Friday, July 25, 2008

Floral Friday

Here is what is blooming in the yard this week, plus my potted plants that I over-wintered have started up too!

Echinacea. I planted this in front of the firewood pile, so it kinda hides it in the summer, but since they die down to the ground in winter, the wood is quite accessible then.

The scarlett meidiland roses started blooming. So tiny and pretty! Each bloom is about 1" big.

This is Calvin's Irish moss. He is quite the gardener.

More bee balm.

The hibiscus is in full bloom! My mom's neighbors threw this out last summer, and she salvaged it. I over-wintered it, and thought I killed it when it dropped almost all its leaves. It survived!

Here's the plumbago. I over-wintered this one too. Next year I will prune it in late winter. I didn't do anything to it this year, and it's kinda all misshapen.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

New Knucks

Try saying that 5 times fast. Calvin lost his blue knucks that I made for him this spring, so I've started another pair. He was asked to join a boys gymnastics team, and practices are 3 days a week, 3 hours each time. It's not worth it to drive back home during practice (it's a 30 minute drive), so I either run some errands (grocery store, target, etc) or I sit and knit. One can get a lot done with 3 hours of uninterrupted knitting time! Yesterday I made this:
(pictured on one of my pretty Japanese painted ferns)

I bet I can get the other one done at tomorrow's practice.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Floral Friday

All the mulch is spread, and now it's just a matter of keeping everything watered. Here's what is blooming in the yard this week:

Scarlett bee balm.

I think this is some sort of sunflower. I need to move it a bit, so it's not overshadowed by my neighbor's tree.

One of the hydrangea bushes started blooming. The flowers start out like this....

....and over the course of a few days, turn to this.

The hollyhock is in full bloom too. Hopefully this will reseed pretty well, I love them!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Notre Dame De Grace

I finished my sweater in time for the Fair!

I must say, I love it. It's frakkin' hot today, too hot to put on for even a photo, so Ms. Belinda is modeling for you all. It's soft, warm, and cozy; I'm going to be living in it this winter.

My Ravelry project page is here. For you non-Rav members:
Notre Dame De Grace, from the Summer 2007 IK
Size 40
The Wool Boutique Merino Solids (by Elle), in olive (2282)
Size 9 needles
shortened sleeves 2.5" (and could've taken another inch off), lengthened body 1.25".

Judging for knitting and sewing is on Friday, hopefully I can make it and see how it fares, along with my other entries.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Floral Friday

Oh my goodness, my garden is sucking the life energy out of me. Ok, it's not that bad, but boy there is still a lot of work to do after getting all these plants in. I've been weeding, raking and smoothing out mounds of dirt, and tomorrow 10 yards of mulch are getting dumped on my driveway. Yeah, we'll be busy.

Anyway, here's what's blooming now:
Every year when we go strawberry picking, Calvin also picks out some plants to put in the yard. Last year he chose these balloon flowers, and 2 of them came back great (the third 1 looks awful).

I got this from a friend thinning out her garden, and she called this a butterfly weed. It's not very big, maybe 8" tall at most.

This milkweed plant is blooming, but we have no caterpillars on any of the plants this year. :(

More stella d'oro lilies. I like how they look against the diablo ninebark in the background.

I think I'm going to be scarce over the summer. State Fair entries are due on Wednesday (I'm not going to get everything done), judging is on Friday, and Calvin was asked to join a boys' gymnastics team. They put him in level 5, so now we have 9 hours of gymnastics a week (plus 1.5 hours of travel time each time!). He loves it, and I'll get lots of knitting done.