Most of my weekend was taken up with arbor erection (which you saw yesterday) and quilt completion (which you’ll see tomorrow and Thursday), but I did manage to carve out some time Sunday night to put a few more Xs in my cross-stitch project.
Lemmy REALLY likes to help with cross-stitching. Which is, of course, no help at all. And he certainly knows how to turn on the cute when you scold him.
Despite his dubious assistance, I managed to complete two whole letters before bed time.
Maybe this coming weekend I’ll be able to finish all the wording. But that might be to ambitious. I’ll just take it stitch by stitch.
Last week the weather was absolutely gorgeous! And by the weekend, the temps were positively summer-like (28 Celcius). They say things are supposed to drop down to something more seasonal this week, so instead of prepping my veg bed area, I decided to tackle another project – assembling and siting my rose arbour.
Out on the front lawn, I laid out an old blanket, and set up my big sun umbrella for a shady spot to work under and set to work. The arbour is white vinyl, so it was light enough for me to work on by myself. I took my time, carefully following the instructions and in a couple hours, I had it all together.
Attaching the top to the side really should have been a two-person job (as the instructions stated) but I found a way to manage it on my own. (Dave and I love each other very much – and know better than to try to build things together unless we absolutely have to!)
I took a break for a couple hours after assembly, and waited until the sun had gone behind the house before digging my post holes. Once the holes were dug, I got the arbour situated and level, and filled the holes with some Quik-Crete.
And with that, the project was complete.
Well… it’s almost complete. I just have to wait for my mail order climbing roses to arrive.
I have Eden and Quicksilver coming, and I can’t wait for them to start growing up and over the arbour!
When I got back from Mom’s last Sunday, I came home to a pile of beautiful daffodil blooms.
I probably planted at least 10 different types of daffodils but so far only these two types are blooming. They are both very traditional, and I love them! But then I love all daffodils.
The weather throughout the week was absolutely amazing, and as a result the spring bulbs have practically exploded!
The Grape Hyacinths are just getting started adn as you can see, I have three colours. The traditional blurple, a pale pink (which I’ve had previously), and a new, solid white one! And these will multiply year after year.
In addition to the white hyacinths in the porch boxes, I have others coming up in all the gardens. Most are in the catio. So far, I’ve got this lovely periwinkle blue, a pretty pale pink, and a much bolder pink. The bold pink one has had a bit of a rough time thanks to Lemmy and his constant zoomies. Though the flowers may be broken this year, the bulbs are strong, and hopefully, our ginger mister will be a little calmer next spring.
I showed you some of the Glory of the Snow last week, but at that time it was only the light pink ones. But now I have blurple and white ones coming up too. Like the grape hyacinths, these will multiply year after year. Mom has a stunning show of the blurple ones in her garden.
And last, I was surprised by this Pasque flower mid-week. I had Pasque flowers at the townhouse, but they never bloomed this early – it was usually May before I saw them.
And there’s so much more to come. I just love this time of year!
When I got home from Mom’s last Sunday, I checked in on my seedlings and noticed a wee (or not so wee) problem!
The tender beans and snap peas were starting to outgrow the seed trays!!!! They are under a grow light, but even then, I certainly did not expect that growth just yet!
I transplanted them into a bigger pot, and they are on the sun porch for now. The sunporch windows are still wrapped with thick plastic from the winter, so it’s a bit like a cold frame in there. The cold nights won’t harm them at all.
I re-planted some more tender beans, so I can have a bit of a staggered harvest this summer.
While I was at it, emptied out the squash tray – the old seeds didn’t germinate. I got a new pack and replanted.
The spinach sprouted, but wasn’t doing well, so I scrapped it. In it’s place (and in the empty pea tray), I planted some sulver dollar seeds, and some snap dragon seeds.
And the weather has been so lovely this last week, I took advantage of a warm afternoon and assembled the raised beds I’d ordered (and Dave had painted)
Don’t they look great. I have to move that temporary bed in the middle (which I’m going paint and reuse.
And hopefully as you’re reading this, I’m outside, hauling soil and mulch and getting this whole area ready. Planting season is still several weeks off, but there’s a lot to do before then!
I have two more quilted items to share, but sadly, I haven’t had a chance to finish the binding on them yet so they will have to wait until next week.
When I got home from Mom’s on the weekend, I discovered that my gardens had exploded with colour. And I have daffies and hyacinths popping up all over. I’ll share more of that on the weekend.
But first… on the way to Mom’s I stopped off to have a little visit with former neighbour Krista and Miss Wren. It was a lovely visit and the ladies totally inspired me with the gorgeous spring urn they’d planted before I got there.
The daffodils hadn’t bloomed yet – but just look at those pansies!!! I was so envious!
After the visit, I stopped off at a little nursery on the way to Mom’s to get her some Easter flowers and when I saw they had pansies too, I just had to get some for my porch planters.
I didn’t buy a lot – just three little plants for each planter. And I kept with the pink/white theme I had going with the hyacinths and tulips.
The tulips have become the most vivid shade of pink, and have a lovely white centre. They are just so stunning. The pansies, of course, will last long after the hyacinths and tulips have faded. So when the garden centres open in a month or so, I’ll get some other annuals to go with them for summer.
And while at the garden centre, I spied something I’ve coveted for AGES.
It’s a Hellebore – also known as a Lenten Rose. They are an early blooming perennial and they come in an amazing range of shades from white to almost black. The nursery had three colours, a creamy pink, this middle pink and a dark burgundy. I had a very hard time choosing.
This is the first time I’ve ever actually seen Hellebore for sale in a nursery. I’ve only seen them in mail order catalogues/online (and even those are few and far between here). The lady at the nursery said they have them every year, so I’ll be back next year for more!
They are a mountain/woodland plant (native to Europe), so I’ve planted it beside the holly and in front of the maple. It’s taking the place of my rhododendron, which sadly, did not make it through the winter. This beautiful plant more than makes up for it though!
The third quilt in this week’s FO parade is probably my favourite.
For obvious reasons!
This is a quilt that I had planned for a very long time. I saved scraps of all my black and white cat prints to make it come true. And I’m super pleased with the results.
It’s not a huge quilt – just 50″ x 68″, but it’s absolutely packed with cats! It’s the perfect lap/couch quilt.
Next up in the quilt parade is the only other baby top I had ready for quilting
The pretty mermaid quilt!
This one was made from a fat quarter bundle I got at Walmart. And while I really love those pretty little mermaids…
I absolutely adore this fish print! I don’t know why – they are just so cute!
And of course the backing! I have a small chunk of this left. As much as I love it on the back, I would love to put it front and centre in something! It’s such a great shade of pink, and I love all the coral.
This one was not spoken for, so it’s in the shop if you know a baby in need…
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. I finally made it Mom’s and got some quilting done!
First up was the quilt I finished was the one I made for our friends who had their second baby boy last months.
I used a fun zoo-themed charm pack and my favorite Oh My Stars pattern. The charm pack was made/licensed by Crayola, so I added this fun crayon border.
And I back it with this fun animal print.
Now I just have to get it packed up and in the mail!
HAppy Easter – it’s all beautiful spring colour here!
I am happy to say that my gamble of putting the forced bulbs in the porch boxes has paid off.
We’ve had some warm, if rainy weather this past week. And despite some quite cold nights, they survived and are in their full glory.
The hyacinths are a creamy white, and the tulips are just the prettiest shade of pink. The hyacinths smell heavenly as you approach the porch.
Elswhere, the snowdrops are done. It was a small, short show for them, but they will only get better and better each year.
There’s still the odd Winter Aconite blooming, though they are almost done too.
The crocuses are just starting. This is a new one called Monarch Snow Crocus. And I think you can see why. It’s very small. the flowers are about the size of my thumb nail. I thought I had planted more crocuses, but looking back – I did not. That’s something I’ll have to put on the list for planting this fall.
The Glory of the Snow is also starting to bloom. I bought a mix of pink, blue and white, but so far, I’ve only got pink.
As I mentioned before, there’s a tonne of other spring bulbs coming up, and it’s going to be quite the show once things get going. Although, the show in the catio is going to be a little more muted than planned… while there’s lots coming up, a lot of it has been broken by a certain ginger kitten.
“Who??? Me????”
Yeah… you. We should have named him “Wrecking Ball” with the way he flies through the yard chasing bugs, fluff and the other cats.
Wandering Cat Studio 