Sweltering 92 Degrees!

So what happened to Spring? I feel like we are in the middle of August...totally wilted...and all worn out with hot weather! Is this a portent of what the Summer will bring? Sweltering hot? No rain? Brown, dead grass (what grass?? LOL), a tan landscape for the next 3 months? I shouldn't be complaining, I know, even tho we are so far below on our rainfall. There are several more of my neighboring Southern states that are in even worse shape than we are here in Tennessee. But it is really reaching critical mass here too insofar as the lack of rainfall is concerned.

So, if it's too hot to be outside, one would naturally ask if I've been in the air-conditioned sewing room, switching obsessions from outside to quilting ROFL, but I would have to tell you NO. :( Where did my sewing muse go? She seems to have totally deserted me. I did reverse sew that one border on that tablerunner way-back-when, and I haven't even quilted it. I did also work just a TAD on my Kim Diehl block, which is so close to being finished that I should just sit right down now and finish it up so I could at least start the third block. :( :) And just because we have guests coming on Friday, that's no reason to rush around slinging dust, and books, and magazines, and accumulated mess, now is it? LOL Definitely not a good reason to rush out to the grocery store (after all, the son's female friend is a vegetarian---hey, Rabbit Stitchings, what does one feed a vegetarian??? :D) and there's not even two pieces of bread in the house for a sandwich. Nah, not good enough reasons for all of that. So maybe I WILL just go finish that one block for now.

I am so sorry to have been such a laggart about my blog this month. I make promises to myself to be more religious about posting, and what do I do???? Desert it just like it did my quilting!! :D I'm going now to see if I can unearth that block. The photos are Homer Kitty having a snooze in the shade and pea gravel (go figure), my herb bed which I'm working on enlarging, and let me tell you that little picture does NOT do justice to how much dirt I moved!!!, and my little sweetheart, Badger. I'm going to unearth more photos eventually of my "boys" so I can share some of Dewey too. :D Hope every one is well and enjoying all of your most favorite things as we swing into Summer. (All photos enlarge with a click)

Happy Mother's Day

Oh, what a beautiful Mother's Day!! I have been out giving my plants a drink; it's going to be quite warm today and sunny. I decided to go ahead and plant my veggies in pots, so I spent all day yesterday doing that. Still have a few tomatoes to put in pots, and of course, I plant a pot then have to stand and ponder forever which pot I want to fill next. :) Another one of those days that I went out with the coffee as soon as I rolled out of bed and didn't come back in except for brief 'pit stops'. :D More of the same is on tap for today! :)

Sending champayne wishes and chocolate dreams to all of you mothers! Had this perfect picture of my 'baby boy' , Badger, which I had to post today of all days LOL, the flowers are a patch of Maiden Pinks that I planted from seed last year, and of course, another shot of my Indigo Bunting.

Summertime Temps

It's supposed to be 87 deg. here today. That is a summertime temperature, not Spring! But hey, I'll take it. :) I'm still enthralled by the birds. I just do not want to stay in the house right now, so once again I have to tell you that I've been outside from dawn to dusk. Yesterday evening I had TWO Indigo Buntings come for their 'supper'! Oh my goodness! Was I thrilled or what??? Of COURSE I got a picture...that one will be shown at a later date. :) And I've had a female Rose Breasted Grosbeak that last couple of days. Now, Sug (my seester) has had the MALE RBG ( am I jealous or WHAT??) LOL I haven't had him come to visit yet, but surely there's one here, right? After all, where there's a female, there's usually a male tagging along somewhere in the sidelines, right??? ROFL

That's a 'purple finch' having a drink after his meal. Isn't he a beauty? And the other picture is of my seedlings. They have really grown since I took that photo. I still don't know where to put my veggie garden. My darling husband DOES NOT want me to put it where I want it to go, so I'm at a stand-still in that regard. They really need to be put in the ground soon, tho. Either that or just throw all of them into pots. We'll see.

We had a wonderful day last Sunday with our friends from Knoxville. They brought the most yummy cake and mini-cupcakes from Magpies, a bakery in Knoxville. Then we prowled around outside looking at my plants, picking up some wood pieces from the lake bank for them to take home and use as 'yard art' *grins*. It was a lovely day. Oh, oh, oh, and they brought me a 5-gal. Lodge dutch oven as a gift! I was thrilled! I've been wanting one of those for ages and just hadn't bought it yet. So, thanks again, Joanie and Debbie! :D

I am going outside while it's still cool. Gotta play in the dirt, you know! LOL

Birds Everywhere

Sorry for posting only pictures with no explanations. I was in a hurry to at least get SOMETHING posted. :D Elaine asked if that is an Indigo Bunting...YES, YES, YES! Aren't I the lucky one? He's absolutely gorgeous! All of the photos can by enlarged by clicking on them. He visited the first time on May 1 (I think), and has come back every day since for breakfast and dinner. :) And we have scads of Gold Finches. They are the most lovely little things...just twittering and singing and doing acrobatics. :) We've also had a pair of purple finches, a Cardinal, lots of Swallows, Bluebirds, Chipping Sparrows, and a pair of Juncos (I think *g*), and my sweet little Hummingbirds. There's one little Ruby-Throated Hummer that tries to guard to feeders at the same time. LOL He stays quite busy trying to hoard the 'food'. Kinda reminds me of myself with all of my fabric and quilt books. *g* I have been outside...for days and days on end...and loving every minute of it!! Oh, and Sheila (aubirdwoman), that IS the same moon you see, I see'! LOL And I'm afraid I'm not as young as I can get away with letting you think I am on this blog!! ROFL

Libby, I did go ahead and stick some veggie seeds in pots, and now I have cherry tomatoes, cucumber, summer squash, zuchinni, and lettuce all sprouting! I was thrilled that they came up. Now I just need to get me a veggie patch tilled up.

I have to run to the produce market now for some fresh fruit. We have friends coming for lunch tomorrow, so I better stir up the dust in this house, send those 'bunnies' scurrying, and sling my books and magazines in another room and shut that door. :D I do hope all of my family and friends are having a wonderful weekend. We are having some much-needed rain this morning, but tomorrow is supposed to dawn bright and pretty. :)

They're Baaaccck!

The hummingbirds, that is! :D (They arrived "home" last Sunday! I was so excited to see them!) This little fella was just hilarious! He would perch there are on the crook for the longest time, and chase off any other hummingbird that dared to come near. There's a feeder hanging on the crook that you can't see in the picture. He's done this on and off every day this week. Just too cute. :D

It's been raining a slow, steady rain all afternoon. The best kind of rain. The forecast was for strong storms but we've been blessed with a good, soaking rain. :) And since it's been raining, I've been inside. I have done NO sewing, none, nada! Some day I'll get back to that. :( I put the pieced borders on a tablerunner, oh, I don't know, what? a week ago, maybe?, and realized that I put one on wrong so I just quit and haven't been back in the sewing room since. :P Instead, I've spent every minute, from the time I've rolled out of bed :D until time to get back in the bed! outside. I haven't planted the first veggie seed this spring, and I can't decide if it's too late to fool with it or not. Every Spring I have visions of this huge veggie garden with abundant produce all summer long, and enough to can for the Winter, too, ROFL but I haven't managed to actually get that dream to come true yet. :) I won't be satisfied, tho, until I put at least a few seeds in the ground, even if it's just a couple of squash, tomatoe, and cucumber seeds. :)

We have a storage building that I had been wanting moved closer to the house, and that was finally accomplished, so I've been playing in it, moving in flower pots and dirt and tools and all those fun, outside things that I had piled up on the back porch. I must say, the porch really looks much better without all of my clutter on it, and Randy is soooo happy to have it cleared off. LOL

Thanks to all of you who shared your friendship, concern and hugs with me over the tragedy at VA Tech. I still reel from the shock of it, and I know that the town and school will never be quite the same, but hopefully will become even better and stronger over time.

In Shock

On Monday a friend called. Randy answered the phone and came to find me, saying we need to turn the TV on. There's something going on in Blacksburg. I sat here in stunned disbelief as I watched the horrific scene taking place in my hometown. As someone else put it, I can't stand to watch it on TV and yet I can't stand NOT to. I'm just heartbroken for everyone involved.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Hope everyone has a lovely Easter, and that the Easter Bunny stopped by your house. :D

Brrrr Somebody Build a Fire!

Man, these 20 and 30 deg temps are hard on a body after having such unseasonably warm days for the last 3 weeks!! It's an absolutely GORGEOUS morning but cold! So we do have a fire going in the woodstove, and I would imagine we WILL have one for the next several days. Thank goodness we decided to get this stove; the wood heat just cannot be beat when you need something to snuggle up to. LOL

Here's a picture of my birdbath that I treated myself to with my birthday money from Lilie (one of my seesters *g*). Isn't it just the cat's meow??? I LOVE it!! I just have to remember to dump the water out of it tonight so it won't freeze and crack over the next few nights. There goes the Weatherbug buzzing to tell me there's a freeze warning for tonight. :) And our apple tree has been beautiful. Den (one of my brothers) told me last night that his cherry tree has been loaded with beautiful blooms, and now there's a freeze on the way and it will most likely get frostbitten. Such a shame...I would imagine that there are a lot of people that will be either out covering plants with blankets and rugs or will suffer losses.

We had the most ferocious storm night before last that we've had here yet. And I thought I had gone through several that were really bad. They always come right at bedtime too which makes it even worse. But we are the fortunate ones, so far we really haven't sustained any damage. I know there were lots of people that did suffer a lot of damage from this storm.

I plan on working on 'belated' (yes, I'm getting worse and worse about getting cards in the mail on time :( ) birthday greetings today, and I'm going to FINALLY work on the second block of the Whig Rose today. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it...well, after I make us an almond pound cake, of course :D, which I'm going to do right now. Oh, and I'm going to make a loaf of homemade bread to go with the stew that I cooked yesterday. THEN I'm settling in by the stove and sewing some.

A Gorgeous Sunset,

Homer Kitty on top of Sug's van , and Tree Swallows billing (kissing ;0)

Happy Birthday to 3 Seesters, One Brother and One Niece

My Mom got carried away when it came to April babies...so I'm sending a very special happy birthday greeting to Nita, Den, Flan, Glorie and Sug!! Hope this is the most wonderful birthday for each of you! :D

I just have to share a couple of outside pictures. The first one is of a pair of eagles that were on our lake bank Sunday a.m. Absolutely awesome!!! The next one is a pair of swallows. I thought it was the one of them 'kissing', which they actually do, and it's called 'billing'. Alas, I chose the wrong one...they are so small in photo file that I often can't tell if I have chose "THE ONE" from the group. :( I'll find it tho and put it up later. I also bought a birdbath as my birthday gift from my seester, Lilie, since she told me NOT to buy any more fabric or thread with my gift from her. LOL So I bought a birdbath! :D I'll post a pic of it later too. :)

Sug, the next picture is of the swallow flying from the nesting box. Fifth Avenue is officially rented! :D All rental properties have been snapped up now. :) I think we have our first batch of baby bluebirds already in one of them. :D

I'm headed back outside...all of the pictures enlarge if you click on them. :)

How Can It Be Thursday Already?

I have been outside every day this week, and the week has flown by! I only took a break this afternoon to run in and get a drink of water, and decided to post just a quick note to let everyone know I'm okay. I've still got TONS of yard work to do, and I keep getting distracted watching the Swallows and the Goldfinches. :D Randy helped me put up two new bluebird houses day before yesterday, and the Swallows are going to rent them out first. :) The redbud trees are just gorgeous right now...and, just a tiny quilting note, a pillow that I made last year (I think LOL). Gotta go dig some more weeds up. :)