Saturday

It was blissfully cool this morning and so we decided to do some cleanup work in the garden. It now looks a bit less than a jungle, but still kind of wild. The grass was so high in one part, that one of the cats completely disappeared in it while walking! Usually that only happens when they lay down. We cut the grass and took down the dead bean plants, discovered two mantises and I took a few pictures. We have black-eyed susans growing in abundance all over the place this year, they must all be self seeded because I never planted any. On the other hand, the columbines I planted did not show up at all.

I am back!

I am just not good at taking breaks. ;)

The past almost two weeks were kind of busy, after Del went back to work I caught up on my housework and eased myself back into all kinds of projects.
Here is what has been going on, mostly food, cats and crafts.

Lots of salads were eaten.

And a yummy chocolate cake for the weekend.

A simple pizza with tomatoes from the garden.

I must say that for people on a tight budget we eat very well (Del says it is because of my talent in the kitchen, I can't help it, I just love to cook.).

My trusty observers of everything that goes on in the garden.

And my darling Kitty of course.

I know it must be in here somewhere.

An early morning visitor, who, sadly was at the end of his/her life cycle and died later that day.

And a few craft projects. I finally found a way to use this piece from the 12 x 12 x 12 challenge (which so far is only a 12 x 12 x 5 one for me).

While watching the Tour de France I knitted another "Wool Peddlers Shawl" with the leftover yarn from Del's sweater.

And this is an ornament for a friend in Israel. We are doing a Christmas ornament swap on one of my quilting lists and since she has no use for Christmas ornaments she asked if we could make her a quilted ornament for her Succoth hut. The dove is the symbol of our group. It is cross stitched.

The weather has been hot with frequent thunderstorms, my garden is one big mess, the zucchini plants died, the peppers are not producing, the radishes went to seed without ever producing anything edible. The only things I am picking are tomatoes and even those look like they are on their way out. The grass, weeds and bugs are doing very well and we have one pair of gold finches who are really enjoying the sunflower seeds. Not even the flowers I planted for the hummingbirds came up worth anything and we had a wasp nest in the bird feeder, yuck, now we need a new feeder but that has to wait until Winter. We have a lot of dragon flies this year and also oodles of wasps in all sizes and colors. I think we will give most of our beds a rest next year and try container gardening instead, I am tired of fighting the bermuda and crab grass, which can only be conquered with chemicals and I don't want to use any of them in my garden.

With all the medical bills to pay off our budget is even tighter now and we decided to suspend our TV service for 6 months to give ourselves a bit more wiggle room. I wonder if we will get it hooked up again in January or if we get so used to being without it that we just keep it off. When we first moved in together we did not have TV either and did not miss it much. There really is not much on worth watching anyway, we have an extensive video collection from the time when movies in English were only available on video in Austria and we have lots of books and games and other projects, I am sure we will not get bored.

Now I am off to start working on my project of the day ( a new idea of mine, it seems to help me get things done).

Take care and thanks for still reading.

Summer Break

See you all again in a few weeks, take care and have fun!

Summer Food

Yellow

Happy 4th of July!

In the Garden - From the Garden

New Dishcloths

Aunt May's dishcloth is rather addicting. ;)

And as usual - inspected and approved by my little helpers.

And one for Christmas.