Olio

*** edited to include photos ***

Of note:

1. Two new denim potholders in the works. I just need to bind them.

2. New prayer shawl slowly getting done. It will contain the leftovers of all the Lion Homespun yarn that I own.

3. 'N' of GAIN found morel mushrooms in our yard! we've never seen them in our yard. ever. ten years. never seen before. Story: he's mowing the backyard. he makes one pass along the fence, shuts the mower off, and runs through the house looking for me, (I'm in the front yard.) yelling for me to come quick. everyone is in alarm but me (I can't hear him since i'm in the front yard), thinking that something is wrong. 'g' of gain thinks maybe he injured his foot. 'a' of gain thinks he ran over a branch that we missed during yard clean-up and broke the mower. mr. gain has no idea what is going on, but it must be bad -- you don't want to hear your child to say anything like 'come quick' when he's running the mower. by the time N gets to me, he says, 'I found morel mushrooms! Come look!' Three big ones, in our backyard. They were too old to eat, but oh so cool to find.

4. We have a yellow bee-eating bird in our yard. Flycatcher is my guess, but I see no wing bars or eye ring. it's odd. In this photo, it's sitting on the wooden fence.

5. The bees are doing well. a little burr comb, but very manageable. no scale, no mites (as thought earlier).

6. plantings are doing well. I moved lilacs from the homeplace to the front and back yards, thinned lamb's ear (stachys 'big ears') and moved to the mailbox (a school bus hit the neighbor's mailbox last year), and thinned the daylilies and moved to pots. so far, all the bulbs I bought from the Botanical Center last fall have come up, except the fall blooming crocuses. irises from friends and family are just beginning to bloom. *** update: the lilacs in the front yard are being eaten by a rabbit. I wasn't sure that I wanted in the front anyway. ***

7. My baby turns 15 this week! Here she is with her bees. She also ate the first strawberry of the season this afternoon. We will be flush with berries. Currently they are difficult to harvest, so we're looking for a tiller so we can move them to be more practically placed in the yard.


I have no idea what the deal is with the keyboard and mouse tonight, so if there are letters missing or improperly cased or in the middle of a random word, I blame the hardware. I'm just too fast for everything to keep up with me.