I shared my violets last week, but those aren’t my only indoor bloomers.

I have a fairly large Goldfish plant hanging in the bedroom window. It hasn’t bloomed since we moved, but I noticed the other day it has one small goldfish on it now! I see signs of a couple others, so I expect it will soon be covered. It’s been a pretty prolific bloomer in the past.

Last summer, I had all my Christmas cactuses on the porch, unfortunately in places where they didn’t get much light. Then over winter, a few of them got neglected due to over-crowding and as a result, not only did I not get any flowers last year, I’ve also had to nurse several of them back to health.

So I really wasn’t expected much by way of flowers this year. But then I noticed one of the little pieces I’d managed to save on the front window…

It’s got one pretty little bud. Since I did some repotting, I wasn’t sure what colours were where, but this one appears to be the pretty salmon one I had. I’m glad – because this one is my absolute favourite. I’ve never seen another one like it.

The other Christmas cactuses are all showing new growth, which is good, but I suspect this will be the only one to bloom this year.

When I was at Mom’s, I stopped at the big nursery by her place to get some little plants for the fun pots Sam brought me (more on those in a minute).

While there I got seduced by the orchids. I only planned to buy one… they had a beautiful striped one (I’ve never seen striped orchids before), but they didn’t have it in the smaller pots in my price range. So I opted for this one.

The markings reminded me of a pansy.

But then…. as I was on my way to the check out, I spied a clearance rack… and on it….

One of those striped orchids! And in a bigger size than the pricier ones I saw earlier! I have no idea why it was on the clearance table, but since it was such a good deal, I snapped it up! I don’t feel bad about buying TWO orchids either, because all of my other orchids are still alive. In fact, I just gave some fresh bark/soil stuff to a couple, and they seem even happier now.

And one of them…

Notice anything odd about that bloom stem. Back in March, I accidentally broke it off when trying to get a picture of the flower. (i was so upset!) I left the stem to dry before I cut it like you do when all the blooms are spent! But then a few months ago, I noticed, it was growing another stem off of it!!! I had no idea they would do that! It’s taken months to grow… but it’s pretty darn amazing!

The weather is still quite comfortable, but there’s a definite chill in the air.

And it’s not the only sign of cooler days on the horizon…

Rupert has started cocooning again!

I’m also happy to report his incision has healed up beautiful and the fur is finally starting to grow back in. He does have quite the scar, but his fur will cover it soon enough.

I took the Gone Fishin’ sock with me on my weekend trip. While I’m busy during the day, quilting, I need something to keep my hands busy in the evenings after dinner.

Saturday night, Dad and I watched Atomic Blonde*, and I knit, knit, knit.

As a result, by the time I got home on Sunday, I had only the toe to finish. That was done Monday night.

And so the first sock is done! Now I just need to start the second… though I really should go work on that darn grey sweater first….

*Good movie, lots of violence with a woman kicking butt – just what I like!

Way back when we were helping to clean out Dave’s Grandma’s house, we brought a little piece of Dave’s family history home with us.

It’s the sign that used to hang at the end of the driveway of the farm his grandparents owned in the mid-late 70s. Sadly, a drunk driver hit his grandfather’s car, putting an end to their time at the farm after just a few short years, as his grandfather’s injuries meant he was no longer able to work the farm. They sold and moved back to Mississauga.

But Dave’s earliest (and some of his most favourite) memories are from the farm. We intend to put the sign up in the dining room whenever we get it finished. But since that’s likely to be years away, I thought of something I could do for him in the mean time.

You may recall that I have two old metal milk cans, one of which came from Dave’s grandma’s house (and may or may not be from the farm – we can’t be sure). I painted them white, with the intention of decorating them and putting them in the garden.

My plan was to hand paint the goat on the one from his Grandma’s…. but then I remember Paisley had a Cricut! So when I was at Mom’s on the weekend, I put her to work.

She took the picture of the sign, and turned it into vinyl cutouts I could stick on the can!

And I think it turned out incredibly well! As soon as I brought it home and showed Dave, he took a picture and sent it to his Mom. She was the one who made the original sign (hand cut at that time!), so she was thrilled to see this.

Dave’s given it a really good thick coat of clear to protect it from the elements, but I’m going to wait until next spring to put it in the garden. There’s only a month or so of the growing season left out there, so there’s no point exposing it now.

Now I just have to decide what to put on my other can! I think that will be a project for this winter.

Working on my secret project wasn’t my only goal this weekend. Today is Mom’s birthday, so I also went to celebrate with her.

I popped down to the grocery store in my old neighbourhood and got her a birthday cake.

They make the best cakes and have the best icing and I’ve missed them so much since I’ve moved. Paisley (who’s back with my parents for the school year), Dad and I took Mom out for dinner as well.

And remember those foxes I stitched so long ago…

That was Mom’s birthday present. It was such and odd shape, I couldn’t find a frame for it, so I bit the bullet and got it professionally framed. It cost and arm and a leg, but it looks amazing – and Mom loved it, so it was definitely worth it!

Happy Birthday to the best Mom ever!

I was at Mom’s for the weekend (working on a secret thing I can’t tell you about), but before I left, I had a little project I wanted to take with me.

You see, Miss Winnie has recently taken over Jem and Chevy’s dog house…

Whenever Mom and Dad take her outside, she loves to hangout in the dog house. I thought she needed to stake her claim officially, so I got out my paints

When I arrived, I presented Dad (and Winnie) with it, and he put it right on the dog house.

I think she approves…

Of course, with Winnie it’s hard to tell.

Way back, around the start of summer (I think, it might have been earlier), Dave and I were in Home Depot. In one of the clearance areas, they had some very small (2.5 inch pots), very sad little African violets. Like, they were pretty much half dead. But they were also 50 cents each. Dave saw the look on my face and said “yeah, you’d better adopt them”

So I did. I brought them home, watered and cared for them, and when it seemed like they were going to make it, I planted them up into three cat-shaped pots I had collected.

And a few weeks ago, they started to bloom

And I was thrilled to discover they were each a different colour. There was no way of knowing when I bought them, so it was just luck!

September has frequently been one of the best months for my roses. They love the warm, but not sweltering days, and almost always put on one good last show before it gets too cold.

But things are a little different here.

When we first moved, I assumed the roses would do even better here than the townhouse, because of the wonderful, magical soil. But here they’ve had way more of a pest problem than we ever had at the townhouse.

Still – there are blooms

Quicksilver has proved to be a fantastic rose. It’s one of the climbers I bought to clime the arbour out front. It started later than the other rose I put on the other side (Eden), but it’s put our more blooms.

Both have grown incredibly well and have put up canes that reach the top of the arbour already. I’ll be tidying and tying these in next weekend to give them a little more protection from winter’s biting winds.

Out back, the only rose currently in bloom is Good as Gold.

The Japanese beetles seem especially fond of this rose, but despite that, she’s bloomed fairly steady all summer long.

Beside her, my other climber, New Dawn, only bloomed once, but like the other climbers out front, she’s grown some amazing long canes

She’s planted almost at the corner and has put one big cane down each side of the fence. It’s certainly going to make a big display next year.

All the other roses aren’t blooming but seem to be doing fine with the exception of one.

Poor Chrysler Imperial!!! She’s completely naked!!!! In addition to fighting beetles and sawfly larvae, she got a pretty severe case of Black Spot fungus (it’s been an exceptionally wet summer, so it’s not a huge surprise). Sadly, I didn’t notice or do anything about it until it was too late. I’ve got to get up there and clean up all the dead leaves, and probably give her a prune.

I’m not looking forward to it, because she’s a thorny one! But it’s got to be done if I want any chance of saving her.

There is hope though…

There is new growth. If I can get her cleaned up, nurture this growth, and give her some extra protection through the winter, I might just be able to get her through.

After reading my post on Burton’s ‘thrones” earlier this week, I’m sure a few of you think I’m a little silly. I mean, why buy furniture for the cats. We all know ALL the furniture already belongs to the cats

And that’s certainly true in this house!

These guys have enjoyed the sun porch furniture far more than I’ve had the opportunity to do this year.

Even the furniture that’s supposed to be off limits isn’t

Though these two inform me that they are not on the dining room table, they are on the chair pads that I left on the table after washing them.

Of course, this behaviour is not at all surprising to me. They are cats afterall. What is surprising is that Dave is ok with it. Because he never used to be!!!

Though he says once he refinishes the table, and it goes into operation as a proper dining room table (right now it’s mostly storage for transient items), it will once again become a no-go zone for felines. We’ll see how well that works out…

I know you’re going to be aghast…. but I have been working on the great, grey beast!

I’ve been trying to at least put five rounds on it every night. I haven’t been completely successful, but I have managed to add a few inches to it though. There’s still several inches to go before I can start the ribbing, so I have to keep at it. With only 12 weeks to Dad’s birthday, I’ve got to stay focused!