Gone To The Beach: 06.01.2024

Saturday, June 1, 2024

May Miscellany

Hi! May has ended. Three more weeks till summer?

I finished Silent Night on deadline. No leeway, but the top is complete. The three snow-suited children appliques will be added after the quilting is finished. I don't want stitching across their little faces.

[The white house isn't as big as it appears here, it's just close to camera.]

More on finishing and better pics if I get a place to hang it. The hugeness makes it hard to get it up anywhere. Sorry for the piles of messy clothes, I am trying to switch over towards summer.

Silent Night is folded up and having a bit of a rest.

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Memorial Day weekend passed in a flash. Dense fog, wind rain squalls on actual holiday so it was good the air show was Saturday and Sunday. The Blue Angels don't do as many low beach buzz practice runs as the Thunderbirds, but are always so beautiful and impressive on show days.

Memorial Day is always seed planting day here, but this year I postponed til Tuesday. No sense having my seeds wash away or blow away.

By Thursday I was seeing a few sprouts!

And by this morning, lots of tiny leaves are peeking through the soil. They like the warm sun and copious rain.

Since I couldn't get my successful Dollar store seeds this year, I had picked up a random selection here and there.

After planting, I felt I was rather too frugal with my seeds, and had not bought any cosmos. I have no idea what may grow so I added these assortments from Amazon.

It's far too many seeds, I had to buy in bulk since it's so late. Most of the seeds will be used in years to come, seeds keep for years. For now I plan to start a few of these in smaller pots to transplant if needed. Penny calls my flowers a jungle--ha ha hah but I am hoping for meadowlike English garden in miniature. I hope the green zinnies and Cape Daisies grow well, I love their oddball colorations.

Meanwhile, the yellow coreopsis are magnificent, and so cheerful. Even better than here, I'll add a new pic in the morning if I can. [Sadly I am not seeing any of the adorable painted coreopsis. I hope the grow back.]

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A bit of out and about-ing:

Trader Joe's is really pushing peonies this year. What a huge section.

Trader Joe's has stepped up their fresh produce selection recently. I got good asparagus, butter lettuce, broccolini, and a new to me salad that is arugula, quinoa, pearl couscous, dried berries, carrots. I added thinly sliced radishes and my own vinaigrette, as the TJ dressing included is much too spicy. Painfully so.

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And for those who asked about the sofa throw cushions in last week's post--many were made by me, but some are from Home Goods.

Home Goods has a huge selection of indoor, outdoor and indoor-outdoor cushions right now if you are looking or just to be inspired.

I so loved these flamingo pinks! But no.

I went to HG for new deck seat cushions, and found these. $19.99 for two. Not the pink palm version; I chose the blue and greens on the left actually. My friend made such a face when I showed her my choice--but I see no reason at all to go neutral/grey/tan on a summer deck, yeesh. My chairs are a jade teal-ish web, my umbrella is blue and white stripes.

Home Goods no longer does mail order, but Marshall's [same company] seems to--other cushion sources are Target, or online: Wayfair or Amazon. Have fun!

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No pics but evenings after Mo's walk I have been seeing so many birds. The male cardinal is back, and the male robin; a pair of mockingbirds, small hawks, a cormorant this morning. Napoleon gulls, laughing gulls, artic terns, black skimmers fill the evening skies.

We have a pretty russet male sparrow who visits the deck to look for crumbs from Mo's jerky chews. He is very tame, which I love as long as he does not fly inside.

One evening we watched three oystercatchers fly back and forth in swooping formation---just like the Blue Angel jets! Apparently a parent and early fledged chicks learning to fly. At one point the ''babies'' landed in our guest parking area and waddled around, looking lost. The mom flew on but returned finally and got one baby to fly away with her. The baby left behind really struggled; he'd take off, rise a few feet and land, looking exhausted. Nowhere to get a drink or hide, just a small roughly paved area. He rested for about 15 minutes then two, three, tries and away he flew. No mom though. I hope he found her.

Another evening two oystercatchers battled a much larger fish crow. He probably was looking to feed on their eggs or baby chicks. Nature is so sad! Though in this case the OCs prevailed.