the hydrangeas have been in full bloom for about a week now and i’ve been remiss in taking photos. this is the biggest one, measuring something like 7 inches across. it’s at that beautiful stage where it’s turning from blue on the left to pink on the right.
the blooms are plentiful this year, at least on the ones near the house (our hydrangea hedge has leafed-out finally, but is sorrily lacking in flowers . . . must remember to fertilize those).
i’ve put about eight hours of work into the garden between yesterday and today and finally feel a bit caught up. everything is weeded and sprayed for bugs (which were advancing at a rapid rate on the nightshade plants), and i fertilized with the seaweed stuff.
the tomatoes got all their buggy leaves pruned off and now we can see the treasures beneath
we are ready for delivery any time now. all the plants seem to have weathered the incredibly soggy weeks without too much damage (i was a little worried about blight setting in, but so far, so good).
and we are still free of squash beetles for the most part (i’ve seen two, but i don’t think that’s a lot). i love these green-butt summer squashes . . . sorry, i can’t remember the actual name offhand.
i know it looks like absolutely nothing is going on here, but i cleaned out this area and put some strawberry plants in; it gets a lot of sun but not as much as the rest of the garden so we’ll see how they do there. maybe next year we’ll have our own berries to eat, mmm.
last week i took another cue from norma when i was wishing for fresh lettuce, and my eye fell on this pot, so i scattered some seeds in it.
heh. i may have been a little over-enthusiastic about sowing for the available space, but if i get two heads of lettuce out of it (after thinning) i’ll be happy.
all in all, i feel good about the tidying up; it was sorely needed. i hate for the place to look like more of a neighborhood eyesore than it already does. sigh. well, we’re working on it.
and it’s so much easier to maintain when it’s neat to start out with. now if i could only make myself get the indoor spaces in that kind of shape.
i’ve got some more flower and plant pictures, but i think i’ll spread those out over the week.
today is monday and that means knitting class. for july my morning class won’t be meeting (everyone’s on vacation but me—wa-aaah!).
but my scarves are ready for a workout, which they will get this afternoon.
they are each about three-fourths finished so they’ll be heading for the blocking wires soon.
i did some spinning yesterday and today in the morning (more yesterday than today, but today’s not over)
my carrot for getting through this alpaca laceweight is the new sock fiber i carded yesterday. in my attempt to be funny about the tedium of getting nylon to card with wool, i forgot to say that i ended up with three big, fat batts of lighter-than-air fiber which i’m very much looking forward to spinning up. the anticipation of working with materials in which i have invested more than the usual effort outweighs the tedium of some parts of the process (which is why we love spinning in the first place, right?)
and i’ve got my swatching project organized. i spent all of friday and saturday evening picking out a series of stitches to put together in the pear-colored yarn. this part of the process takes a lot more effort sometimes that i anticipate . . . sometimes, it actually makes my brain hurt. but i think i’ve got it narrowed-down now (somewhat anyway)
which means i’m all set. no garden work hanging over my head, and no big secret project taking up all my time. and i’m psyched—i have a composition brewing that i like and hopefully it will pull together as planned (fingers crossed).
and now the big fat bees say it’s time for lunch, so off i go (do i hear david rattling around in the kitchen? must investigate; he’s always good for something yummy).
29 thoughts on “blue, blue—pink”
Great minds and all that: I just dyed up a yarn this morning that looks like your hydrangea. Same wavelength?
How do you block scarves on wires? I thought they were only for triangles or circles sot hey bow out. (I’ve never used them before.)
Do you have your hydrangea staked? How are you keeping those big, beautiful blooms from hitting the ground??
Yum, strawberries. I’m sure you won’t have a problem with them, they grow like weeds. Sort of like calla lilies. In fact, before we moved our berries to a pot, I was kind of looking forward to an epic battle between the two… 🙂
Oh wow are those hydrangeas gorgeous! I adore the color. And I can’t wait to see the scarves all done!
Oh, more designs from you. Yeah!
I’m curious what software you’re using for those charts. So far, I’ve just been doing simple charts, but as I get more accomplished, it would be nice to have something that’s more capable than the free, Java-based tool I’m using now.
Thanks!
I love to see your flowers and your gardens along
with your knitting. When I was very young and
married (right now I am neither), we had a beautiful hydrangea plant. Every year they came
back bigger and better. I think I blogged this
before, but I live in a senior center and cannot
plant anymore. However, I have three blooming
African Violets, a big Peace Lilly, and a spider
plant and a couple of other little growing things.
Bee butt… cute! Our hydrangeas are in full bloom too and although the bushes are only a few feet apart the color variations are drastic (some blue ones shown in the background of a sock picture on yesterday’s post). Your tomatoes and squash look fabulous. Cheers!
wow…we have lots of the same things going on in our lives (except I am not designing patterns..). I spent the weekend making my garden pretty again, spinning and working on dear Bee. It’s all good isn’t it?
Tell me, what are you using for the bugs? I don’t have many yet other than leaf beetles, but I am sure they will be visiting before long.
I ADORE gigantic bumble bees! 🙂 My favorite is when they land on a little flower and then you watch the bee hold on for dear life as the flower bends forward.
I guess I’m easy to entertain! LOL! 🙂
The scarves look great, can’t wait to see them finished. I love your designs.
I just love watching your design process. You are such an inspiration and your finished products are always lovely! Thank you for sharing with us!
Your garden is so cute and neat! And those two scarves together remind me of strawberries. Mmmm.
What gorgeous eye candy! Yummmmmm. 🙂
The bee is awesome. Also scarves and garden, but the bee is just killing me.
Perfect timing: I had hydrangeas on the mind lately, but couldn’t for the life of me remember their name… Thanks for coming to the rescue, my poor memory appreciates it!
bee booty,, so adorable! I’ll bet that Kim just about swooned over that last photo. 😉
Your lace spinning looks amazing.
man, i have got to find me some hydrangeas! i love that blue color. your garden’s looking great!
Holy cow! A very productive weekend. The gardens are looking great. I was thinking wistfully of putting in 2 big veggie plots out back until I looked at the bunkers the dogs have been digging in that space. No way will they ever leave that area alone enough for me to put in plants.
Beautiful job on your laceweight spinning!
Don’t you just love Hydrangeas? We saw some yesterday that are white and they looked just like big snow balls. Gardening is a lot of work but pays off in the end.
I didn’t know hydrangeas changed color! I always figured you got blue ones or pink ones (or cream ones) and they stayed that way. 😉
It’s so exciting to see your two nearly-finished lace projects AND one more in the planning stages. And it’s insect-y, you say? Very intriguing! 🙂
LOVE hydrangeas! I cut from my Grandma’s bushes for my wedding and they were just gorgeous!
I’m sure you know this, but make sure that you don’t trim the bushes after about August–next year’s blooms come from the fall’s new growth.
Can’t wait to see the new scarves!
When do we get a glimpse of the big secret project, anyway?
Catching up on the last two posts…gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. As always.
oooh, hydrangeas were our wedding flower. They are SO beautiful and bring back such wonderful memories! Gorgeous.
What a tidy garden (so NOT like ours right now)! Don’t worry about the strawberries. They can take over a patch of ground without breaking a sweat. Love the bee shot and, of course, the tantalizing glimpses of nearly-ready-for-their-closeup scarves!
Spectacular color!!
The garden looks great, and so does the spinning! It must be that time of year; I just spent some time with my new wheel — luxury 🙂 I can’t wait to see what’s brewing in your brain — it’s always worth the wait.
That squash looks like a Zephyr to me.
I love hydrangeas too & it blooms here during Christmas. My neighbor has a whole garden of them & she always cut some for me for Christmas. Your garden is looking great.
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