this and that

The Naked Lillies (or Resurrection Lillies) have sprung up around the yard. I have only planted them in a couple of places but squirrels must have replanted a few for me, because they come up in random spots.

There's always a few stalks that fall over or get knocked over by animals so I sometimes bring those inside and put them in a vase.   Now some varmint broke off one of my Zinnias at the ground, so I stuck them in the vase with the Lillies.  

Flower arranging is not my forte. I did work for a florist for a while but not doing floral arrangements!

Now here's what I like better...stuff to plant in the ground.  These are my three new Holly trees to plant in place of the pine that fell.  I ordered them from Evergreen Nursery in Tennessee.   

I wasn't even sure if they would ship them at this time of year, but they did and thanks to their careful packaging, the plants arrived in good condition.

I have them planted already...and I'll have to remember to keep them watered.

This is a little embarrassing...delivery trucks lined up in the driveway!  Am I too lazy to go to the store?  Well,sometimes.

I tried a new muffin recipe...Almond Poppy Seed Muffins.  They are good!

The recipe is from my quilt group's fundraising cookbook.  When I saw the recipe was one that Pat contributed, I knew it would be good. She always brings such yummy dishes to the potlucks.

I cut the recipe back to 1/3...and it made nine medium sized muffins.  Quick to put together and no need to even use the mixer.

I also tried a Greek style chicken recipe...Chicken Souvlaki, but I forgot to take photos.  It was okay...Lonnie did a good job with grilling marinated chicken breasts...but it seemed a bit lacking in flavor.  I've only eaten Greek food a couple of times so not a lot to compare it with.
I will probably try again with a different recipe.

sailboat quilt finished

Here is the binding going on the Sailboat quilt...

And here it is...all finished.  It might seem familiar looking...because, for the alternate blocks,  I used the same simple pattern that I used in the Ninja quilt.

Don't think I was getting off easy with those quick-to-sew blocks...the paper pieced sailboats were very labor intense!   A good challenge for me though.

This quilt is toddler sized too...about 41" x 50".

Sail away!

And there is that nautical fabric backing again - perfect to use with the sailboats.

I'd like to go ahead and give this one to the expectant mother, but I need to wait until I know baby's name to put on the label. So. I'll hang on to it for now.

I've had enough of the red,blue and gray color scheme for awhile. I'll be glad to get back to working toward my next finish...the scrappy nine patch quilt.
That one will take a while to finish.

another tree bites the dust

Earlier this year, when we had some really windy days, I was talking about how we'd had such strong winds in spring of 2016...that one of our big healthy pine trees had broken off at the base.

As I was saying that, I looked out the front window and noticed that another of the pines (planted at the same time) looked like it was leaning a lot more than it was before.

I thought it might be my imagination but over these months I've been trying to pay attention to any changes in the slant of the tree. Then, last time I was mowing out there I could see a big difference.  One side of the tree (forked trunk) was leaning way away from the other side.

I called our tree company, who said they might be able to cable both sides of the tree together and keep it from falling...but it would be Monday before they could look at it.

Well, Monday was too late.  Sunday evening when my sons were leaving they actually saw the tree falling like slow motion...or half of it anyway.

 I was hoping the other half could still be saved, but no, it was leaning the other way.
This photo taken from the opposite direction.

When the tree guy came to the door on Monday, he had a funny look on his face. He must have  thought I was expecting them to put the tree back in position!
He seemed relieved when we just asked them to finish taking it down and haul away the mess.

They did it the next day....

I guess we were lucky it didn't fall on that Spruce there on the right and damage it too.

Those two tiny trees in the center of the photo are 2 hollies I put in last year to replace the other pine that fell.  I'm thinking about getting 3 more hollies now to fill in this space.
The pines are pretty and fast growing though...hmmm...and Giant Thujas are another possibility.

We need something there though, not just for privacy, but to block noise and pollution from the highway.

Here's the same view from 2014...much nicer than seeing that neighborhood across the street - and the telephone pole- and the gas company thingy.

Time to start shopping for new trees!

cool summer beverages

My sons are getting pretty good a spotting recipes that I might be interested in trying. Here are a couple of refreshing summer drinks.


First off - the Sasquatch has been suggesting that I try making Cold-Brewed Coffee.

Instructions HERE

He's the only one of us that isn't a coffee drinker, but he thought he might like it this way since it results in a smoother brew.  Nope, he still doesn't like it, but I think it's a great way to have coffee ready to make iced coffee at any time.

All you do is soak the coffee grounds in room temperature water for about 12 hours. (1 1/2 cups coffee grounds to 8 cups water).  Strain the grounds...first with a strainer - then through a coffee filter.
It's done!

The instructions say that this makes concentrated coffee, so it's just right once it's poured over ice and cream is added (and sweetener if you wish).

A nice pick-me-up on a hot afternoon!

Next up is a recipe Chopper found...something we had never even heard of...Horchata - a Mexican beverage.

Recipe HERE

Chopper found this recipe online after a friend posted a photo of himself drinking this at a Mexican restaurant.  

The ingredients are simple so I told him I'd try making some.  Strangely enough, you get it started by soaking uncooked rice in water, then later straining it and adding sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and milk.

Serve very cold or over ice.  Sweet and creamy like a milkshake but not thick and heavy.

You can sort of see that the cinnamon sinks to the bottom of the glass.  Some who commented on the recipe said they use cinnamon sticks during the rice soaking step to get the flavor without making that last swallow a mouthful of ground cinnamon. Good idea.

It's always fun to try something different in the kitchen!

ninja crib quilt finished

I finished adding the binding to the ninja quilt.

No, it's not a quilt for a Ninja...it's a quilt with ninja print fabric.




As I mentioned here before, I only had a small amount of that fabric so I had to do some figuring to get it spread evenly around the quilt...and I wanted to keep the design simple, so the fabric would be the focal point.

It measures roughly 41" x 50".   Not sure who this one will go to yet.  There are a couple of babies due to arrive before the end of the year.

Might as well add a photo of it on the swing too.

One of the other fabrics is a print with Japanese letters/characters on it.  I'm curious if it actually says or spells anything.  If so, I hope it's something nice!

This may seem like sort of a strange choice for backing...a nautical print.  I had pulled it from my stash for the sail boat quilt and noticed the colors would work good with this quilt too.

I had enough for both quilts with about 6 inches left over.

A different theme altogether but it will give some wee toddler a lot to look at.  I could even see using it for a matching game...for example asking the toddler to "find another lighthouse like this one"

Now, to get the binding on the sail boat quilt...then back to work on my main quilt project.

catalpa worms and outdoor stuff

I have written about Catalpa worms here before and to this day, there have more visits to those blog posts than any other pages I've posted.

(Here  ,  and here )

This time it's a little different.  This is the first year my own Catalpa tree has attracted Sphinx moths to lay eggs on the leaves.   Now I have a multitude of small Catalpa worms!

Let the leaf munching begin!

These must be the older cousins...larger but not quite adults.

This is how the tree looks now. I'll show another photo once the worms have moved on. It doesn't hurt the tree and it's an interesting cycle to observe.

I grew this tree from a seed off  The Sasquatch's Catalpa tree...it's the one I have shown in the previous posts.  

This one will make a beautiful shade tree in a few years.

I couldn't resist starting another one this spring.  Not sure where I will plant it, but I'll move it up to a bigger pot for now while I am deciding.

Also around the yard...
I saw this tortoise one morning after a rain,  He was so shiny he looked like he had been through a car wash!

Back in May, Bullitt County Soil Conservation was giving away free tree seedlings.


They had several kinds. I asked for 2 Pawpaw trees and they gave me about half a dozen.
At that time they were leafless and dormant...dead looking really.

I planted two in the field and the rest in the woods.  The ones in the field are doing great and the good thing is - deer don't seem to bother them.
Pretty leaves!

I haven't checked on the ones in the woods. It may be too shady there for them to get a good start.

If they have the give-away next year I'm going to get there early and get some Persimmon trees. They had ran out of them this year.

Our gardens are doing good.  Lonnie's on the left...full of tomato  plants.  What will we he do with all those tomatoes?

I planted zucchini, eggplant, and Armenian cucumbers...and grape tomatoes.

The zucchini blooms are the most beautiful perfect yellow.  I'd like to paint my kitchen this color..."squash blossom yellow"!

Some nice blooms on the Russian Sage out by  the driveway.   Oops...someone keeps knocking her rock border apart with the riding mower.

I should have photoed these Hostas last week...the blooms are a bit past their prime today.

Well, I can't show any other flower beds right now - they are much too weedy and I'm inside in the A/C!

donation quilt finished

I don't think I have shown this little quilt here yet. I put it together back in late winter and it's been folded up in the sewing room waiting for me to put a binding on it.

 I had to put the walking foot on my machine to bind the Sailboat quilt (and the Ninja quilt), so I took the opportunity to go ahead and finish this one first.

The pieced blocks were from an abandoned project I started working on several years ago. Set on the diagonal with the solid blocks, it makes a good size for a donation quilt. Organizations usually ask that the quilts be lap sized...not too big to handle and wash.

(In the foreground here you see my Purple Smoke Tree. It has recovered nicely after caterpillars stripped it bare last month)

When I originally made the blocks, I was using the book below. I was going to precisely follow the instructions for all 12 blocks in the book...hoping to correct any bad habits I had picked up from being a self-taught quilter.  

Instead I developed a new bad habit...not finishing what I started on!   But, someday I will make a sampler quilt like this...but with a different color scheme.

I did try a slightly different method for sewing on binding. This time I sewed it to the front, pinned it to the back, and did a "stitch in the ditch" on the front...catching the back edge in with the stitches.

 front...

Well, I mostly caught that edge...ran off the road in some areas and had to rip and re-do. Here's a good spot to show you.

back...

For the quilt backing, I used more of the same fabrics.

Hey, perfect size for the swing!

It looks sort of ready for Independence Day...mostly red,white, and blue!