Beware the garden, for amidst the green, mighty cats prowl…

Or you know…

Nap….

As you know, my garden is full of plants that are “pollinator friendly”. But if you really want butterflies in your garden, all you really need are coneflowers.

Excepting the butterfly bush, there’s nothing else in my garden they seem to prefer more. And I’ve seen so many this year… Red Admirals, White Cabbages, American Ladies, Yellow Swallowtails, Sagebrush Swallowtails, and of course, Monarchs.

And though they’ve been plentiful, they’ve been darn hard to get photos of. Dave is beginning to question my sanity, because it seems like every hour or so, I’m scooping the camera off the couch, and bolting out the door whenever one goes winging through the yard.

Pretty much every time I came back in empty handed…. until last week…

Isn’t she a beauty!

And for extra credit…

A pretty red dragonfly

And a cuckoo wasp!

What a wonderful wild kingdom in my backyard

 

Earlier this year, I bought this Fat Quarter pack

With the colours and prints, I just new it had to be a quilt for Dave. I was hoping to make it for his birthday, but with everything else I had going on (mostly deadline quilts for Sam), I knew it was foolish to add in another deadline quilt.

But now with Time to Sew out of the way, I figured if I started now, I might be able to get it done for him for Christmas.

I wanted the pattern to echo the Celtic theme of the fabric, and I think I found the perfect one in this pattern.

There were no instructions, just a picture on Pinterest. But  it didn’t take me long to figure it out.

Using 3.5″ squares, it makes quite a large block – too big to work from my little ironing board. But like the Moda Love quilt, this one is easy to break down into quadrants.

Then it’s just a matter of putting the four quadrants together…

… to create one stunner of a block!  And it’s a biggie too  – 24.5″ square.

I have enough fabric to do four blocks, though I’d like this to be a a really big quilt, so I may grab a few more pieces for a couple more.

In addition to teaching music, occasionally Dave also does set-up and sound for musicians affiliated with the school he teaches at.

This past Saturday, he had a gig to set-up for at the Milton Farmer’s Market (a town about half an hour away from us) and he asked me if I’d like to join him. Really, I think he just wanted to use Dory to haul gear, but I went along anyway.

After the speakers were set-up and sound check was done, I was released from roadie duty to go explore the market.

They close down a chunk of Main Street for it, and there’s a nice assortment of vendors.

I love all the colours of summer!

I got Dave a zucchini and some fresh green beans. Mom was in need of onions, so I got those for her, as well as a basket of peaches for us to split.

I did manage to resist buying myself a bunch of roses…

But I faltered when I came across a lady selling perennials. I ended up coming home with a Physostegia. I’d never heard of it before, but it’s a little like a Foxglove. In a few weeks it should bloom looking something like this:

That was well worth lugging musical gear!

First, I want to share something that was shared with me on Facebook…

“A resident of Hamnavoe, in Burra, Shetland, Anne Eunson decided to knit herself a beautiful lace fence using twine. The fence is fashioned from strong black twine – the same kind that is used to make fishing nets, and Anne knitted it up on specially adapted curtain poles. It took her about three weeks to knit enough lace to surround her front garden, using a 23 stitch repeat of a familiar Shetland lace pattern.”
Photos via Laine Glover‎ to Social History

All I can say is HOLY CRAPOLA! I admire this lady’s gumption! Not only is she knitting with TWINE (that’s got to be hard on the hands!), but look at the size of those needles. I can’t work with an 8mm needle for very long without losing my mind. And what a spectacular result! It sure beats chicken wire!

Still, I think I’ll stick with knitting in my garden, instead of knitting to surround it…

Despite the humidity, usually around 4 or 5 p.m., the sun has moved behind the trees and it’s comfortable enough to sit out back while the cats get some fresh air. Since finishing Wren’s cardigan, I’ve been trying to put a few rows on this pair of gifting socks (not saying who because they occasionally read the blog) each day. (And don’t they just match fabulously with my new dress… I feel no remorse!)

As a result, I’ve got the first sock complete. As you can see, I decided to just do the foot plain on this sock – partly because it’s more suited to the recipient (She mostly wears running-type shoes, so they’d be hidden anyway), and because frankly – the pattern has me bored to tears! I don’t know why… It’s not hard, it looks pretty… it’s just so darn tedious!

Oh well – the sooner I get that second sock done, the sooner I can move onto something I enjoy more! To the garden!

 

 

 

Back at the end of May, I took a panoramic pic of my backyard gardens. Now that summer is in full swing, I thought it would be fun to compare then and now…

What a difference a couple of months makes!

The Coneflowers are blooming beautifully. I’m hoping they will help me get pics of all the beautiful butterflies that have been coming to visit. There have been so many this year, but they never sit still long enough for me to snap a picture!

And speaking of beautiful – look at my gorgeous Casablanca lilies. I love those curling petals – she’s definitely a show stopper!

You may not recall, but a couple years ago, I bought two daylilies  – weeks apart. One called Autumn Joy and one called Crimson Pirate. When they started to bloom, I kicked myself, because they seems so similar to each other. But they’d never actually bloomed at the same time…

And now that I’ve seen them side by side I feel a lot better! They are definitely different! (Autumn Joy on the left, Crimson Pirate on the right).

My pretty pink Speedwell is doing so nicely this year!  I have a purple one in the sidewalk garden but it hasn’t bloomed yet.

And it’s harvest time! I don’t have a lot that’s edible in my gardens, but what I do have we certainly enjoy.

Are you enjoying any fruits (or vegetables) of your labour?

Well my bloggy friends… I did it… I fell off the fiscal responsibility wagon with a resounding thump.

I’d like to say it was just a minor slip up, but in reality, it was a pretty big fall, and I’m bruised and broken….

It started innocently enough. It was a little less than a week before Dave’s birthday, and he mentioned that he needed some new plain t-shirts for work (he can’t wear logos as per the dress code there).

I knew Old Navy usually delivers quickly enough, so I took a quick look on the site… that was my first mistake… the Old Navy site is a like a gateway drug for me…

Anyway, they had t-shirts for Dave and they were only $7. But you need $50 to get free shipping. But Dave only wears two colours in t-shirts – black and charcoal grey There’s no way I was buying him eight t-shirts in the same two colours.

So I took a quick look in the dress section (second mistake). And there it was… in my favourite Fit and Flare style.

If you know anything about me, you know I have a HUGE soft spot for red dresses.  I am a bit picky on shade  – something Old Navy and I have been fighting about for a few years. They finally got it right earlier this year with a pretty red with black polkadot one. But this one… this one is even better.

But I still wasn’t quite over the free shipping limit….

Oh be still my heart!!!! PINK AND PLAID!!! Pink is another colour Old Navy has struggled to get right (they seem to prefer a band-aidy salmon colour), but they nailed it in this beautiful dusty rose!  I actually didn’t feel too bad about this one… it’s a style I’ve tried before and wasn’t too keen on. I was 99% sure I’d be returning it… but then it arrived… they must have tweaked it because it looks so much better than the previous ones (maybe I’m just blinded by that pink plaid.)

Now if this wasn’t bad enough… this little dip in the unnecessary spending pool netted me a pile of Old Navy Supercash… basically, in a week, if I spent another $125, I’d get $50 off.

I should have just thrown it away. It’s not really saving money if you’re spending it on things you don’t need. But I didn’t. And then I got the reminder email (damn you automated marketing programs!!!!).

Yep… I fell for another red beauty (this red is even better than the first…) as well as the gorgeous green one. This style is new this year (I already have three….) and it’s a fun twist on the fit and flare (it fits just as nicely.)

But remember, I had to get that cart up to $125 to get my $50 off….

They say your purse should match your shoes, right??? This is actually not something I’ve ever subscribed to. Though I do have a thing for snakeskin accessories… and those pink sandals… well they are just so darn cute!

So here I sit… with fabulous new clothes and an empty wallet… but I will get back on that wagon! But maybe I’ll unsubscribe from the Old Navy emails first….

Sometimes you just capture the most purrfect moment.

I used my afternoons, after completing my day job work to bang out a couple of blocks for the camp quilt, and in very short order, I had them all done! (This is such an easy pattern!)

This isn’t the final layout; I just wanted to see them all together and get a sense of size and how they would look (if you look closely, you’ll notice some blocks in the wrong direction).

I still have to cut some grey triangles to fill in those edges, but I think this is going to be one fantastic top!

With all the humidity, it took a little while for Wren’s Christmas cardigan to dry after blocking…

But finally it did and I was able to get the buttons on and call it complete! And isn’t it just the sweetest little thing?

I just love knits with that old-timey look. The purple yarn gives it a touch of modernity, but it still has that classic feel.

The buttons were from my stash – nothing fancy, but I have a lot of them. Wren has a habit of losing buttons, so if she does, it’s easy for me to sew on a couple more.

And with this, I have just four Christmas presents left to complete! The rest are socks, so  I probably won’t have them done by the end of summer, but it won’t be long after!