NASTURTIUMS TAKE OVER

 The Nasturtiums I planted last summer grew and flowered and made seeds, then died back a bit, as they usually do.  But when summer was over and the rains started they came back to life - with a vengence. 

They flowered again and when those fell off the plant decided to just take over the world.

It's beautiful.

FRIDAY DINNER

I love Indian food.  I stopped by a local Indian restaurant/grocery and picked up some ingredients and some premade dishes for dinner.

I made some 'bread' topped with tomatoes from our garden, jalepenos and cilantro.  It uses fermented rice and lentils as the base.  

 

Mine didn't look quite like the picture but they were very tasty.

GARDEN REMODEL

 I've been working on remodeling our front flower garden.  I've had these leftover stepping stones since we re-did the sidewalks in the backyard that I wanted to place as a path to the birdbath.  I had to remove a lot of groundcover from this area.  Then Darrell moved them into place for me.

I planted new flowering plants around them.  It will be an on-going project.  I want to remove (and re-home) the rest of the groundcover and replace with flowers someday.

SOLAR PANEL

 I watched Darrell install a solar panel on our roof today.  It will power a fan under our gazebo on the back deck.  It gets very hot under there in the summer.

FLOWER FOURTH

Today is May the Fourth and I forgot all about it!

May the Fourth Be With You!

I messed about in the garden planting poppy and marigold seeds.  I loosened the soil and added some soil amendment with chicken manure, then spread the seeds about.  This makes a perfect place for the cats to dig around and do their business, which will attract the dogs.  So, I'm trying to fence some of it off to prevent that.  Good luck little flowers. 

I had some company while I worked.

The double-backed tape came today, but no batting - it's now saying it will be here tomorrow.  I got the centering tape on though.

DAY LILLIES

 I planted some Day Lillies this last spring.  

Here they come!

LATTICE WALK

 We put some lattice brick pavers down at the bottom of the new deck.  They were quite heavy.  We used ropes under each side to move them.  That worked pretty well so we didn't have to bend over to place them.  

And the cat slept on...

I got some ground covers and put them in the spaces.  It will take a few years for them to fill out.

A RHODY TALE

 I've been taking pictures of a flower on a Rhododendron in the front yard.  It's the only flower on this plant that has begun to bloom although it is covered in buds. 

These were taken, once a day, over the last week.

BEAN BASHING

 The beans are now dry, so we put them into a pillow case and bashed them around until the beans came out of the dried pods.  Then we threw away the pods and cleaned the chaff from the beans.  

STILL LIFE - K

 What a monumental task I set for myself today.  I didn't really think about the problems with the stainless steel reflective surface of my kettle.  At first  I thought I'd really attempt all of the reflections, including myself in there.  But, no, the roof of the gazebo was weird looking.  So, I didn't even attempt to do myself.  I settled for doing a partial reflection.  Unfortunately, I think it looks wrong the way it is.  But, that's the way it's going to be.  [Unless I change it.]

I took a picture of the drawing I did to begin.  I think I'm getting better.

The sun actually came out today and it was wonderful!  I had to take a picture of the new flowers I planted the other day - Rudbeckia and another Coneflower.  

SATURDAY SLOW

 We went for a nice walk this morning finally.  It's been over a week since we've been able to do much outside because of the unhealthy air quality from the wildfires.  It's amazing how much the season had changed everything since we were last at Lincoln Park.  I love the fall colors.

Back home, I planted the Coral Honeysuckle plant I bought from a dealer in Florida through Etsy.  Live long and prosper little plant.  I placed it next to the deck.  The plan is it will grow up and along the railing and have a beautiful fragrance, and it should attract hummingbirds, too.

We've had rain the last few days (which cleaned the air), but we realized we should have picked our beans (Hidatsa Reds) before they get too wet.  

After we picked the dried shells off the plants we laid them out in the shop to dry.  Once dry, we'll husk them.

69/100

It was a beautiful day.  I got a lot of things done today.  I cleaned up the picnic table area and swept the walkways. 

I even got seven more triangle blocks done in a scrappy manner...

The strawberries are good.

WHAT?

HARVESTING

We've been eating green beans for a few weeks already.  Today we harvested the squash.  Not as many as last year, but their are all our favorites - Buttercup, Acorn and Danish.  

Mr. Bentley is such a cool cat.

OTHER THINGS TODAY

I didn't work on the Carolinas quilt for the first time since I started, I think.

I did other things.

I did load a practice quilt onto the machine and wind some bobbins.  Yesterday, I had cleaned and oiled Eduard, so it's already to go.

Darrell and I took the dogs to the park for a nice walk inbetween rain showers.

Then, after lunch at Coastline Burgers, I planted some Narcissus in the garden, next to the Giant Alliums I planted yesterday.

Then I cleaned the leaves up around the pond.  They were piled up on the netting over the water and weighing it down.  Darrell suggested I use the wet/dry vac to suck them up and off the netting.  It worked great!

It was a busy day.

LITTLE CURVES

We went shopping for bushes this morning.  We went up to Swansons, north of Ballard.  What a great place.  We wandered around looking at everything.  We wanted a rhodedendren or two, but ended up getting some Eugenia and Mahonia bushes and a bunch of little Heather plants.

It's all going into the place where the tree was removed.

We also picked up some red brick bricks with which to make a border.

After I got the border bricks in place, I quit for the day and went upstairs to sew.  I'm on the third block, which has some little curved pieces.  They weren't as easy as the bigger curves I did recently.  But, they turned out okay.

Slow but sure.  But, I didn't finish the block.

I'm thinking I need to make mirror images of the blocks so  I can put the freezer paper on  the back instead of the front, as I've been doing.

BILTMORE

We've been wanting to visit Biltmore for ages.  It's called the largest family-owned residence in the United States.  At 178,926 square feet, it is a Châteauesque-style mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895.  It is situated on over 4300 acres, there are extensive gardens and rolling hills.  There is also a winery and hotels, which we did not visit.

The drive to the house is over 2 miles, winding through beautiful and exotic trees and shrubs, landscaped by Frederick Law Olmstead.  When you finally come out of the trees, you are wowed by the sight of this huge mansion.

The front entrance.

The front entrance.

The lion by the front entrance with the staircase windows in the background.

The three fireplaces in the formal dining room.

The formal dining room table.

A sitting room - I loved the colors.

A chair in the Music Room.

Looking out from the back terrace at Deer Park.

The Terrace in the rear of the house.

From the rear terrace.

The grand Tapestry Room.

In the Library.

In the Billiards Room.

The formal dining room from the other side.

After the tour, we sat out in the courtyard, outside the stables, and drank iced tea.

 After the house tour, we walked through some of the gardens.

Off the house there is this wonderful veranda, pleasantly shaded by overhead vines.

The view off the veranda.

Looking back at the house from the gardens.

The conservatory, which is full of heat-loving exotic plants.  Out front is a Chihuly exhibit. 

Lots of orchids and other plants.

We hurried back up to the house and managed to get seated in the Stable Cafe for lunch.  It filled up very quickly after that and people were waiting to get in by the time we left.

Lunch at the converted Stable Cafe.  Very good.