Foggy with a Hint of Daffodils

Hi. Dense fog advisory here today!

It's actually not all that dense but gloomy and I miss my view.

Everyday Mo and I go out looking for signs of spring. hahaha. Hope springs eternal.

We stop off at my friends' garden where last fall I planted daffodils for them. The daffs were supposed to be a bright springtime treat when they got home from their long days in the city. The other day, finally!, an itty bitty green shoot appeared.

We'll be lucky if these daffs bloom before we plant their summer garden. These are slooooow daffs. "Late-bloomers"?

Mo has a snuggle on their cushy loungers---

Then we wander around looking at other folks' gardens and yards. A few hopeful spots are emerging....

Daffodils in a sunny southern facing spot.

I love these tiny fragile crocuses, in their shades of blue.

This is a curly willow that peeks over a fence. No catkins or even buds yet.

But the forsythia wants to bust into bloom despite the cold.

Our prettiest find are these lichens on the alley fences.

So unusual!

Don't the flowers look like the tiniest red toadstools?

Id love to harvest a few bits of lichen for  the terrarium I am planning. [like the Wardian cases at the flower show last month]. But maybe the people would object? Or think I'm a nutcase?

We did get shooed away from the koi pond! How sad and embarrassing.

 It was a bit upsetting, as I love visiting the koi.

See the blue koi with the black polka dots! So handsome. And the harlequin patterned, and the ''white''  one.  He's pale peach really.  They're the biggest of the group, maybe the oldest? The others are mostly big too, you can see all their shades of orange.

We'll go back anyway, it's a public sidewalk! But maybe no lichen snitching.....
Back home the antique quilt redo is coming along nicely. [the ripples will iron out, no worries].

I want to make it quiltable, and fairly square but I don't want to take it entirely apart and redo it with ideas of 21st century perfection. The original maker was so thrifty, and quirky. Her hand sewing is immaculate then she got tired of that about halfway through the sashing and switched to machine sewing. Her main issue for me is that she used the bias edge on the outside of the Chimney Sweep blocks, and she had major stretching problems. No one ever told her to measure the sashings, nope, she just sewed 'em on. I had to use a repro ditsy print / shirting here to add to the sashing. It matches better in real life.

 The quilter made no attempt not to cut off points either And I'm finding tiny mends, even darned spots, squares pieced of bits of fabric no bigger than my fingernail.

It's so fun---a mystery, a challenge.

Have a good weekend.

love

lizzy 

......gone to the beach

The blue and white quilt behind Mo is from
the same flea dealer, who  told me the quilts
[and the blue polka dot star quilt]
came from the same owner/ family home.
To me the two blue quilts look newer,
1920-1950? How I wish I knew their stories.