Summer Blooms and Stitches

 Good Morning!

Summer has been blooming in my scrapatch.

I have been having some ups and downs, 

but life is good.

I have been doing a lot of sitting and crocheting.

I have been carrying my yarn bag and hooks wherever life takes me.

Last fall we had to cut back the big purple clematis

 because it had suffered a lot of winter kill last year. 

It is growing back green and beautiful. 

Life can be like that. 

Sometimes you need to regroup and carry on ...

... and bloom.

 The wall of rhododendrons in our driveway have also bloomed.

My kitties and I finished our Spring Crochet Along Blanket.

I added wide side borders of my own design to make it bed size.

Nutmeg loves this one. 

Then I added the lovely yellow shell edging from the crochet along. 

Cassian helped. 

 Our big boy stray cat has become quite domesticated

and loves this blanket, too.

This is the start of my new crochet along with 

Any Day Crochet on TikTok

More soon! 

I hope you are having and happy and healthy June!

I Like Thursday # 160 ~ Garden Thoughts and Stitches

My Crochet Garden is Growing.

This was day four and it is already starting to look like a collage. 

This is Wednesday's motif and it was made late at night

 because it was a busy day.

I carried my book and yarn and hook with me

 but did not have the chance to stitch.

This is Thursday's flower which I made this morning.

It does not take long to make one of these, 

but it is fussy work for me and my eyes tire easily.

I am happy that so far I have been able to keep to my plan of making one per day.

I am hoping to maybe make a second one later today.

Today is 

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color 

This week LeeAnna asked us if we plant a vegetable garden or pots of herb

 and, if so, what our favorites are to plant.

The answer is: yes.

Our efforts are limited by light and space.

Our city yard is small and we are in a northern 5B zone.

There are other houses, high fences and glorious maples and oaks and pines

 that block the sun for much of the day.

The best light is in our paved driveway.

So we grow veggies and herbs in containers that are placed

 and sometimes move them around during the day.

A big tomato plant, 

a cherry tomato one, 

a box of lettuce, 

a hill of summer squash

 and one of cucumbers are our favorites.

I tuck garlic cloves and cut green onions in boxes, too.

I may try potatoes in a laundry basket this year.

Mr Scrapatch likes his container of strawberries 

though we lost a lot of them last year and he may be starting over again.

For herbs, my favorites are basil, oregano, parsley, dill and thyme.

This year I have plans to try to grow them on a windowbox rack 

to try to keep the groundhog and bunnies from eating our bounty.

We cannot grow much inside our windowsills 

because the kitties like to munch the greenery, too.

So I plant seeds directly into the containers and buy tomato plants from the garden center and hope for the best.

A garden tomato and lettuce sandwich is a special treat in late summer.

I received these seeds today! 

It is far too early in season here to do anything more than plan and

dream of green growing things and pretty flowers.

Looking forward and making plans. 

May you have a Happy Thursday!