Wednesday, April 22, 2009

not just stitching

Just to prove I don't just sit and stitch, here's a photo I took Saturday at Bailly near the Indiana Dunes. While we know the Bailly homestead and the area was occupied and farmed for years, we always attribute the garden flowers (iris, hyacinths, Narcissus) to Mrs. Bailey. So these are Mrs. Bailly's Hyacinths. We also saw many, many of our favorite spring beauties, some early violets, trout lilies, trilliums about to bloom, and a white flower. The trout lilies' coloration was very subtle and beautiful. May apples are coming up, too.

The color gradations of the grape hyacinths were just wonderful and, of course, the photo doesn't capture it. It does capture the memory of it for me.

We also changed the oil on my car Saturday (I use "we" quite loosely there--I help haul stuff to and from the garage and then sit and kibitz) and we stopped the the Century Plant which still hasn't bloomed. It's become a weekly pilgrimage. It was cloudy all day and the rains began in the early evening.

On Sunday it rained all day. We visited my sister and her husband and my brother and his wife came up. It's really cool. We have our own show and tell. I love seeing what everyone is doing. And it's great to get feedback on ongoing projects (like my Japanese paper pieced quilt in the works).
It's been raining since Sunday--Monday night snow was predicted but I haven't seen any. One evening I went through a pile of books. Found some things to discard or recycle (yay!). I found my wildflower field guide (which is why I began on this pile) and learned the white flower I saw Saturday was bloodroot (I thought it was that or hepatica, but I wasn't sure). I haven't picked up a needle since Sunday. Maybe tomorrow night.