Green green green everywhere

One good thing about all the rain we have been having is that everything is so green. Here are some green shots around our place. 

Our muscadine grapes were pruned back severely and they are already lush again. When they get too thick they won't produce much fruit.

We have another vine that is like a tunnel. It rarely fruits as it is too thick and also too shady. Here is the front going into our porch and the back coming out of our porch.

I promised I would put up photos of my wheel barrow and also my comodes.

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I can't believe how much Kinzey has settled down. She is about over her ear infection and loves sleeping in my closet at night now. She has gotten where she doesn't get up and follow us to the bathroom at night anymore. At 19 months old she is doing great. She comes to the command of "Come" now and will sit and lay down. We are still struggling with her harness. But that is because she is so big. At right at 80lbs, she is a big one. She is almost twice the size of her litter mate sister our older granddaughter has. O and she has become quite protective.

We will keep her crate in the house as we have to have somewhere to put her when it rains and we have to leave the house. 

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Another photo I found on the internet..think this is in England.

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And as always.....

more baby quilt tops

Things have been wet around here and seems it won't let up. The vines and trees just hang with so much moisture. 

We have begun to get our plums picked. We have to pick every day and get them a little unripe and ripen them on the counter as the squirrels have been awful this year. I think Sonny gets out every day and kills at least 2 per day. I did cook down some of the plums and de-seeded the pulp to put up into jam..or I may make fruit leather too. But I just put it all down in the freezer for later. 

I have managed to get a few photos when the sun has shown up.

This is our front right side of the house with the gazebo over the firepit. I love how green everything is and the clematis is in full bloom on the trellis. 

The spider wort has begun to bloom. I love this wild flower so much so try to keep it around in the yard.

I have a real love for wildflowers and have a few different kinds in my yard. Sometimes it looks like my yard is infested with weeds.

Sonny hates it and mows every time he thinks it needs it.

I have a couple of old washing machine tubs ...you know the insides of the old metal washers..I usually plant them with the faux sweet potatoes as they look so wild and lovely sprawled across the yard. But this year I planted cantaloupes...they really aren't doing that well with all the rain we have had but hopefully they will pull out of their slump.

My old comode planters may have to be redone. One is completely cracked and falling apart so think it is time to be removed. I keep creeping jenny and a hairy looking succulent in them along with my wheel barrow. I'll try to get photos of them to post later. 

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On a crafty note....I finished 2 sets of Curious George linework embroidery and have one sewn into a baby quilt top and the other is half sewn. I also am working on the sunflower quilt top for the daughter in law. Lately I've been more focused on reading. The wet dampness makes me ache so haven't had much energy to do much else. 

But here are 4 more of the quilt tops I finished.

This one is redwork kitty twins.

Another sunbonnet sue

Precious moments Noah's ark

Precious moments angels

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VBS is coming up soon for our church. We usually average around 90 children every night. We serve them supper as well. I've not helped out much due to my bum hip and back but I talked to our preacher's wife and she will put me to work in something I can do sitting down. I have a couple of friends around my age that do this each year so will have someone to fellowship with as well. Sonny has always gone up and helped in the kitchen a few days each year so it will be nice for us both to be there together. 

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Keep me in your prayers as I have cataract surgery this coming Tuesday. I'm hoping it will help me be able to drive again. I've not trusted myself with my eyesight the way it has been so we will see.

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And as always....

baby quilts and yard shots

I've been busy lately working on putting together some baby quilt tops from redwork blocks I've worked on over the years. I've just mainly stored the sets of blocks into themes as I've finished them and decided that I needed to go ahead and set them into a top. This way I will have some finished tops to grab when I need a baby gift and put together with batting and backing and then tie. Quick and easy. As I finish each set, I've folded them and store in gallon ziplocks and all into a bin. I plan to show photos of all I've managed to finish and will post a few here each time I post. So here are my first few. 

This one is a duckling and I used a plaid seersucker I had in my stash. I used this same fabric in the next one that is a sunbonnet sue standing on hills.

I will show a few each time I post so this is all for today.

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A few shots around our place....

We have had so much rain that the toadstools have popped up. These were so strange looking. This was the largest and is large as a salad plate and flat. It looks like a purple ring around the edge.

We have a catalpa tree that I bought for Sonny for a father's day present years ago. It has gotten huge and sadly no worms. Sonny loves to catfish using the worms but we have only had the worms the trees are known for 2 years. This tree leans terribly but is gorgeous. It is in full bloom and the blooms look almost like a cross between an orchid and a trumpet. They smell heavenly and draw tiny white butterflies. 

The blooms look like snow and that is what draws the butterflies.

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More photos coming later.

And as always.....

more flowers

My other clematis have been blooming. I only have one that hasn't bloomed and not sure it is even alive anymore.

The rain doesn't seem to have affected them as much.

This is my oldest clematis and is an heirloom called a Jackmani

The blooms on it are smaller and only has 4 to 5 petals instead of the 6. I really like it the best. It is a deep purple ...almost blue purple.

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We cut down an old tree a couple of years ago. It had gotten rotten on the inside and was leaning towards the house. We knew it was rotten when a mushroom grew from it's side. When we cut it, we left a tall stump thinking to eventually make it into a gnome house. A wild trumpet vine has grown up on it as well. But surprisingly the mushroom continues to pop out in spring after much rain. I did research it and it is a lions mane mushroom and is edible though we are too chicken to try it. 

It is really big...about 15inches long and about 8 inches wide.

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I went out this morning to check on our baby hawk. With the storms we have had, I'm not sure it is still alive or there. The nest looks pretty worn. I could not see the baby but will try again another time. 

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My usual internet finds of terrific photos.

I love sunset and sunrise photos and also love the old water windmills. They are becoming fewer as people now go to electric well pumps. I have noticed now that people are using the old blades from these windmills for decorating. 

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As usual....

Iris bloom & baby hawk

Well our iris didn't bloom as well as they normally do since we have had so much rain. But I did manage to get out and photo some and also spent time marking those to keep and those to get rid of. We plan to dig the entire bed and downsize it to 3 rows instead of 5. We will also shorten the rows as well as remove the entire small bed by our sidewalk. We only had one to bloom in that bed and it was never a pretty bed anyway. 

Anyway here are some photos of the best we had to bloom this year. 

Strangely our water iris (Siberian) that we dug growing wild have bloomed well this year. 

Our fruit trees are loaded this year. Our blueberry bushes have a lot of fruit but we had to cut back our oldest bushes severely so the crop over all won't be as good as normal.

Our clematis have been blooming as well even though we cut some of the vines way back last year.

I finally got around to taking photos of the hawk nest. It is hard to zoom in so close so wasn't sure what I was getting until I looked at the photos on my computer. From what I can tell, we have only one baby this year. I plan to get out today and take another as by this time the fuzz should be going away and feathers appearing. They grow so fast and soon mama hawk will be booting her baby out of the nest. 

Sadly this may be the last year to photograph the hawks. We plan to cut this tree. It is a sweetgum tree and is directly over our sidewalk in the front of the house. At our age, the sweetgum balls are really a hazard for walking. We can't afford a fall. Hopefully they hawk will find another tree nearby to nest in next year. 

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This is our yard dog Lulu. She is about 13 years old now. It is hard to catch a photo of Fred as he is always out and about. He is also 13. 

Our yard-house dog is Kinzey and she is a year and 7 months old and we are beginning to train her for a service dog. We have kept her in a large wire crate at nights in the house and last night decided to leave her out for a change. Well if we barely moved in the bed, she was there checking on us and finally I crated her again around midnight as she was keeping us away. I have just purchased a service dog harness and her lessons begin today.

We keep her in a pen in the backyard and she is so active running constantly that as you can see there is no grass any longer. Her play toys have to be tough enough to endure her heavy handling and strong teeth. So she has mainly buckets. She throws them up in the air and just loves making noise with them. We will try her again every night for awhile out of her crate until we can get her used to sleeping outside it for good. 

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Sonny got to visit with the new great grandson the other day. I had made plans with one of the daughter-in-loves to go shopping and he wanted to visit with the oldest son which we rarely see so he got a double blessing. 

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Another love of mine is old churches. We have so many in our area but this photo I found online. Love the lighting in this one.

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And as always