion of sorts. Have fun in Colorado.

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  13. Your gardens are looking great. It's always such a lot of work in the spring but soon you'll be able to enjoy how everything looks.
    Nice to see a return of the 'Sisters' and you've been busy with oranges. Must admit it took me awhile to figure out how you could say you had ten of the split nines - I was sure there were only five. Can you tell I'm not a sane quilter?

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  14. Pleased to hear your Cousins Reunion trio went so well. Gosh you can see the similarity between Julia and you! Lovely to keep in touch, very important. Jus5 had my cousin here to stay for a few days. It was great. You’re looking great. WW has obviously worked for you, enjoy your success.Loved all the garden photos, they’re all beautiful. A reward for all your hard work. Look forward to the Jo Kramer quilts photos later this week.

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