Yogurt?

On Tuesday morning I hosted one of my quilting bees at the house.  We had a great time.  Mom showed off the baby wall hanging she just finished.  I always have the camera with me and then I forget to use it, so that's the only photo I took.  Crazy, I know.

  

The "square foot" gardens are still growing things.  Some stuff grows more happily than others.  It feels like a Big Experiment.  Yesterday, I was excited to serve our first cucumber of the season.  I have a feeling we will have the opportunity to be very tired of them before the summer ends.  :-)

It's too hot for lettuce now and none of the tomatoes have ripened yet, but at least something is from our own little plot.

This dark photo is of Charlie's covered cage.  He completely surprised me yesterday by saying "goodnight" as I covered him up!

Outdoors the bluebirds have built a second nest and there are four eggs.  They do this every year but nothing ever comes of it.  I suspect it just gets too hot.  The heat index was 100F today so I might be right.  We should put up another box in a shadier spot.

Today was a Do Things At Home Day.  This morning I said how about now and picked up the annoying and large pile of fabric scraps off the floor from in front of The Tramp's desk.  The white basket had long ago overflowed and disappeared from sight, and walking and vacuuming around the pile was getting more and more aggravating....to say nothing of how much dog hair was probably mixing in!  I figured I'd better do something about it before it started to compost.  :-p

My plan is to one day make the Omigosh! quilt (third picture down in that link).  To that end I need to cut masses of 1" strips.   So here is the start of that project bin.

I tossed other size strips into their appropriate bins.

Also in the scrap pile was a whole lot of end-cuts from the mitered borders of t-shirt quilts.  I ironed and stacked the pieces for future use and need to get the right sized bin so they don't end up in a wrinkled heap again.

Mid-afternoon the emergency weather radio started blaring watches and warnings.  It was still sunny and hot here.

But it didn't take long for the weather to arrive from the west (from behind the house).  Watching out the front window it was sort of like someone pulling a blanket over the house.

Charlie spent most of the day carrying on louder than usual.  He was clearly unsettled by something. I wonder if it was the weather?

The rains came.

And the wind blew.  The trees were whipping madly and we quickly retreated inside.

Thunder rolled and we could hear sirens off and on.  When the rain stopped the temperature had dropped over 20F (!) and mist rose from the pond for a long time.

The birds rushed back to the feeders like it was going to be their last meal.  Lots of house finches,  mourning doves, confused cardinals in various stages of juvenility, woodpeckers, the bluebirds and their young brood and a host of others.....including the squirrel family.

Over the last couple of hours we've discovered how fortunate we are.  Various of The Tramp's co-workers have reported that they are dealing with power outages and downed trees.  There is news of widespread damage.  Lots of amazing images too.

And lastly.  Just in case you were wondering if dogs like Greek yogurt....

Whoops!  They moved.  All three of them had their noses and tongues shoved in that little container at the same time.

Yes Ivy, I'm taking your picture.  :-)

More damp

Today was a long day of prepping t-shirts for a double-sided quilt.  I haven't counted yet but I was told it was 88 shirts in all.  Phew!

It certainly overflows the large waste bins.  And this is without a large bag of shirt parts that the client didn't select.  I've found it's always prudent to save the reject parts until the quilt top is designed!  It's saved me from trashcan diving more than once.  :-)

While I sliced shirts, today's waves of storms came and went.  It poured!

What's that under the tree?

Heh.  A great blue heron sheltering from the rain.

He/she waited for a while then moved on.

Seemingly intent on something.

And got the fish!

At that moment the rain stopped and the sun appeared.

I guess it looked like the pickings were going to be better on the other side of the pond.  :-)

I had cabin fever by the time dinner was over so was glad we were running out of milk and needed to take a trip out.  The clouds were spectacular.  I snapped this in the parking lot and the lady getting into the next car excitedly asked me if I'd spotted a rainbow.  :-)   Afraid not.

Right now we're watching today's Apple announcements (on Apple TV!).  I can hear The Tramp across the room exclaiming over all the new coolness.

For me I think, it's iOS7 that's the most swoon-worthy.

Now if only we had buckets of money.  ;-)

Damp

Damp, dank, mosquito-y, and downright wet are the best descriptors for the past week.  Arming myself with shoes, long pants and repellent, Maisy and I went for a walk Thursday morning on the greenway.  The area was busy bracing for the arrival of tropical storm Andrea and the air felt much like the calm before the storm.

I'm sure this creek was a raging torrent on Friday.

That's the sideways glance over the shoulder why-are-we-slowing-down-for-a-picture look.

It was dark and cool under the trees.  We couldn't venture off the pavement though.  Not even thinking about what critters are there, the poison ivy is rampant.

The house has disappeared into the summer green.  Note the stand pipe in the pond.  Water is a little on the high side, but not excessively so.

Easter lilies!  Almost.

Grrrrrrrr.  And persimmon tree sprouts.  Everywhere.  Sigh.

And our own batches of poison ivy.  If it ever stops raining we can treat all the unwanteds.

An exhausted Maisy being watched over by Charlie.  :-)

The storm moved in overnight and the pond filled up and turned brown.

I finished putting the borders on this t-shirt quilt and went out to deliver it.

Look.  No stand pipe!  Well, it's under that barely showing blob of debris in the center.

And the water reached the road.  Not too bad.  They recorded 5.14 inches of rain in our area so we did very well considering.

On Saturday we drove up to Virginia to go on a house hunting trip with the Sailor Son.  The grands were well behaved and quite enjoyed themselves, though they were a little confused about the whole concept.  The hard hats were especially fun when we visited a new construction site.

On the way home from Virginia the GPS had a hiccup and when I reprogrammed it I made the wrong route selection.  It turned out to be the right selection though as we avoided the major interstate highway and went the country road route instead.  Very pleasant.  No huge trucks and almost no cars!

In between the farmland the road was cool and shady.

Hay, cotton, tobacco, corn, and peanuts were spotted, and probably plenty of stuff we don't know how to identify.

And little cemeteries in the fields.

We passed through several small towns that were previously unknown or just names to us.  This one had a fascinating main street with the parking spaces up the middle of the road.  :-)

Knitting kept me busy.

The Tramp's car was sporting new tires, the new radio and a new way of using our phones for music, GPS and phone calls.

When it got too dim to knit I amused myself with the camera.

Just as we turned off the highway near home I spotted this duck in the clouds.  :-)

It will take some time for the brown sediment to settle in the pond.  It's never clear, but it usually looks much nicer than this.  The stand pipe has a large pile of debris on top.  Now the rushing water has calmed someone will take out the neighborhood boat and clean it off.

The Easter lilies opened!

While it's been raining this evening, yet again.....I finished putting all the blocks together in rows and the first three rows sewn together.  Wild!  :-)  I'm hoping my bee will help me audition fabrics for the borders on Tuesday.

Despite my initial really bad cutting job that resulted in lots of triangle trimming and blue language, and sewing parts together on at least three different sewing machines, points are coming together reasonably well.  Anyway, I'm not making myself crazy over it.  Somewhat by chance and somewhat by planning I've also managed to have all my seams pressed in the proper directions to make it all snug together properly.  I am amazed!

And lastly.......LZF posted this picture of The Viking.  So cute.  The tax deduction is just a little icing on the cake.  :-)