As I mentioned yesterday, I did not have much time for anything crafty on the weekend. But I did manage to finish block 18

And I think this might be my favourite block of all of them! I just love the simplicity.

In addition, I even got a small start on Block 19.

As I said last week, I’d love to have these blocks done by then end of the month. I may just have to start stitching on week nights to accomplish that.

While I did get to spend some time in the garden, the day job spilled over, and took up a good chunk of my weekend. As such, I don’t have much crafting to share with you so I’ll have to get creative with my post this week.

Today, I’d like to share a garden friend I’ve shared before. It’s one of my personal favourites.

The friendly, neighborhood Flower Crab Spider!!! Here are some fun facts about them?

Ambush predator
These spiders don’t build webs. Instead, they lie in wait on flowers to grab unsuspecting prey like bees, moths, and flies with their powerful front legs and inject venom

“Crab-like” appearance & movement
Named for their crab-like look and sideways movement, they have front legs that extend sideways and resemble those of crabs.

Colour-changing masters
Female flower crab spiders can shift between white and yellow over several days to match their floral backdrop

Vision-based colour change
They rely on visual cues—not scent—to decide which colour to become. In fact, they may even pick up pigments from prey!

Males track females by silk draglines
Without emitting pheromones, females leave silk trails as they move. Males follow these draglines to locate potential mates

Parental investment & lifecycle
Females create leaf-roll nests with silk to lay eggs in mid-summer, guarding them until hatching. Mothers die soon after their young emerge. Females typically live ~2 years; males less

But the most exciting thing about them, I learned just recently!

They can capture and kill the Dreaded Japanese Beetle!!!! Now I just need about 20,000 Flower Crab Spiders and I just might keep those flying jerks under control!

We finally got a bit of a break from the humidity, if not the heat. That meant yesterday morning was ideal for working in the gardens.

Edible Alley was in need of some attention – mostly the paths needed to be cleaned of weeds (the downside of the mulch), but also got to do some harvesting.

The shallots were ready for bringing up, and I’m thrilled with the result. I got over 50 bulbs. They are about half the size of a cooking onion. Since I don’t eat onions, and only cook with them for Dave, they are an ideal size. One is usually just perfect. These are now laid out in the sun porch to cure so they keep for a good long time.

My green onion harvest wasn’t quite as good.

To be honest, I think I left them too long. I’ve got big bulbs, and almost no greens. Oh well, I’ll try again next year… and these can still be used. I’ve cleaned them up and popped them in the fridge.

The pea harvest has been pretty good so far. I’ve eaten everything we’ve had so far and now we are in a bit of a lull before they produce again.

The strawberries produce on and off all year, and I’ve currently been enjoying a couple berries each day. They are a bit on the small side, so I think I need to invest in some new plants next year.

The raspberries on the other hand, are just going gang busters. I’ve started freezing some because I just can’t keep up. I’ll be making jam again soon!

That’s it for what we can eat now, but there’s lots more coming.

My potatoes are starting to show signs of wear, so I expect I’ll be harvesting them soon. I hope there’s lots of treasures under the soil.

Baby melons are looking good. These vines have gone crazy! I’ve had to cut some back! These are sugar baby melons – a small watermelon that should get to about eight inches around.

And this one is a bit of a mystery. It looks like a yellow summer squash…. but I didn’t plant any yellow summer squash! So is it a rogue seed? Or some weird cross pollination that popped up from last year?

Anything tasty ready in your garden?

We are just over halfway through July, and the garden looks amazing. Of course don’t look too close or you’ll see all the weeds I’ve been unable to dispatch because of the heat. But having a metric crap-tonne of plants does make those weeds are harder to see at first glance!

Right now, the big show offs are the daylilies

I have a few several more, including a new one added this years, that are still to bloom .The show with these guys usually goes well into September.

The Asiatic and Oriental Lilies are blooming their hearts out too. A few of them (especially the Yellow Stargazers, have really been ravaged by the little red asian lily beetles, but the are still blooming their hearts out.

Marina, my beautiful blue rose of Sharon is starting to bloom. It’s really grown and filled out this year. I’m so glad I got my hands on it.

My native bee balms are in bloom. These guys really attract the humming birds. I did the Chelsea Chop on the puple one, and boy has it made a difference – usually it’s flopping all over the place, but it’s nice any tidy this year. I did it on several other plants, and the result is the same! I will be expanding it to a few others (daisies, and yarrow) next year!

I”ve been meaning to share this neat plant with you for a while. It’s called Cleome – or Spider Flower. It’s an annual and I got a white one from a local nursery last year to try out. (I’d seen seeds before). I planted it in the catio and it grew HUGE! (Taller than me) and bloomed all summer long. It was amazing.

So when I went back to that nursery this year, I was thrilled to see she was selling them again. I got six! As you can see, they come in three colours, white, pink and purple. And they are gorgeous! They also reseed.. after I bought these ones, I found several coming up in the catio. The hummingbirds like these too.

The only downside they have small hidden thorns, so you have to be careful how you grab them. Still, they are going to be a staple in my garden from here on out.

In other news, the yellow coneflower didn’t get pushed out – he was just hiding! I’ve got to dig him up and give him a better spot.

And last, the Butterfly bushes are starting to bloom. Hopefully these bring in more of my winged beauties, I feel like they’ve been noticeably absent in the garden so far this summer.

I just love a cat who leans….

Like many of you, we are suffering through a horrible, humid, disgusting heat wave (think 40 degrees C most days). I’m able to hide out in the climate controlled out (we’re loving the heat pump we had installed in January). But the birds are stuck outside.

I have three birdbaths to help keep them cool, and I’ve been making sure the water is fresh and clean for them. I had fun watching this little robin take advantage of one of them on the weekend. The pictures were taken through the window, so I apologize for the quality.

He was having a grand time splashing about by himself.

Now… I’m hoping we get the rain they promised today…

… and that it cools everything off just a touch!

It’s happened

The first Monarch Caterpillar has been spotted – this one on the Swamp Milkweed in the catio.

This one was a good size – and within a few days of taking the picture, he disappeared. Which means he’s probably headed off to make his Chrysalis! I have to keep my eyes peeled.

This is actually a couple weeks early for caterpillar spotting here. I usually don’t start seeing them until August. In fact, I’ve only seen two monarchs in the garden at all. One about a month ago (which may be this one’s Mama), and this sad specimen.

Once the caterpillars become butterflies, their only goal is to mate and lay eggs. And then they literally just flit about until their wings deteriorate. They literally fly themselves to death. But they are so beautiful until they do!

As mentioned yesterday, another hot and sweltering weekend meant more time spent indoors. It should have meant plenty time stitching, but….

While I made good progress on Block 18, I couldn’t quite finish it. I spent the majority of Saturday working on the quilt. And Sunday I spent most of the day doing some deep cleaning I’ve been putting off for the garden. By the time the evenings rolled around, I didn’t have much energy to ply the tiny needle. But I’d love to have these blocks done by the end of the month… so I think it’s time I gave myself a deadline!

It was another indoor weekend. It’s hot, humid and disgusting here, so very little time was spent in the garden. That’s fine, Burton and I have plenty to do inside.

The biggest of which was putting together to top for our Merry Kitties. While the layout was nice with just the two blocks, it wasn’t very big. So I consulted the Royal Fluffy one, and he agreed, adding some sashing and cornerstones would build it out nicely.

It meant putting the top together took a little longer than planned.

Which meant Burton got a nap in. And once the sashing and cornerstones were done, it was still a tad small. So borders were callled for.

It meant a late dinner for me and the boys.

But I think it was worth it! As a bit of a recap, this one sprang from a Jolly Bar mom bought for me. A Jolly Bar is 42 5′ x 10″ pieces (so half a layer cake) – a precut exclusive to the Fat Quarter Shop. This particular one is “Kitty Christmas” by Urban Chicks (the same people that did Kitty Corn and Owl-o-ween) and features some cute retro kitties.

The quilt is made almost entirely from the Jolly Bar – the exceptions are the black background fabric, the red polkadot border, and some of the chain squares.

The fun snowflake fabric was in my Christmas stash and just happened to match the Jolly Bar colours (red, green, pink and aqua) perfectly! I would have had enough to do them with other Jolly Bar fabrics (I have a few leftover) but it would look a little more chaotic that way I think.

Sadly, this one will not be going to the shop. When Mom gave me the fabric, I wasn’t actually planning on keeping the resulting quilt. But the more I worked on it, the more I fell in love with it. And I don’t actually have a Christmas quilt. And it does kind of match my Kitty Corn Hallowe’en quilt. I think I have to keep it!

Things are going mostly well with the edibles.

The garlic has been harvested and is now hanging in the sunporch to cure. I got 15 heads (planted 18). They are on the smaller side, but they are healthy so I’m happy.

The shallots are starting to lay down, so I’ll probably be harvesting them in a week or two. I’ve actually already harvested and cooked a few. We were out of onions, and I didn’t realize. It was handy to just pop out to the garden. They were probably a touch immature, but Dave said they tasted just find fried up with mushrooms for his steak.

The potatoes and carrots are absolutely thriving! It will be a while before they are harvested, but I’m loving all that green.

Much closer to enjoyment time are my peas.

These are sugar snap peas, and technically, I could harvest them now. But I don’t love eating the pods. I like letting them get good and fat, then opening the pods and eating the sweet little candy-like peas inside. These never make it in the house. They are for in-garden snacking.

Much like the raspberries.

The red ones are just starting to ripen, but these gold ones have been going for about a week and a half. and boy are they delicious!

The cucumers, gourds, squash and pumpkins are all starting to climb the squash tunnel (they love the heat and humidity)

And I’ve got baby sweet peppers, and the start of Sugar Baby melons!

There’s only two things that aren’t doing well. And they are two of the “easiest” plants to grow.

First are my zucchini. I can’t recall if I mentioned, but the squirrels didn’t give my seeds a chance to grow. So I went to a local nursery and got a few plants. As you can see, they are growing, but certainly not thriving. They’ve had flowers, but only male flowers… which mean no zucchini yet. I’ve given them some fertilizer, so hopefully things will pick up.

The other dissapointment is my beans. Yes. Beans

They are pretty much the same size they were two weeks ago. They should be filling this darn container. How do you mess up growing beans??? If these don’t pick up, Dave is going to be really sad.

Like the zucchini, they’ve gotten fertilizer, and I’m crossing my fingers. And my toes!