Garden chores and bird watching...

It is a glorious day... sun is shining and the temperature is mid- 60's... is this November??? In Ohio??? I am certainly enjoying it but I'm getting a little nervous about how long it will last and how much time do I have left to clean out my garden and plant Spring bulbs. Last week I had some hyacinths planted around the base of my trees, mulch was added and it was topped off by some new to me,   Cool Wave pansies... you can read about them here.  I think they will come back in the Spring... wouldn't that be nice?  Anyway with the forecast of continued nice weather they should be pretty  for a while.

And speaking of pansies look at this little patch of volunteer pansies...

I did not plant these... I've never planted pansies in the ground before last week... I did have some pansies in pots about a year ago, but I pitched them in the garbage when they were bloomed out... I have no idea how these arrived here but I sure do like them. Such pretty yellow faces!!

As for gardening chores the pyramid of petunias has been put out to pasture....

I took the pyramid apart and hosed it off... emptied all the pots and washed them out... I emptied out the planters on the front porch too. Everything was pretty spent. I got to thinking that I planted up all these pots in May... that was SIX months ago... wow... it seems like it was a long time ago and yet it seems like yesterday too!   I still have perennials and annuals that are blooming... some coneflowers... some lantana... the marigolds and the rose bushes... are still blooming. It is hard for me to pull up plants that are still blooming... so I'll give them another couple of weeks.

With the forecast next week to be in the upper 60's I should have time to get more daffodils in the ground. I bought another 100 bulbs... damn you Costco... those big bags of bulbs are irresistible... and I bought 60 Japanese iris bulbs... and some tulips. I am not putting the tulips in the yard... I'm going to plant them in pots that I can bring into the garage at night when Spring comes and hopefully keep the deer from dining on them. I'd like to think I'm smarter than the deer but that is probably delusional thinking on my part.

As with any gardener, I'm already dreaming about what I can plant next year... I know what I want to duplicate from this year... marigolds and petunias... and I know I'll be tempted by pretty perennials too. I'd love to plant more trees but I think I've run out of yard... so sad... but I have high hopes for the 5 I have planted.

As for the bird watching ... this is what I've spotted.. a dotty breasted sap sucker... at least that's what I'm calling him...

This is by Barbara Ana Design and is called Funky Bird... a very apropos title dontcha think?  LOL
Go read the copy for this piece here...  it is great! I LOVE the look of this guy and I was happy that he was stitched just in DMC... since my last two forays with hand dyed flosses I needed something without the surprise dynamic of, " why does my skein not look like the picture???"

But with that said I've had some little hiccups with this piece. I started by stitching the alphabet ... I'm using a 36 count Edinburgh linen called Sand... the pattern calls for a 36 count linen so I thought I'm good there.  I had the top two lines of the alphabet done and it just didn't look like the picture... grrrrr... mine was much darker.... Oh carp... I didn't read the  teeny tiny print that said one ply of floss over two threads. Sooooo I picked it out and restitched it ... looks more like the picture.

And then I got to the bird... there is A LOT of DMC 3371... dark chocolate brown ... and I just don't like the skimpy coverage of one ply over two threads with solid areas of stitching. What to do...what to do???  Do I go back and re-stitch the alphabet in two ply???  NOPE... I'm leaving the letters one ply and I'm doing the bird in two ply.  I realize it is not going to have that vintage-y look in the picture but I don't think I'd be happy with the linen showing through ... we shall have to see if I still am happy when I get the body stitched... there is always something, isn't there??

Time changed last night...I shall forgo my normal rant as the Fall back isn't as hard as the Spring forward... and I haven't experienced the pitch dark by 5pm yet.... okay for old time's sake... JUST LEAVE THE TIME ALONE!!!!  Boy I'm getting to be a cranky old lady...LOL!

Kids are coming for dinner tonight... got something new at Costco ... chicken breasts stuffed with mozzarella cheese... looks tasty but doesn't feel like real cooking. I will make some pasta to go with them and some dessert.  I wonder if I could  just offer them the left over Halloween candy. We gave out a ton but there is still a bowl in the kitchen... I've eaten all the carmel-y ones ... and there may be a York peppermint patty or two left... I don't need to eat any more... need to hide it from me!

It's going to be a busy busy week... got something going every single day... hope to find time to sew and knit and cross stitch a bit...hope you find time to do something fun too!

happy stitching-
carol fun

PS:  I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts today for Slow Stitching Sunday and on Monday with Super Mom - No Cape... go check them out!