Can you believe this fluffmuffin moved in an took over our house SIX years ago???

His gotchaversary is actually at the start of the month (July 5th), but when I took the picture on the right the other day, it reminded me of the one on the left. When I went back into my archives, I realized it was taken in 2017 – just a couple days after I brought him home.

Time sure flies when you love a floofmonster!

The weather the last couple of weeks has been just perfect for growing things. Hot, humid, with a good amount of rain.

Mid week last week, I went out to check on things and noticed several of the sugar snap pea flowers had given way to the cutest, teeniest little pods.

And no more than four or five days later…

I couldn’t believe it! They were ready for picking!

A respectable first harvest, and a nice little snack for Dave. He ate them all up as soon as I handed them over.

Elsewhere…

We will have a bean harvest soon.

A cucumber harvest is still a ways off, but it’s nice to see flowers on the plants.

And the new strawberries have been planted and are doing quite well. Certainly a good edible season so far!

From stitched butterflies yesterday to real ones today….

The butterflies have been somewhat lacking in the garden this year so far. The white cabbages are as abundant as ever, and I did see one skipper flitting about a couple weeks ago, but not much else.

Then last week, I was out checking on the garden as I do each day, and this little guy took a moment to rest on me.

It’s a Red Admiral butterfly, and a very ragged one at that. You may or may not know, but once a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, he/she usually only has a few weeks left to live. Their whole purpose is to fly, drink nectar, mate (and if they are females), lay eggs… then die.

This one is probably very close to the end of its life – given how rough it’s wings look. They literally fly themselves to death.

It’s a little unusual to see Red Admirals this late into summer (at least here). I usually see them more through May and June. In fact, I think this is the first one I’ve seen in July.

Hopefully the other butterflies will fill the garden soon!

Thanks to vacation, and time stuck keeping the kitties happy while the windows were installed, I managed to finish the butterfly!!!

It’s not the exact colours the pattern called for, but it’s close enough to butterflies and moths I’ve seen in my own garden, so I’m good with it.

Even though all those little Xs are done, the project isn’t. This one requires quite a bit of outlining. But it will be well worth it.

And I should be able to finish it by next Tuesday!

Stay tuned!

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get any time to sew while the window guys were here. Saturday we had errands to run, but you can bet I took advantage of Sunday to get in the studio.

Both Burton and I wanted to get our Leader/Ender blocks together into a top, and into the “to-quilt” pile. There were 56 blocks, and while it seems like a lot, they went together easy peasy, and in just a couple hours, they were all together.

Isn’t it just wild? It looks even better than I thought it would. I added a plain border just to build it out a bit.

And that’s another one in the bag, ready for a weekend quilting session at Mom’s!

After a long, hot week, all 14 windows, and the sliding glass door have been replaced.

We have windows that open! And they have screens!!!! The cats and I are absolutely thrilled!!!

The team (just two guys) soldiered through the blistering heat all week. I am amazed with their work. They still have to come back on Monday to finish capping the windows on the outside.

They got four capped on Friday – don’t they just look so great?!?! And did you notice something???

No more awnings over the windows. The window guys helped me convince Dave that they didn’t need to go back up. It was actually the fact that they would have to be screwed into the window frames that did it.

Here’s a little side-by-side of the house when we bought it, and how it looks now.

I love all the changes we’ve made. Eventually, we’ll replace the siding. And when we do, I’d like to have shutters added to the windows.

And the absence of the awnings doesn’t just make the outside look better.

I love how much light those big windows let in to the livingroom! I did have to go get some curtains to close over the blinds because Dave was complaining about the glare on his tv in the morning.

And now that the windows are in… we can finally put up some trim and finally finish this room!!! (And Dave’s studio!)

All in all, it was a lot of money to shell out, but every cent is well worth it!

As I mentioned the other day, it’s been hot and humid almost all week. I’ve also mentioned it’s hard on the roses. But Eden (the new climber) is handling it amazingly well!

I think she may be my new favourite rose!!!!

Over in Lily Land

We have this lovely Asiatic lily called “Easy Dance”

And for Daylilies we have “Blueberry Candy”, “Ruby Stella” and “Happy Returns”.

Dave and I had to go get some wood at Home Depot (he needed to reinstall the a/c units to fit the new windows). Their garden stuff STILL wasn’t on clearance, but I said screw it and bought these two Blanket Flowers (and a Tickseed… not shown), because several of the plants I was hoping to get were already gone.

The White Obedient Plant I got from Home Depot at the start of the season is already blooming. This was a surprise, because the pink one I have doesn’t usually get going until late August.

And while that one was early, I feel like these ones are late.

The daisies I had at the townhouse always started blooming mid June. But these guys are just starting. I have two good sized clumps in the backyard, both along the fence, and come fall, I think I might move one out front. I also have a super frilly yellow version… it should bloom soon.

Another late bloomer are these Drumstick Allium. All my other Alliums always started blooming in late May. These guys just purpled up and started opening in the last week.

And these big, bold guys, are volunteers. They are growing between the driveway and the neighbour’s fence. On the other side of that fence is the neighbour’s veg garden. They are some sort of onion, though I don’t know what kind. I’m going to let them do their thing and save some seed. I think they would look really pretty in the garden.

And I’ll leave you with these pretties… Mexican Hat, False Sunflower and pink Lavender.

Just like the bathroom incident the other week…

I am not sure what the heck I walked in on here. But they sure do look comfy!

Window installation is going swimmingly so far

On Tuesday, they did the three biggest windows (both living rooms, and the dining room) and the bigger of the two kitchen windows.

Yesterday, they tackled Dave’s studio – one good-sized window and the sliding glass door. They also got the downstairs bathroom and one of the laundry room windows done. And it’s all gone without any hiccups except one… the fearsome foursome…

Well, really, it’s mostly one…

As we did when the basement guys were here, we locked the cats out in the catio. The only difference this time around was the temps. The last two days have been disgustingly hot and humid. (Above 30C/86F). For Rupert, Relic and Lemmy, it wasn’t as much of an issue. But for the poor black Fluffbutt… well at about 2 pm on Tuesday, I went out to check on them, and the poor guy was laying in the shade just panting up a storm. He’s just got too much floof, and then black on top of it…

Since they weren’t going to be getting to the upstairs windows that day, I brought him in and closed him up in our bedroom with the a/c. He was much happier.

Since Wednesday was slated to be just as hot, and they were still working on the downstairs, I decided to just keep them all in the bedroom for the day.

And yes, you can probably tell by the project bag, I decided to hang out with them and get some stitching done. (Does that make this Tiny Needle Thursday?). Or at least I tried to get some stitching done…

Rupert wasn’t the only one put out about not being able to outside and play. Lemmy had a serious case of cabin fever and it started about five minutes after I closed the bedroom door. He harrassed all the other cats, got into all my stitching supplies, pushed everything off my dresser, and eventually I got him distracted with his favourite toy – a pop bottle lid. (Don’t ask… he’s weird). After a very long game of fetch (it’s not that far across the room so it took many, many throws to wear him out), he finally crashed and let me stitch in peace

As a result, it was a rather productive afternoon.

The butterfly is really starting to come together. I think I have six or seven colours left. There is a light at the end of the tunnel with this one!

Window installation continues today. I expect they will finish the downstairs (one kitchen window and one laundry room window left), and then head upstairs.

The weather is supposed to be cooler, so the cats will be back outside. I’m not sure what I’ll get up to… but I’ll let you know soon enough.

Thanks for all the comments on my Haunted Halloween wall-hanging… but just wait! There’s more!

Lemmy was definitely feeling a little jealous about the black cat….so we had to make one with an orange cat! As soon as the first one was finished, Burton and I set out to do the blocks all over again.

This time with fabrics from both Owl-o-ween, and leftovers from the Kitty Corn quilt. We got them all together, and left the borders for the next day.

Since this one is going to be for the shop, I wanted to make it a lap size quilt – something sweet and warm to pull over your legs on a cool autumn night.

The borders took pretty much all of Sunday…

But I think it was worth it!!! Here’s a closer look at the details.

This one was so much fun to make!

And the boys certainly agree!