It's hot. No, make that HOT. And sticky. The humidity is so high you feel like gills would help the breathing process. When you start sweating - oops, no, that's glistening - at 6:00 a.m. while watering flowers, you know it's full-blown summer. Not that I was watering at that time this morning - it's Saturday! (but I have been doing that) This morning I mixed up a little plant food at half strength and poured it in some potted plants. I'm always so afraid of burning them. I even put a tiny bit in the geranium-from-2-years-ago where little mama wren has her nest with 5 eggs. I really appreciate her MO this time, because - wonder of wonders - she built the nest facing out so you don't have to be a contortionist to see inside it. You don't even have to bend over unless you just want to get really close.

I haven't done anything on the quilt front except help Beth, who's now at the quilting stage of her newest venture. This time it's a lap quilt she's doing, and she machine-pieced it. She and Joshua are going to Mississippi for a long weekend to visit his family since he doesn't have to work next week, and she wanted to have the quilt to work on while down there. I can't wait to see what she's done by the time she gets back Tuesday!

There are several folks I really need to get embroidered/quilted postcards done for, so I have one started that I can work on in the evenings when we're piled up on the bed watching tv and on my today's list is tracing off several more. That's the part I don't care for, because it's so tedious to trace words. I think I may prowl around at dafont.com to see if I can find something a little easier than the ones I've been using. That's a really cool site if you like playing with fonts and dingbats and suchlike.

I tried a site linked from Feelin' Stitchy where you can print text of your choosing for cross stitch (wish I'd had it back when I did a lot of that!!!) or backstitch. There's only one for backstitch, and because it's still done with cross stitch type fabric in mind, it didn't give me the effect I wanted when using it one of my postcards. My trial with it is the one I'm currently working on, and I'll finish it, but don't think I'll do any more with that font. If you do cross stitch, you really might want to check it out - here's the place for charting text.

Happy Sunday to All!

It's been a beautiful day - lots of sunshine but not too hot, thanks to the cold front that came through Friday evening. It was so clear yesterday and only in the 70's mid-morning - the air had a feeling of fall to it. It was weird, since we've got a fair amount of hot weather yet to come. Warmer today, but still quite pleasant.
After our long drought, we had several rainy days. We're still pretty far behind in annual rainfall and have lower water tables than we should, but we're been very thankful for the rain that has come in the last couple of weeks..
I've enjoyed listening to the katydids, who traditionally tell of the coming of the first frost - the old wives' tales say that the first frost will be 90 days after you first hear the katydids. Well, I heard them a bit early this year, so who knows what will happen! Also the tiny tree frogs really make a lot of music/noise at night about now - some evenings nearly drowning out the insects, owls, and coyotes! (and our Sweet P's, who love to sing in chorus with the coyotes!!!)

I managed to trace some bits and pieces of flowers for another fabric postcard this afternoon - it's just so doggoned tedious!! Wish it were easier. I work on the stitching when we're piled up in bed at night watching tv and relaxing. I've also been on a yo-yo making streak in the evenings when I didn't have any stitchery ready to do - figuring there'll be something to do with them down the road. I've just got a bag of small fabric scraps and some circle templates cut from an old x-ray film by the bed.
Evan's rheumatoid arthritis is really giving him fits the last couple of days and it just hurts me to see him in such pain. And he's got some bulldozer work to finish up, not to mention finishing up with the meter box for the water line for the ballfield sprinkler system at RCA, our church congregation's Christian school. Prayer is what is seeing us through these days.
We have so many blessings, though - just a few of which are each other, living on our farm in the midst of the glories of creation, daughter Beth and her hubby Joshua living nearby, Beth teaching at RCA and excited about it, good friends . . . and on and on.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

It's summertime!

It's summer, full-blown summer! I want to know how that happened since Christmas was only a couple of weeks ago and then we had that big freeze here in Tennessee that did so much damage....no spring, really.....but now the temps are in the 90's and it's D R Y (we're umpteen inches below where we should be in rainfall).

AAACCKKKK!

Seems like I've only spent a few brief periods at the pool and yet I've been watering my few flowers like mad (fortunately we have free spring water) and watching things die anyway. The farmers around here are really suffering - the beef farmers are already feeding hay because of the lack of pasture (and a pitiful hay crop in the works for the current year) and the row crop farmers are seeing tiny seedlings and plants die for lack of moisture. Our corn is tasseling at about 3 feet in height - no ears....the beans won't bloom or have beans without rain..

Things have continued to be really crazy at work - sick folks and vacationing folks - just staffing holes everywhere that have to be filled by already busy people. And insurance companies get crazier and crazier in their journey to paying fewer and fewer claims and those at lower and lower rates. Times are really tight for physicians.

But here's a lovely sight . . . the lowly marigold in all its beauty. And, you know what? Both Evan and I love the scent of marigolds, even though most folks do not. The scent is kind of pungent and reminds me of tomatoes and geraniums....which remind me of the smell of electricity - as in from the transformer of my brother's electric train.

The tablecloth is one from my childhood . . . and it was old then . . . so it probably came from the 40's. I got the little blue jar in a set at Pier I - I LOVE colored jars, vases, etc...and these tiny ones came to about $1 each in the set.

OH - almost forgot! The new wren nest is not in my old backpack but in my hanging pot of lantana!!!!