Lots of Green Stuff

Last year was a sad year for our backyard garden. The raspberries were later than they've ever been (normal: mid-June, late: late June, last year: after July 4), and the pumpkins Tim planted never amounted to much. The only thing that did at all well were the wild sunflowers I planted from seed gathered from my sister's yard in Omaha.

I am a little more optimistic about this year, however. We had some warm days in May, and even though June has been a little on the damp side, there has been some sun.

In April, we started indoors, from seed, two kinds of lettuce (green leaf and red leaf), basil, pumpkins, and zucchini. Moved stuff outdoors in mid-May. We've pretty much given up on the basil, but everything else seems to be doing fine, so far.

I also bought some starts in May — spinach, broccoli, and butter lettuce. They're doing OK, but maybe not as well as the stuff from seed.

Two of the broccoli plants. Down in the center, very small, there are embryonic broccoli heads.

Two kinds of lettuce in a planter. I foresee a dinner salad this weekend. That was one of the best parts about visiting my folks at their house in Ashland, Oregon — fresh lettuce from my dad's garden.

My raspberries. They're still pretty green, but I anticipate a good crop in two or three weeks. A little on the late side, but looking better than last year. Also, the new canes coming up (which will bear this fall and next spring) are as tall, or nearly so, as the old canes.

Two of our spinach plants. Not doing as well as the lettuce from seed, but perking up.

Wild sunflowers, second year. I was happy to discover that, yes, they are in fact perennials.

Three kinds of lettuce. Green leaf (bright green at the top), red leaf (lower left), and butter lettuce (middle bottom and middle right). The other small green sprouts are the extra lettuce seeds we planted outside just to see what they would do.

Two zucchini in a planter.

Two zucchini and two clusters of wild sunflowers started from seed this year.

Down to the Wire

Spring quarter is almost over. Next week is the last week of class. The following week is Finals week.

This has been a rather intense quarter. Advanced Photoshop, Beginning Dreamweaver, Typography, and a course in copyright law. Talk about forming new neuronal connections!

Today I finished up the last tutorial in my Dreamweaver class. We dipped our toe into the world of javascript, incorporating some javascript code into a simple web page.

That class has been fun, interesting, and challenging. Even, possibly, more than Photoshop. I knew a smattering of Photoshop before, but this was completely new. HTML, CSS and all that.

If I can, I think I'd like to take the Advanced Dreamweaver class, even though it's not require for my course of study.

Mini Rose

Sometime last year, my daughter gave me a potted yellow mini rose. I can't remember if it was for my birthday, or some other occasion. Christmas maybe? She doesn't recall either.

Anyway, a couple months or so ago, it had started to get kind of sprawly and unruly, so I trimmed it back. Before long, it grew more long spindly branches, but this time there were little rosebuds at the ends.

About a week ago, I noticed that a couple looked like they were getting ready to open up.

Here is the first bloom, which appeared a day or two ago.

 

Batik Flowers

This is one of my favorite quilts.

The batik flowers came in a packet I bought a number of years ago in Anacortes, Washington. I purchased them just because I liked them, but I didn't have any particular idea of how I would incorporate them into a quilt.

Later on, I came across the fabric that I used in the blocks and the narrow sashing. The way I used it in the blocks, it appears to be two different colorways of the same print. In reality, the fabric gradates from light to dark. If you look carefully at the vertical sashing, you can see how it is lighter at the top and darker at the bottom.

Using Up Scraps

After making the blocks for this quilt, I had a whole bunch of little leftover pieces, each with about a 1-3/4" square of usable fabric.

I pieced a heart out of dark squares first. Then I filled in around in with light squares. I purposefully did not align the seam lines between the dark and light sections, and also between different rows in the light sections. I like the “make-do” quality it lends.

The heart section ended up being rectangular, rather than square. No problem. Some time ago, my mom gave me an old rectangular pillow form, about 12 x 15 inches. If I added some borders to the pieced heart, it would be perfect.

This morning, I sewed up the covered cording and the overlapping back pieces and put it all together.

Dreamweaver Class

At last night's Dreamweaver class, the instructor showed us how to upload our assignments to the department’s server.

If you click on this link, it will take you to a page I created, for an assignment to design a page telling something about myself. Also, at the bottom of the page, there is a link to my Midterm Project.

Birds of Spring

This morning, after dropping Tim off at the bus stop, I headed down to Green Lake for a morning constitutional. I’m planning to do this several times a week, now that the days are longer and the weather is (finally!) getting warmer.

Yesterday, I saw a mama duck and seven tiny ducklings paddling around. I didn’t have my camera with me, but I made sure to take it with me today.

About three-quarters of the way around the lake, I finally came across the ducks, including Dad (I’m going to assume it was the same group) pecking around in the grass.

I took this video with my camera. The ducklings were spread too far apart to ever get them all in the picture.

Earlier in my walk, I also saw a red-winged blackbird, hanging out among the foxtails and doing a call-and-response to another bird in a nearby tree. I’d never noticed before how the tail fans out when the bird calls.