Tuesday, August 31, 2021

August 31, 2021







 Hard to believe this coming weekend is Labor Day weekend and our 51st wedding anniversary! These 51 years have flown by. Not much going on this past work-no sewing. Giving my right shoulder a rest. Did pull out a very old needlepoint project. It will take me a while to get back into the rhythm. Had to buy another book on stitches as I think I gave all mine away. Good ol' Amazon!

Our backyard is starting to get more butterflies- lot of Monarchs as well as some Queens. We have been enjoying watching them and Galen has caught as few with the camera.

The first one is a Border Patch on our Grey plants Mist. 


                                   This one is a Monarch on our Mexican Sunflower


We discovered some more tree damage on one of our Live Oaks from the winter storm. Probably a small crack on the top of a branch where we could not see it. Finally had a little wind and it came down partway. That part had been drying out the past several months. 


Galen got the weight off of the branch so it should be okay until the guys can get out and work on our trees. He said part of it just fell once he started working on it.

           We should be okay now-shouldn't fall on the plants below or us!


Yesterday we took a drive out to an area SE of Thrall. The people have been reporting that the wood storks are back again this year. We were there by 8:30 and rewarded with seeing approximately 30! We came up on them real fast-they were in an area around a sharp bend in the road that had water. They flew but then landed in a tree close by. Have never seen them this close up before. Galen got some great pictures this time.





                                     That pretty much takes care of August 2021!

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August 2021

 


Getting some yard work done!

Today was the day for trimming shrubs and getting mulch down, and no, not by us! We have a great guy who does this for us and he has recovered from a broken shoulder. Normally we get the shrubs trimmed Spring and Fall but we missed having it done this past Spring. And we have been having rain this summer so things needed to be trimmed.

Just a little of what was removed. I do know we have 5 big trash cans for the garbage people this coming week!

While his one guy was trimming he went for a trailer load of mulch.

A very full load.

The 2 of them worked well after lunch time getting it spread. We have a lot of beds that get mulched. Interesting these beds were all grass, but the trees grew and too much shade for the grass. These beds are all in the back of the house.

  • These help keep the rabbits from having a meal. Also a little protection from Lady when she starts running like a nut!
We are slowly getting things back into shape after the February storm.

Our Mexican Sunflower is blooming and bringing in the Monarchs. The Butterfly weed will soon be in full bloom. It is outside the fence where it gets more sun.

Galen took this picture yesterday.

We had a brief rain shower after the guys were finished. Good for the mulch, helped to wet it down a little. I took the girls out. Tiki did get a little wet, Lady wanted back in the house. She doesn’t like rain or storms. If we get a front coming through she heads for one of her safe places. She was about 1 1/2 when Harvey hit the Texas coast and we got her close to Houston. When we got Tiki she didn’t like thunder etc. but she was never like this. So we are blaming some of Lady’s actions on Harvey.

They didn’t have enough mulch to finish the beds in the front. They will get to those later this week. Since we lost some shrubs there is more to mulch.

Mid-August 2021

Not much to write about. Have not been upstairs to sew at all since my last post. Mostly doing things in the downstairs-general clean up, putting things away as well as getting rid of some things. Will start getting back up stairs but need to do it in the morning hours to avoid turning the AC temperature down too much!We did plant more perennials outside the fence where the Lady Banks had been. Should say Galen planted! Our center bed in the back is bringing in the butterflies and hummingbirds. Love being able to watch them flit around the flowers, going from one to another.

We did receive some unwelcomed news yesterday; some residual tree damage from our unusual storm in February. Our Lacebark Elm in front that we planted shortly after moving in 22 years ago needs to come down. The bark is falling off and that’s not good. Will get diseased and then rot from the inside out. So while we could leave it standing for several more years we run the risk of a good size branch falling and possibly hitting a car or people. So for risk management sake, it was suggested we take the tree down now. We know all about risk management. My Dad was Risk Manager for the telephone company before retiring. We were hoping that cutting off the dead branches would be the solution, but not with the bark peeling off.

  • If you enlarge the photo you can see the problem.

He is pretty sure our Red Oak in the back will make it. Will keep an eye on one spot on the trunk where the back split just a little but not bad. So a hair cut should do the trick for it. Will look strange when all the leaves are off but that’s alright. Will show pictures later.

He also explained what happened to our Cotoneaster shrubs. Galen had cut them way back and they were getting green leaves. Now those leaves are all dead. We’ve had a few hot days and that was not helpful for the plant to survive. I told Galen this was Mother Nature’s way of telling us it was time to rethink our shrubs etc.! It could have been worse. He told us of one subdivision on the west side of Round Rock. They had 120 Lace Bark Elms in the median that had to come down! I can’t imagine that bill the HOA had to deal with! We will be happy with landscape problems. Friends are still trying to get back into their homes after water damage (pipes bursting) from the February storm.

Until next time

A Rainy Monday August 2 , 2021

We have had lots of storms but most have gone around us or was just a little bit of rain. Nothing that accumulated! Today is different. It has been raining most of the morning and should until early afternoon. We will take it. Any rain in Central Texas in August is welcomed!! Our plants are loving it!

One of our many Mandeville Vines. 2nd-our Oleander. We didn’t expect it to come back after our February freeze. 3rd-Butterfly weed is flourishing. This is just a small patch outside our fence. 4th and 5th-we didn’t know if our Pride of Barbados would make it. It was a warm Fall and winter up to the blast of Artic air so it had not died back at all. We are so happy it made it through.

We did lose a few plants, some succulents. We have not replaced any of those yet. This is giving us a chance to rethink plants and what do we want to put in the yard.

I did manage a little sewing since my last post. Not as much as I would have liked, the upstairs does get hot. We have the upstairs AC unit set to 86. Don’t want to pay anymore than necessary for AC. With fans it’s not too bad. I try to get upstairs in the mornings but that doesn’t always work. With the fans running it’s doable.

I found a started project-snowball blocks. I finished making those. It’s an eye spy block for kids. Don’t have a picture of those yet. I wanted to sew but not have to think about it much. Someone posted a picture of a scrap quilt on one of the Facebook sites I frequent. She used 2 1/2 inch squares. I am using 2 inch squares. Wanted to lower the level in that storage bin. My blocks are 12 1/2 unfinished, hers were 16 1/2 unfinished.

  • Groups of 2
  • 4 patches and 16npatches
  • one completed block

So far I have enough sewn for 8 blocks, but only 2 are completed at this point. Maybe in my next post I’ll have more pictures to share!

I also found a new home for some Christmas fabric. Sent some to my sister in law (Donna). They will be getting to work on Christmas Bazaar projects this month. This helped me and helps them. I certainly had too much here and still do!!

Until next time…..

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July 2021

 

Month: July 2021

July 19th 2021

My sewing has been mostly been done by hand the past week. Had 4 quilts here, children size that needed to be bound. Got the first step done, binding made and sewn on the front by machine. I like to be able to hand sew the binding down in the evenings. I managed to get 2 finished and handed over to Osie for donation to Linus last week.

Tam’s Patch blocks. 3rd picture is the backing on both

Last night I finished 2 more of Joan’s that Osie quilted for me. These 2 are from Happy Blocks

Not sure if these will go to Linus or if Quilts of Compassion can use them. But they will go somewhere!

A Little Sewing!

Finally managed to find my sewing machine yesterday! I had bought a template from Linda Winner’s site for wedge shape placemats for a round table.

Linda Winner http://winnerdesigns.com/

I started to put it away and then saw the butterfly fabric was still waiting to be put away also. Seeing as I was wanting some placemats that went with the dishes we were using I got busy! And yes, if any of our friends from our Taiwan days read this, the blue and white dishes will be back in use come September. Wanted a little something different for a change. Saw these and with Galen’s penchant for photographing butterflies and dragonflies this set of dishes was perfect for summer!

A Nice Country Drive

This past Thursday we decided to go for a drive. Typical for us we left with the plan of going in one direction and ended up elsewhere! I think it was by choice on Galen’s part! He says no, but it did get him a new butterfly at Doe Skin Ranch. It’s part of Balcones Wildlife Preserve.

After leaving there we took Cow Creek Road. It’s a nice winding road that follows Cow Creek. Sometimes there isn’t much water flowing but it had some water this time. The first few times we traveled this road there was more places to stop, get out and get a better look at the creek. Now it is almost all private property. But it is still a nice drive.

Along the creek is several sections there are limestone cliffs. One such place has a Raven nest. We didn’t see the nest this time. Did see the Raven further down the road. Probably heading back home! The road crosses the creek 5 times. A windy creek with a windy road!

A few pictures of the day’s outing!

It looked stormy to the west!

The photographer heading to the creek to see if he can see any dragon or damsel flies.

Cow Creek
Mountain Pinks

It’s always amazing to see how wild flowers will flourish in just about any condition!

That was our day’s adventure!

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