80 Quilt Blocks Later, Growing Fruit, Tackling Thistles

It is not just the Goldfinches that tackle those spikey Bull Thistles. I've noticed two different kinds of butterflies giving them lots of attention too. Here is the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail in it's July brilliant yellow.

And an interesting brown with blue spots butterfly that took me some time to find a name for and am still unsure but think it is a Black Swallowtail. 

 

These poor three plants are doing triple duty as they are loaded with bees too looking for nectar.   

I got waylaid from chores this morning but for a great reason. The garden was looking so lush and beautiful in the 8 am light, I had to go out and do a walkabout (it is also cooler then too). After all, these summer mornings are fleeting. There are a number of meadow like areas that are full of wild flowers this time of year. That's an outbuilding of ours in the distance. 

The daisies, purple and violet loosestrife and wild salvia are blooming with butterflies flitting and bees buzzing. It all made me think of how much beauty this land holds for me that I would miss. I've loved being so up close outside pretty much every day of the year with land like this to tramp about. But then, nature, in all its forms, fascinates me so wherever I am plopped down, I think I would find outdoorsy things to enjoy...hopefully. 

The shallow part of the pond has dried up - a sign of the extreme heat this year- so we will have to hook up the water hose to the well down there to run some water in it.

This exposed what I'm pretty sure is the muskrat's old den. 

I finished my little walk back at the meadow on the side of the house. The Smoke tree there is blooming too with the hardy Black Eyed Susans poking through trying to reach the sun. It is much much taller than I am but so hard to tell perspective in this photo.

This week I worked on my G.Leger cross stitching piece- finished the letter "P", while catching up with YouTube super star stitchers like Kathy at Kathy's Quilts. Kathy also hosts the very popular Sunday Slow Stitching party so many of us enjoy. HERE is the link.

I took this photo in the sewing room of my stacks of String blocks and the partly hand stitched and wonky Propeller blocks -there are 40 of each now. That's 80 blocks for me in a relatively short time.  And I'm especially pleased with these for the scrap busting aspect of the two blocks...so I tell myself.

I'm going to look up string block layouts. And can you see how my large cutting mat has gotten a wave in it. Any way to fix that?

LeeAnna's- Not Afraid of Color -conversation this week is about summer time foods. I make potato salad this time of year and we also eat more corn on the cob, strawberries and watermelon in season. When I found wild raspberries growing way over near the border with the neighbour, I uprooted several bushes and replanted them on the bank near the side entrance where there is good sunlight all day. That would have been about 6 years ago and after poor showings for a few years, they have gradually spread and are especially doing well this year.

 The reason I did this is because it is Tony's favourite fruit...not so much mine as I'm not crazy about the seeds. These are the black when ripe variety of wild raspberries. I've picked a small bowl every four or five days for him. Wild berries typically have twice the nutritional value as farmed, a fact that surprises me. 

Having a garden requires patience and time, I've come to realize, especially so for fruit growing. :)

👍Tony wanted me to tell you thanks very much for mentioning him and wishing him well in your comments and emails. We both appreciate the sharing and kind thoughts. 

Hope your weekend is off to a great start!

Happily sharing this post with The Inquiring Quilter, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and Songbird Designs.

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