Designing a quilt

I forgot that I was going to be driving all day last Monday.  The trip to Dallas went well.  I was very outgoing.  Both dinners were struggles for me.  I did my usual thing where I sit with the uncool kids, which was fine, but neither table filled, so there weren't many people to engage in conversation, which meant I had to carry more of the conversation.  And, I did it.  Both nights.  Keeping the conversation moving and keeping the awkward pauses short.  And, I participated in the meetings during the day and was chauffeur to a teammate and to my boss's boss.  That was weird, but I did it with confidence and when I missed a couple turns, they never knew it and I didn't tell.  Mapping software is great!

After two days of meetings, I headed to my Dad's for the weekend.  That was a wonderful time to relax.  He is so laid back.  He hasn't been sleeping, but while I was there, he was able to get some good rest.  Maybe he just needed someone else in the house.  Anyway, that left me time to relax and rest.  We had lunch together and dinner with my sisters and their families.  We talked in the mornings napped away the afternoons and had coffee together.  It was a very nice getaway and I think we both enjoyed it.  

I had lunch with my niece and her husband while I was in Fort Worth and we talked about a quilt.  We talked about colors and themes and she shared some crib sheets she'd chosen that I could pick colors from.  

Saturday, I designed the quilt.  I knew the sheets had flowers on them, so I looked for flowery quilt patterns.  

Here's where we started.  This is Sweet Pink Daisies from Quilt magazine, sorry I don't know which issue.  Before I got too far, I figured out it's over 400 appliqué pieces.  So, I needed a little redesign.  

And, what I decided was to make the flowers larger.  A 24" square center with an 18" daisy, 4 x 12" daisies in the corners and 8 x 9" daisies between them.  I drafted that out on paper and cut the plastic templates to make it easier to trace the pattern pieces onto freezer paper.

And, then I did the math and it was still over 200 pieces.  So, I decided to halve the number of pieces by making 8 petals per flower instead of 16.  You can see the larger pieces drawn into the picture above.  I'm pretty happy with that.  

Then, the sheets got here.  While the description is pink and orange (what a combo), it's not your average pink.  It's a mauve/peach pink.  And, orange and two greens.  Here's my initial fabric pull.  But, I don't think I have it yet.  It's too orange.  I need more mauve colored fabrics.  

It's cool, tho.  I haven't been to a fabric store in a long time.  

Last week, we had Dottie spayed.  Here she is in her pink onesie that I did NOT make.  She'll need to wear it a few days, but she's doing great at not bothering the incision.  We are struggling to keep her still and quiet because she is a bundle of energy.  

Today, after about 6 weeks, they're supposed to come fix the air conditioner.  It's been working, but it's only been able to keep the house cool if we limit what we do in the hot part of the day, so no cooking big meals and no doing laundry in the afternoon, things like that.  It hasn't been too bad, but we've worried the whole time that something else would go wrong and we'd be without a/c in July in Texas.  It will be nice to be able to relax.  

Everybody have a great week!  Enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy!

Lane

Whether the weather

Whether the weather be fine,

Or whether the weather be not, 

Whether the weather be cold, 

Or whether the weather be hot.

We'll weather the weather

Whatever the weather

Whether you like it or not!

Do that one five times fast.

It's been all about the weather around here.  It's July, so we are getting ready for satan's blast furnace to open up.  We got a really, really good rain Saturday night and today, I'm going to put up the umbrellas so I can keep as much of it in the ground as possible...you may not remember the umbrellas and I can't find a picture, but I have a bunch of broken and cheap umbrellas that I can put in the garden to provide some removable shade.  They just have to be picked up on watering day and then put back.  They did a great job last year of taking the stress off of some of the plants that bloomed so well this year.  Not sure those two things are related, but not willing to test it.  

I've also spent the weekend tracking hurricane beryl.  And, unfortunately, it looks like it might be a strong storm year for us.  We were so sure Beryl was coming in south of us, which would have meant we'd get a lot of rain.  But, it came in east of us and we aren't forecast to get anything.  We could have used it.  

How about some puppy pictures.  We got Dottie when she was 8 weeks old and now she's about to be 6 months.  

And, no, that terrified look on her face isn't because she was being held against her will.  It's because Rob started talking and she thought there might be a treat in it for her.

She is a handful!  We're pretty sure she's got a good bit of Jack Russell Terrier in her and she's smarter than both of us.  She wants to be good, but for heaven's sake, don't let her get bored.  To tire her, Rob walks her a mile, then I walk her a mile and then we walk both dogs several blocks.  And, then she runs around the back yard at full tilt for a while.  And, then she's ready for a nap.  And, then she does it all again.  

Random photo of our 4th of July cake.   I used the same butter and powdered sugar frosting I use all the time, but it was so sweet it made our teeth tingle and kept Rob awake part of the night.  But, damn was it good!  Orange with orange curd filling and a little orange curd cut into the frosting.  Mmmmm!

Random picture of the neighborhood hawk.  I know, I know what she's hunting.  But, she's magnificent.  This photo makes her look small, but she's about 15" from tip to tail.  (at least I think this is the female.  the male is much bigger.)

Rob heard me practice the ukulele yesterday and complimented me on my progress.  I practice every day.  I'm taking a '10-day' class, but I'm only progressing about a class per week.  At the end of lesson 4, the instructor said I needed to have 4-5 songs down and able to play them without looking at my hands.  I'm working on that now.  First I had to find 5 songs I knew all the words to.  It's been a while since I tried to learn more than the chorus of anything.  

I saw this the other day and it cracked me up!  This truly is what being gay is like anymore.  

Okay, that's about it for me today.  I want to make sure I didn't give anyone the wrong impression last week.  I don't believe President Biden should be running for a second term.  But, if he's the candidate, he'll definitely get my vote.  No offense against the president, but I'd vote for a small dog's turd before I'd vote for trump.  There's more than one kind of strong.

Everybody have a great week!  I'll be out of town.  I'm headed to Dallas for business, then tagging a trip to my Dad's at the end of that.  Drive safely!

Lane

Pink season

My garden changes color over the season.  Most of the flowers up to now have been orange, red and yellow.  But now that it's hot as the fires of Hades out there, the main colors change to pink and purple.  It wasn't on purpose.  I'm not sure how my hottest weather plants ended up being these colors.  It just sort of happened by picking up first one and then another plant that could take the heat without paying attention to the colors.  

Last week was a sick week.  Whatever Rob brought home was a nasty bug.  We tested negative for Covid but had coughs and sniffles and chills and even lost our sense of taste for a short time.  I was sick enough that I just laid around.  I couldn't even focus on handwork.  I was recovered by Thursday and Rob the day before, but it made for a long week.  

The swamp lily is blooming.  This plant gets huge.  I've divided it a couple times.  It likes a part sunny spot and the green sword like leaves get 4' long and lie down and crack along the fold lines.  It grows from huge bulbs that can get the size of a softball, or maybe larger if given the opportunity.  In a hard freeze, it does to the ground and makes a watery mess that has to be dealt with quickly before it gets messy.  I wish this plant had a prettier name to go with those pretty flowers.  

All the crepe myrtles are blooming.  I have three.   This very pale pink, a more magenta pink that's just getting started, and a dark purple that hasn't started yet.  This was a potted plant that came from a neighbor when they moved into an apartment.  To the right are some of the purple phlox, still going strong.  

This plant is ruellia, according to my plant identifier.  It grows as a lawn weed here and this picture is from an overgrown lawn up the street.  Rob keeps ours cut, so they don't bloom often.  This is so hardy, growing in the full sun.  It doesn't get very tall.  I'm thinking about taking some and putting it in a pot and trying to grow it.  I'd never plant it in my flower bed for fear it would take over, but maybe I can control it better in a pot.  It grows a pretty flower.  

Okay, not everything in my garden is pink right now.  The spider lily is also in bloom.  This came from a neighbor when she passed and her house was sold.  I took just one bulb and put it in the yard last year.  It's not in the best spot for it.  It's going to get moved into a slightly shadier spot this fall, but it's got a couple of babies coming in around the base, so it must be okay.  The new neighbor must have had hers pulled out and replaced them with gladiolus.  If only she'd asked for a second opinion about that.  

I bought myself an orchid yesterday.  I do love the unusual colors, like green and brown.  This one is tan.  

The week before, when I was feeling icky, I mused whether I should sacrifice an orchid (bring it home and overcare it to death).  Rob shared this, which was PERFECT!

We went antiquing on Saturday after chores were done.  We were going to Luling, but they were having their annual festival (the Watermelon Thump) and we decided that was a lot of people to be shopping around, so we went to our other haunt in Geronimo, TX.  We had lunch at the Grain Bin.  We love their simple and delicious home cooking.  This time, we each had a grilled sandwich and fries.  The turkey and ham had been grilled, but then the sandwiches were grilled and smashed down, the way my Mom used to make grilled cheese.  And, the fries had been dredged in flour before frying, so they had an extra crispiness.  It was not good for us, but it was DELICIOUS food.  We don't eat that way that often, so it's okay.  As my doctor said last week, "Everything in moderation, even moderation."  

Anyway, we didn't buy much.  I think the antique store we were frequenting is having trouble keeping vendors.  They seem to have changed hands and it doesn't seem to be going so well for them.  It's okay.  We had a good run there and brought home way too many things.  I bought a new cookbook.  This is a picture of one just like it because I left mine on the sofa on Saturday and the puppy ate the cover.  She's training us to be much more careful about what we leave lying about.  

It's a really good cookbook.  The manufacturer recipes on cans usually are good.  They just need a little..."moderation".  But, cutting back on the calories and fat in most of these should be really easy.  I've found that a little chicken stock, a little fat free cream, a little flour and some fresh mushrooms make a great substitute for cream of mushroom soup.  

I saw this tea towel in a shop we were in and thought it summed up a lot of crazy very nicely.  If it hadn't been so dang expensive, I'd have bought myself one.  

And, an inspirational thought for the day.  No, really, an inspirational one...I know you're not used to that from me 😂

I don't know what the dems are gonna do after last week, but it sure feels like staying the course is the wrong choice.  I'm not sure Biden is up to governing in a difficult and changing environment.  Nothing against the man.  He's made many great contributions to our country and our democracy.  But, if he can't respond to Trump, how's he going to defeat his next coup attempt?  

Everybody have a great week!  

Lane

De River in Egypt

You know.  De Nile.  

Last Friday, we had dinner with friends.  Three of the four of us had lost our Mothers in the last 2 years.  And, I think I got a glimpse of how I'm dealing with my own loss.  

I think I'm doing okay.  I have occasional bouts of anger that's above and beyond the situation, but I've managed to express that without saying or doing anything I can't recognize and apologize for.  Last week was a very angry week.  At nothing.  Except I was angry about the things I couldn't do, things I couldn't remember or things I've struggled to learn.  Angry at my own "deficiencies".   And, honestly, that's a familiar feeling from childhood, so I can't deny that it's part of my grieving.   I worked through it.  I didn't give up.  And I moved forward into this week for a fresh start.  I believe it will be a better week because of it.  

I've also kept my hands busy.  That's helped.  Busy hands leave my brain free to explore what I'm feeling and to work through feelings as they come up.  I was working on a sweater yesterday while TV was on in the background and the nicest childhood memory popped up and I thought about it and tried to remember every detail I could.  Everyone was happy.  I didn't let myself delve into what might have happened after or let any unpleasant memory come in and cloud the happy memory.  I just sat back and remembered what it was like to be a kid, knowing the adults were taking care of everything and all my sister and I needed to do was have fun.  And, we did.  

The sweater I was working on is this one.  I got all the seams sewn this weekend and about half the thread tails woven in.  That let me try it on and it fits perfect!

I mentioned that I was getting the best seams on this sweater that I've ever had.  First, I skip the first stitch of every row.  That gives me a nice selvage where I can see the stitches I'm sewing together.  And, instead of sewing them with a whip stitch, I used a crochet hook and pulled up a loop, caught the first stitches on each side with the hook and pulled a loop through those and the original loop.  It makes a ridge on the inside

but look how nice it is from the outside.  

The Stella D'oro daylily is having a second bloom.  This little daylily has exceeded expectations.  

And the Texas Red Star Hibiscus has started to bloom.  The flowers are about 6 inches across.  This plant is in the wrong place, but it's gotten pretty large and I'm afraid to try to move it.  I have a seedling from it and I moved it to what I think will be a better place, but it's in it's sleep year (1st year they sleep, 2nd year they creep, 3rd year they leap...wisdom from Rob) so I'm not going to know whether it's a better spot for a year or two.  

In the vein of keeping my hands busy, I've decided to try to learn the ukulele.  It's supposed to be an easy instrument to learn.  I've done my first online lesson and am practicing fingering of the first three chords.  I practice until my hand cramps, so I'm building up muscles there, too.  It's supposed to be a 10 day course, but it's going to take me longer because I want to spend time fully understanding and practicing each lesson.  We will see how long this lasts.  I'm already tired of You Are My Sunshine. 😂

Anyway, our friends seem to be having more De Nile than me.  One seems stuck in the angry phase, which she is suppressing, and I think the other one needs someone to talk to that's not stuck in the angry phase.  But, I'm no shrink and it's entirely possible that they're doing great and I'm the one with the problem.  

That's the beauty of the brain.  It's not like math where there's only one answer.  There are as many mental health answers as there are people on earth.  And, then some.  

Someone anonymously replied to an older post that trump's followers wouldn't turn their backs on him.  They're clearly not paying attention.  his supporters are turning their backs on his crazy every day.  Not a lot at a time.  But, a few, every time he opens his mouth.  

Everybody have a great week!  If you're dealing with something hard, you have my empathy.  I get it and hope you're finding ways to deal with it that bring you peace.  Hang in there.  Recovering is just letting things get a little easier every day.  

Lane

Being "on"

Last week was full.  From the time Rob dropped me at the airport until the time he picked me up, I was with co-workers, being "on".  And, not just "on" but "work on", so no swearing.  It was exhausting.  But, it was also nice.  I'm always surprised at the people that go out of their way to spend time with me.  The people I've kept up with over the years and helped with projects, but also the ousiders and people on the fringes that I've taken time to get to know while I was living on the fringes.  

I don't really fit into the whole best friend at work thing.  I've done that.  It never ended well and now, I like having friends at work, but I also like having a life outside of work.  When I go to events like this, I generally find myself on the fringes of the group, sitting with other people that are on the fringes, having dinner with them, talking, laughing.  Making friends.  I've done that so long that the fringe has become its own group and we find one another's tables and sit together in introverted quiet.  

There's one young man.  He fits somewhere along the spectrum, very very smart, but struggles interacting with others.  When he and I started working together, he could only speak short sentences by looking down and letting his hair fall over his face.  I sat at his table for lunch years ago and we've remained in contact since.  He's gotten better and better at interacting.  He recorded a congratulations to include in my 40 year anniversary video where he looked straight into the camera and spoke.  And, it was a wonderful thing to see and when l saw him at the conference, I thanked him.  On the last day, when we were all saying goodbye, he sought me out.  I think most of us realized this is likely my last one of these conferences.  And, he shook my hand and looked me in the eye.  And, I was moved.  

This was the view out my hotel window, looking out over the Lake Erie.  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is on the right and the Cleveland Browns stadium is on the left.  Not sure what the older buildings are, but I'm betting courthouses or city offices.  

It was good to catch up with friends, old and new.  I'm a resource for new employees, so I usually get a call when someone is standing on the ledge, ready to jump ship, confused and feeling lonely.  I'm not often the first person they call, but I'm usually the one that will put other things aside to talk them off the ledge, make time to show them what they need, and help them through what feels like a crisis.  I've only recently acknowledged that this is a big part of my self esteem.  I get to think of myself as a hero.  And, I wonder where I'm going to get that when I retire.    

This closet plant (Spathiphyllum) was glad to see me home.  This is one of the happiest plants I have right now.  It lives outside in summer and loves this spot where it gets early morning sun and shade the rest of the day.  

In the spirit of finishing things, I finished the scarves I started for me and Rob earlier in the year.  Rob's is made from some multi color wool yarn he gave me for Christmas a couple years ago alternating with some deep red I had left from a sweater.  Mine is made from some nice wool we found in a discount store several years ago.  They're the same pattern, but with custom variations for length and width.  

Everybody have a great week!  I was so happy to see all the pride banners in airports and restaurants when we were traveling.  It's nice to feel seen in this climate of attacking gays to pump up false christian bonafides in society.   You don't have to be gay to acknowledge Pride.  And, you never know what it will mean to someone when you do.   

Lane

Nothing happened

 and I didn't take pictures of it.  

I looked through my camera roll and there was nothing there. A couple of pictures of daylilies you've already seen and a couple of flower bed pics.  Last week was kind of crazy.  

We had the air conditioning serviced and found out we need a part...that's on back order and no idea when it will come in.  Warranties are trying our patience.  Our a/c is working, but it's battling increasing heat outside.  We haven't had too much trouble out of it, but yesterday I made tomato jam and that wasn't a good idea.  It cooks for about 3.5 hours plus water bathing the jars and the humidity built up in the house and for a little while, the whole house got warm.  It's recovered now and I won't be planning any more big cooking events until it's repaired.  

This side of the yard caught my eye yesterday.  It's looking really good.  A good mix of plants that rise and shine, then merge into the background and build up energy for next year.  

I spent as much time outside as I could over the weekend, but the humidity was exhausting.  I did a little weeding and a lot of watering and Rob mowed the lawn.  It was enough.  

We took Syd out on Saturday.  We had lunch and then went to the garden center.  She needed a bag of soil and it's hard to bring a bag of soil home on the bus.  Plus, she couldn't resist a couple of plants (and I couldn't either).  It was good to see her and we had a nice visit.   

I've only gotten a little bit further along on the Ruby McKim flower block.  I forget how much I enjoy appliqué until I'm doing it.  It's so fun to see the shapes form the way I want them to with smooth curves and sharp corners.  I'm a little rusty tho and have had to take out more than a few stitches.  

I am headed to Cleveland tomorrow for what I believe will be my last conference.  Next year, I'll be so close to retirement that I just don't see me doing this stuff anymore.  At least this conference has a more robust agenda than the last couple I've attended.  And hopefully I won't come home with covid this time.  If I do, then I'm done with business travel.  

Rob's truck is in the shop and will likely be there all week so he'll have my car.  When his is out, I need to put mine in.  I don't know whether someone is pushing them in or what, but the back sensors are disappearing into the bumper, one by one.  What a total pain!  

Everybody have a great week!  If you're not having fun then stop what you're doing and do something else.  

Lane  

One step

There's a saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.  I think admitting that I had lost the quilting bug last week kind of jump started me.  That, and I had to go in the stash closet to look for something, and while I was there I saw some really pretty fabric.  When I thought of a project, I thought of something small and pulled out a Ruby McKim flower block.  This one is delphinium.  It has a lot of pieces, but it was already prepped and mostly cut out, so there I went.  I've only gotten a few leaves sewn down, but I have high hopes that if I put it in my way and trip over it enough times, I'll get it finished.  

I've made 19 of 25 blocks and  I really should finish that quilt.  

I've also been thinking about this pattern from a long time ago.  It's a great scrappy quilt that goes together easily and that I was using to make Linus quilts.  I enjoyed making Linus quilts and would like to do that again.  It's called Barbed Wire and I've made it in several colors.  I can't remember who published it though.  

There were a couple of new daylilies.  This one looks much like one I've shown before.  So close that I had to pick two flowers and hold them next to one another to see the differences.  This one is a larger flower with a darker red in the petals than the one from a couple weeks ago.  

This one is a beautiful dark red.  A friend shared it with me a few years ago.  It only gave me one scape last year and one this year.  Maybe it needs a little more sun.  I took this right after a rain, so it's covered with water droplets.

This white daylily came out of nowhere.  It's growing from a clump of green daylilies.  I'll try to mark and separate it when I divide in the fall.  

Anybody remember this quilt from several years ago?  It was a raffle quilt for the guild.  I was "on the committee" so got to help design and make it.  Guild members made blocks.  I haven't found a picture of the quilt, this is just the paper pattern we created before we started cutting and sewing.  I made the triple feathered star in the center.  We used red prints and we all spent days washing excess dye out.  I ended up boiling some fabric to try to get out excess dye.  It ended up being a beautiful quilt and if I can find a picture, I'll share it next week.  I made a quilt that was inspired by this one but scrappy.  I made two of the triple feathered stars in red/white.  One test, to see if I could piece this complex block and one that went into the quilt.  The test block is the center of my scrappy star quilt.  

Everybody have a great week!  If you have something you've gotten bored with and stopped but you wish you hadn't, take a baby step.  See what happens.  I may not be any further along on that flower block next week.  Or, it may be nearly finished.  Who knows.  We'll have to wait to find out.

Lane

Listen to the big baby whine when he gets treated like everyone else.  I think maybe that's the biggest insult, treating him like everyone else.  Not playing into his message that he is somehow special.  I would like to see another massive fine.  Hit him where it hurts.  Make him put up another bond before he can appeal.  I don't think we're ready as a country to jail him, no matter how many things he's done to deserve it.  Crumble his image by making him look small, feeble, and common and his followers will walk away.  

More flower pics

This week at work, there was almost nothing to do.  No one wanted to start a project the week before a holiday.  And, that was fine with me.  I spent the week cleaning up projects.  Doing those last minute things that it never seems like there's time for, like auditing, and converting my free form ramblings into repeated text that can be counted.  Boring stuff like that.  But, it filled the time and now it's done and those projects will be easier the next time I need to work on them.  Friday was extremely slow and I should probably enter Friday afternoon as paid time off for all that I got accomplished.  

We're having a bit of a heat wave with oppressively high humidity.  Thankfully that will break in a day or two, not like in July/August when it seems to last forever.  I spent as much time as I could in the yard on Saturday, just cleaning up and doing a little watering.  All the hard work is done for the year and now it's just "tweaking" things to get them to look their best when we look out from inside the house this summer.

Over the week, a few new daylilies bloomed.  A friend gave me several daylilies that have never bloomed and it seems like they're blooming this year.  I'm enjoying the surprises.

This one is a pinkish-peach color with a gold center, making it different than the other peach daylily I have.  I'm only going to get this one bloom this year, but that's okay.  Now I know what it is and can move it into a better spot for next year.  

And, this red one that I don't recognize.

The greens are really putting on a show and I recently found another clump of these that are in a bit too much shade and will also get moved this year.  

This is a daylily I bought at the end of the season last year for half price.  It had one flower left on it that bloomed after I got it home and this year, it's putting on a very nice show.  

And, this "ditch orange" daylily.  This is supposed to be the least desirable daylily.  They have a tendency to take over and they're so hearty that they grew in the ditches in front of old homesteads.  I think they're pretty but my Mom always said "get rid of that now and let me send you something pretty".  They come in a double and a triple.  I think this one is a double.  It has two sets of orange petals.    

I mentioned last week that I'd made a strawberry jar of succulents.  Can't wait to see what happens here.  

This is my vegetable plot.  Two years ago, it was an idea.  Last year, it was a concept.  This year, it's an experiment.  I'm learning things that I think will make it even better next year.  There's a huge stump here that makes gardening challenging.  This is also where I set up a temporary greenhouse in winter, so I don't want anything permanent.  Im trying strawberries and blackberries, carrots, onions, tomatoes, green beans, pickling cucumbers, bell peppers and zucchini.  Way overambitious, but I figure some of it will make it and some won't.

There aren't a lot of big plans for today.  Walk the dogs, clean up in the greenhouse and my home office a little.  I have plans for grilled pork chops, potato salad, and coleslaw for lunch with homemade ice cream for dessert.  All in all, a pretty laid back day.

I'm feeling inspired to sew.  I have a shirt I need to finish for Rob that went on hold when my Mom got sick and I'm sewing together a sweater I made over winter (and secretly planning my next one).  I'd also like to do some quilting.  Maybe finish something I have started.  Maybe start something new.  Maybe pick up that Asian inspired quilt I started not long ago.  Who knows.  I'd like to get back into making Linus quilts.  I like that I don't have to think too hard about them.  

I don't know how I used to get so much quilting done.  Does it mean I get less done now?  Or just doing different things?  When I think about quilting now, I don't get excited.  I go into my quilting closet and I don't feel inspired.  I feel overwhelmed.  I have supplies for more quilts than I can make and have trouble letting go of the excess.  I need to find a balance.  

With everything else we do today, we have to remember the patriots that gave their lives to protect our way of life.  And, we can't let that way of life be destroyed by those that would suppress our freedoms.  We mush fight autocracy and genocide at home and abroad.  And, we must prevail.  There's no other option.  

Have a great week!  Lane

Anniversaries

 Last week was my 40th anniversary with my employer.  Yeah, that's a long time.  It hasn't been the same job though.  I've had lot's of challenging jobs in that time and those challenging jobs are why I've hung around.  The company was willing to offer me new challenges periodically; chances to learn new skills and take on new responsibilities.  And, I was generally ready for something new when it did.  

They made me a half hour congratulations video.  They cast a wide net of people I"ve worked with over the last 20 years.  People that went on to be big corporate names like Chief Human Resources Officer and still took time to say a few words of congratulations and how nice it was to work with me.  One pointed out that my name is everywhere in our products.  Designed by.  Written by.  Created by and credited to...me.  

That won't last long after I retire, but it's out there now and will stay there until I'm forgotten like all the people that retired before me.  Someone will come along and want to put their name on new work and my work will be archived.  

Forty years.  How did that happen?  I've worked there since I was 22 and now I'm 62.  I've grown up there.  I was advised by some really smart people.  Sometimes they told me to speak up.  And sometimes they told me to shut up.  Both are considered good advice.  

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I spent all the time I could in the garden this weekend.  This time it was mostly about cutting spent early spring plants back to make room for new plants that are trying to come up and planting things in pots, especially succulents, which will be the features on the deck during the hottest part of summer.

Three different color coneflowers (echinacea).  Yellow, orange and red.  Conflowers are so easy to grow here and I'm hoping these three eventually get as large as the pink ones (~2' tall).  Considering I nearly killed all three by putting them in the wrong spot last year, I'm feeling pretty good that they're blooming at all.  The spindly things around them are some short phlox that bloomed really early in spring.  

This daylily is called Peaches.  It's a lovely peach color.  It's one of my Mom's hybrids and is named after her dog...you guessed it; Peaches.  It was also in the wrong spot last year and I'm happy to see it bloom this year.  

Gladiolus.  I'm getting a nice stand of glads.  Unfortunately, these are the only three that are going to bloom this year.  I found a couple more in spring that I'm going to move to this spot soon.  They're in too much shade now and I'm hoping that moving them into this spot will give me more flowers next year.  

Please disregard the empty pots, but this is a pencil cactus with a rick-rack succulent planted at the base.  There are two this size.  I got one and Rob has the other up front with his other succulents.  This one is about 4' tall.  

The two of them came from this plant.  I cut the top out of it because it was too top-heavy for the tall pot it's planted in and rooted the two cuttings.  Now, the parent plant is about 5' tall again.  If I'm not mistaken, this is from one tiny pencil sized shoot that Rob brought home from somewhere.  

A different green daylily.  I knew Rob had one of these, but didn't realize I'd kept one as well.  It was a welcome sight the other morning.  

This is a shot of the original green daylily being it's greenest the other morning.

This is a portion of the bed.  Every year, it seems that one section really shines and this year, this is it.  The summer flowers will start to bloom soon and this spot will have something blooming all summer long.

The phlox have started.  There are clumps of them all around the yard like there are yellow daylilies.  They're the real summer backdrop and will bloom until it's really hot and then I'll cut the heads off them and they'll bloom again.

I have a dermatologists appointment tomorrow.  My GP told me to see one as I'm getting older.  I haven't seen a dermatologist since I was a teenager and am not really looking forward to it.  I'm also looking for a new GP as my previous is taking a break and maybe moving out of state.  I had an appt set up with someone new, then my Mom passed and I cancelled it.  That was a mistake.  I should have rescheduled, but just couldn't think ahead then.  Now, he's not seeing new patients, and I'm having to choose from the clinic's "second string".  It's okay.  I can let a temp refill my scripts and try someone new next year.  

Everybody have a great week!  Let people celebrate you when they will, even if it makes you feel a little uncomfortable.  None of us is celebrated enough, so take it in when it's there.  

Lane

Donniedolittle probably won't debate Biden because Biden won't let him be a loud mouthed blowhard name calling little bully.  Donnie doesn't have anything to offer but lout mouthed blowhard name calling little bully so he'll eventually decline.