A Little Bit of Pretty

Here's a little tribute for all moms:

I hope you all have a Happy Mother's Day!

 

When the Right Place Becomes the Wrong Place

When we moved to Colorado in 2007 I made the decision to become a Master Gardener so that I could better understand how and what to plant at my new home, whose climate, soil and sunlight were so very different from South Carolina where I had resided for 34 years. One of the first things that was emphasized was, "Right plant, right place!" 

But, what does one do when the right place suddenly becomes the wrong place for a particular plant?

We had several trees removed last year that were overhanging the house and were a threat in the event of a hurricane. It was amazing to see the difference in light that would make in the garden. Suddenly, the shaded garden bank became a sunny garden bank. Quite a few of the plants in that area were not happy and were obviously in the wrong place.

 These are Cast Iron plants. Although formerly green and lush, they are now exhibiting browning leaf tips, partly from our cold winter and partly from being burned by the sun, (The red plants are Cordyline, recently purchased to occupy their new 'right' place - they don't mind the sun.)

I have begun moving those plants to the right place, a corner in the garden that receives less direct sunlight and is more apt to have dappled shade. 

Cast Iron plants to not like having their roots disturbed, so they may not appreciate their move. I keep telling them it's for their own good. Time will tell! 

Oh, Deer....take two

Eight years ago, today, we were leaving Texas after visiting friends at Lake Medina.  I wrote this post about one of those once-on-a-lifetime experiences. I just had to share one of the "Wow!" moments of my life!

Oh, Deer!

We had a wonderful visit with our friends at Lake Medina. We had a full day and a half to talk, and talk, and talk some more. We had a long day ahead of us on the day we were leaving as the campgrounds in West Texas along I-10 become a bit sparse and we wanted to make it to Van Horn, TX. 

We got up at day break and set about our tasks. I took Tucker and Gypsy for their morning walk and tied them out at a tree. I felt badly for anyone trying to sleep along our chosen path because we bumped into small groups of deer on our walk, and of course Loud Mouth (Tucker) has to speak his piece to try to get the deer to move on. Oh, how he wished to run them off, and oh, how tempted was I to let him go! Dealing with a barking, lunging, 70-pound Aussie is trying. 

Anyway, back at the camper, we set about our tasks: I worked on getting breakfast and the Mister began dumping tanks and unhooking cable, water, and power. He came inside to say, "Uh oh! We have a problem." (Too bad we had moved beyond Houston or he could have used that in context for a change!) I followed him outside to the back of the camper. He gestured his hand in the general direction of the back wheel, and said, "Look." I looked for a water leak. It wasn't that. I looked for a broken fitting, I didn't see any. I looked at the tire, it wasn't flat. Do you see the problem?

And then, I saw it. There was a newborn fawn curled up on the gravel between the wheel and the stabilizing jack. An itty, bitty speckled, darling, still showing marks where momma had licked it clean! Oh, my! 

I went over to our friends, who are early risers, and told them that we had a problem and bring a camera. He, being slightly hard of hearing, went and got his hammer. He's got a great sense of humor so we could all laugh at that. They were equally stunned at what we had found. 

We worked as quietly as we could to ready the camper for our departure. We figured that as long as we didn't touch the fawn, the doe would return. I did share messages with a friend who is a wildlife rescue and rehab person, and she confirmed it would be alright for us to make an exit and leave the little guy on the gravel. 

Our friends took up watch at a distance and we received a message about 5 minutes after we left that mom had returned to take her little one. We all heaved a great sigh of relief.

I am fortunate that we all got to witness this miracle. It was a truly special morning!

Side note : Newborn fawns have no scent as a protection from predators. They instinctually lie perfectly still where their mother has gently pushed them down. When I walked the dogs I passed within a few feet of the fawn. When I tied the dogs their ropes would have let them get less than 8 feet from the fawn. They didn't have a clue!

Evolution of a Quilt

I have an Accuquilt "Go!" cutter. It's a fabric die cut machine, which advertises that using their system allows the quilter to cut fabric pieces for a quilt faster and with more precision, yielding better end results.   I've used it a bit, but in my mind, not enough. Just over 2 years ago I decided to make a quilt that came in a book accompanying the machine. The quilt was called “My Road to Oklahoma”. It was designed by Eleanor Burns. Eleanor is a master quilter and was the TV host of a show called "Quilt in a Day". This is an image I found on the Internet showing this particular quilt. 

I used the appropriate dies to cut some of the fabric and began piecing pieces together. I laid out some blocks on my design wall, experimenting with the colors and shapes I had cut. As I progressed, I decided I didn't really care for the quilt layout. 

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However, some of the blocks on the diagonal lines reminded me of a pattern that is sometimes called the Chandelier Quilt. 

Picture from the Internet

 I had selected bright fabric so why not let it shine as a chandelier! 

I laid out what I had cut, using a 4-patch block instead of the larger square in the quilt design and stared at it a bit. I also had made up some of the 4-patch star blocks (sometimes called a scrappy star or a sawtooth star). The chandelier quilt didn't have that block in it...but if it is a chandelier...it could have some brighter lights! 

I placed some of the stars randomly among the 'string of lights' in the chandelier. 

All of this was happening around this time that I visited the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. While enjoying the quilts on display I struck up a conversation with two other women. One of them turned out to be Marianne Hatton who wrote a book called “Simply Dynamic Sampler Quilts”. Although the book is out of print, I was able to locate one a few weeks later and loved it. Marianne describes the process for making a sampler quilt with different types of blocks, ie showcasing a 'sample' of quilt blocks. Unlike most sampler quilts, Marianne suggested varying the size of the blocks to add interest to the quilt. 

I decided to apply that idea and created a large star within a star within a star, and added that to a 'string of lights' in the quilt. The quilt is now on my long arm, ready to be quilted. 

I find it interesting to see how this quilt changed from my first idea to the final product. It really was an evolutionary process....but was it the quilt that evolved, or the quilter, herself?!

Name That....

 Emotion! 

The Mister has been working on finishing his workshop for weeks. When we had the RV barn built, extra space was included and designated as his workshop area. Our contractor for other jobs around the house framed in the workshop, put in joists for a loft storage area, put down sheathing for a floor and built stairs to the loft. 

The Mister took over the rest of the job, and has been working at wiring the shop for outlets, putting in lights and adding additional power for overhead fans and a vacuum system. A while back he began purchasing and ordering insulation batts for the interior walls and the ceiling. The insulation for the ceiling  has been delayed. The Mister is less than happy as he wants to get moving with the sheetrock and flooring so the finish details can be completed and he can begin to enjoy the workshop. 

Today he finally got a notice that his shipment of insulation would be delivered. And, it arrived. Here it is:

Some day we may laugh about this! But, not today. He is/was fuming. He stormed into the store (I wasn't there...but I am making an assumption here) and addressed customer service. He did not receive a warm reception...until it was noticed that the "part number" for a bundle of batts, and that for a pallet of insulation bundles is in fact, the very same number. 

Oops! 

Oh, and he paid for a pallet, not a single bundle. 

Oops! 

Someone coulda, shoulda noticed! 

So, he is back to square one. He is waiting to learn when the order will be shipped and when it will arrive. 

Lots of emotions swirling around here. I am sure you can name more than a few.....

May Showers Bring....

 Weeds!

I love the garden that the previous owners of the house installed and maintained. Between the weather and our removing some trees that changed the amount of light that the garden receives, it is not faring well. And yes, it could be that I don't give it the right amount of TLC, or perhaps don't spend enough time out there telling the plants how lovely they look! Oh, and yes, it could also be that it is only the beginning of May, and with the freeze we had, some plants have to come back to their glory from the roots. And, they are working on that! 

Our rain yesterday was lovely. And, no, the rain didn't mean that the weeds grew overnight. They have been there. However, the lovely rain means damp soil, which translates to it being a tad easier to get weeds out of the garden, along with their roots! 

I spent my morning kneeling and sitting amongst the emerging ferns, digging out, and pulling out baby palms, smilax, Virginia creeper and all manner of nasty, ugly, stubborn, prickly, deep rooted, obnoxious weeds. Look at my haul....and I only covered about 20 feet of the garden bank. 

Of course, I had help (???) from the dogs. One or the other would come over to see me periodically, when I had my face closest to the ground with my hands buried in the dirt, and thus in a vulnerable position, to give me a kiss. I'm sure you can tell from the picture that Vickie is rooting me on....yeah, go mom! You got this! ...whatever!

Rain, Glorious Rain

 It's raining! 

Our last rain was on April 8, and we had < .02 inches of rain. Not even enough to wet a  whistle! 

We have already had close to 3/4" of rain in the last hour.

Everything looks greener - mostly because all of the tree pollen and dust has been washed off everything. My car is back to its usual color; I'll no longer lose it in the parking lot because I don't recognize it with its yellow-pea green coat of pollen! 

Sadly, the weather patterns show us going back into a long spell of dry weather, but I'm enjoying it at the moment and I'll take anything I can get.