Wildlife, quilting, planting, soup

  June has been a quiet month here. Turkeys have been around a few times.

There were 3 males hanging out together (they all had beards), then later a female with 5 newly hatched babies. 

This day there was just one male by himself.

This little chipmunk ran out of his hiding place when I was working in the flower bed.

He ran right up the screen of the screen porch...because Puss was immediately chasing after him. (That's a cicada clinging to the screen too.)

Puss can't climb screens but she tried to figure out how to capture little Chippy.

She waited and waited. The chipmunk finally dropped down but then ran up that little tree nearby. It got away this time!

Here is a deer close to the house early one morning.

I don't mind them coming up to graze on the lawn but those dirty rascals chomped a bunch of the stems of our tomato plants.

Sheesh! Usually nothing eats tomato plants!

And a coyote came around two evenings in a row. Me and Puss were inside because of the heat dome weather.

This picture is sort of lousy because I used the digital zoom. He is there to the left of the tree. A fairly big coyote.

I keep trying to simplify and scale back my flower beds and planted areas...but then I have a moment of weakness and buy something new.

I bought 3 small elderberry plants at Walmart. 

Three different kinds...Adams, John's, and York. So far, the deer haven't tried to eat them.

I am not making very quick progress getting my big project flower bed the way I want it.

The Stella D Oro Day Lillies bloomed very nicely. My favorite color of yellow.

Because of a few days of high temps locked in by a pressure system, I had extra sewing time to do the quilting on this quilt for our book club leader.

Puss likes this quilt too and she thought she would just settle down and relax on it as I quilted. Not a great plan, Puss.

I did finish the quilting. I was a bit nervous because this has turned out to be such a cute quilt. Four of us, who are in the Crazy Quilters and also the book club have worked on it.

We all made blocks. Jan chose and bought and coordinated the fabrics, and also wrote titles on a few of the books.

 Izzy appliqued the cats and Susan embroidered on the eyes and whiskers, and made a name label.

It's perfect for our book club leader because she loves and collects books and she has four cats!  She has been leading the group for many years so the quilt is to show appreciation and thanks.

I sewed the binding on and came up a few inches short. Lucky, the next day was quilt group day and Jan brought in more of the fabric. Izzy took it home to finish binding so I didn't get a photo of the finished quilt.

I'll try to get one when we give it to Diane.

Oh yes, and there was a pot of soup made in spite of the heat. Ham and veggies.

Ham was from the freezer...from Christmas!

Sunrise, quilt stuff, a day trip

 Some really pretty sunrises lately! The position of the sun at this time of year is just right to come up over the field next door. It was prettier than my photo shows...and a bit more red. 

The cell phone camera seems to always try to "correct" the photographer's  shot.

Puss enjoys a few warm rays of the sun on chilly mornings.

I've gotten together with my quilter friends twice this month. We all pitched in and  worked on this quilt top for our book club leader. I'll write more about it when it's finished.

We also worked on our donation quilt. That one's not finished either.

One of the ladies was clearing out some of her fabric stash and brought some in to give away free.  I picked up a couple of chunks of this cowboy theme fabric...just right to use in a toddler boy quilt.  I washed and ironed it...it's ready to use!

Here is an outdoor project I've been busy with. This side of the pool used to have wooden decking and fencing.  A few years ago the Sasquatch removed all of that. It was aging and needing more maintenance and repairs. 

With the Sasquatch's help I got the dirt filled in and grass growing, now I'm redoing this planting area a bit.

I cut down a lilac bush (saved a few stems with roots) and then had the difficult job of digging up a lot of knobby roots. See that flower pot there on the right? It's full of those roots.

Hopefully, I will have this in shape sometime this summer and will have photos to prove it.

The Cicadas are still here. I would say they were at their peak numbers about a week ago.

Outside on a sunny afternoon their whirring/chirping sound was extremely loud.

So many flying around between trees!

They seemed to be drawn to the color yellow. I found this out accidentally when I walked out with a yellow tee shirt! Several flew over and landed on my shirt and hair.

I felt like Tippi Hedren in The Birds movie!

Back under the trees the ground is full of these holes the Cicadas have burrowed out of.

Here is something else gross to show you. This big bony spine appeared in my side yard.

I assume it's from a deer but there are no other deer parts around.

I keep hoping some other critter will drag it away somewhere else...but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I'll have to try and pick it up with a shovel or with a rubber glove.

My foot in photo for scale.

I had a fun day with a drive to Whittles Fabrics. I started out with a scenic drive down Highway 31 but switched  over to I65 after a while.

It's a nice store with lots to choose from. So much, that I have a hard time deciding what to buy. Their prices are reasonable but like everything else, higher than they used to be.

Here's what I ended up with... fabric and a cute pattern.

One of the reasons I chose this destination is to visit the Buc-ee's store near by. It's quite a store!

First thing you notice is all the gas pumps. At least 40 of them and all busy because gas prices are cheaper here.

Inside is food, food, food. Fresh hot sandwiches and wraps, fresh fudge, bakery goods, jerky, snacks, drinks...and more.

I bought a brisket sandwich which is one of their popular items. Really good!

I picked out a few snacks and a jar of picked eggs to take to the Sasquatch.

Besides food they had lots of clothes and gift items. It was a huge store!

It was nice to be out for a day and there were no traffic back ups.

But...a dash light warning came on in the car. Hope it's just something simple.

Two quilts

 I finished this quilt back in March and posted one photo of it then. Now I'm just getting around to taking a few more photos to add here.

This quilt is different than my usual quilts because I stitched all the pieces together by hand. Because of the way the diamond shapes fit together, hand sewing is the most common way to assemble this Tumbling Blocks pattern.

Sometimes this pattern is sewn with three colors. I used scraps, in a limited color palette, arranging light, medium, and dark to keep the block shapes.

Here's the back, a blue plaid that was just a little too narrow so I added that light blue strip.

I worked on this quilt off and on for years...sometimes neglecting it for months at a time.

I machine quilted it in my usual loopy design. The edge pieces were a bit stretched out and caused a few puckers...but I'm not concerned about it at all.

I went ahead and washed and dried it. There was a bit of color transfer bit not worrying about that either.

I'll be keeping this one for myself.  It's 56" x 70", a bit big for using in the recliner but big enough to be a bed cover for me if the cat's not hogging the covers.

I'm glad I finished this and I really like this pattern...but I probably won't make another like this.

This second quilt is one I finished last year but never took photos.

Very similar colors as the one above.

Here's the back of this one. The fabric was a bit short this time so I added that dark blue strip on one end.

This is a "Three Yard Quilt" pattern. It measures 44" x 58".

I started making this quilt for someone but then decided to give her a quilt I had already finished instead.

I'll hang on to this quilt for a while. I think it would make an okay gift if needed.

Next up for me will be quilting that little tractor theme quilt and also a quilt for a baby girl. I have a finished top that would be good for a girl, but I am thinking I might add something to fancy it up a bit...maybe!

Mid May - cicadas are out

 I have the little donation quilt top put together. I think it came out pretty cute.

I even went on to the next step of laying it out to cut backing and batting for it. But then I goofed and cut a slice into my backing fabric when I was trimming it all to size. Sheesh!

I gave up for the day after that.

I've been missing my crochet/knit group meetings.  I was glad to finally make it back to a meeting and chat with the other members.

They were all working on new projects but I'm still crocheting this afghan. I didn't work on it at all since the last time I was there.  No hurry to get it finished though.

Are you seeing any of the 17 year cicadas?

There were a few hanging on the screen porch starting on May 9th.

Some cicadas and some empty shells/husks.

Big and unattractive but the good thing is that they are harmless. No biting and no eating landscape plants. I really don't think they eat anything at all - because there doesn't seem to be any droppings either.

More and more are hatching each day and there is a loud whirring sound all around from their chirps.

My Peony was blooming so pretty this year...for a couple of days. Then we had heavy rain which weighed down the stalks and waterlogged the flowers.

Iris blooming too. They held up better in the rain.

This big opossum has visited the yard a few times.

Also this yellow cat comes by occasionally.  I don't think it's a stray. It looks healthy. It's  big and fluffy and has a sweet pretty face.

My cat doesn't like it though and I think it might be this cat that she has had a fight with a couple of times. I didn't see the fighting but Puss has come in with bite marks and scratches on two different evenings.

Yes, I did make soup!  A creamy broccoli soup.

No meat in this one but I did melt some white cheddar in when it finished cooking.

I bought some baby Bella mushrooms without really thinking what I would use them for.

I know they are healthy and nutritious so I just sautéed them and ate them with eggs or as a side dish. It was a LOT of mushrooms to go through.

It made me remember that my first husband's family would make sandwiches of fried mushrooms on white bread. Just the regular small white mushrooms tossed in some breading and stirred around in the skillet. Not for a meal but more of an evening snack.

I thought it was the strangest thing and would never taste one. The only way I had ever eaten mushrooms was Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.

Spring has sprung

Every time I start believing that nothing will be built in the big field next door, some changes happen.

Last fall they had a short gravel driveway put in. Then nothing.

But now, surveyors were over there for an afternoon.  They rode around on an ATV. They were using their scopes and tripods and even flying a huge drone over the field and the woods behind.

I kept being tempted to walk over there and ask some questions, but did not.

You can see my life follows the same old routine. I made soup again, using another can of roast beef.

This time it was cabbage, beef and bean. I sort of loosely followed a recipe that was a favorite of Lonnie's...but used more cabbage and less beans.

This is what makes me feel like spring is really here...the pool guys were here to uncover the pool and get it running. 

Yep, the water is too cold but warm days in the forecast will heat it up a bit.

Lots of things are blooming around the yard.

Lilacs and Purple Smoke Tree.

Big fat flowers but no real aroma and not very attractive to pollinators. 

A few blooms on the Buckeye Tree. Most are high up where I can't see them. A big Bumble Bee enjoying this bloom.

There is a cluster of May Apples that have been here since we moved here. I see big patches of them in the surrounding woods too.

This Weigela does have a pleasant aroma.

The Clematis is starting to bloom too.

I took care of a task that's been on my list for a while. I set up arrangements for my cremation.

Hopefully it will be a long time before it's needed but I didn't find to be depressing at all (other than handing over the payment).  No service - just a simple cremation.

Cremation Society of Kentucky handled the deal. Very reasonable price and polite and efficient to work with.

I feel good about having that taken care of.