It was a beautiful spring day in North Iowa and I made good use of it working outside. Both Becky and Ellen texted that they were moving their succulents outside – my “day” has always been Mothers Day and I will probably stick to that and clean up the rocks tomorrow in readiness for that long awaited day.
Some of the lilies are coming up but not many – and not much of anything else is even sprouting or showing green.
Sad, isn’t it?
This is a summer experiment in the works – a root system upside down in a planter which still needs rocks to secure it upright.
I’m going to plant a vine in this pot and let it climb up the root – if it’s successful it might not even be pretty but I had to try.
Interesting, isn’t it? Haha! Maybe only in the eyes of the beholder?
No time to sew these days but I just picked up several quilts from the quilter and I have binding to do at night. I will post as I finish. I am so tempted to make a Layer By Layer just using my leftover strips instead of a layer cake.
As I was working in the yard today I cleaned off Sally’s grave marker. Sally was my first dog living here on the farm and when she died I had a large box to bury her in. Jenny was just a little girl and as she stood beside the grave with her mom, she said “Say it, Mom”. Say what, Jenny? “Say it Mom – say the pledge.” THE PLEDGE? Yup – we said the Pledge of Allegiance by Sally’s grave. So sweet.
Awww, say the Pledge—so sweet😀. I have my big, beautiful Spike buried outside my window in a little garden. I can see it from my sewing room. I am anxious to see how the vine does on the root. Neat idea!! It POURED all morning in Central Ohio. I went to a 30% off sale at a big quilt shop in Amish Country. Fun day and the rain let up.
Your grass looks green to me.
You may be on to something with that dead tree idea. Keep up posted.
I’m seeing plants at the stores, but, I’m going on retreat and an afraid my husband will either forget to water them , or forget to bring them in the garage and they will freeze overnight. One year while I was at our annual spring retreat, we had a huge snow storm. I’m so tempted, but will wait.
Has the pest guys gotten as many rats as Hazel?
That young lady lost on jeopardy tonight…I’m 😢.
And only by $1. Enjoy watching Jeopardy!!
HI Jo and Peggy, We do , too. My mom, Dad and I watched every night. Mattae was fun to watch and soooo young. Good for her!
My brother and sister, who are quite a bit older than me, had a pet rabbit. My brother was 3 when the rabbit passed. A funeral was held, and they sang Happy Birthday, the only song my brother knew!!
Carmen – another sweet pet funeral! I love that story!!!
Can’t wait to see how your root planter works out. It could look really cool!
Most of my daffodils are blooming and my mini crocus have been blooming for over a week already. I have another batch of daffodils farther from the house that haven’t started blooming yet. They are usually a week or so behind the ones out more in the direct sun. My tiger lillies are breaking ground, too. Cleaned out part of the large flower bed today, hope to get ahead of things. I find that my back is giving me a lot of grief bending over to pull out remnants of last year so I work 15 minutes, rest 15 minutes and that is how it will have to get done this year.
Marj – today I took a 2 hour break over the noon hour and it really helped me keep working this afternoon. I, like you, have a hard time bending over and I can’t get on my knees so it’s tough.
I have a stone out back under a tree that is for Jenica’s first hamster. We had a proper burial and need a headstone, so I painted one for her. I have to pull it further out every couple of years as the tree grows and covers it up.
The garden centers here are full of plants. I don’t put anything in the ground until a week or two after Mother’s Day. Too many years I have planted earlier and lost to a late-season snowstorm.
Diane from CO – you’re smart! I’ve had to move pots of succulents back in the house on several occasions over the years and now I’m leery. I’ve got plenty to do outside – they can wait. Love the hamster story!
I’m not planting anything new this Spring because we are in a drought and I would need to water. With an older well pump, I’m not wanting to overburden it. We did have an unexpected, brief thunderstorm this evening. I’m grateful for every drop of rain. Oh, and pet graves. We have a graveyard for our cats under one of our oak trees complete with limestone grave markers for each.
It has pretty much rained for two days here. We are promised sunshine and warmer temps tomorrow.
Childhood memory: my mom loved birds, so when a neighborhood cat killed a robin, we had a funeral complete with a shoebox casket and a prayer. However, when our dime store turtle somehow ended up dead under the living room sofa, Mom just tossed him out the back door. I guess she was too busy for a funeral that day. 😳
Finally..a nice day! I moved my hibiscus, rosemary and English lavender plants to the garage today. I have enjoyed them in my sewing room all winter. My hibiscus has 14 buds and 1 huge blossom right now. It stayed green and bloomed all winter!
I am ready to play in the dirt and sit outside and enjoy the Sunshine…haircut in the morning, but then I plan to spend the rest of the day outside!
Enjoy the upcoming week of summer!
Hooray for warmer weather! Yesterday I planted all my annual plants and this morning I’m going to kick out all the succulents and other house plants so I can clean up the mess they left behind. I’m so busy outside I don’t have time to spend in my sewing room and that makes me said. I’m also painting closets and have two more bedrooms to paint. Once my spring cleaning is finished I’m going on a retreat in my own sewing room. Happy Mother’s Day to you all you moms out there.💕
The grave is so sweet and so sad too. You have a rich life!
I am picking up a quilt at my long arm quilter today so I would gladly take your binding and do it. One of my favorite things to sit down and do while watching a hallmark movie.
My little blue forget me nots are all over my yard and gardens and I think of my mom as she gave me a clump many years ago. So that makes me smile hoping she is looking down. My daffodils are finished now and tulips are beautiful but my lilacs are slower to open. We have a wooden engraved cross in my flower garden for my beloved dog buried and white primroses over my first cats grave and they have spread out as well as bloom for over a month. I pause many times during the day out there and reflect on their time with me.
We had pet funerals as kids too. We had a church service and buried them in Mom’s flower garden.
Hope your exposed root and vine idea works. Might be quite interesting 🤨
I thought the layer by layer would be a project to use up some of my scraps. Going to order the pattern and start thinking.
Yesterday was a good day to be outside working. Cleaned out the weeds in flowers gardens. Weatherman says we are 3 weeks behind normal temps. I will wait a few weeks before planting flowers 🌺 or garden.
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone😀
Was trying to figure out your strategy with the root. Sounds like a great experiment. I also like to experiment with flowers, mainly seeing if I can winter them over! Good luck and keep us posted on the progress. We are finally told Ohio might start to dry out. I sure hope so. Want to get some seeds planted in the garden. Have a good day!
That’s the sweetest —- The pledge …. Great memory of a sad time
Mary,
I answered your question on FB about the quilt shown at Olde Kent Quilters show in Maryland last week. I’ll add the info here just in case you don’t see it in the comments my FB page. The quilt in question was a BOM from Stitching’Heaven in Texas called ’55 Shades of Grey’. It doesn’t look like its still available but another similar one is….’40 Shades of Grey’. I might be tempted to try to complete it. I love all the different blocks and different colors. Beths quilt in our show was a big hit. We have had almost 3″ of rain. Flowers are blooming, but its hard to get out and plant new ones. Enjoy Mother’s Day. You have been a wonderful mother to so many furry babies!
Bobby in Md.
Bobby Sutton – thank you so much! What a wonderful quilt!
Three inches of rain; 4″ of rain. Oh, what we wouldn’t do to get that out here. I’m sure everybody would be outdoors standing in it and laughing. In the meantime, rain is forcast, but…..maybe.
Of course, we love all the quilt pictures, how they are made and all the colors. It is inspiration. Right now there are 4 boxes of quilts in various stages in the living room waiting to be completed. A 5th one is ready to go to the quilter. Oh, such fun.
Your funeral stories are so dear. Almost brings tears to think of all the loving pets and owners.
We never know what the weather will do from minute to minute, so I wait til the end of May to shop for petunias, etc and only plant them in 3-4 big pots. Last summer God planted a Sunflower in a pot and I let it grow into a beautiful plant. Had to tie it to the fence and water it 4-5 times a day. I loved watching it grow . Seems like we are always on water restrictions so don’t have many plants.
Take care everybody. Betty in Rapid City
And Happy Mother’s day to everybody.
What kind of dog was Sally? Her time was before I knew about you and your shop.
Debbie Miller – when my ex husband and I were moving to the farm from Clear Lake, 15 miles from here, in 1979, some kids wandered by with a puppy. The puppy came back alone several hours later and we were moving the next day. We tried and tried to find out who she belonged to and then we had to leave. We couldn’t just hope she found her way home, could we? So we took her with us and told the neighbors to call us if anyone came looking for her. Nobody ever called. She looked to be a lab mix of some sort – reddish brown in color and we loved her. She got too heavy however and ruptured both anterior cruciate ligaments requiring surgery at Iowa State Vet College. I’ll never forget the sign on the desk – “if you’re financially inconvenienced, we accept Visa and Mastercard”. This is probably more than you wanted to know. Sorry.
No-I love all your stories! I have heard lots of stories about lab mix dogs-that they make very good pets.
I pledge allegiance to all good dogs!