Thursday, July 17, 2014

{p,h,f,r} Flower Garden Edition


{Pretty}



Our front flower beds are a little ridiculous.  The wildflowers we planted have come in in patches and the "dwarf" zinnias are standing four feet tall, front and center blocking all other plants from view.  At least they bring in the butterflies so we'll forgive them for their unrestrained growth for now.  Chris says we should only ever plant zinnias because they are the only thing we can reliably grow--and grow to monster proportions apparently.  I think he's just flower-bitter because our sunflowers had such a poor showing this year and the wildflowers he was in charge of never amounted to much except a wild grass patch.

{Happy}



This is not the best picture of my Grandmother's Flower Garden masterpiece--the colors are much prettier than I could get in my thunderstorm darkened living room--but it does make me happy.  Since I took this picture last weekend I've actually finished assembling two and a half more rows of flowers and I only have one and half more rows to go.  It's crazy to think that I've spent six weeks working on such a tiny quilt!  I thought I would be done piecing by now but I keep having to stop to make more white hexies.  Apparently I severely underestimated how many I would need.  I'm hoping to finish piecing the top today so I can take it to the local quilt shop tomorrow and beg someone to give me tips on how to bind it.  I think I want to leave the edges rounded like this or this as opposed to squaring the whole thing up but I can't quite decide.  Then there's the question of whether or not to add a border--but of course that would require making even more hexies.....

If anyone has advice I would love to hear it!


{Funny}




If John has something that he considers to be his he will defend it with his life--well, he will defend it by making the loudest shrieking noise you have ever heard.  It used to be a very effective tactic and does still work on unfamiliar little girls but it's losing it's effectiveness on his brothers.  Here, after several attempts by his brothers to eat out of the communal pretzel bag, he decided it was time to exit the playground and enjoy his spoils alone by the far off tree, keeping a sharp eye out for any invading parties of course.



{Real}


This is the entirety of our carrot harvest this year.

Professional gardeners we are not.  At least our tomatoes and peppers were plentiful so we aren't complete failures.  The whole garden is almost ready to be pulled out--which is about right for our inhospitable climate.  Maybe we'll be better Northern Virginia gardeners than too-hot-to-survive-in-Florida gardeners.......


In the mean time, don't forget to hop over to Like Mother, Like Daughter for even more captured contentment :)