I went from one thing to the next today without taking a breath. I started moving plants from the basement to outside – several years ago a relative told me I couldn’t haul those plants out of the basement and here it is, 5 years later and I’m still doing it.
Then I went to Clear Lake to buy my hanging geraniums – here’s my railing this year – if I want to hang a pot in every section I’ll need 8 more!!
This nearly brought tears to my eyes – one of the cats likely killed this rose breasted grosbeak – I look forward to these birds all spring – I rehung the feeders as high as I could. It just makes me sick!!!
I hope this wild little girl wasn’t responsible!
Reader photos
Since I showed the plaid quilts, a reader suggested I request photos of your plaid quilts and I love that idea! So….have you made a quilt with plaid fabrics? Would you take a picture of your quilt and send it to:
maryehazel2020@gmail.com
And Bob and I have laughed and laughed over this card – you’ll know who you are! Haha!
I am so dirty I can’t wait to get in the shower so off I go! Tomorrow will be just as full as today.
Mary,I love your geraniums,one of my favorite summer flowers! I really like them on your rail every other one. It makes them stand out more I think. Your yard is looking beautiful-so green.
Enjoyed all the quilts. Have a great day!
Mary,
Had a nice weekend and Mother’s Day. My husband had been up north at our place with a group of guys. It’s a yearly event/tradition for them. One of the men passed out and was taken to the local hospital via ambulance. Turned out he fainted but while in the hospital, doctors discovered he had a blood clot in his lung. He was so lucky, especially because when he came to after losing consciousness, he didn’t want to go to the hospital but my husband insisted. I’m so glad he did. Our friend is now on the mend…change of medication and wearing a heart monitor.
Also, our city had a large water main break (42 inch diameter pipe) and we have been without water since Sunday. All restaurants locally are closed by order of the fire marshal. If a fire occurred, they could not put it out with no water and no water pressure with what water there is. We are showering, doing meal prep, and getting water from our son’s house as he has well water. We are flushing toilets with buckets of water. The city has been giving out free gallons of water daily. I’ve been watering my greenhouse plants with pond/lake water. It’s a pain but we can deal with it a lot better than no electricity! People have to boil any water for safety.
I’m going to the Springfield Antique Show & Flea Market on Thursday with two of my sisters in Springfield, Ohio. Curious if any other readers are going. It’s our first time going and I know it’ll be fun.
Take care everyone! Love the blog. 🌻
Sunflower / no water is hard!!! We have our own well BUT if the electricity goes out, the pump won’t run so we still don’t have water. I know all about carrying water – not fun!
Wish I was going to that show with you! Tell us what you bought when you get back
Great pics of pets and quilts today. The flag quilt is wonderful! Have a nice evening to all.
Hi Mary,
Yes, I know who I am! HA!
I’m running to a high school spring program now.
Judy, I loved your story of the newlywed’s first experience with yeast dough bread . . and the closing line “Always bury your failures deep.” As always, I love your geraniums , Mary. Plaids, love them. I’d have a hard time, too, if the plaid lines weren’t matching or were skewed – lessons imbedded in me while making clothes from my Mom and Aunt. Have a productive day all.
Jan, I have found that when working with plaids or stripes in block, I just need to ignore trying to make the lines true. If they are not straight , so what. But, if I try to keep them straight and one is off, that is really noticeable to me. I grew up making many of my own clothes and plaids were not a problem for me. I could match them good enough for 4-H exhibits. One day at school another teacher asked if I had made my shirt. The ag teacher immediately said “No”. I asked how he knew. “The plaids don’t match. If you had made it, they would have.” He daughter had also been a 4-H seamstress. I have found that if several of the blocks have wonky lines, then it looks normal to me in the quilt. I still have trouble making a quilt with random squares. I feel like there should be some pattern involved. I think it is the math teacher in me.
Judy – loved this explanation about plaids!!
Mary, your geraniums look so nice hanging. Looking forward to more pictures of them during the summer. Comment on yeast bread making needing practice: A lady in our church told of her first yeast bread experience. A newly wed, she decided to make some bread. She followed the recipe carefully, she thought, but nothing happened. So as not to leave evidence of her failure, she buried the dough outside. When her husband came home he was mystified by the mound in the yard. She had not allowed time for the dough to rise, but it was warm enough in the ground for the dough to rise. Lesson…. Always bury failures deep.
Judy – oh, what a funny story!!!! Bury deep! Haha!
I have always wished we had cardinals here in the west, but we don’t. Right now though, we have two pairs of quail wandering around in our backyard. They actually seem to live in the hedge row in the front yard. I love to watch them from inside as I go stelthily from window to window. They haven’t hatched babies yet, but they will later in the season. Then they will bring them out. So adorable. This yeat I am going to try to get photos of them.
I love the plaid quilt shown today and I wish I had one. I only have a stack of plaid shirts to be trimmed into fabric I can use. Many of them are flannel. Does anyone mix and match flannel and plain cotton?
I have mixed cotton and flannel. I had the cutest kids flannel with ladybugs on it, and I wanted to use black & white polka dots for cornerstones. I couldn’t find any b/w flannel dots, but I had cotton dots so I used that. It turned out great, and so cute! I wouldn’t hesitate to mix the two again.
Sue – I mix brushed cotton and cotton – I have never used much flannel at all. Brushed is woven and flannel is printed. And it could be printed crooked. When it’s woven you can easily keep it straight
I just about choked on my coffee seeing Bob’s card! I don’t have any plaid quilts because if the plaid and the seam weren’t straight it would bug me. My quilts aren’t perfect, but that would be a problem for me. Dumb.
Mother’s Day weekend was awesome and busy! Friday was graduation for a grandson, Saturday a day with daughter and granddaughter at a sip and paint event and then lunch, Sunday was church and dinner at our son and family. By Sunday night I was really bushed! And, I don’t have to buy any more flowers because the boys gave me beautiful planters and I save (try to) my geraniums planters in the garage over the winter.
Mary, I love your geranium hanging baskets on your railing. I would be upset about the bird also. I had to buy a taller feeder because we had a black cat that could jump and get birds on the other one. I think that cat had springs in his legs! My son lives in the country and on top of bluffs along the Sioux river so he has tons of birds! There was a blue Jay that sat on the deck railing and called to us and THEN a red cardinal came and called to us! Oh my! So beautiful! We see blue jays all the time but the cardinals are skittish because of the chicken hawks. Take care! Love your blog.
Joy – I’m almost glad to hear your cats can jump high, too – I was devastated to see that dead bird and couldn’t even throw it away – it’s in the freezer along with 2 others gorgeous birds from the past. I wait for these birds all year!
I always love to hear about YOUR busy life and your kids and grandkids. I would be tired, too.
When I started using plaids it was actually during the time when Roberta Horton wrote her first plaid book and since she taught that it wasn’t important to her, I did the same. But honestly if I were using a plaid today, I’d be careful it was straight or close to it.
I have saved geraniums over the winter many times but I was not successful this year. I love hanging the baskets inside in the fall when they’re still full and blooming. Do you water yours thru the winter?
Mary, I water them a couple times and then in the spring I cut them back and fertilize them.
Joy – I hope I can remember this – they don’t freeze in your garage, do they?
Greetings! aMary! My Mother’s Day was a day outside in my back yard bringing out my bird baths and setting them up, I painted two, and should paint the other two as well. I heard from each of my kids and enjoyed visiting with them, they are busy. I shall go check the bluebird trail today to see if the eggs have hatched by now. A photographer with a nice zoom lens has taken many nice photos of them and shared them with me as well. I just have a camera on my phone. I am going to get backs made for my table runners and two wall hangings so I can work on getting them done, and will decide how to assemble my last block of the month class project from 2004. Then I will get to work on my list..still working on my clean this up project in my sewing room as well. Lots of irons in the fire, plus I am trying to walk every day, at least 2 miles. Winter comes too fast and too long, one gets sedintary. Your geraniums look so nice on the railing, and it will be fun to see your plants out front once again. Larry has the corn and soybeans planted too. All seems to be well here! He even got three screens replaced and they look so nice, the sun really takes the life out of things. Have a wonderful day today!
Cynthia – have you seen the copper maple leaf advertised online that will keep your birdbath clean? Can that be possible? It just floats in the water. I wonder if Rick has a small piece of copper pipe I could try. About the camera – I only use my phone, too, but I think the quality is very good.
Mary, I have not seen the floating copper leaf! I tried the copper pipe last year, they’re back in two bird baths for now. I scrub out the algae weekly anyway.
Cynthia – oh, shoot! I was hoping it would work
It has been beautiful here all weekend and forecasted to be nice all week.
I had a wonderful Mother’s Day with my daughter in law. My son is very busy on the weekends with work, so we will make different arrangements to spend some time with him.
Your chickens are delightful to see in that great grass. I bet they love it too.
Wonderful quilts too. I do love a plaid.
Kira, the blind St. Bernard, will get spayed this week. She will go to a different vet for this so she won’t associate her regular vet with an unpleasant procedure. Also, we have to take Loretta’s collar off so she can’t hear the tags and be more receptive to Loretta. Now this is funny…after the big snow event last week, Kira went out, her instinct kicked in , and she started digging for lost hikers. Loretta’s instinct is so dull, she went back to bed!! I got the “I’ll go out later” look.
Jo – I loved the pictures of Kira – what a wonderful thing they did when they kept her! Tell them thank you again from me, an animal rescuer at heart.
Pretty display of quilts! And your geraniums look so pretty hanging on your railing. And how funny is that card to Bob? Mary, be extra careful hauling all those plants up from the basement with your shoulders. Saturday Ron & I visited the antique mall. This place is huge & it amazes me what people collect! Neither of us bought anything, but I did see several pieces of blue china that I collect. Nothing unusual though that I felt I had to have. I did see a Singer Featherweight that was priced at $450. Quite a few quilts that were really worn out & quite expensive. Not sure why someone would pay that price for a worn out quilt. Good condition, yes. We left there & went to the large grocery. Lots of ethnic food, vegetables, spices, etc. vegetables at Jungle Jim’s is very nice & fresh. People come there from several states away to shop. You’ll find just about everything, except I didn’t find the rhubarb I was looking for, too early in the spring I guess. It was a fun day & it took Ron’s mind off of the surgery for the skin cancer he had removed. But we won’t be going back there on a Saturday! Way too busy!! So sorry one of your cats got one of the birds. Here we have to worry about the hawks killing the birds.
Alice – I will worry about my young chickens when I let them out because I see hawks around here. I will be giving them protection to hide under – my hayrack!
Thanks for sharing that card Mary. It is wonderful!!!!! I would so love it if cats didn’t hunt birds. Every now and then I find a dead cardinal or some other beautiful bird, a victim of our cats’ natural hunting instinct. I hang the feeder as high as I can in hopes of foiling the felines. I love cats and I love birds. A
Carol – me, too! I love my cats but I love the birds, too. I am always sad that I never have cardinals – I wonder why.
Great quilts! I love the colorful HST one and Bit Coin. It was a beautiful day here—shorts and long sleeves weather.
Mary, you have had another BUSY day! You found some beautiful geranium planters! They will be enjoyed by many all summer!
Oh, your geranium hanging baskets are breathtaking – and so many. So pretty. I think that the cats are just doing what they’re created to do – the birds too. What a cute kitty apartment. My pet-owning days are all in the past so I love seeing yours!
Judy – and if I find more great hanging geraniums I’ll probably grab a couple more. I love bringing them inside in the fall when they’re still blooming!