Spring

 Well, spring has arrived and we are starting to see signs of life outdoors again.  Unfortunately the artic blast we had several weeks ago here in Texas killed all of the shrubs in our landscape out front.  I lost a beautiful rosemary shrub, several Indian Hawthorns and a Loropetalum.  I am still hoping that the crepe mytrle trees will come out of it without too much damage.  They can always be clipped back to the ground and will regrow.  It's really too early to tell.  So Tom and I went to work removing all the lava rock and concrete edging, something that was here when we moved in and really not to our taste, so all was removed.  We then replanted with yaupon holly and nandina and a viburnum.  All of these are much more hardy and also do not require a lot of water.  It was quite the job, as we are not as young as we once were, but we managed by working a few hours each day.  We found quite a few large boulders and removed them also, so hopefully all will grow well in their new home.

I also have some landscaping to do on my Summer stitchery!  It should help spruce up the little house in my stitchery.   I am pleased with my progress this week with all the other projects going at our house.

 

My little house needs a tree and some lawn and a few flowers don't you think!

I always put a few of my houseplants outside for the summer.  The screened in porch seems to be where my Christmas cactus loves to grow and I also moved by parsley and cilantro from under the grow light out to the porch!  I just love this time of year!

Ice Cream & Lemonade

  A wee bit more progress on my Summer ABCs.  What's summer without ice cream and lemonade? 

Summer ABC's

 A little more progress was made on my Summer ABC's by Little House Needleworks.  I was able to finish the stitches around the tree branch add a few fireflies and add letters E-J.  I also added the basket of fruit!

 

Today I hope to start adding a few motifs to my SAL from 2020.  I thought these two motifs might be where I start.

 

Now I just need to decide where to start!  Should be a lot of fun!

Thought I would share some pics I took this week of my orchids.  I am new to growing them, but really have enjoyed learning to care for them.  The pink one has been blooming since late October!  The white one started blooming over month ago.  The blooms are so delicate it's hard to believe they last so long.  I used to grow African violets but they just don't do well here in this home.  I think it may be how dry the air is here.  Anyway, I am learning to adapt and these orchids really are so nice to have during the winter months when nothing else is blooming.  However, my Christmas cactus has started to bloom again.  I thought this was unusual, but read on line that if you let them dry out and then start watering again that they will rebloom.  A nice little surprise for sure!

It's been ages!

 Well it's been ages since I have done a blog post!  The holidays are long over and I am not sure where the time has gone.  I do know that I spend part of my day doing the PT stretches for my back and with the inflammation med the apain is bearable.  The epidural injection lasted about 2.5 months which did give me time to strengthen my  core muscles.  I have some good and some bad days but realized taking the medicine and not forgetting to take it makes a big difference.  I finished my spring cross stitch piece and decided to hang it! 

I really love this set of seasonal stitcheries by Little House Needleworks! Aren't these bunnies so cute!

 The following week we got the artic blast that came all the way down here in Texas.  I really can't complain as although we were out of power for 12 hours straight when it was 2 degrees at night, at least our pipes didn't freeze and cause damage.  The line to our icemaker in our refrigerator froze but we were able to thaw it out with an electric heater and our house is new enough that we have pex lines which does much better than copper lines.  All those quilts I have made over the years really were put to use.  It got down to about 52 in the house so by wearing hats and gloves and staying under the quilts we didn't freeze.  The coldest morning was -2 on a Friday by the next Friday we reached a high of 82 such crazy weather.  I know a lot of you endure these kinds of temps every year but the infrastructure here just isn't designed to handle it.  But we endured and now its time to move forward.

I have had a slow start on the summer cross stitch project, but I have started.  I also need to pull out my Linen and Threads 2020 SAL and add some little motifs instead of the initials that the original designed used.  I bought a book of tiny motifs that I hope will work.  I am look really looking forward to enjoying some stitching time each day. Getting out of the habit has not been good.