Weekending 4/29/24

 Good Morning My Lovelies,

It's gonna be a hot one in Eastern PA today.  Yesterday was warm.  And lovely.  Today it is supposed to get above 80!  Yikes!  Blooms have started popping everywhere.

How I wish I could send the scent of the lilacs over to you.  I snapped the above picture before 6:30 this morning.  As soon as I opened the front door, the scent of lilacs was everywhere.  Later I will cut a bloom or two for the table.

Yesterday the first iris opened.  Today there are three and so many buds!  More than we have had in years.  We could always count on the iris opening the first week in May, so they are pretty much on schedule. 

Not pictured, but also opening:  Lily of the Valley and Wisteria.  Both heavily scented.  Surrounded by perfume.

Friday ended up being a very nice stash enhancement day.  I had placed an order with 123 Stitch for some linen fabric and a few skeins of overdyed cotton.  They were scheduled to arrive today, but instead arrived on Friday!

The linen is 36 count and is very nice.  Also arriving on Friday was my May Sock Squad yarn from The Farmer's Daughter!

Like February's package, this one included two half skeins (50 grams each) plus the mini.  The colors are marvelous.

Fletch has been busy in the garden - planting onions, beans and cucumbers.  I helped him set up the trellis for the cukes.  With the warm weather forecast, he can probably get the tomatoes in.  We are also going to grow yellow squash vertically this year, so I need to help with another trellis.  Meanwhile, it's time to get a rosemary plant, some basil and an eggplant for my patio pots.

I cooked a new-to-me dish yesterday.  I've never been a huge fan of gnocchi, but a recipe for Skillet Gnocchi with Roasted Red Peppers, White Beans and Kale appealed to me.  I used This Recipe and it was fast and delicious!  Plus lots of leftovers.

The weekend also provided opportunity for both stitching and knitting...so a balanced, fun and productive weekend.  I've got a bunch of errands to run today and a bit of cooking I want to do.

I hope your weekend was a good one and cheers to the week ahead!

Weekending 2/20/23

 Hello all,

What a lovely weekend I had and I hope you did too.  Mine began Thursday night since I took Friday off.  For once, I really took the day off.  I did not do any work!  Even at the last minute, I was able to book a massage for late morning and that was simply wonderful.  Our temps were still mild and it just was so, so nice.

Saturday was much colder and windy.  As usual, I met up with Dee for our morning together.  Many laughs and a little knitting ensued.  When I got home around 12:30, I noticed these blooms in our driveway bed.

There are also yellow crocus flowers that are budded as well as budded daffodils.  Hopefully all will survive (we are already on the upswing of temps again).

Fletch did a bit of yard work.  The pine tree by our mailbox was a live Christmas Tree for us one year.  There are always a lot of pinecones, but this year the abundance of them is amazing.

That is just roughly a quarter of what he raked up in the yard and around the base of the tree (he was spreading some mulch).  Also good news:  the first garlic shoots have sprouted up!!  I finished using our garden garlic from last year just the other week.  We won't be harvesting until early July, so we will need to use store bought for a bit.  But if the shoots are coming up, in a bit we will also have scapes!!

A week ago when I got together with Dee I was complaining that my Christmas Cactus wasn't producing and hadn't produced any buds.  I know they prefer a cooler location but Dee also thought perhaps it was getting too much light since I had it in the living room.  I moved it to my office and in just that short week buds have appeared!!

(Note to self:  get back to crocheting the granny squares so you can finally make a blanket!!)

Sunday was not too exciting.  I did a lot of laundry and took everything out of the refrigerator and cleaned it.  Whew!  What an awful job and it took forever.  I did find a few things to trash, so that was good.  I also paid bills and pulled all the tax stuff together - some of my least favorite things to do...but now they are done!  I'm heading to the office early this a.m. so that I can copy all the tax stuff and then later this week I'll drop everything off at our accountant's office.

And, since I'm heading to the office I will make a stop at Trader Joe's for a few things and also the State Store for wine (the State Store near my office is much better stocked than either of the stores near my house).  I'm betting a nap is in my future since last night was a restless one as far as sleep goes.  I feel fine right now, but by early afternoon I will be nodding a bit.  LOL

Happy Monday - cheers to a nice week ahead!