As I mentioned, most of the weekend was spent outside in the garden. But not all of the time was spent on plants and dirt. Saturday, we focused on painting. While I touched up the paint on all my raised veg beds, Dave was busy working on several of my garden decorations.

We collected quite a few unique things over the winter from our thrifting adventures, and most of them needed some new spray paint. He’s much better at it than me – mostly because I don’t care if there is a drip or two. He does care, so I left him to it.

He also did the bulk of the painting on my concrete goose and swan – ie – painting them white. Again, here he’s much better suited to the job than I, as he was more focused on getting paint into every little nook and cranny of the concrete.

Once he was done with them (and I was done with my veg beds) I came along and added the artistic flourishes ie – gave them faces.

The goose also needed some feet and grass coloured in

They are attached to concrete pavers, because sadly, there’s been some thefts in our neighbourhood. Gertie the goose will be bolted to the porch, but Susannah Swan is going in the garden. She’s already 70 or 80 lbs without the paver, so with it she’s well over 100 – a lot harder to pick it up and walk away with.

I’m hoping to get Susannah in the garden and planted up this weekend. I’m not sure if I’ll wait to put Gertie out until I make her an outfit or not. I’m on vacation next week so I can decided if I have the time to whip something up then or not.

It was another weekend of not much stitching. Mostly because the weather was perfect for being in the garden – so in the garden I was.

But also because when I wasn’t in the garden, I had to deal with this.

He’s been very adamant about having my undivided attention if I’m sitting in my chair. As a result, this is all I managed this weekend.

“You shouldn’t have been able to complete that much…” says Lemmy

“Clearly I need to work harder at distracting you”

As always, my feeders are a busy place. Here are some of my favourite pictures from spring so far…

The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak is fairly regular visitor this time of year, but we don’t see them later in the year. I wonder if they are just passing through.

This White-Crowned Sparrow is a new arrival though. It will be interesting to see if he sticks around.

The Goldfinches have obtained their bright summer colours.

I know some people consider Grackles to be pests….

But I adore them. I love their shiny blue/green feathers.

And I love how they always look like they are there to cause a little mayhem.

The Brown-Headed Cowbirds are back too

And of course, the squirrels are busy raiding the feeders to feed their growing families.

But I think this is my favourite shot of all…

I finally got that perfect Blue Jay action shot.

It’s Mother’s Day so here are some beautiful flowers to celebrate.

The Columbine is just starting to bloom – I’ve got many more colours to come.

These Geums are small but their colour is bold. They will bloom on and off rigt until fall.

These dwarf purple irises are always the first ones to bloom. They are extra special as they originally came from Mom’s garden. I had them at the townhouse and brought them here when we moved. They continue to multiply and I share them whenever I can.

I did not plant these tulips – they were planted by the previous owner – but they’ve quickly become some of my favourites. They’ve multiplied since I’ve been here, and I need to move some of them around and spread them throughout the garden.

There are many daffodils still blooming and these three are among my favourites.

And last, I’ve redone the front boxes.

It’s a combo that should look great all summer long.

And if flowers aren’t what you’re looking for this Mother’s Day…. how about a quilt? The whole shop is on sale – 25% off!

On Monday, after we said goodbye to Relic, I wasn’t in any mood to work. I called in, but I still needed to do something with myself. I couldn’t just sit around and cry. So I went outside and soaked up the sun – Relic’s favourite thing to do.

And while I was out there, I decided I needed to attend to some of my seed snails. Several of them were getting quite overgrown – mostly the sunflowers.

Just look at all those roots coming out of the bottom.

I have three types of sunflowers (yellow, red and white), and they are all now happily potted on and doing great. It will be a few more weeks before I can put them in the ground, but I am thrilled with the results so far.

The tansy and seashell cosmos were also in a similar state

They are doing fantastic after their transplant.

I left the rest in the snails to grow on a bit more, but they should be ready to pot on in another week or so. And I’m calling this experiment a resounding success – as the seeds I planted in the regular seed pods haven’t germinated at all… it’s going to be seed snails from now on for me!

Elsewhere, I had planted the rest of my cosmos seeds directly in large pots.

And they are all starting to sprout. They should be ready to plant out into the gardens by July, providing amazing blooms right until the first frost.

My spinach is also doing well.

Though it will be a little while longer to make a nice salad with the lettuce I planted…

It’s growing much slower! But it’s still growing!

I also took the opportunity to plant up the few herbs I picked up

Thyme and Rosemary

Sage and Oregano

And two different types of parsley. (The pot on the left has been planted up with seeds so it will be a bit before it makes it’s debut.) In truth, I planted the parsley for the Swallowtail butterflies… it’s a host plant for their caterpillars.

I am absolutely thrilled with how the garden is going so far, and the season has only just begun!

“When are you going to build a catio on THIS side of the house????”

With May now here, it was time to get a new wreath on the door. I had all the supplies, so I took a half an hour and finally put it together.

This one was inspired by the fun honeycomb ribbon I used in the bow.

And if you look really closely, you may even see a bee…

Or seven…

This one was so much fun to make! I’m already thinking about one for June!

Thank you for all your kind words about Relic. We are all adjusting to the new normal. With three other cats, the house isn’t exactly empty, but there is a Relic-sized hole in it. (And he was a big boy).

Like for instance – my lap isn’t empty in the evenings (Lemmy and Rupert are still there), but there’s no one lurking behind my shoulder, asking me to make space, or put on a quilt so he can lay down.

He was there right until the end though.

We finished up block 14 together Saturday and Sunday night.

Now I have to do the last six blocks without him. I think I’m going to finish this one in honour of him – and it will be Relic’s garden.

Tiny Needle Tuesday has been preempted, because as you can guess by the title, we had to say goodbye to our dear sweet Relic.

You will recall that he had a small hiccup a few weeks back. He seemed to bounce back from it ok for a couple of days. Then he got a cold. He’s always been a little prone to them so I wasn’t too concerned. I took him for a bath with me every night and that seemed to clear it up. But then his eating slowed. We kept a close eye on him. He never really stopped eating, just wasn’t eating as much as he should. His weight was dropping more. And he was drinking a lot more water than before.

Saturday morning I decided it was time for another vet visit. He was dehydrated again, despite all the water he’d been drinking. Something that pointed to failing kidneys. The vet gave him some IV fluids and we brought him home again later that day, hoping for a miracle. But unlike last time, he didn’t improve.

But Sunday night it was very evident that it was his time. Monday morning, we got up early and held him while we waited to call the vet. He passed away in my lap about 10 minutes before the vet opened for the day.

While we are sad to lose him, we are glad to know he didn’t linger in pain. And we know he we gave him a good life.

And though I have put his birth year as 2014 – that’s actually just a guess. He may be much older. Most of you know the story of how he conned his way into our home.

I actually met Relic a couple years before we took him in.

It was back in 2015. He appeared behind the townhouse. He wouldn’t come near me then.

But me being me, I took pictures so happily have a record of it.

It wasn’t until the May 2017 that I saw him again.

He started coming around the yard for cat nip. It took me a few days to befriend him. Dave automatically gave me the “You can’t keep him speech” (we had Peno, Rupert and Burton at the time), all the while giving him the name that would stick.

So while I was trying to make friends enough to get him in a carrier to take him to the SPCA, Relic was busy sucking up to Dave to work his way into the house. By late September of that year, he’d worked his magic and Dave opened the back door and let him in… and the rest was history.

Rupert hated him, but about a year later they became fast friends

While we were still at the townhouse, we let him free roam (and I worried about him every day), but when we moved he was confined to the catio.

I don’t think he ever really forgave me for that

But he still got to get outside and enjoy the fresh air.

For the most part, he was a fat, happy, spoiled boy.

And the house is going to feel a little emptier for a good long while.

I’m pretty sure there’s magic in Felici.

It just seems to fly off the needles. As you can see, I’m already down the leg, through the heel and almost done the gusset.

I’m fairly pleased with the black for heels too. A thoroughly enjoyable knit!