Age is a number

 Last week was a very nice week.  Valentine's Day was Monday.  We don't do a lot for Valentine's, but there was a card and a nice dinner.  Tuesday was my birthday.  I worked, but that evening we had a really nice dinner.  I took Wednesday and Thursday off and spent most of both days in the garden and when I wasn't out there, I was quilting, so that was pretty heavenly.  Friday, I worked again, but was so busy catching up that the day passed in the blink of an eye.  Saturday, we went to a birthday party for an old friend and Sunday, I was back in the yard again.  I could do that every week!  

One of the things I finished was the hollyhock block from the Ruby McKim flower garden quilt.  I didn't grow up with hollyhocks, so had to consult the web for pictures.  The photo quilt that came with the pattern used a blue flower.  I had trouble finding pictures of blue hollyhocks, but the quilt felt like I needed another blue block, so I went for it.  It came out pretty nice.  The yellow flower center wasn't part of the original block. They had done French knots, but lots of these blocks have French knots and all the hollyhock pictures I saw had distinct yellow centers, so I improvised.  The next block up is the geranium and it has nearly 40 pieces, most of them small independent flowers.  That's going to be fun.  I have geraniums in bloom in the greenhouse right now, so I know what that block is supposed to look like.  

I cleared the dining room table and spread the arc quilt out on it and tied knots for about 3 hours Wednesday afternoon.  I didn't get done, but I got very close before I had to stop to make dinner.  I still have maybe 20 knots to go.  Before I folded it back up, Rob and I both went over it very closely, looking for mistakes.  There are about 20 safety pins in the quilt marking spaces that are too large and need some quilting so they don't stand out and a couple of places where quilting needs to be taken out and replaced.  Not bad overall.  Shouldn't take long to finish, and soon as the rainy season starts (otherwise known as spring), I'll have plenty of time to finish it.  

Happy Birthday to me!  I was stupid and let my old glass birdbath break in the freeze a couple weeks ago, so my birthday present to me was a new one.  On Saturday, we bought a couple of large pavers and yesterday, I set and leveled them and got this all set up and filled...but forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to wait to see it in action.  I also sealed an old concrete birdbath that I've had for about 30 years that had cracked years ago and only held water for a few hours.  I'm anxious for that to dry and to get water in it and see if it will work again.  The bees have taken over one of the large baths so that should give me a couple for the birds.  

My project Wednesday morning was to lift the stones and re-set the path in the garden.  I sat on the ground and backed my way across the 40ish foot length of this pathway, lifting stones, leveling the soil, changing configurations to give me more step area and packing them back in again with ajuga around them.  Then, I started watering.  It's soooo dry here.  That's what I wanted for lifting the stones, but anything I plant is taking a lot of hand watering to keep it going until the rain starts.  One thing about gardening.  It's never finished.  But, I believe the freezing weather is over and I'm ready for the flowers to start.

This is us, on the way to the party Saturday.  We're so good in social situations.  It's a shame we don't get out more.  

Everybody have a great week!  Find something you enjoy and do the hell out of it.  There's plenty of time to work and worry and fret, so be sure to tear some time away from that just for sheer pleasure and joy.  

Lane