Short on Words...

{Wisteria on the cornzebo}

...so I've been of late.

Other than identifying descriptions, this post will, likewise, be short on words...but long on photos.

Some photos are over a month old - my apologies. It seems this summer came and went without telling me it was even here.

{A fuchsia with the largest blooms I've ever seen}

{Coneflowers...a/k/a echinacea}

{Roses and wisteria on cornzebo}

{Thistle...yes, intentionally grown}

{Butterfly on coneflower...Sedum in the background}

{Coneflowers and foxglove "digitalis"...A bumper crop of both this year}

{Black-eyed Susans...a/k/a rudbeckia}

{The first hibiscus of the season}

{Foxglove}

{My back stoop}

{Million bells (calibrachoa)}

{False sunflower (heliopsis)}

{Morning glories...they've taken over my old twig patio bench and repurposed it as a trellis}

{Butterfly on hydrangea}

{More hibiscus}

{More million bells and more foxglove}

{Patio planter with volunteer petunias and baby's breath/gypsophila}

{False sunflower and bee}

{Balancing crow whirligig}

This past week I was also in charge of keeping the "hooker-down-the-lane"'s garden alive.

The trust of some people.

{The lane down which the hooker-down-the-lane lives}

{A glimpse of the hooker's garden}

{A second glimpse 😉)

So pretty it hurts.

There you have it. 

The 'happier' side of my past month (or so).

I'll be back when I find my words.

{Sunset in Nod}

 

Back in the Land of Nod

{The sweetest little collage picture was a perfect gift from Lauren (Rugs and Pugs)}

It's the 20th of July and I feel as though I've been gone - or preparing to be gone or unpacking from being gone - for most of those 20 days.

I spent some time at the lake over the 4th of July holiday.

The days were mostly temperate, but the lake was unsettled and moody.

A few days later, I left for my (now annual?) trip to Country Sampler in Spring Green. 

The skies were hazy from the Canadian wildfires but the rich colors of the fields and 

hills were vibrant and entrancing all the same.

For those of you for whom the names are unfamiliar, Country Sampler is a destination quilting/stitching shop in Spring Green - a village in southwestern Wisconsin. Although small (1,500-people small),

Spring Green may be recognizable to some as the home of the estate and 800-acre sanctuary of Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin.

And Taliesin has a famous (and infamous) history all its own.

While "reincarnated" several times, and steeped in history of many sorts, Taliesin's most unfortunate claim to fame is being the site of the tragic murder of 7 people, including Wright's then-partner, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and her 2 children in 1914.

A disgruntled servant, Julian Carlton, set fire to the living quarters while Wright was away on business and bludgeoned those who attempted to flee with an axe.

While there has been speculation about the reasons for the attack, no motive has been definitively established.

So much unrest in such peaceful surroundings.

But, as usual, I digress.

The purpose of the trip was stitching...and shopping.

I spent a few days with my sister-in-law and her friends, staying in the rooms above Country Sampler.

For my stitchy pals, here are a few snaps of some of the design models that caught my eye:

{Love the Fraktur folksiness of this one! It is "Fraktur Friends" by Shakespeare's Peddler}

{Another Shakespeare's Peddler design: "Mary Bate 1796." This was just beautiful, and I loved the verse. Hopefully you can enlarge to read it?}
 

{"Christmas in July" by Plum Street Samplers - top half of pattern only.}

{"Sesquicentennial Alphabet in Blue - 1874" by Thread Milk Design. This pattern may have come home with me. 😉}

Personally, I, of course, got little accomplished stitch-wise. Nothing to really show there. But I did finish the stitching on this before leaving:

"My Country" by La-D-Da.

I'm working on one more small patriotic piece while I mull over finishing options for both, then I think it will be time to move on to a different topic for a while.

All in all, I've decided I'm much better at shopping than stitching.

I hope all has been well in your corners of the world.

Happy Birthday Americal!

 

249 looks good on you!

{"Parade Sam" by Notforgotten Farm}

Sodden, Soaked, and Saturated

 

{View out my kitchen window}

I guess there has been a lot of this going around, but YIKES!

Enough already!!

I generally love dark, rainy, days but this weather we've been having is more than enough even for a sort like me.

It has rained every day this past week save one, and the past few days it has been over an inch each day.  While the forecast changes as quickly as you can refresh your screen, it looks like rain almost every day next week as well. 

And cold...very cold. "High" temps are in the low 50's - and yesterday, the "feel-like" temp was in the mid-40's. 

Inconvenient for the likes of me, but I feel so badly for the farmers. They cannot get into the fields and the ones they did manage to sow before the monsoons hit are standing in water.

Being unable to do any of things needing done outdoors and tired of my indoor chores, I thought I'd slip in a quick post to wish you state-siders Happy Flag Day!

This design is "Grand Olde Flag" by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread.

I stitched this over 2 years ago already, but it took me a while to get it fully and finally finished since I could not decide whether I should frame it, stuff it, hem it, or chuck it. 

It ended up as a flatfold and I'm ok with that.

I also want to acknowledge Father's Day tomorrow. I don't believe I have many fathers reading my blog; and I know many of my followers are of a somewhat "like" age and have lost your fathers...many, like me as well, way too soon.

I was only 15 when my father died but I still remember him well.

So, the day may be bittersweet but, if you can, reach back and grab a good memory - and hold on tight to it.

Meanwhile, Back in Nod...

It's a rainy, gloomy, day here in Nod with areal flood warnings posted...and extended.  But I am not complaining...we do need the rain and, while I have more outdoor work to do than I will ever accomplish, the rain gives me a guilt-less excuse.

I thought it would be a perfect time to squeeze in a post and then saw my half-hearted, half-started, post from last week.

So, I thought I would just trash the words and dump the photos...

A look around Nod, if you will.

This photo is a bit dated, obviously...last month's full "Flower Moon."

It was truly dazzling.

Like most full moon nights, I did not sleep well.

I gave up around 5:15 a.m., and the moon was just going down.

Guess it's a night owl like me.

The magnolia's fragrant blooms:

The flowering crabapple trees: 

{Pretty even at night...}

My very favorite:

The rabbits are, once again, more than plentiful...

...Wait...there are more....

(...and actually, 2 more out of range of the above photo.)

...of all colors and sizes....

{This guy looks like he needs a smoke... Hmmm, wonder what he was doing.}

{The fawn was still wobbly on this day...}

{Nothing special to most of you, I'm sure, but, around Nod, black squirrels are rarer than white deer...}

And because someone asked....