Now for calm, to balance the excitement

 Friday's knitting group was lively, stitching, knitting, crochet 

Lovely African work basket. Does anyone know the purpose of the loops at the base of the handles?

Talk ranged over birthdays, childbirth, kidney stones (!), knitting patterns, MDK, spf umbrellas, business travel, missing medical calls because made from personal phones, weather, goldwork, Williamsburg, color blindness and interlibrary loans. So long since I've been there, it was like a reunion.

In the garden, here's the drama of the season 

Friday the hibiscus did this 

Saturday 

It just exploded into its very first blossom. Tell me this isn't a metaphor for our political season! Gary and friend came to admire and take pictures. He's looking stronger now.

And less spectacular, but beautiful, the first zinnia 

and friends 

So that's nature and friends, coming through faithfully.

Saturday's walk gave more sights 

First tiger swallowtail of the year, blurred because she was busy 

Wildflower at the edge of the trees, don't know this one, guessing birds foot trefoil.

Ed. Note here's a much better picture of what I saw. Mine didn't convey the three part complexity of the flower, which can grow to 12", like this one.

And it might be yet another wildflower!

A lot of yellow sorrel underfoot 

My neighbors also have a hibiscus 

Then home to food 

Roast chicken breast with basmati rice with baby Bella mushrooms and dried cranberries 

And a pluot, apple and nectarine crumble, baked in the toaster oven. 

For the crumble part I just slung oats, chickpea flour, cane sugar and molasses mixed together, over the fruit, dots of butter, baked at 380°f an hour, first 30 minutes with a tinfoil hat (!) second 30 minutes uncovered and it came out well enough. 

Got to keep up my strength.

Happy day, everyone! Including dog people 

Breathing and looking about

A note this morning from C reminded me to look about. Lilac in bloom but not where I could stop and pic, blossom everywhere, saucer magnolia finished, partly by a late frost, partly recent rain and wind, dogwood in full bark.

First swallows all over the pond. Rain is on the way, so I expect there are plenty of insects to catch 

At my front door, the usual crowd of wild and tame flowers suddenly pushing about. First iris bud. I have to look up the wild friends again, poor memory.

And here's the latest reading. The Leon novel is a reread, the essays new to me.  I'm deep into The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury, too.

Also here's the Jacket's Progress. I have to lay it flat and stand to stitch, so as not to get lost.

And, on the olive oil cake front, to my amazement, it tastes much better after a day or two.  Handsome Son visited yesterday and actually liked it. But he did put in a request, while he was at it, for a repeat of the blueberry Newtons. Just in case I went over to  the olive oil cake side suddenly, I expect. Hedging his bets.

Sometimes life's about hedging your bets.

Speaking of which, I'm planning on a couple of nice upgrades at the condo once the plumbing and appliance situation is resolved.

One is a new mantel to replace the one I made and installed decades ago, which finally fell off. Here's where it was

And here's the one at the townhouse

I think the condo one, lighter colored floor, white surrounds, might be good with a paler wood, whatever Artist Michael suggests. He probably has some nice pieces he can pick from. The bas relief you can maybe see, is my work. Artist Michael will know how to accommodate it, I expect.

Raises the whole tone of the place. At the condo it's the first thing you see when you open the front door, so I'd like it to be nice to come home to.

Meanwhile, Son Michael is embarking on a serious cleaning and Winnowing, since I made the case that we need a nice environment for the original artwork mantel. He's usually oblivious to dust bisons and clutter. He's working on it now. I'll assist.

And I will replace the ancient track lights, there since the early 80s, installed by the original owner. It's time.

All in all, some progress. Thanks to you blogistas and other friends, raised spirits, too.

Yukon Gold, wildflowers and baffling squirrels

This morning was a perfect, not too hot day, just right for July tattie liftin'.  Translation:  digging up the Yukon Gold potatoes I grew in a container, from a  potato with eyes.  Typically I get one or two meals of homegrown potatoes from my container efforts, and an unlimited sense of satisfaction from being able to do it. The foliage was starting to yellow, which usually means spuds are up.

A number of our readers have real gardens, or actual land, and probably look affectionately on my tiny little efforts, but I bet they get how thrilling it is to pull out potatoes from the earth.

And I replanted one potato (there are probably other tiny ones I never found) in the hope of a second crop this year.

Meanwhile, back at the feeder, I realized that if squirrels hate the smell of essential lavender oil, and won't go near plants which have it on cotton balls strewn around, or in feeders same thing, that maybe they would be deterred from my feeder with the lavender bunch thing I made.  They have recently discovered the feeder, and one of them cracked the code of how to swarm down the s hooks and knock the feeder off. 

They still can't open it and eat the food, but having the food on the deck puts the birds off, since most of them prefer to feed high off the ground, safer in mid air.  A bird's default safety move is to fly upward.  This is why when you get a wild bird into the house, they bat around at ceiling height, and daren't come down far enough to escape through the doors and windows you've obligingly opened for them. 

So here's the lavender thing in place, and it definitely put off the squirrel who came out to check, ate off the deck then ran.  But it also worried the red bellied woodpecker and the nuthatch, both favorite visitors, who are nervous about this object hanging near the feeder.  I hope they'll get used to it and return to feed. They keep checking but not settling on the feeder.  

I believe birds don't have a great sense of smell, so that's not the problem.  They do get skittish about new objects, though, and want to test and see if they're safe before feeding. They're vulnerable when feeding. 

Since we were the original owners of this property, bought from the builders, and have never sprayed anything, ever, the patio has developed into a miniature nature center. 

I help it along by saving seeds and replanting, from wildflowers I grew years ago, and the cherry branch you see here is a native cherry, growing happily, doubled its size this year, and will give shade soon. And what's left of the old cherry still gives blossom for bees and cherries for the wild birds.  In winter, birds and squirrels also chew on the branches, and if anyone knows why, please tell me.  They specially like the little thorns on the twigs.

We see toads, dragonflies, butterflies, all kinds of birds, as well as pesky chipmunks (they chew through wires and water pipes) and squirrels.  The groundhogs are numerous, but don't get onto the patio, can't climb nor squeeze under the fence.  

And I've observed four different families of wild birds feeding young on the patio.  Downy woodpeckers -- the baby got himself attached to my window screen and couldn't figure out how to get free, so he climbed up to the top, and sort of fell into flight from there-- cardinals, bluejays and starlings.  Oh, and a family of plain old sparrows, where, I noticed it was the male who fed the baby endlessly.

Yesterday I cut back the lavender which had finished blooming, and saved the cuttings for future use in paper making.  Drying out now.  And I collected dead flowers off daylilies, with a view to possible paper making.

All's well with field and fen!