While the flowers are blooming beautifully, the edible parts of my garden are just getting started.

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Those pictures include Sweet Banana Peppers, San Marzano Tomatoes, Loch Ness Blackberries, and Everbearing Raspberries, and of course, strawberries!

 

Beware of invasive species…

… they will make themselves at home and crowd out your other plants.

 

(In his defence, the plant was dying before he sat on it… I just haven’t gotten around to putting something new in the pot.)

Thankfully, my week as calmed down a bit. Yesterday was downright lazy (other than mopping some overdue floors). The weather is hot, humid and hazy, so it just sucks the energy right out of you.

Still there’s always a little bit of drive to do some knitting.

Dave’s birthday is 18 days away. There’s still lots of time to complete the second sock, but I don’t want to dawdle either. Besides, it’s waaaaay too hot to work on that darn, stinky cardigan.

Before all the vacation drama of the past few days, I had a free afternoon. So I sat down and decided to bang out the last purple blocks for Rainbow in the dark. It took several hours, but it all seemed to go swimmingly…

Until I started laying them out with some of the other blocks…

Huh… well something isn’t right…. at first, I thought it was that I’d just added an extra row of purple. But no… it couldn’t be that simple…

If you follow the number sequence, you’ll see I went wrong at number three.  On the purple block, number 3 should have been a purple rectangle.  But I did black… and it threw everything off. It also means that all 11 blocks have to be ripped back right to the start, and done over.

Sigh… but that’s for another day. This one is in a time out until I can face it again.

As you may recall, I’m on vacation this week. Usually my vacations are pretty mellow affairs. Some sewing, some knitting, some gardening, and maybe a day out thrown in the mix.

But so far, this one has been a bit of a whirlwind.

It started bright and early one morning with a three hour trip northward. I packed Dory up and Mom and I headed to reunite the Johnson 5.

We had a wonderful day in the pool with my sister-in-law, and nieces.

My brother cooked us a fabulous dinner and then we hit the road for another three hours driving home.

I fully planned on sleeping in the next day…

But as soon as the birds started chirping (or at least not long after), Dave woke me up and conscripted my help at his Grandma’s in Mississauga (about 40 minutes away).

A 50-year-old beech tree had dropped a rather large branch on her garden shed. Thankfully no one was out there when it happened, and other than some very slight damage to the roof, the shed is fine. But that branch (limb really) is a MONSTER.

Dave and his uncle attacked the leafy end branches with a sawsall, and tossed them my way. I broke them down with a pair of large clippers into manageable pieces the garbage men will take to the compost facility.

Once denuded they still had to get it off the roof. It was heavy, but with a little ingenuity, and the help of the ladder for support, they managed.

Now it, and the branches that were too thick for the clippers, are awaiting Dave’s other uncle, who has a chainsaw.

And you’d think helping out would earn me a day of rest… but no…

The very next day, were up up early AGAIN – hopping into Dory for another road trip (this one 2 hours one way).

Through Kijiji, Dave found a guy with a bumper for his Bonneville. Pontiac didn’t make Bonnevilles for the Canadian market in 1967, so parts can be very hard to come by.

This very nice gentleman had a mansion (yeah, a literal mansion) with a very large shop that had somewhere between 15-20 classic Pontiacs in varying stages of restoration. Dave was in heaven.

I think Dave wanted to move in. And I would have happily driven away in that Beaumont (if it had an engine… which it didn’t).

Now I’m hoping that’s all the driving I’ll have to do for the week.. but at this rate… who knows! I need a nap!

 

We had a break in the weather so I sucked it up and pulled out the barnyard cardigan again

I’ll spare you another picture of it all spread out. I’ve added another ball, but it still just a giant hunk of smelly, grey knitting.

Still, I should be able to finish the back up this week – then it’s onto the last front.

Although I haven’t been sewing quite as much as I once was, those little L&E two patches were really piling up.

When I started this project, this little box was overflowing with 2.5 in scraps. Now it’s almost at the bottom. Since I will need 2.5 squares for the diagonal blocks as well, I decided it was time to start sewing all the two patches…

Into four patches.

Once the two-patch basket is emtpy, I’ll count my four patches and decide if I need to make more. If not, then I can start on those diagonal blocks!

Here’s where all my quilts are at

• Blockhead quilt – Waiting for next block
• Bramble patch – Still sourcing fabrics
• Walk like a dinosaur – Still making toes
• Rainbow in the dark – Only purple left!
• Bumbleberry sampler – 10 blocks to go
• L&E – As above!

While many flowers in the garden have a “season” or a limited bloom time, many of them provide flowers for months and months. I love those flowers.

The blanket flower is one of them. Once it gets going, it’s non-stop until the frost. I actually had to buy a new one this year. I had two last year, but neither came back (probably that late cold snap).

Tickseed is another great performer. I have one out front, but I got one for the back this year because it’s such a trooper.

This bellflower is another new one. I’m not sure how long it will bloom for, but I love the combination of blurple flowers and chartreuse leaves.

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This pincushion plant will go forever too. This one is out front. I had one out back that was purple and huge, but again – it didn’t make it (which was a big surprise, it was a substantial plant).

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Beardtounge is also out front. It blooms for at least a couple months on an off. And it gets both purple and pink bloom stems on the SAME plant. So weird but so neat!

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The Delphinium only blooms for about a month, but its so tall and pretty it makes quite a statement. I have this in purple and blue. I had pink and white as well, but they disappeared this year.

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The Iceland poppies have just NOT stopped this year. Normally they take long breaks between blooms, but not this year. Almost every day, there’s new blooms smiling up at me.

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The sedum around the tree has started to bloom. The flowers are tiny, but there’s a nice variety.

The Blue Sage is blooming beautifully. This one is a favourite of the pollinators and it blooms all summer long.

The Nasturtiums in my hanging baskets have started to bloom. Nasturtiums are a little nostalgic for me. They were one of the plants I ALWAYS had in my garden as a child. Apparently my great-grandma was fond of them too, though she passed when I was only a few years old.

The day lilies are just getting started. They will bloom until August at least. Above is Stella d’Oro, though I have many other types, and all are covered in buds.

It’s hard to believe July is almost here… but really the flowers are just getting started!

The Majestic floof panther has a good stretch!

First-  thanks for the suggestions on a Birthday present for DAve. Another cat is by far MY favourite. But I don’t think he’ll go for it. Our city has a by-law of no more than four pets per household, and he’s always keen to remind me (usually when I’m looking at a cute critter) that we are at our legal limit. Now if we lived in the country….

Alas… on to today’s post…

Red is my second favourite colour, so it was pure joy to put together the 11 red blocks for Rainbow in the Dark.

This is not the layout for them – though it does have the wheels turning for another log cabin quilt!

This is how all those red blocks will look in the quilt. As you can see (thanks to scale from the design bed), this is going to be a good-sized quilt. I want it big enough that my friend can snuggle up with his wife and young daughter under it.

Now there’s just 11 purple blocks left (purple is my fourth favourite colour!). I’m on vacation next week, and I think finishing the top is going to be my priority project. Then I can quilt it an get it off to my friend in the next couple weeks.