Flower Friday: June 28, 2024

 

Happy Flower Friday!

This week I am celebrating the inch of rain we received Wednesday night.  We haven't had rain since before Memorial Day.  Yeah for rain!

We have some nice flower selections from Sue  and Nann this week!

Many of you commented about weeds and Nann even quoted Emerson:  "A weed is a wildflower whose virtues have not yet been discovered."

I love what Nann shared this week.  It's a Prickly Pear Cactus she saw at Illinois Beach State Park!

Nann explained that the points at the end of the leaves are sharp spines!

But so pretty!

From Sue this week, we have a nice variety!

Monarch Butterfly enjoying some parsley!

Sue has a number of rudbeckia plants, many that have mutated.  I've got that as well but enjoy seeing Sue's varieties!

Here's a double road lily (aka ditch lily) from Sue's garden:

Single variety:

Butterfly weed below.  Sue commented that she thought it was interesting how so many orange flowers bloom this time of year!

Thank you Sue for sharing your lovely photos!

Have a safe and happy weekend!

Chameleon Plant: A Rant

 

Happy Wednesday!

Welcome to my weed rant.  What's yours?

For me the plant I despise is commonly called the Chameleon plant or houttuynia cordata.  It should be called the kudzu of the north.  

My mom has it in her garden.  Technically it is considered a groundcover.  I don't know if she bought it or it just spread there via wildlife or seed.  She can't remember but she says she likes it.

It smells like lime when you weed it out.  I don't like the scent of lime 😝  I'm not the only who hates the scent.  In Asia where the plant originated it has names that translate to "fish stinking herb" and "lettuce (smelling like fish)".  

But it takes over everywhere it is located.  It spreads via underground roots and by seed.  Although I weed and weed it, I can't seem to get all the roots.  Turns out, I'm not the only gardener with this problem.  There is a whole website dedicated to the eradication of this plant here. 

And don't tell me about chemicals.  I don't want them in my garden and as it turns out, they don't work.  Purdue University did a study of the effectiveness of herbicides like Round Up on this plant and guess what?  The cat chameleon plant came back.  The most effective method is digging up the whole garden and going through the soil to get rhizomes and roots.  Burn the lot (not kidding) and do it the next season and the next season and so on.

Around my mother's pond

I never planted this but I'm sure the dogs got seeds in their curly hair and here we are.  It is everywhere in the garden (most likely via wildlife transplanting the seeds).  

I dug out half of one bed this past spring in an effort to eradicate it.  I covered my cleaned out soil with cardboard and mulch.  I may just let that all set for a year or two to see if it does the job.

So do you have a plant that drives you nuts?  Please share!

Have a safe and happy day!

Tuesday's This and That: June 25, 2024

Happy Tuesday!

Well the heat of summer has knocked a lot of us for a loop.  For me, it's more the lack of rain.  I spend my mornings and twilights watering different parts of the garden.  Lucky is down to two walks a day because it is just too hot.  We go out at daybreak and twilight when it's safe for him to walk.

***

This week for Flower Friday, you can show us your favorite plants or you can show us a plant that is the bane of your existence (aka weed).  I'll start tomorrow with my most disliked weed in the garden.

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Some of us just can't attend lectures and educational classes like we did when we were younger.  The Schwenkfelder Heritage Center has a number of virtual lectures from their last series.  They are not free but I always found the lectures and classes there worthwhile.  See here.  

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Not gardening or quilting story, but the story of the Tarahumara runners is quite interesting.  See here.

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Wishing you a safe and happy day!

Potato Chips

 

As a child, I had an uncle from the coal regions who sold potato chips.  So we always had potato chips at home.  Of course, being the problem child, I didn't want the chips.  I craved pretzels.

One day last week, I was scrolling through Pinterest and came upon an interesting block.  

Some one referred to as a "potato chip block".  Wait, what?  Yup, I'm behind on some of the newer blocks available to quilters.  I never heard of it.  Have you?  I spent a lot of time investigating this and in case you haven't heard of it, the main video I found of it is here.

But there are lots of variations to this.  One woman (with a very entertaining video) made a "twisted" variation of it (see here).

I found interesting color variations on Pinterest:

Apologies if you are a savvy quilter and already made some potato chips.  But if you aren't, you probably have a lot of strips of fabrics that you want to use up in a scrap quilt.  I hope this helps!

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: June 21, 2024

 

Happy Flower Friday!

The only thing I'm doing in the garden these days is water due to the heatwave and the lack of rainfall the last three weeks.  Still despite the heat, the garden looks fairly well.

The water lilies are in full bloom in the garden too and blooming early in the morning!

I'd probably call this the year of the hydgrangea.  I have two bushes that were problem children.  This one normally has one lonely flower each year, if that.

The one below never bloomed.  I think my husband picked up the one above at the grocery store one year.  I have no idea who gave me the one below.  I don't even remember the names of these hydrangeas anymore.  The bushes struggled to grow and I always wondered if they would come back each year.  No doubt about it though, this year all the hydrangeas are happy!

Wishing you a safe and happy weekend!

Stay cool!

Happy First Day of Summer!

 

Happy Thursday!

I was feeling really bad that my white clematis had died.  And then I saw this sign.  It actually made me feel better!

Just a reminder that Flower Friday is tomorrow!  

You can email photos to me at allentownquilter@gmail.com

Enjoy the longest day of the year!

More This and That: June 19, 2024

Happy Juneteenth and happy Wednesday!

Fortunately, our city celebrated last Saturday.  The weather was great on that date and not the current heat wave we have.

***

Fireflies in the summer color so many memories of childhood!  And now they are captivating our baby Lucky.  When I take him out front for his last potty break, the flower garden is full of the lightning bugs.  I can almost hear him think:  what's that?  Wait it's gone!  No there it is!  It's tough to make him do his business when he's so curious about these enchanting creatures!

The puppy is having a great summer.  I bought Lucky a pool that we keep at my mom's house.  It's shallow and has a sprinkler attached to the ring around the pool.  Lucky wasn't sure what to make of it at first.  He behaved as if his ball was in a weird jail cell.  😁

But no worries, Uncle Jim lowered the water pressure and gradually Lucky acclimated to the new pool.  He even began to throw his ball in it for fun!

By Tuesday, he was eager to play in his pool!

He even jumped in it before we filled the pool!

Now he regularly takes his ball into the pool and plays around the water with it.  My mom, brother, and I are really having fun watching his antics!

We do all these activities in the morning.  The heat is high enough even then and he naps throughout the afternoon.  Life returns to normal as the sun goes down and our visits to Tinkerbell occur much later than they usually do.

I sure hope you are finding a fun way to stay cool!

Have a safe and happy day!

Tuesday's This and That: June 18, 2024

 

Good morning!

Welcome to another edition of Tuesday's This and That!

Life Magazine, 1939

One of the things I'll be listening to this week is another Haptic and Hue podcast.  This one is entitled,  American Cotton Feed Sacks: and How They Changed the World.  This is interesting since the podcasts originate in the U.K.  You can find the link to all the Haptic and Hue podcasts here including the feed sack one.

***

Sometimes I read old local newspapers just to see what I can see.  In 1899, there were many quilts entered into the Lehigh County Agricultural Fair.  That's not unusual but many of these quilts were called Rising Sun.  I wasn't sure what pattern that referred to and in fact, there are over a dozen Rising Sun patterns in Brackman's latest encyclopedia.  

After much searching through the encyclopedia, I realized that the pattern most likely referred to one that I generally call "Star of Bethlehem".  This pattern was really a favorite of the Pennsylvania piece makers.  It seemed with the first day of summer this week to feature these quilts:

Here's one from my collection that is circa 1870:

 Early 20th century version:

Later 20th century:

Wishing you a safe and happy day!

Heatwave

 

Happy Monday!

Well it looks like we are in for an heat wave this week.  Just in time for the first day of summer on the 20th.  

The thought of baking anything (on a car or otherwise) fills me with dismay.  The older I get, the more I dislike the 90 plus temps.

I do think that preparation for this weather pattern is not unlike getting ready for a blizzard.  I don't like weather extremes but I sure don't know how people in the south deal with so much heat!

How do you spend time during heatwaves?  Most of us get everything done in the morning (very early morning for walking Lucky). 

The garden is on maintenance only.  The soaker hoses will be my saving grace this week.  We only got about a 1/4 of inch of rain on Saturday and none expected until maybe next weekend.  Two weeks of dryness (and winds last week) has really dried the soil.  

I know that the heat will inhibit working much in the attic sewing room.  Instead I'll be doing more reading.

I have a stack of books ready to read.  I finally finished The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton last week.  It was as detailed as a Russian novel and nearly as long.  I'm glad I read it.  I'm even happier that I finished it.  Over the weekend, I read The Real Life of James Herriot, A Memoir of My Father.  This was an enjoyable (and sometimes funny, often poignant) account of the wonderful writer of All Creatures Great and Small (and other books).  

What do you do to stay cool?  

Wishing you all a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: June 14, 2024

 

Happy Flower Friday!

I feel like I'm smelling like dirt nearly everyday this season.  I'm out working in the garden every morning before it gets warm.  This week I was cutting back the rhododendrons.  I have to prune them every two to three years because they get so big here.  I was shocked as I pruned one that I was seeing something blue.  Two of the rhodies had grown so close that I didn't realize an hydrangea seeded, grew and was in full bloom!

Meanwhile in Illinois...

Nann sent two photos from Illinois Beach State Park!

Thank you Nann!

Above:  White False Indigo, Baptisia Alba

Bumblebee on foxglove!

Thanks Nann!

Wishing you a safe and flowerful weekend!