How You Know You Are At Al's

How do you know we are in Albany, OR, visiting Neil's brother?

Just look at the side table by the sofa in the living room to find every kind of remote control.

Hiatus, My a tis

Among the hydrandea blossoms as large as luncheon or small dinner plates, is this rare beauty. What happened? Five total individual blossoms, but no more. Pretty for its simplicity.

And who knows when I will write next because we are off to the West and I am not sure about my access, but it would help if I take the camera and the cord to download the pictures or would it be upload.

V a c a t i o n !!

Boo Hoo

I weeded and mulched the back step garden this weekend, because I knew the landscaping company was coming to deal with my dip, the bog that has grown over the years each spring from sinking and inadequate drainage.

They didn't show today, and maybe a good thing, because it was high nineties and we had an intense 2" of rain thunderstorm this afternoon which would have ruined any work plan.

I'll keep you updated on when they do it.

On Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The birds some years ago brought the clover-like-blossoms-freeway ground cover to this open hill on the Smith's side of our house.

This morning before we reached 92% humidity and 95 degrees, I pulled out six lawn bags of vines. You can see it pretty much kills everything under it. Only a few hardy vinca are left.

Now to restore the vinca.

Pathetic Really

I bought eighteen, ten-inch tall big hybrid yellow marigolds. That was two weeks ago and despite all kinds of remedies to discourage the rabbits from having fresh salad, these poor plants are just trunks now.

I moved them into the "hospital" area of the garden. Near Neil's vegetable fortress and surrounded by chickenwire mesh. We'll see.

They might die anyway. And then as I was mowing, a big doe just stood there eating my favorite day lily blossoms, the yellow ones. Too much fauna for me.

Garden and Wildlife

The lengths we have to go to to plant a garden. Here are the new tomato and pepper plants, with the ground cloth to prevent weeds - Neil's garden has nector of earth; and tall wire rings to prevent the tall deer from eating the plants and the chicken wire to prevent the rabbits from eating the plants.

Tomorrow I will show you my hybrid marigolds after one week, and this is after treatment with liquid fence and special pellets that are supposed to offend their dainty nostrils.

Caladium

I remember buying these tubers sometime this spring. And I planted them about the same time as I planted the dahlia's. But they didn't come up and I forgot where they were.

So when the first pencil appeared, it unfurls to these great elephant ear shaped plants, I put the orange tape on the ground to remind me of the vicinity of the bulbs.

Now they are up, I will water them and watch them a month. Check back in August when they should be at their peak.

Pink Before, Blue Here

The hydrandea this year has heaps of blossoms ranging from blue to pink, rather, pink to blue. The chemistry of the soil determines the color and I find them fascinating.

Very, very hot today and the storm last night put electric lines down crossing 270! You can't imagine rush hour this morning. As I crossed under 270, it was empty in both directions.

Heard horror stories of traffic snarls from those who live further upcounty and still came in to work today, albeit late.

Amazing, Grace

Look very closely at this picture, which I took with my handy iPhone this morning about 6:10am.

That is the right price: $1.849 per gallon.

Giant has a promotion running which says, save your bonus points (you spend xxx amount of money and get a point), and the literature says, "save up to 35 cents a gallon" at participating gas stations, but this is the first time we have used it, so it counted all the money we spent at the grocery store since May 15th!

I think I got a 90 cent discount. Amazing, Grace!

Oh, And I Forgot To Tell You ...

The Wine and Deli next to the Blockbusters closed some time ago, but since the new State liquor store opened where CVS used to be by the Pizza Hut, we didn't miss it. BUT, now I noticed there is a new pizza place open right next to the going-out-of-business Blockbuster.

The party store to the right seems to be surviving after it took over from the book store which couldn't make it.

Just observations on the shuffle of commerce.

Another Shocker

The fixture video store in our shopping center is closing. Two years ago, the competitor put the Red Box video outlet inside Giant! At first people couldn't figure out what it was. Then it became too easy.

Why walk across the parking lot to rent from Blockbuster, when it was at the exit when you were buying groceries?

When I was younger, I thought stores pretty much stayed and stayed in the town. Cowiche had fixture stores. But small business owners now seem to be a lot more vulnerable to the vagaries of the financial times.

Pink Hydrangea

The blossoms are side by side. This one is pink, the other blue. Amazing chemistry.

Neil took this series of pictures for me.

He had a big surprise today after watching at the front door for a package. The gift was the military channel and he said he had never been more surprised.

He is watching it now. I suppose I will lose his attention for a good long while.

Jefferson's Columbines

We got these seeds long ago when we visited Monticello down in Virginia. What an innovative President.

We had purple beans which did not come back year after year, and a package or two of columbines which spread freely.

They are such a pretty and graceful flower.

The Retaining Wall

My gorgeous retaining wall was starting to tilt the wrong way. Notice the distance the stabilizing blocks had moved out.

The wrought iron fence at the top was no longer perpendicular to the house, but curved out to the right when viewed from the living room window.

I sent this picture to the builder and he came out and said, we need to rebuild the top six layers and put a water drain at the bottom.

Now it is ten days later and the job is done. New picture tomorrow.

Bear With Me

I have been ignoring the backyard gardens because there has been so much to do in the front, so bear with me as I point out the bodacious Red Hot Pokers, since they are now past peak.

These came from a package of seeds twenty-five years ago, and first were along the arborvitae in the back. Then I moved them along Bill's new tool shed, some years old now.

Lo and behold, the birds have moved one plant to the center of the lilies on the other side of the yard, and they show up from my kitchen window better. I like the effect so much, I will move all the others over to this new spot when I work on this bed: at minimum weed removal and some new mulch. That is a later picture. Ciao.

The Blue Quilt

I am making this quilt for fund raising and I have loved the center top. I went to the quilt store and was lucky enough to have a few minutes with the shop owner.

I told her I am looking for an emerald green border. "No, you're not." Okay. What am I looking for, can we keep this emerald green splash of color? "Only if it is one inch or less on the first border to stop the center." Okay.

I found the deep blue border and she said, "yes, that's it." And then she said okay to my choice of backing - a lovely light blue pattern that has motion. The binding will also be the deep blue.

Now to assemble and quilt. Wait another couple of months. Drawing is March 2011, so I am ahead of schedule right now.

Finally Finished

Or how the internet performs a miracle. This could also be called, Jane shouldn't cut fabric at night.

I was eager to finish the medallion quilt and knew I had 72" left and it was close, but just right. Then I proceeded to cut eight 9" strips for the border instead of the other way around. I ended up short for the last short border of brown.

Went to the quilt store the next day and they were sold out. Resorted to the internet and after several false hopes - they did carry the brand and exact color I wanted, but were also sold out -- I found a quilt store in Michigan which could send me half a yard. And it looked like the fabric I needed, but the color was "wine" not brown.

Since there was no other choice, I ordered a half a yard. It arrived in the mail on Wednesday night and it was a perfect match. Thank you internet! Finished. Now to Helen's for quilting.

When There Are Just Two

Here the Netflix sat on the table for weeks on end. Neither one of us claimed it under the current rules of operation in our house, "if it isn't me, it is thee."

Finally, last night fresh from the new salad and hamburger joint where the old Safeway used to be --- yes, Fuddruckers closed! --- we sat down to watch the movie.

It was good. And we decided it must have been a Martta referral.

We have a hard time remembering the name of the new joint because we thought it was Goodfellas, but no, the web says: Rockafellas. The name doesn't matter. We know where it is and the food is good.

Pink Snapdraggons

I put in a dozen snap draggons which match this color. They are pipsqueaks compared to this volunteer that wintered over.


Even the new shrimp-sized snapdraggons are velvety and full of color. But I am waiting for the lipstick pink vinca to catch up to show them in their full multi-floral array along the front sidewalk.


Probably another month....

A Good Day In DC?

Tuesday at 2pm June 8th crossing the street to Metro.

Humidity 44%. High low 80's.

Now that is a good day in DC. You can tell by the clouds. And yes, I was at work all day, but walking between meetings was like being back on the West Coast!

Honoring Dan Kong

Out at the Ritz for the Asia Society Awards dinner honoring our long time partner in China, Dan Kong of Citic. My company bought a table so ten of us, many from Frederick, trooped on down for the festivities.

Admiral Mullen gave the keynote speech. I don't think the salads were served until 9pm. Home 11:17pm and that is all she wrote.

Little Tiny Annuals

If the daisies weren't so tall, you could see the firehydrant!

Finally cut back the grape hyacinths and weeds, like oxalis, and put in some miniature plants.

I will take a picture later in the summer to show you if any survive.

See beyond under the dogwood, that is where the rest of the 86 plants I bought on Sunday decided to reside.

Switching to Blues

Decided to switch from red to blue for a while. This is the 20" square pattern that is even easier than the Yellow Brick Road because you only have two unit sizes and you can turn them every which way, depending on the adjacent color.

This is the center of a queen-sized quilt. I need 24 more square and 24 more rectangular pieces for once more with a skinny row around the outside, then to go shop for some borders and backing.

How Tall Are The Daisies?

I took the picture level with the top of the fire hydrant on the lawn side because you can't see the hydrant at all from the street.

The daisies are about 12" higher than the top of the hydrant on the outer perimeters, but the flower heights are shaped like a roller coaster, much shorter in the center - maybe from all the ice melting chemicals getting piled up there?

I can't wait until they bloom!

Yard Sale

The church yard sign just says, "The Big One", and, of course, the big yard tent also signals it is time for the annual church yard sale.

My contribution this year, twenty grocery bags of day lilies culled from my prolific patches.

And, the fudge. We actually make a lot of our money from food sold throughout the day: sodas, coffee, donuts, cookies and BBQ'd hot dogs/hamburgers.

I'll let you know how fast the famous fudge goes.

Jelly Roll Strip Collection Project

The little quilt group has collected Thimbleberry colors in 2.5" x 42" strips. I took my 70+ and cut some into squares 2.5x2.5. I put them together five to a side and called them medallions.

Then I set those on point with alternating barn red and plain squares. Neil thought to add the 1/2" piping of gold before the brown border.

Now I have looked at the border idea for a week and since it is hazy, hot and humid, I wonder if I will make any progress on finishing the top this weekend.

The next quilt is watercolor blues - much cooler. Maybe I will start that?

Translation

The bottle sat all day in the refrigerator and Neil left it alone, because he couldn't read Chinese.

When I got home, I showed him, it was indeed Minute Maid and he immediately thought it would taste like Sunkist Orange Soda.

Nope. It was a lightly sweet blend of pineapple, mango, apple, orange and something with pulp fruit juice.

Pronouncement: this is good. We will have to look for it when we are China bound because it is not available in the U.S.

Preview of September

Look closely. See the center black name? What does that say? Minute Maid!!!

I was at the US China Business Council reception at the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress tonight and the incoming Chairman of the Board is the CEO of Coke.

Naturally, they served some of the popular drinks they sell in China under their brand. The Chinese don't like the brown fizzy stuff like we Americans, instead preferring juice and yogurt flavors for drinking.

The head of the Washington Office for Coke is Janet Howard. We get our mail mixed up all the time! She insisted I bring an extra bottle home so Neil could try it.

mmmmm

This Month's Homework

That's better. Start with blue on the left and then make the half log cabin. I have provided the white squares which will be pieced for the corners, but the center star was simplified for this month's homework.

Barbara had purchased a "Block of the Month" quilt for a good long time carefully storing the instructions and fabric for "when she had time."

Now she has enlisted our help. Instead of the center of the star being an even fancier division of space, we are going with a plain center block. And with each quilter taking some "homework", next month we should see the resultant quilt in my favorite color combination: blues and whites.