How are we already at the end of August???

Since last week I showed you a couple of fails in the veg beds, I think it only fair to show you some in the floral department as well.

This sad looking thing is my HoneySuckle. I’m not sure what happened. It started to year off fine, flowered like it always does, then got covered in aphids. This happens every year. And by high summer, they disappear, and it flowers again twice as good. But not this year. I think maybe the aphids just overwhelmed it. You can see there’s still some green up there so there’s life in the roots. I’m hoping to get out there this weekend and cut it right back so hopefully next year it comes back beautiful.

I’m also pretty sure that it’s sad state is the reason I’ve only seen ONE snowberry clearwing moth this year. Honeysuckle is a host plant for the caterpillars, but this one isn’t hosting anyone!

The roses have had a very hard season thanks to these guys

The really seem to have focused on the blooms this year. Despite my efforts, they have just decimated every single one. As we approach the end of August, the onslaught is finally lessening and the roses are trying to make a come back.

The little jerks have also been hard on my weeping pussywillow

It’s a host plant for The Red Spotted Purple butterflies, and thankfully it hasn’t seemed to affect them.

The biggest garden fail is, of course, not having enough time to get out and keep the beds properly weeded.

Thankfully, the beds are packed so full of plants, it’s hard to see the weeds unless you know what you’re looking at!

And one last fail for you….

A certain Orange Mr. lept into the air trying to catch a Monarch….

And he landed on the plant support around this Chrysanthemum, got himself stuck and required assistance from the human.

Oh, the indiginity!

Just when you think the old man can’t get any cuter…

He pours himself into a basket like he’s liquid!

As I mentioned on Tuesday, the evenings are getting cooler. So if Furby is not in my lap, it’s not unusual to see Rupert there, taking on supervision duties and soaking up the body heat.

With his help, I’ve been making good progress on the new socks. Another simple shortie pair, using the leftovers from the broken seed stitch socks (I can’t get into the studio closet to pick out anything new even if I wanted to). The lovely grey hand dyed for the leg/foot, black for heels and toes! Such a pretty stormy palette!

And speaking of stormy… On Saturday we celebrated Samantha’s youngest’s 19th birthday at her trailer. On the way back, Dave and I drove through some pretty wild storms. Heavy rain, thunder, lightning, the works! It was just settling down when we stopped in south London for gas.

And there we were treated to the most AMAZING double rainbow thanks to the setting sun and retreating storm. I’ve never seen one so bright or so big. It was so big, I couldn’t get it in one shot. I had to piece it together from these three pics

And they really don’t show just how magnificent it was! Science truly is magical!

As with everything lately, clearing my office out took longer than I planned.

It’s not a big room at all, but boy did I have a lot packed in there.

Sadly, it’s now all stacked up in boxes and totes in my studio. I wont’ be sewing for a while.

The intention was to take out the wall on the left side of the hallway, and make the office a little bit bigger (in addition to getting rid of the ugly wallpaper and carpet.) Before we started total deconstruction, Dave opened a portion of the wall just to make sure there wasn’t anything in there that would need to be relocated (or prevent the wall takedown all together)

There wasn’t, but there was a hole that had been patched with a large wad of news paper. Of course I had to pull it out and check it out!

Tornados, Teacher Strikes, and US/Iran tensions… seems like not much has changed in 46 years…

Once I was done up there, Dave went in and started on wall demolition.It took him a couple hours, but he got it done.

The wall was that little strip between the carpet and wood floor. The carpet was my office, the wood was the hallway. It’s not a HUGE amount of space, but it will give me about 24 more square feet. The room will still be small – but that extra space will actually make A LOT of difference. And if we sell and get our country house down the road… it will make it a much more appealing size for a small bedroom.

The next day, he went into move some electrical around. Namely putting that switch and plug hanging freely there into another wall, and disconnecting the light that once belonged to that end of the hall.

He also had to install a new ceiling light. Previously, there was no overhead light in the room. That switch controlled the plug below it, and I had a lamp plugged into it that hung on the wall. Now the plug is separate and the switch controls the new light!

He spent most of yesterday framing the area of the new door and hanging it, as well as levelling out the silly dip in the floor of what’s left of the hallway. While doing that he uncovered some more psychedelic wallpaper under the door trim.

I’m pretty sure there were some WILD parties here in the ’60s and’70s.

After that, it’s just fixing walls (we’re disagreeing on how to do that – he wants to try to remove wall paper, I think it will be easier and faster to rip out the old drywall and put up new), lay a floor, paint and add trim! If all goes as planned, I could be back in a refurbished office by the first day of fall!

Remember how I said the evenings were getting chilly? Here’s the proof

The only time Furby will stay in at night is when the weather is cold or its raining very hard. I was actually doing both Sunday night so he took over supervision duties. (Though he woke me up at 5 am Monday morning to let him back out to check on the weather – still cold, but not raining)

Sunday night was also the only night on the weekend I got any time to stitch.

But I put it to good use and was able to get her second wing done. Now there’s just a deer, a fox and a WHOLE LOT of outlining left! A few more weekends at least! Maybe this one will be done by October?

It was another busy weekend (socializing on Saturday, office construction on Sunday) so not a whole lot crafty happened. But there has been some excitement in the garden!

We’ve had a BRAND NEW visitor! This is a Eastern Giant Swallowtail! While we’ve had Black Eastern Swallowtails and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, we’ve never had a Giant!

I can confirm it was a big one, if a little raggedy! It’s host plants are mostly citrus trees, which explain why it’s not super common here. Though apparently it will also settle for Prickly Ash, which is apparently in the citrus family.

This is not only the first time I’ve seen one in the garden, but the first time I’ve seen one EVER. I hope it’s not the last.

The Monarchs have been quite plentiful this year.

Though interestingly, I haven’t seen a tonne of caterpillars. Certainly not as many as previous years.

I did get to capture this one laying an egg though!

Other recent butterfly visitors include…

Red Admiral

Red Spotted Purple.

Pearl Crescents

Peck’s Skippers

Pale Beauty Moth

And a pair of very frisky White Cabbages.

As always… edible gardening comes with it’s ups and downs.

Down: One of the watermelons ended up with blossom end rot – a large mush brown spot on it’s end. I had to toss it.

Up: I still have two mini-Mike melons that are looking great!

Down: The cantelope and honey dew melons haven’t produced one single fruit, though there are lots of flowers. Even if they do – this late in the game it’s unlikely they will ripen.

Up: In the middle of that melon bed is an unplanned potato plants that is looking lush and green and will hopefully provide me with a better potato harvest than the laundry basket did!

Down: I noticed some yellowing carrot greens and pulled them…

And I discovered a few mushy, rotten carrots. Not sure what caused it, but I pulled them so they hopfully won’t infect an other carrots.

Still down: Those carrot starts I bought to try are resulting in carrots that look like this (and quite a few of them are producing split carrots):

Up: But they are still edible, and I’ve learned that they are right when they say you should just start carrots from seed. And learning something is always a win in my book!

Down: After bragging that the White Cabbage Butterflies had been staying away from my cabbages… Is started finding these guys last week!

Up: They are mostly going for the outer leaves and the inner heads seem to still be intact. And the Cabbages still look gorgeous. And I seem to be able to stay on top of the little green boogers with hand picking.

Other Up: I planted dill among the cabbage, as it’s said to attract parasitic wasps that help keep the White Cabbage butterflies in check…

I don’t know if it’s working, but it’s pretty, and it smells amazing! I may just plant some among the flower beds for fun!

Down: once again I’m not having a great cucumber year.

My plants got started late, and now they are overrun with cucumber beetles. They seem to have completely destroyed one of the plants.

Up: The zucchini and yellow squash are making up for it.

Other ups…

I’ve already got enough blackberries for two batches of jam, with lots more coming!

I’m quickly getting overrun with beans (despite saying the other week I’d planted the exact right amount!). I’ve got a giant ziploc bag in the fridge waiting to be blanched, and frozen in to dinner portions for the winter.

The birdhouse gourds are doing amazing! I’m going to have to find a safe place for them to dry over winter so I can make some birdhouses for next year!

And last, I’ll leave you with a little laugh.

I have a gnome that hangs from a little swing on the squash tunnel. Over winter, someone ate his swing ropes so I had to replace them with thick twine. Apparently I didnt get the knots tied quite good enough, because he started to fall.

But if you look closety, the tendrils from the birdhouse gourds decided to save the day before he hit the ground!

I am so happy to announce that both of my Maypop are blooming beautifully.

Like all passionflowers, the blooms only last one day. But they are glorious in full flower. Now.. you may recall that I said I was waiting for the pink one to bloom… and that one on the left is decidedly purple in my view.

Now.. one of three things happened.. either I got the species version (not a hybrid) which is purple, this is a pink “variation” which apparently can happen (though pink is used loosely in this case), or the website grossly misled with their photos.

This is the picture from the website. Now.. based on internet descriptions, I think I got the species version – specifically because they mention the banded fringe, which mine has the pink advertised one doesn’t seem to have.

Either way they are stunning and I’m so glad I added them to my collection of native plants. It’s unlikely I’ll get any fruit this year, or if I do that it will have time to ripen. But as the roots mature, they will put out bigger, stronger vines, and more flowers each year. I’ve got them growing up the east side of the catio fence, so they will provide a nice bit of morning shade to the boys during one of their favorite times to be outside.

Another stunner is this beautiful dahlia! It’s called Wizard of Oz, and it’s a ball dahlia. It will get paler as the bloom matures, and becomes reminiscent of Glinda’s gown. I have three of these plants. Two are still in pots, and I need to get them out in the garden. And then remember to dig the tubers up before the frost!

Sunflowers continue to brighten our days. And let me tell you – I am never having a garden without sunflowers ever again! They are just so cheerful!

Chopping Back the False Sunflower in the front garden has really let the Pink Princess Butterfly bush shine. As you see, she had very full, large panicles of flowers. They only other butterfly bush I have that compares in size, is White Profusion, which is out back on the back fence.

I know I gushed about my spotted bee balm before, but I really just can’t get over how wonderful it is! I want MORE of it!

I recently cut back my perennial sweet peas, and they’ve rewarded me with another flush of flowers. I have two colours – a bold pink, and this lovely white with touches of mauve! The perennial sweet peas don’t’ have any scent, but I find them much easier to grow than the annual ones.

The days are noticeably shorter, and the nights are getting cooler….

Soon enough the 2026 garden will come to an end. But for now, we’re just going to sit and soak up the beauty!

If cats took School pictures, this would be Furby’s.

Finally!

Burton was back on the job for the last few nights, making sure I stayed in my chair and got the Broken Seed Stitch Socks done.

I cast these back on at the end of May. And here were are three months later. It should not have taken me that long to finish them. They are short. The seed stitch is only on ever other row, and once you get in a rhythm, it goes pretty fast.

No… the reason they took so long was simply I didn’t pick them up and actually work on them. There’s just been too many other things to do.

But they are done now. They are already off the blockers and on my feet as I type. Now that the A/C is back and working properly, the house is nice and icy – and so are my feet!

In truth, they are a touch big and I should have gone down to 60 stitches like I normally do with socks for me. I thought I’d done 64 on my original pair, but they fit more snuggly than these.

Here’s the details:

Pattern: Broken Seed Stitch Socks

Needles: 2.5 mm

Yarns: Grey Multi: Gathering Wool (don’t know the line); Black: Regia 4 ply.

Notes: Other than making them shorties, pattern knit as written.

I do want to make another pair of these, with the black and a bright multi – I think it would look like fabulous stained glass. But for now I think I need something a little more mindless. I still have a half a ball of the grey left, and I can probaly eek a pair of vanilla anklets out of it. I’d like to see how it knits up on its own, unbroken by the black yarn.