Shorty post

 Rob is visiting his Mom this week, so the girls and I have been trying to struggle along without him.  (it's been one night)

He'll get a kick out of that.  

But, with just me, there are twice the morning chores to be done.  So far, they've been fed and Dottie has been on a short walk.  When we were about a block away, I realized I'd skipped yoga, so we did a short one and after I finish this, I'll do that and we can go again for a longer one.  

These are the prettiest daylilies.  I'm not sure where they came from or if they're a gift or a seedling.  It's a very small plant with just one very thick and strong scape.  

I planted my glads in a spot that gradually got shadier and shadier.  They never really did well there, so I moved them to a sunnier spot and added to them.  They did great last year.  I must have left a couple of tiny corms that made small spikes last year but this year have grown and are the first to bloom.  There's another one you can't see that I added a stake to yesterday because it was trying to lie down.  The ones in the sun haven't even put up stalks yet.  Funny how things in the garden can be so unpredictable.  

I bought myself a new ukulele.  I have to be careful because it's becoming quite the collection.  They're inexpensive and I have them all strung a little differently.  As I'm learning a song, I decide which ukulele it sounds best on.  Sometimes, it's a hard chord that's easier on a larger fretboard.  Sometimes it's because I want a certain sound.  This is my most expensive so far.  I did more research on it than the eBay seller did and knew it was a real bargain at the price.  There were shipping problems and it took forever to get here, but it's here now and I've tuned the old strings and it sounds wonderful.  I've ordered a new set of strings that should be here later today.  The strings it came with are very different for me and make a slightly dull plastic sound, probably because they're old.  It was delivered in the afternoon and the strings were so hot, they were sticky.  That can't be good for it.  (Amahi zebrawood baritone uke)

Big fat bluejay in the birdbath the other day made me laugh.  He took a very thorough bath, then sat in a tree and fluffed up and sat there a while, like maybe a nap.  

These were a couple things I saw last week that made me laugh.  

A couple we know has decided to divorce.  It's ugly.  But, it was an ugly marriage too, so sometimes two ugly things make a right.  We are very supportive.  We found out last week and had our friend over Saturday night for cocktails and out for dinner.  It was very nice.  We got to share some things we'd observed and never talked to her about and she got a chance to unload about the ugliness of it all.  Her attitude is 'take whatever you want, it will be worth it to be rid of you'.  And, I have so much respect for that.  She also wanted to talk to us about our relationship and how we've made it 25 years.  Our answer; we fight, get it out of the way, make up.  No one has to concede.  No one has to win.  We just move past it.  Consequently, there's a ton of stuff we agree to disagree about.  And, that works too.  And, later we usually realize the thing we were fighting about wasn't the thing we were mad about at all.  

Relationships are hard work and even harder when you're with the wrong person.  

Everybody be well!  Think about what you want and what it would take to get it.  Then maybe do one of those things if you can, or make a plan to do it if you can't.  Me, I'm going to spend some time in the yard...mostly because Rob wouldn't let me start the kitchen remodel while he's out of town.  Cause I would have.  You know I would have.  

Just kidding.  That's a lot of work.  

Lane

So mulch to talk about

Well, I finally got most of the mulch we bought put out.  And, just in the nic of time because it's supposed to get really hot here this week.  It took longer than I expected because I was weeding and cleaning up the beds as I went.  But, they look so nice and uniform.  I got all the way across the back, but still have 5 bags to go that I'll put in the side bed and in the larger flower pots.  

I also got two pairs of rows assembled on the double wedding ring quilt.  

And, I made a batch of strawberry jam.  It isn't perfect, but for a first try, I think it came out fine.  I ran into trouble along the way.  The pot I chose to cook the jam in seemed big enough until it started to boil and foam and came right out the top of that pan.  I pulled out another pan and put some of the jam in it and brought them both back to a boil, but ended up over cooking them, so my jelly is a little thick (my mom would have called it leathery).  But, we had it on biscuits for dinner last night and I can assure you it tasted just fine.  Over cooking also meant more of the fruit cooked away than I was hoping, but I think there's still enough to qualify it as a jam.  

I made this because I was paying $5.75 for a 12 oz jar of French jam.  That's 49 cents an ounce.  Mine cost me 19 cents per ounce, not counting the water or gas (stove) or the jars I already owned that had been sitting empty.  I chose a recipe for a small batch, 7 half pint jars.  It was easier and quicker than I expected and it's strawberry season, so the fruit was less expensive than normal.  Next time, I'll make the jam in the dutch oven I was using to water bath in and find a different way to do the water bath.  Or maybe skip that.  My mom never water bathed jelly, she just let the heat seal the jars.  I don't know.  We'll see.  

It's daylily season.  

There are still a lot of yellows this year, despite me giving away several clumps last year.  I was disappointed, but then I looked at the yard as a whole and I kind of like the fact that there are yellow daylilies all around.  They have a kind of continuity and there are enough oranges to help them pop.  It also helps that the yellows aren't all the same.  

This one has a very unique shape.  I thought it was a fluke, but they've all come out this shape.  

This one must have descended from one of the spider daylilies we had.  It has very long petals like those did.  

Technically, these are yellow, but they're a shade of yellow that looks green.  Not so much in a bright light, but when they're in the shade, they definitely take on a green hue.  

And, the oranges.  

And, there are plenty of new scapes that haven't even revealed what they'll be this year.  Daylilies that I found in pots and couldn't remember what they were, so I planted them to let them bloom and find out.  

The coneflowers are getting started.  These self seed so easily and I wasn't as diligent as I should have been about weeding them out this year.  Normally, I pull them, pot them, and give them away, but this year, I let them stay...I'll give them away later.  And, they're all covered with blooms, ready to open.  I'm not the only one enjoying them either.  

Of course, with that many birds, my veggies need protection, so I've partially built a bird proof area.  I made a mistake and ran out of steam before I finished it, but when I'm done, it should be a 7' cube of bird proof area.  I tasted that first ripe blackberry yesterday and "the birds shall not have them" (said in my best Charlton Heston as Moses voice).  

Saturday afternoon was sunny and beautiful.  And, then it wasn't, and dark clouds rolled in with thunder and then heavy rain that fell straight down.  Then, there were strong winds.  And, then hail.  I assumed my garden was done for the year as we watched it hail for about 5 minutes.  Fortunately, it never got bigger than pea sized, so no damage to the cars or the house or even the garden, though it took out a few flowers and there are holes in a few large leaves.  I felt very, very lucky.  The planet is fighting back.  

Okay, that's it for me.  I'm tired and my hips hurt from being busy all weekend.  Thank goodness my job is mostly sitting.  But first, some yoga to get me moving again.  

Everybody have a great week!  

Lane

Babies and flowers

 It's spring and, as is traditional at our house, babies are being weaned and sent out into the world to live.  

I had a sparrow build a nest in a hanging basket on the porch.  I'm really careful to stop them doing that, but every few years, they get one past me.  I don't mind them being there, but they get really upset when I water the plant.  Anyway, these sparrows found a hanging basket right outside our back door and before I knew it, they had a nest built.  Soon, we could look in and see eggs, then it got really dark in there for a while.  Then one day, I tapped the basket and all that darkness turned into 5 yellow beaks, open for breakfast.  Then I looked in and it was all feathered faces and eyes looking out at me.  And, the parents were so busy bringing back bugs.  All day long it was one or the other of them flying in with a bug hanging out of one side of its beak.  And, last week, I got to watch first flights.  They flew from the nest to deck furniture close by, then from there, some went out into the yard, but the funniest ones tried to land on the steep plastic roof of my greenhouse and then had to catch themselves and fly a little further.  Short bursts that got longer and longer.  She kept them in the yard for a few days, being sure to warn us and the dogs if we got too close.  And, for a couple nights, they came back to the nest.  Now, they've changed shape and look like adults, and while there are a lot of sparrows in the backyard right now, I can't tell which were born here.  It was so fun to watch.  

 Every year, an opossum has babies under my greenhouse.  I'm not even sure how she gets into that small space, but she does.  Dottie went nuts about the babies in the yard, but she didn't hurt them.  Just barked a lot to let us know they were there.  This little guy (okay, he was big as a cat) climbed on top of the fence the other day and sat there for nearly an hour.  I got close enough to see that he was young and I think he'd just been weaned and was lonely.  Poor thing.  

This orange iris opened this week.  What a beauty!  I really need to get this moved.  It's grown into the monkey grass border, trying to get more sun.  

And, the daylilies are getting started.  Just a bloom here and there for now, but it won't be long.  

I've been shopping, not for quilts, but for quilt inspiration.  One of the first things my first mentor taught me was to pattern draft so I could look at a picture of a pretty quilt and figure out how it was made.  It made me a great pattern reviewer when I did that for a short time.  When I want quilt inspiration, I don't usually go to my pattern collections, I go to Pinterest.  This time, I decided to use eBay for ideas.  I've been shopping for quilt kits, not to buy, but to be inspired by.  Okay, I did almost buy one.  If I hadn't gotten distracted Saturday morning, it would have been mine.  But, I have fabric.  I can draft.  I don't need kits (even though they're a lot of fun).  Sometimes I just need ideas and a couple weeks ago, when I was doing all that cutting, that's what I did.  I saw a quilt that I liked and I picked fabrics and drafted it and cut it out.  I saw this block made in 4 browns and was just blown away. 

I had these four blender fabrics I'd bought when Rob and I were driving to different quilt shops one day.  It was a fun day and a nice memory the included a very nice lunch.  I don't know why I only bought four of the colors.  I'd have loved to have the rainbow and make something from that, but I didn't, so they sat in a basket with other fat quarter collections, waiting for inspiration.  (btw, there's only one collection of fat quarters in that basket now.  I cut the rest into quilts). When I saw the brown quilt, I knew these four blenders would be very pretty this way.  I used my Dresden plate ruler, and I cut half the pieces by lining up along the narrow end of the ruler and half by lining up along the wide end (if you want to do this, cut a strip 5" wide along the long side of the FQ and cut the outer blades using the 7" mark (not the end of the ruler, which is 8"), then cut it to 4" wide for the inner blades.  A couple of small blades will come from the fat quarter.  Center circle is 3.25" diameter).  I had originally planned to make the blades and mount the smaller ones to the larger ones before assembly.  I realized I was not going to have enough control over where the smaller blades met if I did that, so I made two plates, hand appliquéd one down and then the other on top.  This should have been a leader/ender, but I got so excited about it, I had to just do it.  

I also got all the wedding ring blocks assembled into rows.  Next week, I'll start turning those rows into a quilt.  Yay for S curves, right?  Yeah! let's go on those S curves!  You got this!  you can do it, you can do it, if you put your mind to it, go team!  

Just pumping myself up for this very difficult task.

I've done it before.  I know I can do it again.  

Everybody have a great week!  I read just enough news to keep up with the utter buffoonery happening in the federal government.  And, that's enough.  We were in Costco the other day and I reminded Rob that the last ships that were tariff free are arriving now.  If we're going to buy it, we need to get on it.  But, we also have to factor in the fickleness of the tariffs and whether we even need to worry about that.  It's the not knowing that's making things so difficult.  

So, I'm making plans to make strawberry jam.  Because that's something I can control.  That's something I can plan on.  That's something I can be confident about.  And, I love it.  I'm also planning a bird net for my blackberries and there might be enough of them for some jam this year as well.  

Figure out what you can do and focus on it.  Let the rest happen around you.  

Lane