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.