More stitching was completed this weekend with help from the usual suspects

(Burton is between my feet in the second pic, though his black fur is hard to pick out)

I finished the R and made some good progress on the M. I was hoping to get the M done, to be done with the green. And also because every time Dave looked over at, he questioned if it was supposed to say ‘Fart Fresh’. That M would put an end to his stupid jokes.

But soon enough the M will be done and I can move onto the rest of the lettering and the wee hen on the bottom.

April is creeping up, and that means Burton is in need of a new quilt for his chaise.

Easter would be the obvious theme, but as Easter sometimes happens in March, I decided to steer clear of it. Burton and I put our heads together and sketched out some ideas.

Then fabrics were chosen and the next thing you knew…

We had some tulips!

Not long after, we had a small garden

Uh guys…. we can’t see it if you’re laying on it…

Oh dear…. I think this one is going to be very popular…

Eventually, and with the help of some cat treats, I managed to get a cat free picture.

And yes… those are ladybugs around the outside

Aren’t they just the cutest. I got a couple yards of it on one of my spending sprees recently. I couldn’t resist using it on this. Now it just needs quilting and binding… but I’ve got a few days left in the month to do that!

This week has been wonderful with daytime temps above freezing all week. And mostly sunny too! I’m hoping the worst of winter is behind, us, but Mother Nature may still come and give us a swift kick in the pants, so I will be cautious in my optimism.

The Winter Aconite continue to bloom, as cheerful as ever

I found several more clumps, bringing my total to five clumps in the front garden, and two clumps in the driveway garden – which sounds about right for what I remember planting. They should multiply and get better each year.

I’ve got three little clumps of snow drops blooming.

I planted a lot more than just three clumps, but I’ve read that snow drops can be fussy to get going. Once they do though… look out! I can’t wait for these to become more spectacular each year.

I’m a little jealous because my neighbour has some front beds just bursting with blooming crocuses right now. I planted lots but none are in bloom yet. I guess hers are just more established (they get the same amount of sun).

And there’s lots of daffies, tulips, and hyacinths coming up everywhere so even though it’s starting slower than I would like (and it always does), it’s going to be a spectacular spring.

Elsewhere, the pink pussywillows have turned dark grey (as they do – it’s not a surprise). The black pussywillow is just starting to emerge. It doesn’t get as much sun as the pink does. And the regular pussywillow gets even less, so it’s just starting to bud up.

Inside…

The white orchid has finally opened up. It’s so delicate and pretty.

As did this amazing showy one. Sadly, as I was trying to get a picture, I broke off the whole darn bloom stem! GRRRR! I was so upset. I’ll have to try to get this one to bloom again, because it was so darn pretty!

And last…

Did you know Tradescantia (inch plant) blooms??? I had no idea! Apparently Mom did. And so did Samantha. And Krista! Maybe I was the only one. Either way, I was thrilled to find this one (which lives in my bedroom window) blooming away!

The other thing I managed to accomplish last weekend was sowing some seeds!

It’s just vegetables this year. I have flower seeds to sow, but I’m going to try sowing them directly in the garden this year and see if I have better luck than last.

A few of these veggies probably should have been direct-sown (i’m looking at you cucumbers and carrots, and possibly spinach). But gardening is always an ongoing experiment, so we’ll see how this works out. Also… I just didn’t read the directions and sowed all my veggie seeds at once. Well… not all of them. I only did a little tray of each, so I sowed about half of each pack. That way, if this doesn’t work out, I can do some direct sowing as well.

And another little experiment I have going…

Re-growing celery and romaine lettuce from scraps. I started them both in water, and just potted them up. They are both in a nice, bright window so we’ll see how they do. They can go outside when the weather gets a little warmer too.

Let’s talk today about vocal cats.

My original crew (Rupert, Burton, and Relic) are all vocal in their own unique ways.

Rupert like to run around the house like a madman between 10 pm and midnight every night making weird vocalizations. He’s almost always playing by himself, and I’m convinced the noise is just because he like the sound of his own voice.

Burton talks for food. It’s how I’m able to get all those “smiling” pictures with the quilts. He’s telling me to take the damn picture and give him the treats he knows are coming. Occasionally, he will meow just to greet you – if he wakes up from a nap or you walk into the room he’s in. But as he’s gotten older, that’s become less frequent.

Relic is an outdoor talker. He loves to meow at me when I’m outside. It’s usually because I’m on the other side of the catio fence, and he wants to be with me. But he’ll also meow to get my attention inside the catio yard (usually because he wants a scratch). The only other time he tells is when he’s telling one of the other cats to get out of his face, or when you’ve over-stimulated him with the butt scratches.

And I thought they were all pretty vocal cats. But then along came Lemmy:

This isn’t the clearest picture, but I love it because it pretty much sums up most mornings. From almost the moment I get up, Lemmy is following me around, yelling. Not meowing politely…. yelling! Non-stop.

In fact, the only way to stop it is to pick him up. But you can’t hold him. You have to let him balance on your arms. And he only stays there for a few minutes. He inevitably jumps down and usually starts yelling again.

And it’s not just me. He does it to Dave – and Dave’s usually up an full hour or more before me. So before he starts on his tirade with me each morning, he’s almost always done it with Dave as Dave tries to get his coffee and make breakfast. And note, that feeding the cats is the very first thing Dave does in the morning.

But Lemmy also yells to greet us. To tell us he wants to play. He yells as he’s playing. He yells when he’s just sitting, chilling and you happen to walk by. And it’s not new. He’s been a talker from the moment we found him.

In short, Lemmy is the most vocal cat I have ever met in my life. It will be interesting to see if it changes as he grows.

Here it is – that wonderful collaboration between me and Mom

You will recall, this project was made as part of the 2022 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Instead of making lots of little blocks in each month’s colour, I made one big block for each month (more or less – there are only 10 blocks).

Once the top was done, I handed it off to Mom and she worked her magic.

The pictures don’t do it justice. It’s more amazing in person.

For the back, I used this wild, abstract rainbow print. And I had just enough rainbow stripes left from my gnome quilt to do the binding on this. How I love a stripey binding. Even more so when it’s diagonal!

And this one is a big one – 80 x 88″. I have it listed as a Twin, but it really depends on how much you want it to drop on the sides… this one could easily work well on a Double, possibly even a Queen.

And it’s in the shop now if you want to make it yours!

With Saturday somewhat of a write-off, I really wanted to do something productive with Sunday. I managed a couple somethings, and one of them was catching up on our sew-a-long with the Sewcialites. Burton and I were four blocks behind, and that would never do!

It only took a couple hours to get us caught up again.

And now we have 20 fine blocks with just four more to go. If things go as planned, this one will be sewn into a top before May!

“Things never go as planned – who are you kidding???”

Not a lot was accomplished with the stitching this weekend.

I completed the A, and made some good progress on the R. But that was it.

But I only worked on it on Friday night. When we stopped in at Mom’s on Saturday, she gave me back the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.

She’d finished all her fancy quilting and it needed the binding finished on it. So I spent Saturday and Sunday night plying that tiny needle instead.

Pics will come soon – she did and amazing job on the quilting!

The weekend was a bit of a mixed bag.

As you know, Saturday, Dave and I were off to look at a used car. We are contemplating replacing his Buick Regal. We found another one on FB Marketplace that was a lot lower mileage.

I’d made arrangement with the owner over a week ago that we would come on Saturday at noon. The car was over two hours away (back in our old city) so we got up and on the road bright and early.

We arrived at the house two minutes after noon.

The guy opened the door a crack, and when I said we were here to look at the Buick, he looked really confused. And the said “I sent you a message to come Monday instead. It’s buried in snow right now.”

And he shut the door.

We stood on the door for a minute, looking at each other in shock. We could see the car at the end of the driveway… it had snow around it, sure… but it was maybe six deep at most.

I double checked my phone… there was no message – phone or text. Our last message with the guy was confirming Saturday at noon.

Now.. the strong waft of marijuauna that billowed out of the house when the guy cracked the door may be a hint to what the heck was going one. Don’t do drugs kids. It melts your brain.

We shrugged and got back in Dory and left

Now I was more than a little annoyed. Not only had we driven 2.5 hours… but I’d put off my weekend at Mom’s to do so.

But c’est la vie!

Since we were back in our old city, we took advantage and dropped off Miss Wren’s birthday present (a Barbie and a Squishmallow – nothing knit this year). We also took as side trip up to Mom and Dad’s for a couple hours.

And I got a little present.

Mom had just finished making me this little wall hanging. When we gto home, I found the perfect spot for it on the wall beside my machine.

It will look even better when I get rid of that ugly wallpaper!

At least it wasn’t a total waste of a drive!

Most of the birds continue to elude me and my long lens. They are still very wary if I’m out in the yard – even quite a ways from the feeder. But the squirrels have been endlessly fun to photograph.

Their feats of acrobatics are incredible. I’m just look at this guy:

He is only hanging onto that feeder roof by his back feet.

And he can do it from both sides!

You can see how both front and back feet are almost like little hands. The only thing they are missing is thumbs! Can you imagine how much trouble they’d be with thumbs!!!

I think this particular one might have been showing off a bit. He was upsidedown more often than not!

At the townhouse, we saw a lot of rivalry between the black and grey squirrels here. The gray ones (which always seem to be bigger) would run off the black ones every chance they got. But here, while they don’t seem to interact with each other, they tolerate each other’s prescence much better

I’m pretty sure that grey is the same one I showed you a while back.

She’s a very robust girl with a wonderful coat. I love the bits of white and brown on her chest and belly. And that tail! So fluffy with such depth of colour.

She isn’t quite the acrobat wee Blackie is. But she still manages her meals without too much trouble.

Unlike Blackie, she doesn’t like to be upsidedown when she eats.

But that’s still some amazing balance she has! I know I certainly couldn’t hold onto a metal bar with just my toes!

I suspect the secret to keeping balance lies somewhere in that magnificent tail!