By 10:00 p.m. last Tuesday night, I’d gotten another row and a half of blocks quilted on the Farmall Scenes quilt.
It was going so well, I hated to stop; but I needed to get up early and work in the flower gardens the next morning.
Accordingly, I spent an hour and a half Wednesday morning working in my biggest flower garden in the back yard. There are volunteer trees all over the place, and it takes some oomph to cut them down. It would be better to get the roots, too, but I can’t do it. Some grew nice and healthy that summer three years ago when I ruptured a disk in my back, and now all I can do is cut off the smaller branches. If they show up in decent spots, and are ‘good’ species of trees, I let them grow. But they rarely have the decency to show up in decent spots. 😏
I filled the bird feeders, took a shower, and was soon curling my hair and sipping Butter Pecan coffee by Christopher Bean. It came ready-ground from Wal-Mart, and can’t hold a candle to the whole bean Butter Pecan I order online.
After cleaning the kitchen, I headed upstairs to the quilting studio to see how much quilting I could get done before our midweek church service that evening. My back would be glad for the break; it was complaining!
The Dipladenia Lydia gave me is starting to bloom. There are a couple of white blossoms on one side, and many red buds on the other. There must be two separate plants in the pot!
I had not heard of a flower called ‘Dipladenia’ until Larry and I saw them in the Wal-Mart nursery back in 2019. They were in a bucket that I knew would fit in a big pot on my porch. I read the tag... looked this way and that (reminiscent of Moses, eh)... saw that there was no one else in the nursery... and howled, “I want a Dipladenia! I want a Dipladenia!”
Larry stuck the pot in the cart, and said, “Well, just HAVE your Dipladenia!”
(It’s a fun word to say: “Dip-luh-DEEN-yuh! Dip-luh-DEEN-yuh!” Like in the comic ‘Pickles’ when Earl says to his wife Opal, “Your name sounds funny when you say it over and over fast: Opalopal-opalopalopalo-----” Next frame shows nothing but his feet sticking up from his tipped-over chair.)
By the time I quit quilting and hurried off to don glad rags for our evening church service, I was approaching the middle of the Farmall Scenes quilt.
We had our graduation ceremony that evening, when the seniors are awarded their diplomas. Two of our grandchildren got theirs – Emma and Nathanael. The choir loft was full of schoolchildren, somewhere around 100 of them, and they sang quite a few songs for us. A quartet of boys played horns.
Then, after Robert preached a short sermon, he handed out the diplomas and showed a variety of pictures of the students on our big screen. That’s always an enjoyable time.
Another hour and a half in the biggest flower garden in the back yard Thursday morning, and it was done. For now. Until the next day, when all the weeds would sprout again. 😏 Weed, weed, weed. >>rain<< Start over. Weed, weed, weed. >>water<< Start over. Weed, weed, weed. >>rain<< Start over. Weed, weed, weed. >>water<< Start over. I haven’t even made it back to the first flower garden where I began! 😵💫
But the flowers are pretty. There are two smaller flowerbeds in the back, plus a couple on the east side of the house – and then I’ll finally be back around to the front, where weeds are already growing in flowerbeds I tidied a few days ago. Aarrgghh, it’s unending.
That morning, I heard a distant ‘mewling’ noise overhead, looked up – and there were hundreds of Franklin’s gulls riding a spiral of wind, some of them waaaaay up high in the sky, so high it was hard to see them.
I sent a note to Hester: “The birds are enjoying the birdbath you gave me! I was even inspired to wash the windows, the better to get pictures of them, though I haven’t gotten any yet. I suppose I should not yell ‘BOO!!!’ each time I walk to the window with my bazooka?”
Hester responded, “😄😄😄 I saw a redheaded woodpecker today! Usually we just see the downy woodpeckers. We do get flickers now and then; they are sooo pretty too.”
“The redheadeds really are pretty!” I agreed. “And they’re the shyest of all our woodpeckers. In addition to those two, we get the red-bellied, the hairy (a bigger version of the downy), and the Northern flicker. I’ll always be jealous of Victoria, because back before she was married, she saw red-headed woodpecker parents feeding three recently-fledged babies in the neighbors’ pine trees. She came racing in to tell me, and I grabbed my camera and rushed out – but we evidently created such a stir, there were no birds left in the entire county.”
She also saw about six baby killdeer running down the shoulder of the road near one of their parents, and the other parent was screeching at her and fluttering along with one wing out all whoppyjaw as if it was broken or something, as killdeer do to draw danger away from their babies or their nest. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons.)
There used to be killdeer all over the West Park School playground, when I was little. I saw one doing the ‘broken wing decoy’ act once, and ran home to tell my mother that we must go rescue that bird, quick!
I was amazed when she explained to me that they do that on purpose, to lead one away from their nests.
We had venison, baked potatoes, and onions for supper, with frozen peaches, mangoes, strawberries, and pineapple for dessert. I like to suck on the frozen pieces of fruit, but Larry pops his in the microwave for a few seconds before eating them. We then went and picked up a big grocery order from Wal-Mart. Larry helped carry them in and put them away, thankfully.
Friday morning, I spent an hour and a half on another of the backyard flower gardens.
It was my sister Lura Kay’s 84th birthday that day.
I finally got some pictures of the birds in the birdbath, and sent a few to Hester:
♫ ♪ Splish, splash, I was takin’ a b------------- “Hey, pull the shower curtain, wouldja?!!”
Hester replied, “😆😆 The robins around here are very possessive of the water.”
They are here, too. They’ll even chase off the bigger grackles now and then.
Supper that evening was Panera Bread’s chicken noodle soup, bacon ranch southwestern salad, cottage cheese, Martinelli’s unfiltered apple juice, half a banana, and Chobani strawberry cheesecake Flips yogurt (with the crunchy stuff on one side, which you tip into the yogurt section upon opening).
After the robin in the birdbath came the grackle: “Where are the faucets on this thing?” Next: “Ah, well; might as well step in...”
By midnight, there was only one more row, plus the borders, and I would be done with the Farmall Scenes quilt. The cow face is now quilted.
When I woke up Saturday morning, I was too stiff and sore to work in the flower gardens, so I headed off to visit Loren. The flowers would have to fend for themselves for a couple more days.
A friend commented on one of my pictures, “Looks very hilly. Do you alway go the same route?”
“No,” I told her, “I like to try out all different roads, and drive through different little towns and villages. Now and then I accidentally wind up on a gravel road. I try not to do that; don’t want to chip the paint on my nice vehicle. But... I just slow down, and enjoy the countryside – and hope a paved road shows up soon. The GPS lady is usually frantically trying to get me to ‘Make a U-turn!’ or ‘Turn right (or left) at the very next corner!’ I like to boggle her brain.”
I use the GPS on my phone all the time, but I also keep the navigational map on the dash running. And when we are going somewhere where we are unfamiliar with the area, if Larry is driving, I like to keep a map on my large laptop screen. GPS can lead one wrongly every once in a while, but it’s a lot better than it used to be. Some of the things I like about it: I can see at a glance how far I have to go and how long it will take, which way I need to turn next, and how fast I am going. It will also tell me if there is an accident or a road closure up ahead.
I like to take pictures of signs, water towers, etc., in order to remember where photos were taken. Or sometimes just because the name of a road or town is funny.
I got to Cedar Creek of Prairie Meadows at a quarter after three, and had a very nice visit with Loren. Last week, he could hardly stay awake through our visit, so I cut it 10-15 minutes shorter than usual.
This time he didn’t want me to leave, and, like my grandchildren do, hastily started looking for something to show me and to talk about, when I got up to go. But he’s not really capable of starting up a ‘new’ conversation, though sometimes he’ll read me something in a magazine, and talk about that. Two minutes later, he’ll read the same thing, and say either the same thing, or the exact opposite of what he said before. And so it goes.
Nevertheless, we had a nice visit.
There is a lot of terracing in the cropland of Nebraska hills. It makes my photos interesting.
I took a few different roads, and saw a number of homes damaged by the April 26 tornadoes. The neighborhood that got wiped clean of about 160 homes cannot be seen from the highways, and roads near that area are closely guarded, with only residents allowed through, as there was a problem with looters immediately after the disaster. As if those poor people had not already had enough trauma in their lives, losing their houses, and very nearly their lives!
I got home a little before six, and was soon heading upstairs and turning on my quilting machine.
A quilting friend posted pictures of a little bird feeding her babies in a nest just outside her kitchen window. She thought it was most likely a Say’s phoebe. (Photo from eBird.)
Such a pretty little bird it is. When I was little, my mother pointed out a phoebe (and, at other times, a chickadee, a peewee, a killdeer, and so on) and said, “Listen, and you’ll hear it say its name!”
I, all astonished, asked, “How does it know what its name is?!!” – and then wondered why my mother seemed to be trying not to laugh as she explained that its song came first, and then the name. 😅
Happening to look out the window, I saw a blue jay get too close to a common grackle’s nest in one of our Douglas firs. The grackle promptly circled the tree lickety-split and divebombed the blue jay. The blue jay squawked and took off, posthaste, the grackle hot on its heels----uh, tail feathers. But in its spiral around the fir tree, the grackle had gotten too close to a robin’s nest in a nearby blue spruce. The robin screeched indignantly and took off like a shot after the grackle.
So there they went, blue jay, grackle, and robin, one after the other, all screaming angrily. 😅 Quite the cacophony, it was.
♫ ♪ All God’s critters got a voice in the choir; ♪ ♫ some sing low, and some sing higher! ♫ ♪ Some sing out loud on a telephone wire; ♫ ♪ and some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got now! ♫ ♪
Victoria sent a picture of the sunset, saying, “The girls wanted me to send you a picture of the sunset. 😊 They are convinced every time the clouds are pink that you’d really like it.”
“Ooo, that’s pretty,” I answered. “And I gotta go take one too. Rrrrright nnnnnnnow!”
Carolyn and Violet of course then wanted to see my picture, so of course I sent it to them.
“Now I’m singing, ‘♫ ♪ When His Glory Paints the Sky! ♪ ♫’,” I wrote.
In the middle of this chat with Victoria, using Google Messages on my laptop, I hit Alt + something-or-other, and caused the chat recipient to switch from Victoria to Amy just as I pressed Enter, after which I had to explain why I was singing ‘When His Glory Paints the Sky’.
“I’m glad I’m not the only one who does that!” laughed Amy.
I once wrote to Larry, “You need to get your check deposited right away!”
Only I wrote to Caleb instead of Larry. 😅
He wrote back, “Do you want me to deposit it in MY account, or yours?”
Smartypants kid.
Speaking of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, I once had a coworker – let’s call her Mona – who sometimes talked to her husband on the phone, and she always ended by saying, “Love you!”
So one morning she took a phone call from an agent in another office.
You know exactly what’s going to happen, don’t you?
She finished the call, said, “Love yo----” and then “AAAAAAUUUGGGHHH!!!” right into the receiver. And with that, she slammed it down violently on the receptacle.
The hapless man was probably wondering what on EARTH had just happened. She loves him; she then breaks his eardrum.
Mona came marching over to my desk, all in a fizz, telling me the story.
“Mona,” I said, “I’m trying with all my might and main to keep from laughing. But I’m about to lose the battle.”
She glared at me for a moment or two, and then I said in my best bass tones, “She loves me, and then she breaks my eardrum!” — and then we both laughed ’til we cried.
Sunday afternoon, Victoria sent pictures of Baby Arnold, who is now four months old. He’s such a sweetie.
Last night we went to Wal-Mart and picked up a couple of birthday gifts for two grandsons whose birthdays are tomorrow. On the way home, we were sipping piping hot Georgia Peach coffee from Aroma Ridge. Mmmmm! That’s good stuff.
I spent a while this morning working on the flower garden closest to the front lane.
Larry has not been able to get the back yard mowed, because the mower keeps losing belts. Plus, he has little time to solve the issue. I think it won’t be long before the bison, coyotes, antelope, and moose move in.
A cousin of mine, upon seeing my picture of the peony bouquet from Bobby and Hannah that’s made of cardstock, commented, “And bonus points for no ants!”
“Those ants!” I replied. “I once, years ago, took my sister a peony bouquet. Ants and all. Bless my little heart.”
The hibiscus from Todd and Dorcas now has blooms all over it. I sent her a picture, writing, “Just look at the hibiscus today!”
Dorcas then sent pictures of Trevor and Brooklyn playing in their new wading pool.
This reminded me of pictures of our older four children playing in a wading pool at our house on 17th St. Larry, in a bid to entertain the kids, climbed the ladder, got in position to go down headfirst right into the pool – and discovered himself stuck there at the top of the slide, momentarily.
For supper tonight, we had kale pecan cranberry salad, Chicken & Dumpling soup, Pretzel FlipSide crackers, Kiwi-Strawberry juice, cottage cheese, green and red grapes, and sliced strawberries on Kemp’s Creamy Ice Cream for dessert.
I brought in the three pots of flowers that were on my front porch, as we received warning of a severe thunderstorm with possible large hail heading our way. I’d hate for these pretty flowers to get ruined. They have blossoms and buds all over them.
Below is the begonia Caleb and Maria gave me.
The first bands of rain and wind rolled over us a couple of hours before sunset. Another will be coming shortly. The clouds were very odd, not quite sure which direction they should go, and sometimes having definite rotation to them.
Hannah sent a couple of pictures of those clouds. There seems to be a photobomber in the foreground trying to disguise itself as a Shasta daisy. 😄
And now Larry has called and I need to go pick him up. He has left one of his pickups at a dealership in town, and they will try to sell it for him.
Tomorrow I hope to finish Warren’s quilt.
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
