Friends?

This morning Mooch and a young squirrel entertained us.  I think the squirrel entertained Mooch too.  The squirrel is one of the spring babies and looks almost grown up.  Momma has taught it all she can and it is on its own.  It was sitting on the fence post chattering away.  Mooch was inside but where he was, I am not certain the squirrel could even see him.  It looked like Mooch was discretely watching the squirrel but I am not certain he could see the squirrel.  After chattering, the squirrel exuberantly ran the length of the fence stopping to perch on the fence posts and chatter.  Eventually the squirrel returned to the end post near the bedroom where Mooch was.  Mooch finally went to the window to watch the squirrel.  I am certain that the squirrel could see him in the window and chattered more.  Mooch made quiet squeeking noises but I doubt that the squirrel could hear Mooch. 

The picture has low quality but you can see the little squirrel and Mooch who is in silhouette. 

It has been difficult for me to settle down and write.  Our little black cat, Mooch, was a naughty boy yesterday.  He took a ball of white pearl cotton and unrolled it all over the living room while we were at the health club in the morning.  He and I were very fortunate he only rolled the ball on the floor.  He did not carry it in his mouth and did not chew the pearl cotton.  I was fortunate that some of the pearl cotton fell off the ball in large hanks that were not unraveled.  It took me only 20 minutes to wind it all and there were only two small, easily untangled knots.  Little Mooch did not like being scolded and spent the remainder of the day begging for attention and maybe asking for forgiveness. 

A couple pictures just to give a little color and to show you what has attracted my attention. 

I liked these napkins the instant I saw them.  I honestly do not know if I will use them as napkins or use the fabric in some project. 

I seem to find one little three-footed depression glass dish a year.  This is the one for 2010.  It is by far the most simple of all of them and yet I still like it as much as the others.  It is the only one with eight sides. 

Who would have thought . . .

. . .that 15 zippers could turn into such a mess. 

This is the beginning of a little project for last week.  One of the reasons it became the project of the week is because I need to find the top of my work table. 

I have removed quite a bit but still have quite a bit more left. 

One Small Finish

I did make up the pillow.  Unfortunately I discovered that I still should have worked with the way I applied the stitchery to the pillow top.  Hopefully the wrinkles will not be too noticeable. 

The picture is a little dark because I ran outside with the pillow and camera this morning before the rain began.  Needless to say, there was no sunshine.  I probably ought to wait to send it to its new owner until I have had a chance to take a picture of it in the sunshine. 

Nela's comment about iguanas eating in the gardens where she lives reminded me about a certain pet iguana named Sweetheart.  One of my sons' second grade teachers had an iguana that she kept at school.  It was a little more than a meter long including its tail.  Just before summer break, the teacher told the students that if they brought a note from home saying it was okay to bring the iguana home for the summer, she would draw a name to see who would take the iguana for the summer. 

When our son told us about the drawing, I thought we could handle this because we never win drawings.  Just look at this:  Have I ever won a Blackbird Designs drawing?  That's right, no.  How many have I entered?  I cannot even begin to count.  And the same goes for the Needleprint drawings. 

A couple days before the beginning of summer break, our son came home from school to tell us that we were going to keep the iguana for the summer.  It seems that if your child is the only one who brings a note with parental permission to keep the iguana, you get to keep the iguana for the summer.  I could not bring myself to call it Sweetie which is what the children called it.  I decided to call it Peetie with the hope that if it could recognize its name, it would think that I spoke in some strange dialect or had a speech impediment. 

The teacher told us that she cleaned out the tank - Did I say tank?  It was a large box made out of wood, screen, and  plexiglass; it measured about 4 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 3 or so feet deep. - once a week.  She said that Peetie was quite lethargic; she could pull the large branch out with Peetie on it and he would stay quiet. 

I cleaned the container out once a week and let Peetie out while I did that.  I probably began by pulling the branch out with Peetie on it but Peetie gradually became comfortable enough to walk out of the box on his own.  Eventually he decided that he liked to run around the house.  His favorite thing to do was to climb up the drapes and drape himself along on the top of the drapery rods.  We began to take Peetie outside to run in the backyard.  He liked to climb our six-foot privacy fence and arrange himself on the top of the fence to sun himself. 

This was probably the last time the teacher let a student take Peetie home for the summer.  She was quite surprised that Peetie did not stay on his branch when she wanted to clean the box and that Peetie wanted to run around the classroom.  She was also quite surprised that Peetie wanted to run around the classroom longer than she wanted to let him and he was a little vocal about being coaxed back into his box before he was ready. 

Won't You Join Me?

On the menu is a strawberry and yogurt parfait made with Greek type yogurt sweetened with honey and fresh strawberries.  To make it even more festive, I am taking out the nice silverware and serving it in my new claret glasses. 

Somehow, when I dress it up, it seems so much more satisfying to eat.  I picked up the two claret glasses at an estate sale ten days ago.  As soon as I saw them, I thought they would be perfect for little yogurt parfaits.  And so they are. 

The Garden is a Jungle!

Our weather has been hot and humid.  It seems to be tomato, raspberry plant, squash, and pumpkin growing weather. 

The raspberries are so very tall, over 6 feet, that it is unbelievable.  I hope we can keep the rabbits away from them during the winter.  If the rabbits get to them and eat around the canes at snow level, we will loose everything (more than half of the height of the canes) above.  The more of the canes we can preserve, the larger our raspberry crop next year. 

The tomato plants are almost 6 feet tall themselves.  They are continuing to grow and produce blossoms at the ends.  It seems like it will take forever for the tomatoes to ripen.  Watching for tomatoes to ripen is akin to watching for a pot to boil. 

It looks like the apple tree is growing a pumpkin. 
We may have to rig a sling in the tree to support the weight of the pumpkin.  It appears that there is a second pumpkin. 

The apple tree is also hosting two squash; one of which is in this picture.  Today I took the squash vine off the raspberry plants.  I doubt that will last very long.  It looks like deer have been eating the lower leaves on the vines so perhaps the vines are running into the apple tree out of self-preservation. 

A sampling of the cucumbers - I should probably pick up some fresh dill to make cucumber salad this evening.  We should make an effort to grow dill if we plan to grow cucumbers.  It would make life a lot simpler for us. 

Nasturtium

 

 

 

For a splash of color, a couple flowers.  Thursday I picked up five new perennials for the front garden.  Friday morning I planted them with the hope that they would be watered in if it rained. 

Impatien 

Locusts are singing!!

That is, if you can call it singing.  Monday as I hung sheets out to dry, they were invisible but audible in the trees.  They had their high-pitched buzz saw whines in high gear.  While I hung out the sheets, something was dive bombing me.  For all I know it was the locusts.  The temperature was high and it seemed like the humidity was higher. 

Yesterday there was no relief from the temperature or the humidity.  In addition, I watched rain spread in from the southeast.  Generally our weather comes from the west or northwest so this was a little unusual.  The storm was quite strong too.  Although I could not see lightening, there was a lot of thunder.  The rain only increased the humidity.  Later in the evening we got some more thunderstorms, this time from the west.  Until the weekend, we are supposed to have a lot of heat and humidity.  That always brings the threat of serious storms.

Yup, we are in the Dog Days of Summer.  That is not because the days are so hot the dogs like to lie around in the shade.  The Dog Days of Summer are so called because this is when the Dog Star, Sirius in the constellation Canis Major shows in our sky.  It just happens in my part of the world that August has a reputation of being extremely hot and frequently humid.  For us, "Dog Days" imply hot, humid weather and the lazy, hazy weather of summer.  The plants like this.  The tomatoes and raspberries are growing fast and furiously.  We will have a bumper crop of tomatoes.  I just hope we can keep up with them.