Tiny Needle Tuesday 8/15/23

 Good Morning,

It's a little sticky here this a.m.  I woke at 4-ish to very heavy rain.  But it did not last long - not enough to show any measurable amount in the rain gauge.  The street, however, looks polka-dotted in front of our house: between the rain and the wind so many crepe myrtle blossoms are now on the ground.  There are still plenty in the tree, but the street is covered too, as well as part of our front lawn.

And, as long as I'm talking trees, I will show you how our apples are growing this year - at times they look like huge grape clusters.  LOL  I took these pictures because Colin was curious.

It's obvious in the smaller picture that a lot of the apples are already damaged - mis-shapen, bad spots, etc.  But the sheer amount of them is amazing.

And, finally, still on the gardening side of things, Fletch is using some of our bamboo to create hand rails along the top of the garden fence.  He spread wood chips on the walk-ways, but the other day he tripped and almost fell, so decided that handrails were needed.  He just started to install them late yesterday.

I do love the look of bamboo.  Years and years ago, Fletch built a bamboo bridge over our boggy area.  I wish that still existed, but 3 decades took its toll on that!  You can also see the HUGE rhubarb leaves (like platters) in the above picture.  I need to get out and harvest that (again).

OK, time for a Tiny Needle update.  Progress has been made on both the large (very) Sampler Aux Bouquets and the Cacti Triptych.  First up the large piece.

The vase is beginning to fill with flowers and there is even a little bird perched atop!  I would have been much further along, but I had a lot of frogging to do this week...The center stem on the top pink flower was missing some stitches and once I got the flower stitched and then the bird I could see that it was way off, so it all had to be ripped out (tedious work at best) and then re-stitched with a little more length.  Here is where it stands overall:

This does not show all of the empty cloth to the right...there is still a ton of stitching to do on this one!

Yesterday afternoon I was able to spend some time on the cacti triptych that Colin sent me.  It is a bit more detailed than I initially thought, but I am thoroughly enjoying stitching it.  This is the start of the Prickly Pear section.

There are a few more "paddles" to be added as well as more flowers.  The little thorns! - kind of hard to see, but they are there.

Obviously I have lots to fill any free time I may come across in my life!  LOL  Wishing you all a pleasant Tuesday.  May it be a gentle one.

Friday Produce

 Hello My Friends,

Welcome to Friday.  I'm so glad it's here.  The week has been gorgeous (weather-wise) but it has felt very long.  Work once again has been crazy busy (summers have never been crazy busy before - weird).  I've a couple of conference calls (10 a.m. and 1 p.m.) and hopefully after the last of them I can move into full weekending mode!

We had a surprise call from Colin yesterday (surprise because we usually talk on the weekends, so this was a nice change).  They are back from the Bahamas where they had a wonderful time.  They stayed in a remote area where there was not much to do (other than kayaking, snorkling, swimming, eating conch salad and feeding stingrays, etc., etc.) and he said it was wonderful to have 6 days together with absolutely nothing they had to do.  Sounds good to me!

While Fletch was talking with him, I wandered around the yard.  I picked some more apples!

Last night I tried one of them (the tiny one, top center) and it was not good.  Boo-Hoo.  It had just about no flavor whatsoever.  We will try another one or two and hope that they will be better.

That bowl, by the way is gorgeous.  I should take a picture of it empty.  My SIL bought it for me.  The potter used a doily and pressed it into the clay when it was still damp, so the inside of the bowl is patterned with the doily.  So pretty!

Continuing my walk around the yard, I went into the garden and discovered the jalapenos are finally producing!

Also, the yellow squash has finally gotten to a size worth picking!

This particular brand is named "Smooth Criminal" - LOL.  Fletch got the seeds from his brother in Virginia.

On the menu tonight is green bean casserole using beans from the garden.  Fletch is going to grill lamb chops.  Yum!!

I failed to get a picture, but Fletch finally picked the first cherry tomatoes!  There were 6 and we munched them right down at lunch yesterday.

Garden bounty!  Nothing better.  Wishing you all a wonderful, bountiful weekend!

Look What I Spotted This Morning!!

Hello All,


Mid-Week thank goodness.  This week has been super busy for me at work and, so far, the evenings are also full of "things" to do.


At work, our CEO's assistant is out with a torn ham string (OUCH) in 3 (yes, 3!!) places.  So, when she is out, Bobby (CEO) wants me to be "on call" for him.  He is a wonderful guy, but I already support two Presidents, so it makes for busy days.  It's all good...I prefer to be busy, and it's good to be liked by the CEO - lol.


Monday night was yoga and last night I finally ran to the grocery store.  When I got home at 9:30, there was laundry in the dryer and another load in the washer.  There is still more to do...as well as cleaning (particularly bathrooms) and some food prep which I will do Thursday evening.  Also more grocery shopping (I didn't buy any meat for weekend cookouts last night).


All of this is to say, not much (if any) knitting has taken place.  I did read a bit last night before bed and am loving "The Shell Seekers."  It will be my first square on my Summer Book Bingo.  And, a few more books popped up from my hold list at the library, so they have been downloaded onto my Kindle.  Now I just need a bit more time.


We had some gentle rain overnight.  It sounded like a lullaby.  This morning the sun was beginning to peek out and it was around 58 on my patio.  I took my coffee outside and sat and listened to the birds and then, look what I spotted:

Yup - the beginnings of apples.  And, from the looks of it this will be a bumper year!  There are always a bunch that fall off when they are small (golf ball size or so), but there are already many more forming than we had last year.  Fletch and I will be busy this fall making applesauce - YUM!


I need to think of food for Sunday!  Friday we will have some deviled eggs and cold shrimp to munch on late afternoon -- and cocktails, of course!  For dinner I think Fletch will grill burgers, veggie burgers and portabella mushrooms.  We've got all kinds of stuff to load on top of those.  And I'll make a corn and black bean salad.  I'm hoping it will be nice enough for a fire in the pit and we can just toast marshmallows or something.  Saturday we will all be at my nephew's party, but Sunday I need some kind of dinner food.  I'll figure it out - there's still time.


Meanwhile, it's a busy Wednesday morning at work and I am off-site for a couple of hours mid-day, so I'd best get cranking.


Hope everyone's week is going well.