Weeds, weeds and more weeds

There is a nasty weed in our garden. Its common name is Garlic Mustard. It comes under the fence from the yard to our north. The couple there don't garden much on that side. Between Trish and I, we spent almost two hours weeding along the fence.

Other than the weeds, the garden is doing well. The Hepaticas are almost done blooming. The Bloodroot opened yesterday and was gone today.

Several of the Mayapples will have blooms this year. Hopefully the squirrels will not destroy the buds again this year.

This is Spartacus. She lives in the house giving us Garlic Mustard. She lives with Kubla. I think we will be seeing a lot of them this summer.

More later.

L

It has been a while...

Today was too nice to stay indoors. I spent some time in the yard getting rid of weeds and tidying up. There was an incredible number of cigarette butts in the vegetable garden. I wonder how they got there, Dad?

I finally finished the online HTML course I was taking through work. I think I understood what I was reading. I will learn more as I work with HTML and design my website. Okay I have no immediate plans to create a site from scratch.

Here are photos from the garden. The first one is a Hepatica.

This is another variety of Hepatica.

And finally the scillas. They have spread throughout the garden.

I have finished Trish's sweater vest. I'll take photos tomorrow. Finally a knitted gift for Trish that is finished before the required date.

This is what Calle does with her favourite catnip mouse. She carries around the house and periodically drops it in her water dish to make catnip soup. She is an odd cat.

More later.

L

Sunday Afternoon

On Friday I cut the fabric for the baby quilt. Yesterday I went to the Quilter's Palette (www.quilterspalette.ca) and got the fusible web for the circle appliques. I also picked up batting and fabric for the back. I spent the afternoon sewing the appliques and then the blocks into rows. Today I sewed the rows together. I had a problem with my sewing machine that took too long to figure out the problem. Although sewing is faster, with knitting if there a technical problem, it is me. Oh well. I figured it out and it is okay now.



Here is the top of the baby quilt.

I think I'll hand quilt circles in the blocks. I still need to figure out my border. I'm not even sure I'll use a border. I'll sleep on that decision.

The fabric I am using is Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy (http://www.freespiritfabric.com/core-pages/gallery.php?gal_id=84). I tried to use mostly blues and browns, since it is for a boy.

I have almost three months until I need to give the quilt to Antonette. So I'm going to focus on Trish's sweater vest.

I saw a woodpecker in our yard this afternoon. Unfortunately if I tried to go outside to get a photo, I would have scared it off. So I admired it from a far.

How wrong is this? This afternoon I'll be cheering for the New Jersey Devils. If the Islanders lose the game, the Leafs will make the playoffs. "Go Devils Go".

More later.

L

Spring Snow

Last Friday (March 30th) I used my Volunteer Day from work to help sell daffodils for the Canadian Cancer Society. There were three of us from work selling. It was a lot of fun. We sold out of flowers. I'm not sure how much money we raised, but it was at least $1000, probably closer to $1200. On the weekend I had a nasty stomach bug. I called in sick on Monday. So I worked three days this week and am exhausted. Why are short weeks also so tiring?

All winter I thought there was a dog that was regularly running in the backyard and leaving "presents". I was convinced of this early in the morning as I'm leaving for work. By the time I'd get home, I'd be awake and using logic. I mean, how can a dog regularly get into our yard from the street. I know there far too many irresponsible dog owners in our neighbourhood. The people who think that the leash works if they have it in their hand but not attached to the dog's collar. I hate these people. I understand taking the leash off in a dog park. But walking down Bathurst is not safe... On Monday while I was looking out the window thinking of the possibilities of spring I saw a dog in our yard, in the process of leaving me a "present". I went out back to find its human to clean up after it. The dog ran to the back right corner and went under the fence to get home. I blocked the hole in the fence with a planter box. This dog was completely unsupervised wandering the backyards of Albany. Great humans. At least I'm not crazy. Okay not crazy about confusing a dog and a raccoon.

It has been snowing here. A light dusting of snow is on the garden. Foliage is starting to emerge from the soil. Most of the daylilies have appeared.

I have been working on Trish's sweater vest. Last night I was in the process of the starting the v-neck of the front, when I realised that I had managed to stop knitting one of the middle ribs. I had to take out almost 10 inches of knitting. OUCH! But I will survive. It was far too noticable mistake to try to pretend it didn't happen. What makes it hard is that I'm knitting using a 4mm needle. I still think I can get it done for Trish's birthday later this month.

Here is Calle modelling the sweater vest. I'm not sure the colour of the vest compliments her colouring...

I have a plan for baby quilt I'm going to make. It involves circles and applique, oh my. The fabric that I got at the Quilter's Palette will look great.

This is a sampling of the fabric I have.

Now all I need is to learn how to sew in circles for the applique. Oh and more fusible web.

I should start knitting. I have some time to make up. I also want to get some housework out of the way.

More later.

L