My sweet little rescue dog died last night. She captivated everyone, and now she is gone. I can’t even think about this so I am trying to stay busy.
I put the border on my quilt top and it is ready to go. I talked about the quilt last week here. The colors are so pretty and I love the designs on the fabrics . All of the fabric came from fat quarters — most purchased at the Virginia Highlands Quilt Shop. Kim, the owner, is wonderful. In the picture below, there are lots of flowers, but I also see some red shoes, lemon slices and sheet music. There’s also a cat sleeping by the quilt.
Let’s see what is on this side of the quilt top…the bright blue has beach flip flops, there are orange cats, and there is some Alice in Wonderland fabric.
Here’s another…lots of flowers, some cursive writing, more flip flops…this time on white…and peppermint candy.
And finally…there’s that sheet music again, some gold and black butterflies and lots of flowers. Everything is bound by by the back and white border. I believe that the fabric did not repeat more than once. That was my goal. Some fabric did not repeat at all.
I’ve pressed the quilt and folded it along with the backing (paw prints) and the black and white stripe which will bind the quilt. It is ready to go to the quilter. This will be machined quilted by a long-arm quilter.
This was on my list of something I wanted to do. I’ve checked it off. It will be January/February 2019 when I get the completed quilt back.
I will put this in the RiverCliff Cottage AirB&B. It will be durable and I think guests might enjoy looking at the different fabrics. I hope so anyway.
I’ve been looking at blogs that are for retirees. Most are centered on the finances of retiring. So few are centered on the living of being retired. As I am retired, I want to be productive and I want to see the results of my efforts. This quilt is a good example of something I did not have the time for when I was working. Now, I do. And I’ll have a pretty quilt!!
It is Memorial Day and since the river was not suitable for kayaking, Mike and I had “Garden Day!” It started at 7:00 am. Like all “Garden Days” we have, it began with a trip to Home Depot or Lowe’s. We go more to Home Depot than we do Lowe’s since Lowe’s moved from Exit 7. We had to get some mulch for the back yard.
My back yard has been a source of great enjoyment or great neglect depending on what I’m doing during the summer. This summer I believe, even though we’ll be kayaking ALOT, it will be a source of great enjoyment! Here’s what I’ve been doing.
I cleaned my fence a few weeks ago. It was filthy with mildew. I did a blog post about how I do that a few years ago; and surprisingly, a lot of people–oh okay one or two– have sent me emails thanking me. I am serious. Really!!! Apparently, there are people who do not live in an area where they must fight mildew each spring and are not as experienced as we Mendotians!! Here’s the post called “Cleaning Your Vinyl Fence.”
Since I’ve never mastered weedeating, Mike came behind me yesterday and weedeated the border garden area. It left me with sort of a blank slate. I’m intermingling green beans, green peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers in this back yard. The cukes are going in a pot on the stairs. And flowers everywhere.
One of the problems with our back yard is that it is fenced in for the pets so it has to meet their needs first. It keeps skunks out, and it provides us an easy way to let River out to use the “facilities.” The funny thing is that he will not poop in this yard. He refuses. Dr. D’Amato’s place which is just up the road? Now, there’s a good place to poop!!
While I want it to meet their needs, I also want it to look nice. Here’s one of the problem areas. River has dug himself a bit swath to lie in during the evening when he goes outside to sleep. He loves to sleep for a few hours out in the back yard.
So..for me to have anything back there that looks decent, it’s going to have to have a trellis protecting it or be in a pot. I’ve got green beans planted out there … an heirloom pole bean that will grow up the bamboo trellis I made. I don’t put mulch around seedlings. Behind the green beans, I planted cosmos and a few zinnias. I think the small bamboo trellis’ will be enough to deter River from messing around over there.
I’ve even got the Foxglove protected by topiary things. River would love to roll on these. Not happenin’ little buddy!
Got these labels to put in the ground. This reminds me what is a weed and what is flower, and it also lets me know if someone decides to dig around and move stuff. River isn’t my only digger. I have cats. Z is for Zinnia. PB is for Pole Bean. C is for Cosmos.
See how well they work?
Lots of hanging baskets this year. This is a bleeding heart. $10.99 at Cecil’s Market! I think I’m going to have to figure out a way to repot this thing.
I went back in the barn and found a bunch of baskets that I bought TEN YEARS ago. The one in the picture below that is in the center is one of them. I planted Black Eyed Susie seedlings in them. They’ll be pretty this summer. 4
Here’s the seedlings…soon they will climb all over that basket with happy yellow flowers with brown eyes.
I’ve got a lot of New Guinea Impatiens. I’ve been finding the best selection at Walmart. These are planted right outside my steps and apparently snails don’t bother them. It’s a good thing because there are a zillion snails out on the patio at night. I used to stomp them, but a physician friend gave me a new perspective and I allowed them to live; but then this year, because they ate my basil, I went back to stomping them.
And here are the succulents I’ve repotted. I am selling these at Adventure Mendota for $2.50 per pot. I think Mike thinks no one will buy them. Bet he’s wrong. I’ve got about 20. So when I’m $50 richer, he’ll be sorry!
And I love these little pot stands I found at Walmart for under $4 each. They will keep the pesky snails away from my pots. Those green plants you see below are Mandevilla that I over wintered. They look healthy but where the heck are the blooms? They’d better get busy are they will find themselves in the compost pile. Did ya hear that ya lazy girls!?!
Hope you and your family are having a great Memorial Day!!
What I like about blogging is chronicling time. In Mendota, things move slow but we do have change. Some very good changes, but we remain a rural farming community.
It’s such pretty country…
While only a very few tobacco farmers remain, we still have several organic operations, RiverGate dairy, sheep, cattle, and finally, a small vineyard quietly went into place on Friday and Saturday of this week. Here’s The Farmer.
I don’t have a picture of The Farmer’s Wife, because she was cooking and running about, but she is the reason for the vineyard. She wanted some grapevines for grapes for jelly. The Farmer must really like her jelly. She has 1,000 grapevines. I hope she has a lot of jars.
Kevin and Ginger Mumpower own and operate Gingerbread Cooking and Catering and, hopefully, in a few years, they’ll have some grapes ready for the first homemade jellies and food sauces. Ginger’s jellies for our bellies!
The grapevines arrived last week. They are dormant at this time.
Kevin worked with Virginia Tech to determine the soil PH and how it should be amended as well as to determine what grapes would grow best here in Mendota. Everything is ready to go in the picture below.
Each vine was tucked into its place. It rained shortly thereafter.
It’s good to have some help. This is Bill, Kevin’s father in law.
Some help came from East High…and one former Gate City High School (now JMU) fella..
As I left North Bristol and approached Benhams, a man held his arm out the window and flashed his lights. I wondered what was going on.
The creeks were out in the road and water was rushing across the pavement. I drove through it, and I got to the other side, but my car moved. I was scared. More water was ahead, but this time I could see the yellow center lines so I drove through cautiously but knew I could reach the other side.
Benhams was a mess. There’s pictures all over Facebook of the water. I drove down Nordyke and halfway down encountered this…a log was in the road and Nordyke Creek was there with it.
After the log was moved, it was still too dangerous to go through. I turned around and went to my cousin’s house. Mike was able to drive up in the truck and get me. Since I drive a Prius which is low to the ground, there was no way I was going to drive through water again. Here’s the creek that was in the road.
Further down, Sherman Pippin (Bubby)and friends were working to get Barb’s old bridge (Barb is Bubby’s sister) off of Bubby’s bridge.
