Tomatoes and Peppers and a Couple Old Crows

Yesterday I picked two green peppers. Two jalapeno peppers look ready too. I wonder if I have enough peppers to make hot pepper jelly; it would have to be green. If I make hot green pepper jelly, perhaps I ought to go to the farmers' market to get sweet and hot red peppers to make hot red pepper jelly. I could have green and red jelly for Christmas.

The tomatoes are ripening; perhaps I should pick them so they can finish ripening inside. For some reason, I am under the impression that it is a good idea for them to finish ripening inside. I read that somewhere but cannot remember the rationale. I really planted the jalapeno pepper plant so I could make salsa.

While I picked the green peppers yesterday, the crows scolded me. I think that they must have some young ones.

When the morning light is a little better, I will take pictures of the tomato and pepper plants.

Last night I added pictures 31-45. This morning, I labeled them.

Fifteen New Pictures Posted

I just finished labeling 15 new pictures. If the link I posted yesterday works, you can use it today. You can bookmark it because I will be adding 15 pictures at a time. That is about all that I want to do at any one time.

It appears that the link to my online picture gallery does not work. That does not surprise me. Let me know if you want I a link; I will send you one via e-mail.

During the early morning hours, we got a little rain. I debated with myself about whether or not I would walk to the healthclub. This is Thursday and my day to walk. I went back to sleep before I could make a decision, rational or not. The next thing I was aware of was Roger's waking me. He wondered if I was going to walk or not. We decided that I would go back to sleep. I thought it over for a couple seconds and decided to get up. I did not regret it. The rain had stopped; the temperature was a little cool; it felt a little damp and clammy. But, I did not regret walking first thing this morning.

Yesterday I finished making the apron smaller. Gosh but it is small. I did no stitching. Perhaps it is time to set aside my little ornaments and find something that inspires me a little more to stitch.

We checked the long range weather forecast. I am going to make focaccia Saturday. I wonder if I should put onions on top of it, maybe just rosemary and olive oil, or maybe both onions and rosemary. This just tells you how mundane my life is when the excitement is making decisions about what to do with bread that I plan to make. :-D
I plan to sprinkle a little fleur de sel on it. I used to pooh pooh the fancy grade French sea salt. But I have learned my lesson. Fleur de sel is very tasty and very flavorful. When I use it, I must remember to use it sparingly because a little goes a long way. Perhaps I just made my decision. I think there is a high probability that fleur de sel will get lost in onions.

Link to Online Picture Gallery

I have just uploaded and labeled 15 pictures. Except for the first one in MN, they are all in Scotland. We started in Glasgow and drove to nearby Troon. From there, we drove to Inverness and then to Edinburgh before going into England. Driving in the UK was quite an experience for Roger. He decided to rent a car with an automatic transmission and was very thankful he did. He had a general idea that he might not want to try a manual transmission while learning to drive on the other side. It was a good thing too because we had an "incident" in Troon.

It was garbage pick up day and the containers were out. We were trying to find our B & B and Maureen's house. It was hard to see house numbers or names so we were paying a lot of attention to that and forgot about the garbage containers. Roger drove too close to the side of the road; did I mention that these roads were a lot more narrow than the ones we are accustomed to? He scraped the side of the car against the garbage containers. The mirror snapped off. This was stressful and would remain a stressor until we returned the car.

We had made arrangements via e-mail with a lot of the places we would stay, both in the UK and on the Continent. Especially for our first night we thought we did not want to look for a place to stay on our own. The one we selected was very close to Maureen's home and that felt good to us. The woman was a lot of fun to correspond with on the internet and that made me like her a lot. When we found the B & B, no one was home. Eventually when we found Maureen, she told us that the woman had contacted her as we had told the woman where we ultimately wanted to go. The woman's husband was very ill and in one hospital; her mother or his mother was also very ill and in another hospital. The woman was quite frazzled by running between two hospitals. Maureen gave us the message the woman would not be able to keep our arrangements. We were never able to make contact with the woman, not even by e-mail when we returned home. Even now, I find myself wondering how she was and what she was doing. I gather that she never reopened the B & B.

We went into the central business district of Troon where we found the library. The librarians showed Roger a listing of B & B's. A lot could not take us but Roger did find Mrs. Sinclair. She was a little strange but she did say that she could take us. She would not have a breakfast for us in the morning, at most some toast and tea. I could see Maureen any where but near her house. She was extremely concerned that we might bang our suitcases against her walls so she would carry them upstairs for us and my but why did we have such heavy ones. She took us to a very small room with two single beds which was just fine with us. We only wanted to drop into them and sleep.

Roger chatted with Mrs. Sinclair. He is very good with elderly, crotchety people. She decided to change our room so we could have a double bed. We were fine with the original arrangement but this room did have a little more space in it. In the morning, she decided that we should have a traditional Scottish oatmeal breakfast for our first morning in Scotland. She also prepared bacon, toast, marmalade, and tea for us. Roger engaged her in a very interesting conversation. I still think she was a little strange.

Yesterday was a busy day. There was not much for me to do at the hospital so I went home early. I joined Roger when he left for an appointment. I dropped him off and went over to a nearby Jo-Ann Fabrics; I needed a couple things. When I returned for Roger, he was ready to go. That was very good timing.

The next thing I did was begin working on an apron. A friend of mine works in a grocery store. She prepares and hands out samples of products the store wants to promote. The store has aprons the food demo people wear. It is as close as they come to wearing an uniform. My friend is small, very small, really small. When I made her a couple dresses, I started with size four and made the pattern smaller. I am making one of her aprons smaller. For a long time I struggled with the thought of taking it all apart to cut it down. As soon as I bought into the idea, it went well. Yesterday I did most of the work. Today I just have a little topstitching left. I think I ought to make a pattern of what I have so that I can repeat it in the future.

Right now, I am trying to eat a little time. I am waiting to take Mooch to the vet for his vaccination updates. We need to be there in about an hour. While we are gone, Roger will vacuum the floors that I will wash when Mooch and I return. Mooch does not like the vacuum cleaner and since he will be gone, I thought it would be a good idea.

Sometime today, I will begin uploading pictures from our European Holiday in 2002 to my online picture sharing account. We took a lot of pictures; in fact, we had just gotten a digital camera for the vacation. We also got a laptop to bring with us so we could download pictures. At that time camera memory chips were small; I think the largest chip we had would hold ten pictures. We brought several chips with us. I will post a link to the pictures as soon as I have some uploaded. I will upload only a relatively small selection and it may seem like a lot.

Speaking of laptops and computers, our current laptop is more powerful than our first PC. That was quite a novelty. We got it long before internet arrived on the scene. Roger gave me a choice. I could have a vacation in Acapulco or we could get a computer. We named the computer Acapulco. The closest we have gotten to Acapulco was our cruise a year ago to Cabo San Lucas.

I was in such a hurry this morning to get to the hospital for volunteer time that I forgot to tell you to click on each of the pictures in turn. I did not resize them because there is no stitching. :-) The large pictures show the colors of the fabrics and threads much better. In the large Beatrix Potter materials picture, only the yellow thread appears washed out.

Yesterday I become side- tracked and did not show you the pictures of my new fabrics from Silkweaver and the threads that I will use to stitch my Quaker samplers. The first picture shows the fabric and threads for Beatrix Potter. I thought that the Waterlilies, Tobacco, in the center went very well with the fabric which is approximately the color of DMC 809. From Tobacco, I selected the DMC colors. The second is for Mary Wigham. The fabric is approximately the color of DMC 928. I decided to make it monochromatic and use the five colors in the family. Then I found the Waterlilies in the center of the top, Steel. It has a very subtle color variation and is more gray than the greens but I still think it works.

One of our sons worked in Saudi Arabia for a year, December 2001 through November 2002. For his vacation he wanted to meet us in Germany. He had two weeks of vacation. Roger and I went to the UK for two weeks prior to Ben's vacation. We met Ben in Frankfort and our other son, Dan, flew in from the US to join us. While Roger and I spent two weeks touring in the UK, he arranged for me to meet all of my friends in the UK. I had the opportunity to meet Christine and Clare. If I had known Riet, I am certain we would have met you too. I really am not certain how much of our pictures Christine and Clare have seen. I was just thinking that I could upload them if you are interested.

Answer to Riet

We have been in The Netherlands once; we took our sons who were about nine years old. That was in the late 1970's. We spent a couple days in Amsterdam. We crossed the channel from England and took a train from the port to Amsterdam. While we were waiting in line at a tourist information office, a Dutch woman asked us if we were staying more than one night. We told her we were and she asked us if we would like to stay at her home. She and her family rented rooms to tourists but only if they stayed more than one night. The family was very nice to us and gave us a lot of useful information about things to do and how to get around in Amsterdam. We enjoyed our time in Amsterdam very much and the Dutch people were extremely nice to us. When we left Amsterdam, we took a train to Cologne. We could only see glimpses of the countryside from the train. That was so long ago, our pictures were on 35mm film. Maybe I ought to take them out to see whether or not they have deteriorated.

Thanks to Riet for sharing the YouTube video of America the Beautiful. I think that she knows that things like that have an emotional impact for me. Yes I felt that all the way down in my toes. I have seen the purple mountains majesty in both the US and Canada. I have seen the amber waves of grain in both the US and Canada. I have seen the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. I am a very fortunate person to have seen so much of North America and Europe including Great Britain.

I decided to upload some pictures inspired by the song America the Beautiful.
1. The mountains and Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park
2. The wheat fields outside of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
3. The Atlantic Coast - Patrick Air Force Base south of Cape Canaveral
4. The Pacific Coast along Big Sur - Unfortunately, it was not a blue sky day.

Last week I was discussing copyright issues with a needlework designer. As a direct result of our conversation, I checked the scans and pictures of my needlework that I have uploaded. Oh my, someone could easily count out the design from my pictures. I experimented with the last scan I uploaded; I ought to reduce it even more. While I know how to make the reductions, I do not have a formula or guideline to tell me how much to reduce it without experimentation. Once I make a suitable image, I hope I can develop an easy to follow guideline for the future.

Yesterday the linen I ordered from Silkweaver for the Mary Wigham Sampler and Beatrix Potter Sampler arrived. The samplers are Quaker samplers and are available through Jacqueline Holdsworth's blog Needleprint. I am very excited about the linens and love the colors. I had some ideas about thread colors to use with them. My ideas went right out the window when I saw the linens. I am putting together some new ideas and will probably be able to show you tomorrow. The unfortunate thing is that I cannot begin stitching either for a while.

Yesterday Roger and one of our sons finished staining the fence. We really should have repaired and restained it a couple years ago. Every time we go into the backyard now, it is startling to see the refreshed fence.

I can tell that the days are beginning to grow shorter. It is not quite as light when I leave home in the morning to take my walk. I have walked almost half of the three miles before the birds begin to sing. I look forward to the lengthening days with so much anticipation that the shorter days seem disappointing. This morning as I walked, a little bat flew over my head. I hope it was eating mosquitoes and other things that bite me.

Yesterday I renewed my concen- tration on the little ornaments. I stitched this design once a few years back. Apparently I have no recollection of how I stitched it and have been establishing my routine on the first one through trial and error. Hopefully the remainder will stitch with much greater ease.

I would gladly trade our sun and dry for anyone's rain. This morning we woke to a short, light drizzle. I guess that as little as it was, it was better than nothing.

Roger continues making progress on the fence. I think he is almost finished with the side that faces the neighbors and they have not returned from vacation yet.

Yesterday, we had two brief rain showers. That is two consecutive days with a little bit of rain. I am sorry to chatter on about the rain and our drought conditions. It is a matter of major concern.

Yesterday I stitched a little on the first ornament back. I added the year. Dan says he wants to stitch the band at the bottom which duplicates the band at the bottom of the front. I guess I will start working on the second ornament. I just wonder when he thinks he will stitch.

Last night I saw a picture of a Minnesota grassland. It was in bloom with Queen Ann's Lace, or cow parsley if you are one of my British friends. It looked so beautiful to me and I could almost smell the meadow.

No Pictures or scans today. The back does not show up very well. We had two rain storms yesterday and one really was a storm. This is good for us. It is a cool, sunny morning.

My blog has been spammed again. It is obvious that the spammers have done a search on specific words. How do they do that? I cannot find out - not that I would spam anyone. Also, do you know how to find the profile of a spammer? I am just plain curious about people who would spam strangers. The spammers can obviously find my profile; in return, I would like to just see their profile.

At last we have rain. It is a gentle rain that is sinking into the ground. Would it be too much to ask that it rain like this all day? For the next two or three days? It looks like Roger will not be able to go outside to work on the fence. That is good too. He needs a day to recuperate from the exertion. He needs a day to prepare his application to renew his passport. Mine is ready to go and we must do it this month. He also needs a day to prepare some insurance claims. I think this rainy day is exactly what we need.

Last night, I finished my part of the ornament front and backstitched the outline. I found another small miscount which was easy to repair. This one little front has been a major pain. Right now I am not certain how much I like it.

As you can see yesterday I completed the lettering on the first ornament. I will stitch in another line of Algerian eyelets and then my son wants to stitch the two remaining sections on each of the ornaments. I am not certain yet if I will stitch the backstitch outline which becomes the construction line or go on to start the second ornament.

The Queen Ann's lace still looked fresh.

Yesterday was filled with stitching frustra- tions. As you can see, my scan shows little progress from the last one. If I were to tell the truth, it shows negative progress.

First of all, my stitching time on Friday was limited by the process of installing my new microphone/camera and downloading and installing Skype. More about that later. Yesterday when I picked up the little ornament, I discovered that the wording was not placed well. The chart is done over two. The wording is charted separately over one with the instructions to center it vertically in the designated area on the over two chart. Somehow, I did not do that correctly and felt that I had to pick out all of the letters I had stitched. In the process, I cut one of the linen threads but was able to carefully stitch over it with the second attempt. The second time, I still did not get the placement correct and was beginning to wonder if perhaps I should give up entirely. By this time, I decided the best thing would be to add the wording chart to a representation of the main chart in my charting software. I really should have done that first. What you see is now my third try of Glory. By this time the cut linen thread was so badly frayed that I could not stitch over it. I picked it out to the edge of the fabric on the left side and further into the fabric on the right side and wove in a new linen thread. The stitching guardians were finally with me; I hope they felt a little sheepish about not paying close enough attention to me earlier. I took both thread ends to the back of the linen in a random spot which eventually was located underneath a stitch; I could secure both ends with my blue thread. If you care to click on the picture to see a slightly larger version, look carefully to see if you can see where the linen threads meet. If you can, please let me know. This is a test to try to see how noticeable the correction is.

Now I will continue with the saga of the microphone/camera and Skype installation. I had a couple problems that I had to address. I had no video. Well duh, I had to open the lens; in my defense, I would like to say that I still think it should open automatically on its own. The next problem was the audio. Skype said that my microphone was not connected. Well, yes, it was; I had installed the microphone software and introduced it to my computer. But, I had neglected to introduce it to Skpye. With that done, I was set to go. Yesterday I had my first Skype to Skype conversation with audio, obviously, and video. It works - - -it works.

In the midst of everything yesterday I forgot to tell you about the beautiful Queen Ann's lace that I saw by the roadside when I took my son to work. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I want to try to take some pictures today to show you. I hope it still looks as fresh and beautiful.

No scan today. I had only minimal progress yesterday partly because my time was limited and partly because I had to change the stitch for the lettering. The suggested stitch might have worked if I was using silk but since I am not, it looked a bit skimpy. I am stitching the lettering with one over one and it is working out quite well. Tomorrow I will be able to show you all of the lettering.

Not much for me to say today. We got up a little later than usual but still went to the healthclub and grocery store on the way home. For a significant portion of the night, the healthclub was without power. The water was just barely body temperature, if even that warm. I had a rather quick shower.

It is official, the area in which I live has been classified as having a severe drought. We are also having lower than average temper- atures for this time of the year. That is a small blessing in disguise because it means less of the available moisture is evaporating. The day began with fairly heavy cloud cover but there is no suggestion of rain in the forecast.

Yesterday I made chocolate bread. One of the local grocery stores used to have chocolate bread. A while back the store greatly scaled back its on premise bakery and no longer bakes chocolate bread and other very delicious breads. Wednesday I looked through my Italian cookbook because I wanted to make some focaccia. I was pleasantly surprised to find a chocolate bread recipe. The picture does not show the bread as dark brown as it really was but I still think I will make some changes to the recipe. The first thing will be to add more cocoa. Just the same, the bread is good; in fact, it is good enough for me to make a trip out to pick up some mascarpone to spread on it. With the low temperatures, baking is much more pleasant.

I continue to stitch on the first ornament and it is progressing very well.

Perhaps the most excitement yesterday was generated by a delivery. My little webcam/microphone combination arrived. We need to introduce it to the computer and then I can download Skype. This is going to be exciting.

At last I feel like I am making progress on the set of four ornaments. Last night I finished the top row of Algerian eyelets on the fourth one and I started one of the queen stitch trees on the first ornament. Right now, I am stitching one complete tree and then I think I will stitch the trees assembly line style. At this point, I have not decided whether I will work them ornament by ornament or all four at one time. There are going to be a lot of queen stitches. Each tree has 19 queen stitches; each ornament has three trees. For one ornament that is 57 queen stitches in the trees alone. There are more queen stitches besides those to make the trees. It is fortunate for me that I like to stitch queen stitches.

I am showing you a scan of one of the ornaments. At this point, I think a scan works better than a picture.

Yesterday Roger put up the first section of fence that he has repaired and stained. It looks so much better than before. He thinks he is only fixing three sections this summer, the three worst ones. That will leave four more to do. I hope he will do them next summer.

Yesterday we did go out for lunch. We do that so seldom that it seemed like an especial celebration. The good feeling lingered the remainder of the day.

Also yesterday, a humming bird flew around my feeder but did not stop. It seemed as if there was something about the feeder that did not please the humming bird. I wonder if they do not like the new feeder even though it has perches for them. Baltimore orioles are yet to discover that I have a feeder for them.

I am very pleased the linen looks clean to me. I checked it very carefully and then pressed it. For the sake of the cats, it is very good that we like them a lot. Yesterday afternoon, Mooch, the black one, the one who did not soil my linen, felt compelled to knead into me. Fortunately, we had him declawed since we do not let the cats out any more. He may not have claws but he can be quite forceful when he kneads.

Mooch especially likes tomatoes and raspberries. Since we are just eating the raspberries in the garden, we brought one in for him. He inhaled it. Last summer we froze some for him but he does not seem to like frozen raspberries although he seems to like raspberry preserves.

While we were gone last month, my most recent check from Just Cross Stitch arrived. Neither of our sons said anything about it and piled more mail on top of it. I thought it was a pile of junk mail. Yesterday I decided to sort through the pile to prepare to discard it. On the bottom I discovered the check. JCS says it is okay to cash it. I will do that today and then I think Roger and I are going out to lunch.

It is Bastille Day. While the US does not officially observe the day, many US citizens have warm feelings about it. In Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, hangs a key from the Bastille. It is supposed to be the key to the west portal of the Bastille. It was given to George Washington by the Marquis de Lafayette who served under George Washington in the American Revolution. In honor of the Marquis and his service, there are many US cities using the name Lafayette or Fayette in their name.

During the night we had a few drops of rain; it did not amount to much but there is hope. Today we are supposed to have intermittent rain. The past weeks, predicted rain has bypassed us to some extent, if not completely.

Yesterday morning, I discovered that one of the cats threw up a hairball. As bad as that was, he made it even worse by splattering a piece of linen. The only saving grace was the fact that I had not started stitching on it. It is a reminder that I must always carefully put my stitching things away. My attempt to spot clean it did not work so I took it off the scroll rods and soaked it in an Orvis solution. I think it worked but will not know until either it gets lighter or I bring it into the light.

I also decided to take my linen for the four new ornaments off the scroll rods. I did not lay out the fronts and backs very well and it was quite awkward to stitch. Using a small hoop, it is so much easier to stitch now. Hopefully that will encourage me to work more diligently.

Sunday I discovered that Silkweaver is having an odds and ends sale. I ordered two pieces, one for Mary Wigham and one for Beatrix Potter. I think that only one is linen. I hope that my selections work. I plan to stitch both over one on 32 count.

It is another new week. I have very little to say and much that I should do. We will have an other baptism next Sunday. When I begin to stitch in the name and date later today, I will be very careful to use a banner with the correct church name. I do not want to repeat the mistake of last week. Since there was a baptism workshop for parents yesterday, I need to check to see if we have new ones scheduled.

It is a sunny day and probably will be a dry one. The pillows are out airing and one load of sheets is in the washer. They are probably ready to go out on the clothes line to dry.

Yesterday was not very exciting. I did finish picking out the misstitched Algerian eyelets and restitched them properly. I could have, maybe should have, stitched more of them but thought not.

I worked a little more with the iris outside, digging up a few that must be treated for damage and preparing others to be replanted.

The picture shows some petunias with daylilies. The colors echo my biscornu set so I guess that we can truly call it a Summer Biscornu. :-)

It is the weekend. Yesterday I finished the three ornaments using a freebie from The Sampler Girl. I thought you might like to see the finished product so I will upload a picture.

I started working on four little ornaments using a chart from Sampler and Antique Needlework. I made a mistake on one of the Algerian eyelets. While I picked back to correct it, my thread shredded. I think I will be picking out all 12 eyelets that I stitched and starting over. As bad as frogging is, this is even worse. The design is stitched on 32 count; the eyelets are stitched over two fabric threads and pulled tightly to open the eyelet. I think you can easily understand why the thread shredded. Since I have given up the idea of picking back to the mistake and am reluctantly embracing the idea of starting over, I can cut the thread on the back. I hope this will make it easier to pick it out. At this point, there is very little to show you, just a piece of linen with guidelines basted into it.

Yesterday Roger ate the first ripe raspberry. We will not have many this year because the rabbits did a lot of damage to the canes during the winter. This fall, we are going to have to fence in the raspberries. Roger thinks we can use the fencing that we already have but I don't think so. There are lots of ways the rabbits can evade it. Roger ate the one raspberry but I ate all of the ripe blueberries.

The weather prediction ditty came true - - sort of. The sky cleared and we had a rain free, sunny day. Sometime after 10:00 p.m. we had intermittent cloud bursts. I wonder how much rain we actually had. I checked the NOAA website; the answer is not too much rain. The gorgeous Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis are dry, bone dry. That is how dry we are.

I actually finished the little banner and will take it to church today. For me the day holds laundry and a couple other things I do not like either. Now to find a little project to work on; that may motivate me to work on the things I do not want to do.

Yesterday was a day of mixed results. SmugMug changed some things on the website and I had to figure out a new easiest way to upload pictures. I make baptismal hangings for two churches and I stitched the name and date on the wrong one. I set it aside and will pick it out later. Last night I stitched the name and date on a new banner.

The good news of the day is the little flower pot pin cushion. I really did not expect to be able to stitch and finish it so quickly.

The weather ditty says: "Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight." It looks like it is correct again. As I walked this morning, the sky was brilliant with coral, rosy apricot, and mauve. The weather forecast indicates that rain should be moving in during the next couple hours. Speaking of rosy apricot and mauve in the sky, it looks like the colors of my newest little trio. Besides being the colors of one of my favorite irises, they were the colors of the sky this morning. It was such a treat to walk in the rosy light of dawn.

Yesterday I did a little work with the iris and a lot of stitching. As you can see, my little project is done. There is still one more small thing I want to make to go with the envelope and biscornu.

It was almost too late when I remembered that there is a baptism this coming Sunday. That means a banner and a certificate. The certificate is the easy part. The computer does most of the work. I did stitch the name and date on the banner last night and will be able to back the banner today. I think no one will realize that I almost forgot.

Roger was quite busy. He hopes to repair and I think stain the fence before the neighbors come home from vacation. Although the neighbors do not mind, we feel a little self-conscious about using their yard to repair the fence. The fence forms part of our composter and Roger was specifically working on that.

I have made such progress that I cannot resist showing you a second picture today. As you can see, I made a fabric envelope with the fabrics. On the back is a hardanger and silk ribbon medallion.

For some undetermined reason, I did not read blogs yesterday. There is quite a bit for me to read today. More progress on my little project. This daily report is a fabulous motivation.

Yesterday I discovered that vinegar is supposed to relieve the itching caused by deer fly bites. I tried it and it seems to work. Of course, it could just be a placebo effect. If it is, I will take it. Anything to relieve the itching works for me.

Yes, I am moving right along even if we just had a holiday weekend. Today I included a picture of the summer meadow behind the house. This picture is looking west across it. You can see our white picket fence and a corner of the house which also is white close to the left side of the picture. This is where I can see the fireflies. And - - - before and after pictures of part of the Gopher Garden. This is not the only thing I did in the garden over the weekend but it was the single largest and most important task.

In the before picture the corner of the window well is there behind the iris leaves. In the upper right hand corner of both pictures, you can see the platform for one of our rain barrels. You can just barely see it in the before picture. I probably set the irises out a little far apart but that should work to my advantage. I may be able to wait a little longer to divide them again.

Yesterday seven or eight grackles ate the cherries that were on the ground. A squirrel, yes a squirrel!!, got into the tree and ate the ones that were still on it. This morning as I hung out the pillows to air, the backyard definitely was devoid of cherries.

Continued progress with the stitching as you can see. This is proving to be an ideal motivator to keep stitching. Thanks for bearing along with me. :-)

We did get out in the garden. I dug up part of the iris and still have to put some back. I have a large bag ready to give away. We had one setback. Some of the iris rhizomes were intertwined. I suspect that they are all the same ones that I want to get rid of. They were in a corner of the garden where I have some favorites and there is always the possibility that some I want to save are mixed in. I have to fix a temporary little place where I can plant all of them and let them grow until they bloom again. I have more fly bites, gnat bites, and mosquito bites than I could ever imagine. When I went in, I was sore and tired and could hardly think that I needed to go out again the next day.

Dinner was delicious: Chicken, Homemade potato salad, Homemade slaw, Mixed melons, and - - Cherry crisp made with our cherries. I did not take a picture of it because we forgot and left it in the oven a little too long. It looked dark brown but still tasted delicious.

We were so tired from working in the garden and so bug bitten that we decided to stay home and watch the Fourth of July concert from Washington D.C. The fireworks were not as good as seeing them in person but still much nicer on high definition than regular TV.

Fireflies and the Fourth of July

Last night I went outside to check on the fireflies. It seemed like there were not as many as I remember from last year. I hope that this is just an inconsequential aberration or my inaccurate memory and not the indication of a trend. When we bought and moved into the house in 1968, there were no fireflies. It has been several years now that the city has stopped mowing the grass in part of the park behind our home. They have allowed the slight hollow directly behind our home to become a summer meadow. It has not been enough to lure the meadowlarks back but it has brought the fireflies back. I wish that I could take pictures of the fireflies at night but with our cameras it is just impossible.

Yesterday when we discovered that the birds were getting into the netting that we put on the cherry tree, we decided to take it off and pick the cherries. We left the lesser ripe ones and the blemished ones for the birds. We do not have enough cherries to make a pie but it looks like enough to make a cobbler for dessert today.

Yesterday I discovered that our British friends have more genuine copies of the Declaration of Independence in their National Archives than we do in our National Archives.

My stitching progresses. For right now, I am on my way out to work in the garden. I am digging up the iris to divide them. Some I will plant back into my reorganized garden and the rest I will give away.

The little ornaments are still stalled as I concen-
trate on this one. I think that you might be able to see where I am going with it. But I am not going to say yet just in case you are guessing. While the picture uploaded, I went downstairs to load the sheets in the washer. We do multi-task, don't we?

Yesterday morning as I walked before sunrise, I saw fireflies for the first time this summer. Between Monday morning and yesterday, I have no idea when they first appeared but they are here now. I think of them as the Fourth of July Fireflies. They show up sometime between the end of June and the Fourth and are natural fireworks. Last night, I forgot to go out to see them. I had become so involved in this little project that they slipped my mind entirely.

It is almost time to feed the cats. They seem to know how to tell time and are not about to let me forget.

I have stalled on the three little ornaments because I have to meet a more pressing deadline which requires more time and effort to complete. The first picture shows what is going into this project. It will co-ordinate with the biscornu. You can actually just make out the beginning of it on the white fabric in the upper left hand corner.

The second picture shows some fabric that I ordered which arrived yesterday. On it are the threads for an SAL. Unfortunately the colors do not show well. The fabric is Baby Lotion; it does show a little pinkish. I may have to switch out the light yellow. There should be enough fabric to stitch a previous SAL by the same designer.

This weekend I think we are going to begin digging up and dividing the irises. This should help me get better control of them and help them bloom better.

The day has begun with a little mistiness. I am not certain if it is supposed to clear and warm or not.

Pictures of the day begin with a strange little one of Mooch. He is sitting in the Black Cat Chair. All of our black cats claim this chair for themselves. We have not had a continuous line of black cats so we cannot explain it by saying that they each taught the next one.

The next one is of the first flowers of my hemero- callis, daylilies. Right now I am not certain which one this is and will not know until the others near it bloom. The only thing I can say is that it is not Numinous Moments. It might be Pink Embers. Just for fun I included the first hollyhock to bloom this summer. It is always a surprise to find out what colors I have. I save only a couple volunteers from the previous summer. Even if I saved more, I would have no way to predict the colors.

I continue to work on my three little ornaments. They are going together a bit better now but it is being a little difficult for some unknown reason. I also need to start a small project that has a mid-July deadline.