Home again!

I hugged my grandchildren goodbye....here at his school cafeteria.

It took me 2 days of flying standby to get home, I finally switched to Tulsa as my destination! We got home at 2:30 a.m. Sunday. After going by our local airport to fetch my luggage which had been there since Friday with a note saying "passenger stuck in Atlanta, still trying to get a flight"!

Here is a photo of the storm which happened while I was flying home. This photo is from Siloam Springs. beautiful!

 

 

Home to the prettiest time of year here!

Peonies and iris in full bloom, roses too!

Enjoyed making wonderful cottage cheese pancakes for our breakfast!

With local strawberries fresh from the farmer's market!

Celebrating a special birthday with friend Karen, fish and chips at the Apple Blossom brewery!

Then a stroll over to lake Fayetteville and a peaceful bench on the overlook of the weir! swimming ducks!

Next adventure was Saturday night. Local contra dance society event. In the auditorium of our VA hospital.

Lots of fun! We are rank beginners!

That was my first week home!

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This Sunday, a real treat!

My friend Paula and her partner, Jeanne, have a native plants business on a mountainside near the White River. It is in Madison County, Arkansas, about an hour from our home.....

 

 

 

They had open house this Sunday, and I took my camera!

My first time to see Lady's Slipper, above. These are larger and puffer than I had pictured them! seeing them was such a treat! Deer love to eat them, but these are inside the fenced area!

Below, "Autumn Fern" which has the rusty color on the new foliage. (Not every plant I am posting is Native!)

 

A huge "s" shaped grape vine!

A nested rock, within a rock, within a rock!

An amazing dish of hollow rocks, ready to be vases! Or flasks?

One of Paula's potting tables with my reflection in the mirror!

More potting goodies...

 

 

 

 

...AND the star off the month....foxgloves. Self-seeding and happy growing here, deer won't eat them....

FOXGLOVES!!! Maybe 300 plants....

Everywhere you look! Lining paths and rock walls, popping up in the terraced garden too!

 

 

Here near the house, with a charming birdhouse!

 

Next on my travel agenda....visiting the newest grandbaby. Born April 27!

Life is good!

 

 

A garden, a quilt and strawberry pink.....

The flowers along the driveway are really pretty today! We have had a rainy spring!

Knockout style roses and "Stella Dora" day lilies are neighbors to petunias and yarrow.

This thyme has been here many years and is doing well, I would never have imagined that it would develope a woody, branching interior!

A bush full of pink roses is just past peak bloom!

As I walk across the yard, I notice dramatic clouds moving across the sky.....

It seems I have little sunlight remaining next photo, of some pink lilies...the background has become so dark along with the sky!

In the backyard, I photograph my yellow snapdragons and pink strawberry plants. I think some other creatures are eating any strawberries that are developing.....

 

 

Just now, friend comes by, after a trip to northeast Arkansas, bringing us a quart of berries grown there!

Delightful! More flavorful than the big California and Florida berries, these are a real treat!

Here they are, with a quilt for which I am choosing a binding fabric, the strawberry pink fabric, on the chair arm, is my likely choice.

This is a "chunky", "scrappy" quilt with 5 inch pink red aqua and green squares set among Cath Kidson and Laura Ashley fabric scraps. It is quilted with big stitches using perle cotton in a deep pink shade!

Now to make some shortcake to go with the vanilla ice cream and beautiful strawberries!

 

Spring brings ...Garden dreams

Here is a kindred spirit in an old photo from 1925....found on Pinterest.

Maybe wishful thinking.......here is the garden corner right now......being cleaned out.

The soil needs help.....though I did find earthworms (yeah!) as I turned over the soil....time to add compost.

In a perfect world, I would be making my own compost too.....!!! Someday....

Raking away the blanket of leaves, I find cilantro seedlings! Planted last September, these plants like cold!

They seem to be a good omen!

So, encouraged, I order a kit for another raised bed. I will fill it with the layers of newspaper, leaves, garden soil, grass clippings, etc. to make another small "lasagna garden".

I will sow the seeds for my favorite lettuce...and those pink flowers too!

And one day, I can put myself into this photo....then garden dreams will have come true!

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Now, I must confess, one reason for ordering the raised bed kit was to get free shipping on some yarn in a color which I can't find locally....

Lime green ( or SPRING green?), a shade not too harsh, not too pastel and in sport weight. To add to my granny squares...

They just seem to be missing that wonderful shade of green. Or maybe I just think so, as spring green is seasonal now?

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I do have lots of sewing going on too. Here is the latest quilt top....fun, yes?

Seeing more of Clark county than we intended! Or divine intervention?

This photograph in our hotel room last night was perfect for the region we were visiting!

We (friend Sally and I ) had attended our high school reunion yesterday...a good time...maybe another blog post...

Today, we visited with good friend, Cheryl , her sister Lynn, and their mother...then being so close to my brother's place, we drove on down there and enjoyed their garden, chickens and some refreshments.

 

 

Remembering an iron and wood bridge nearby, I started our drive home that way. We stopped and enjoyed the bridge.

Sally walked across .....

I picked her up and we set off, pretty soon there was a FORK in the road...(I don't) remember any fork from years ago, and I stayed to the north bound road. Soon,we pass Shady Grove Baptist Church...just as they were getting out of church...hmmm...I didn't remember any such church on the road to Curtis.....but kept going....it was definitely not a good feeling. Soon we were on an overpass, crossing the interstate, but with no way to get access to it! Time to turn back or what???

Retracing would take awhile!

Then we saw another small country church with a few cars there and people leaving. Time to ask for help!

This was Shiloh Baptist Church. I began getting directions from a young lady....another cute petite woman approached ...she studied me for a minute, then said, "Lila?". I did a double take! It was,another former classmate who still lives in,the area! Carolyn! Her son Jeremy Bell is the pastor of this little church!

Carolyn, Sally and I had just missed seeing each other the day before at the reunion --- as we were a bit late arriving, and she had needed to leave earlier!

So hugs were exchanged all 'round and we found out that she was heading to the interstate and points north! Then, all we had to do was to follow her for six miles or so, through rural, winding, piney woods back to the entrance ramp and we were finally homeward bound!

 

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