Wordless Wednesday

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Pinktober

(affiliate links to my designs)

One of my little neighbors has a new baby sister. I knew she was coming; I saw mama walking in the neighborhood a couple of months ago, and it was pretty obvious. But I didn't know it would be this soon. Time to get quilting yet again. Late, as usual, these days!

Big sister got a quilt from one of my digital Spoonflower panels, and her mother absolutely loved it. She always compliments my garden when she walks by. I thought it would be fitting for baby sister to receive a quilt from one of my own floral cheater panel designs.

Except I didn't have any pink or floral cheater panels left in my Spoonflower stash!!! How could that possibly be?!? Especially in October!

I did find some butterfly fabric of my own design, but I'm planning to make a dress for me from that.

I know, I know, last thing I need is yet one more new quilt project. But I couldn't resist. I created a new panel, and I'm hoping to have it in hand one day next week so I can begin sewing. I think this one will be SO much fun!

On my phone, I had created a really fun cosmos collage with flowers in my garden the second (I think) year of the pandemic. I thought I'd created a cheater quilt panel from that image, but I guess not. The original image was too small, and I had not played with the idea to create a proper-size image. I certainly meant to. I guess this is just another case of proving how tangled life got during the last few years.

All it took was the motivation of finding out the new little one has arrived. I have so many other things I need to do, including mending a coat for a very elderly neighbor who will need the coat before the weather cools off, assuming it might one day...

Yes, I made a card, too. How could I not???

I probably could have finished the coat in the time it took me to design a new Spoonflower cheater panel for the new baby quilt, but one more day on the coat won't matter, right?!? I promise, that's my next project!!!

In the meantime, I created a few more pink floral Spoonflower panels, and I ordered a few of them, too. Now I'll be ready next time I need to quilt pink!

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Not Gone with the Wind

I should have taken a photo the day I rescued the huge branch of cosmos that was leveled by 60 mph winds a couple of weeks ago. All buds. I didn't know if they'd ever bloom. But I put them in a vase anyway and have kept it on my porch just in case there are garden helpers hiding in the skimpy leaves.

I also rescued a branch of eryngium or sea holly. That particular plant had been chopped down to make room for the tree cutters when we had to take down the gigantic poplar/cottonwood hybrid that was munching on the plumbing beneath our house. The branches I cut off back then lasted a long time in the vase in my kitchen, but the "flowers" never turned blue. (I hosed down those branches to relocate any garden helper residents because the power wash wouldn't destroy sea holly the way it decimates flowers.) I didn't know the plant would persist and produce a few more branches before next year.

I thought I saw a hint of blue in the sea holly over the weekend, so I closely inspected but found no trace of blue. Yet. I will give it more time.

The cosmos, though, have exploded with blossoms! And they seem to last a very long time! Every day I check the vase on the porch and am so pleased to see twice as many blossoms as the day before! What a wonderful way to close out summer!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Hummer Summer

The days are getting cooler, and the hummers have headed south. I'm anxious for snowflakes to photograph, but I'm going to miss the sweet birds I got to shoot through my bedroom window this year.

I'm going to miss the flowers. And the peppers! But I am planning to dig up a few of the pepper plants so I can try to keep them going indoors through the winter. I was able to enjoy homegrown sweet banana peppers on almost every salad for the last three months! And there are still enough left for a few more meals...

The birds, however, have not been too interested in my raised-bed gardens, thank heavens! Squirrels have been a nuisance and have robbed me of many tomatoes. But the birds have been sticking to the flowers, and it's been SO much fun to watch. I had no idea hummingbirds like sunflowers!

The goldfinches, I knew about. The hummers, though... what an amazing surprise! And this is exactly why I let sunflowers grow wild almost anywhere they come up!

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Transcendental Efflorescence

Seven years and two weeks ago, I discovered cosmos. I'd seen seeds, but I'd never planted any, probably because I'd never really seen (or recognized) any flowering cosmos plants. We were on our way to the Tour de Lavender in Washington, and I can never go to the Pacific Northwest without a stop (or two!!!) in Wyoming. More specifically, a stop in Tetons/Yellowstone. We paused en route at a rest stop in Shoshoni, where the bright pink cosmos were blooming like crazy. We'd been shooting a bit of fall color, so the burst of pink was an addictive pleasant surprise. When we returned home a week later, I created a poster (the shot above), then began researching what kind of flower could handle late September overnight lows.

My cosmos adventure began! I planted my first seeds the following spring and was a bit disappointed when the flowers didn't bloom until September. (Although I was very thankful to have flowers in September because for the last many years, most of my garden has gone to seed by mid- to late July!)

Each year, seeds would sprout in places where I did not plant. Each year, I'd buy seeds for a new variety or two. Or more.

This year, I attempted digging up some of the volunteers and transplanting them in places where I wanted flowers and in pots for the porch. Some survived; some didn't. Overall, I have far more cosmos this year than I've ever had, and there are still volunteers popping up in places I would not expect them to flourish.

Last week we returned to the birthplace of my cosmos addiction. I didn't expect tons of flowers this late in the season, but I did expect flowers. I had to really look to find them! The "garden" has been overgrown with grass.

If I lived in Shoshoni, I would dig up this little garden welcome mat and redo it with every variety of cosmos I could get into my little green thumb hand as a service project. Hopefully giving everyone who drives through (in September) a wonderful impression of Shoshoni...

The 2017ish addition to the Shoshoni sign made me giggle.

I'd forgotten we originally had planned to view the Great American Eclipse somewhere near this site. We chickened out when we learned tiny little remote areas such as Glendo were expecting up to 40,000 or 50,000 people. We opted for fairly remote, non-totality on the Colorado/Wyoming border.

I've always heard Wyoming and wind are blood brothers. I had to giggle at the Shoshoni sign wind braces...

I tried shooting cosmos still blooming at home when we returned last weekend, but that blasted wind, which does not confine itself to Wyoming, kept taking those precious blossoms right out of my viewfinder. But, I guess wind (plus goldfinch) is what spreads the seeds, right? So my own little guarantee for next year's crop!

And, I really can't complain about having flowers, even if windblown, in October. Once that first freeze happens, which could literally be any minute now, outdoor flowers will come to a quick and sorrowful end until next year...

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