Poor Lemmy…

He wants to know why he has no place on the sign….

Things are starting to settle into a somewhat normal pace now. And I’ve even had a few evenings free to do some knitting

I’ve decided to be good and not cast on anything new until I get the body done on Dad’s birthday sweater. It’s just mindless knitting, round and round, so it’s perfect for after work when I just have no brain power left.

The Hallowe’en fabric Burton made me order arrived, so we carved out some time to catch up on the mystery quilt-along.

First was the bat block

Then we fussy cut some cute trick-or-treating kitties to make the star blocks.

Next up was the cat that started this whole thing…

And last… a haunted castle!

And here they are all together.

Now that we’re caught up, we are waiting for the final clue, which is the setting instructions (though we’re already pretty sure who it’s going to be laid out.

These blocks were so cute, and fun to make – I think you can see why I wanted to take part. And it didn’t take terribly long… I broke it up over two afternoons, but easily could have made them all in one day.

And that’s a good thing…

Because Lemmy is insisting I make a second one with an orange cat!

In good news, I finished the great floss reorganization

The bad news is, I need a bigger organizer. There’s no room for all those greys at the top. And it doesn’t include the 16 or so colours I’m using on the butterfly. They are pulled out and in my project bag.

And speaking of that butterfly…

I’ve actually made progress on it! I’ve only gotten through six of the colours, but if you squint just right, you can get a sense of the shape of the wings. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s nice to finally see some progress on it. I can’t wait to get to the outlining – this is one where the outlining is really going to make it shine.

If there’s one thing I’m learning, it’s that when Dave wants to go “antiquing” but I’m not in the mood, I really should just give in. Because that’s when I’m going to find awesome stuff.

Let me set the scene for you.

It was Friday afternoon. I got out of work early to run some errands, and wanted to get back to the house before dinner to sneak in a little sewing before I had to make dinner.

Dave came along, because he needed to make a few stops too. It was pouring rain, and I could feel the beginnings of a weather migraine. I wanted to do nothing more then finish my tasks and get home.

Dave wanted to check out ALL the used/thrift shops along our way. I agreed to go to one. It’s one of our favourites – the little second hand place in Strathroy.

It has a small outdoor area where they keep garden stuff/windows/stone building supplies, etc. Despite the rain, I headed out for a quick look.

And there it was…

I have been looking for a small rattan/wicker conversation set for the catio porch ever since I got my rattan lounger. I have a metal patio table and chairs on the porch presently, but I wanted something that would match the lounger and rocking chair.

If you’ve ever looked at rattan furniture on Kijiji/Marketplace, you’ll know, despite the fact that most of it is old and well used – it retains a fair bit of value. So I was super excited when I saw the price for the set was just $50. I can’t even get a cheap bistro set from Walmart for that!

But it gets better. When I got to the counter, she told me all their outdoor stuff was 50% off!!! That’s right… I got the whole set for just $25!!!! Can you believe it? I still can’t.

I have to move some things around on the porch (and finish painting the darn space!) and find anothe spot for my metal table and chairs, but someone has already approved the new addition.

It does look like it was meant to be!

Continuing the highs and lows of the food-growing adventure:

The beans appear to be doing quite well. The smaller ones are “Tender Beans”, the bigger ones are “Long Beans”. At least I think they are because I got my packages mixed up and I’m not 100% sure they are labelled right.

There are MORE carrot sprouts!!! It’s not many though, so I sowed some more seeds. I can always thin if I get too many.

And behold!!! One tiny squash sprout. And I think there’s another one coming up too… though it might just be a sprouted maple key, so I’m trying not to get too excited. I’ve sowed a few more squash seeds too, because I’d really like four plants if I can manage it.

The grape tomatoes are doing well – nice and lush and bushy.

The peas are exceedingly happy with their new rigging and I think they are growing even faster than before.

Still no signs of life from the chives or catnip. And though the strawberries still look excessively sad, I did get one ripe berry

It wasn’t the sweetest, but the hot dry start to the season didn’t help. I definitely need some new plants.

And mother nature saw fit to bless me with another gift.

If google is correct, this spikey plant growing up in the pussywillows is a black raspberry (a native plant, probably pooped out by a bird). If it is, I’ll relocate it (and the two others around the shed) to a better spot with my other raspberries.

The first day of summer has come and gone (as has the majority of June!!!), so we are truly in the realm of the summer garden.

The pink clematis has faded away, leaving only leaves and these pretty little seed heads.

I love plants like this that leave behind something cool as they ready for the next stage. And while pink is already contemplating the future, white is continuing to dazzle

I suspect they will start to fade soon, but the cause has already been taken up by purple!

The flowers are about half the size of pink and white, but there are A LOT more of them. It’s wonderful watching the clematis doing so well here after so many years of murdering it at the townhouse.

Both the pale pink and dark purple delphinium are doing beautiful (with the exception of the pink ones Lemmy broke in the catio)

And the blue ones have finally bloomed.

Blue Delphiniums are my favourite, though these are a little different than the amazing ones I had at the townhouse. These ones are a touch less brilliant, though they are much taller.

Summer is the time of the Tickseed (Coreopsis), and I have several different types. I hope to add more in the future.

The trip to Home Depot saw me add this Balloon Flower to my collection. Mom has a beautiful blurple one she’s kept going for years. This one is a pretty pale pink, which I’ve never seen before!

The new shade garden is doing quite nicely with both annuals and perennials enjoying the cooler conditions.

I bought a new Blanket Flower (Left) thinking it was different to the one I already had. And it is, just not in the way I expected. It has a tiny bit more red than the one I already had (I thought it was a lot more red), but it’s also a smaller, more compact version. I think it’s the same as they type that I had at the townhouse. The one on the right gets crazy big – I had to take it out of the catio because it almost took over last summer.

I have another one that should be a lot more different. It’s called Apricot and it’s either dark yellow or light orange – it’s hard to tell on the label and it hasn’t bloomed yet.

The snapdragons that re-seed/re-grew are covered in flowers.

I ended up with three clumps of these, which was a nice surprise.

The swamp milkweed is getting ready to bloom.

My orange milkweed didn’t come back this year, but I have five or six common milkweed plants coming up again. The common milkweed seeded itself last year, and now it’s multiplying, which is wonderful.

And speaking of native plants – the Harebell (campanula) is just a mess of purple and white flowers. In othe native news, the Lobelia, Cardinal Flower, Mexican Hat, Smooth Aster and New England Aster have all come back and are doing well, though I don’t expect blooms on them for a while yet.

And though the roses got their own show last week, I’ll leave you with Chicago Peace

She’s such a show off. I had her at the townhouse, but she unexpectedly died the year before we moved. I’m thrilled to have her in the garden again!

I’m not sure exactly what was going on in the upstairs bathroom the other day…

But clearly Rupert and Relic did not appreciate the interruption!

First… sorry the link isn’t working on yesterday’s post. I drove by to get the mail and the house has a sold sign on it already. I’m not surprised. It was listed at $299,000 and properties under $400,000 are few and far between around here, so they get snapped up quick!

Continuing this week’s theme of too much to do and no time to do it… I went and joined another quilt-a-long because I’m an idiot.

It’s the Haunted Hallowe’en Mystery over at the Fat Quarter Shop.

I wasn’t going to join because of the aforementioned lack of time, but then people started posting their blocks in Pat Sloan’s Facebook group. And the second week was a cat block!!!

That one is Mom’s block! How could I not join in now???? I didn’t actually have much Hallowe’en fabric (well… I did, but it’s leftover Kitty Corn, and I have somewhat of a plan for it.). So Burton stepped in, and picked something out from Missouri Star Quilts (we needed a new bolt of solid black fabric anyway, so might as well make use of that flat fee shipping!)

The fabric line is Hey Bootiful.

We got the fat quarter bundle and a couple yards of two of the fabrics to go a long with it. The mystery project is just over 30″ so no doubt I’ll want to make it bigger somehow.

And that’s bad enough… then we were were visiting Mom and Dad on Saturday, Mom surprised me with this bundle of Owl-o-Ween

If it looks a bit familiar, it from the same designer as Kitty Corn. The colours/prints all work together and I can mix and match it with Kitty Corn if I want.

But now it looks like Lemmy wants to get in on the action! So two mystery quilts???? Anyone got a time machine!?!?!?

I know… I haven’t had a Walkabout post for ages.

And no… I’m not actually walking again. Are you kidding???… I don’t have time for walking right now!!!

But I wanted to share with you another house that went up for sale. This one is a couple blocks from us, and it’s one of the same style (pre all the weird additions we have, of course)

They’ve done what Dave would love to do with ours, and put a covered porch across the front.

And I’m not going to lie, I would love to have a space like that. But we’d have to relocate our gas metre, and I can only imagine what what would cost!

But it’s the inside of the house that gets me really excited. Like ours, the house is a bit of a time warp, and it’s apparent not much has been done update wise. But unlike our house, and like the other house I showed you a while back… this one still has CHARACTER!!!

I would kill for a front door with sidelights like that!!!! Now I don’t know how original it is to the house (most of the houses like ours were originally built in the very early 1900s (ours was 1907). I suspect it was added later than that… but still it adds, rather than takes away (like so much in our version of the house!)

But just look at all that beautiful baseboard and trim!!! And I adore those old vents! Those would be keepers for sure if this was my house.

I did have a little giggle about the wallpaper in that livingroom. We pulled the exact same stuff out of the upper livingroom here! And I think that might be the same carpet too!

Unlike our house, this one doesn’t have a pile of crazy additions. Just an addition on the back for the kitchen. So there’s only one bathroom, and just two bedrooms (we have two full bathrooms and five bedrooms). But I am a little jealous of this floor in one of the bedrooms.

I’m guessing it’s linoleum or vinyl. But one thing is for sure… you do NOT see floors like that any more. And I’m not going to lie… if this was my house, and it was in decent shape, I’d be tempted to keep it!

It’s so neat to be able to step back in time a little, and see what our house might have looked like before the crazy carpenters got their hands on it and went to town!

If you want to “walk through” this house in more detail than I’ve given here…. the listing is here (at least until it sells)