Pathway blocks in place

My pathway is now complete, well I destroyed any grass that was there, but maybe in a couple weeks I will go buy some more sod from the roadside guy.  The sod I picked up a couple of weeks ago seems to be taking hold pretty good.

Hardest part was getting those blocks in place.  I would have preferred using all red blocks, but they are not easy to find in the 12 x12 size right now.  I'm going to let everyone think it was intentional to alternate the colors. 

With any luck I can get some Fall plants going pretty soon.  Still pretty hot out there.

Time for another change

 I have made numerous changes in my side yard garden in the past couple of months.  I started this phase of my garden when I removed the wooden gate, or half of it anyhow, and replaced it with an arbor gate.  My raised beds are having a hard time with plants at the moment with the heat, but I'm expecting to make some new additions in another couple of weeks, possibly when it isn't so persistently hot out there. 

Meanwhile I am finding my pathway blocks are too close to the raised beds under the gazebo type awning we put up last year... I keep hitting my head on the protruding cross members at the top.  As a result I am not using the blocks to walk on, and what little grass I did have is slowly disappearing.  My next project will be to move the blocks more towards the middle.  I have a problem right now with the window of opportunity, which is very narrow before it gets too hot to work outside.  I have about 2 hours in the morning, if I start at 7.  I'm thinking this is a job that will definitely not get done in 2 hours... after 9 forget being out there.  I know that will change a little if the temps start to come down some, but I really don't like hitting my head, but I really do like being out there puttering around.

I added a new plant to my front porch, it's called a Purple Flash Pepper... I do not think they are edible.  I have never seen one before, so not sure if it is really suited to reside in its current location.  It is in a big clay pot, so it is moveable.

Gardening in August

It's already mid-August... time does seem to fly when you get past a certain point when some might call you... well, old.  This is what keeps me somewhat active, and feeling young.  I can always find something in my garden to keep me busy.

I found lots of empty pots that needed to be filled.  I think I have a good start.  I even got our A/C guy to help me move a big molasses tub that was filled with dirt from the other side to sit in the back.  It now has a Pride of Barbados in it... it could get to be quite big.  

I replaced the big wooden gate at the entrance with an ornate arbor a couple weeks ago, and I have been tinkering with the rest of the garden to get it to be just right, a quiet place to just sit and listen to something on my phone or computer, and sip a cup of tea... or I can just sit and plan out what I am going to do next.  Best part is I don't have to be careful when I open the gate that I got splinters in my hand so often from the 2x4 that kept the gate closed and secure from the wind.  When we first moved here we needed a gate that would conceal the boat we had inside... we no longer have a boat.

Now this tomato plant has a history.  I planted it in the big bin between two of my raised beds before I started any of the other new changes, and this Sweet 100 has just taken off.  It is way higher than the fence.  Of course I put a tomato support at its base, and I guided and tied it up as it grew, but it just seems to keep on giving me awesome little cherry tomatoes, which has made many batches of sauce for pasta.  This Sweet 100's history part is... a year ago my dear friend Louise left a Sweet 100 on my back patio and instructed me to get it in the ground... now! It also grew to be quite massive and gave me lots of little tomatoes.  Well, in honor of Louise this year, when I saw a Sweet 100 at HEB I knew Louise would have wanted me to buy it and put it in my garden.  Everything else is succumbing to the heat, but this one just keeps giving me little gems.

Moon Flowers Galore

Not so long ago I didn't even know what a moon flower looked like.  A friend gave me a single plant a couple years ago that I planted out by the patio in the back yard.  I think I may have had a single blossom a few times that summer, but never more than one at a time.  Of course, a moon flower blossom only opens once for maybe 14 or 15 hours, but one plant can have several blossoms.  Last year I discovered a whole bush of moon flowers that were volunteers down by the road in front of our house.  I saved some of the seeds from that plant and when I expanded the flowerbed in front of the new ramp, I planted a few of the seeds.  This was in January, so I wasn't expecting them to take hold... boy was I in for a surprise.  They cover the front and are taking over.  For right now I am letting them stay.  When the blossoms come out like this last batch, it is hard to think of them as being invasive, but that is what I am told.  Meanwhile, I am enjoying their beauty... and the bees are too.  There were so many bees this morning, you could hear the buzzing before you got very close.

We finally went to get a load of mushroom compost.  This stuff is amazing.  With our sandy soil it helps tremendously.  I bought some tomato and pepper plants a couple weeks ago, but waited to put them in the beds because they needed the compost.  I bought good size plants because I knew I would not have the compost right away as my source for the compost is not nearby.  Early this morning I was out there working at getting the soil in the beds amended with the compost and then successfully got all my plants in the ground and even got shade cloth in place over them.  I am posting this picture in the hopes that I will be able to post a new picture of their growth in a few weeks to see how well they are doing. In this bed I have a cherry tomato, roma, and two Tycoon.  I would plant more tomatoes, but I am the only one that will eat them at my house.  In another bed I planted some sweet banana peppers.  The nursery did not have any bell peppers when I was there. 

I have not been doing much quilting the last couple of weeks, but I got a new baker's rack earlier this week and was trying to find something to embellish it with.  The sewing machine stand was intended to display a quilt block... for quite a while this block was pinned to this stand without being quilted.  I sat down the other evening and did the quilting by hand, then turned the backing to the front for the binding and clipped it to the stand to make a nicer display.  Still playing around with what I want to display on this new baker's rack.  I do know that it already looks much nicer there than the old book shelf that used to sit under the window.

Late summer garden and flowers

It is amazing how quickly things can grow in your garden when the conditions are good. If you scroll down, it was just a few short weeks ago that these tomato plants were hardly visible, now they are popping out the top.  I added a bigger shade screen to all the beds because the sun really does get hot up there in the garden. 

I have beans coming along and bell peppers at the other end.  All of these beds were planted at the end of July. In a couple weeks I will begin planting my Fall and Winter plants. 

Moon flowers are beautiful.  Even though their blossoms last less than one day, new blossoms open almost every day.  This is a volunteer.  I'm hoping the seeds I spread closer to the house will take hold.

My Angel Trumpets have many of the same characteristics as the Moon Flower, but I have these in my flowerbed by the patio.


Shorty is trying to stay cool on a hot afternoon. Totally relaxed.

Almost Friday again

Sometimes it is difficult to remember what I did yesterday.  Not to say that anyone else would think I have an interesting life, but my days just seem to blur together at times... was that Tuesday or Wednesday... or maybe it was Monday.  We had a good group at quilting on Monday and among other things, I did a demo on a paper pieced block.  A couple ladies were not sure just how that was done.

On Monday, everyone was busy with one project or another. Baby quilts are always fun to see how creative we can become... and how beautiful. 

Tuesday was a road trip to Giddings where five of us gathered to visit three different quilt shops.  Of course we had a wonderful lunch at a little cafe called Reba's.  I am not sure just how much fabric had a special purpose... a designated project, but lots of fabric was bought and a whole lot of it found its way to my sewing room "stash".  That would mean that I did not buy any fabric for a specific project... just fabric I encountered that I just had to bring home.

I bought a few neutrals that I am always needing for sashing or whatever, and a couple for possible backings, but the three, kind of on the right, I thought were super finds.  I don't know what I will do with them, but when I saw them and the tag said they were bamboo, I had to feel what bamboo felt like, and then I just had to have some... it is sooo soft.  This fabric would make some awesome pillowcases.  I didn't get to bring one of the tags home, but the selvedge said the fabric was from Hoffman California.  Looking on their website I could not find this fabric... I was hoping to find more so I could buy some coordinating solids to go with these.  That is OK, I will work with what I have.

The colorful striped fabric on the left is not especially pretty, but I saw it and thought it would make interesting binding. 

 All I know is that I found alot of really nice fabric and all of it was on sale. That was why we went to Giddings... all three shops had a good sale happening.


Tomatoes that you want to have in your Fall garden are supposed to be in the ground by the end of July.  I guess I was pushing it to the limit... but I made it... my tomatoes are planted, and I even got the sun shade put up over them.  Ron reminded me that it was good to get the cages around them while they are still little.  Now all I have to remember to do is the watering.


Fluffer doesn't always get alot of attention, but then that is usually because she is typically in the background staying pretty aloof. Every so often she curls up next to me and is real lovey.  She can purr as loud as any kitty I have been around.

August just ahead

Big things are happening at our house.  We ordered my new longarm that will not be arriving for another couple weeks, and I am not excited or anything.  One of the first things we had to do was make room for the new machine which will take up much more space than my previous machine.  We had to actually change from one area of the shop and clear the space around the corner where the room is much wider.  My new machine will have a 26" throat which is only 8" more than I had, but it will be close to the difference I saw when I moved from my original  domestic machine set up on a Grace frame to my Tin Lizzie that was on a different Grace frame. The new machine is an Innova.  The frame has no wood like the Grace frames.  It will be a totally new experience.

After our almost move back to Ohio it was a little late to get into gardening.  It was the time it took to unpack and re-setup our household that got in the way of any hope of a Spring garden.  We did a really good job of reorganizing and having the house start to look familiar again, but weeds and heat seemed to get out of hand.  Well the end of July is when it is time to put in your Fall tomatoes. Getting into pulling weeds was not a fun thought... but I knew I had to get started, so I gave it a good shot this past week. Still a bit to go, but you can actually walk between the beds now.  The weeds in the back were so high you couldn't see the fence on the other side.  We bought some good compost to amend the soil with and a few tomato plants... maybe by the end of the week they can be planted in one of the beds.

This little cart was a really good find at Sam's.  We have 4 big rainwater tanks that will allow us to keep up on our watering, but a pump is necessary to get the water out efficiently.  Gravity feed works very slow.  We put a quick connect on the pump which will allow me to move the hose where I need it and with this cart, not worry about kinked hoses and tripping over the pump.  Never know what you might find when you go into Sam's.

We actually sold my Tin Lizzie, so I am not able to get any quilting done right now, but I am trying to organize the quilts I have done that have been waiting to get quilted.  I will have lots ready to get going on that new machine when it arrives.  The dinosaur quilt will be among those I get to first... of course it won't be the very first as it takes a couple quilts to get used to a new setup and wouldn't want to mess up on this special quilt.  This isn't a very good picture, but it does show the progress.


Boston and Shorty are enjoying the comforts of the deck.