It appears that birthday wishes aren’t the only things that can be belated. I was taking photos and thinking about things for an April post all month long but never got there. I have inundated myself with various knitting projects (see links below) and, by the end of the month, got started on a new quilt. Keeping my hands busy has been my salvation through what has seemed an unending series of April showers and torrential downpours. To be fair, we did have a few days where the sun came out and it only rained after dark—but only a few. May, at least so far, seems to be following suit.
May (Bealtaine in Irish—click link for how to pronounce it) is supposed to be the beginning of summer in the Irish calendar. Hence, June 21st, the summer solstice, is called mid-summer’s eve. From that point on, the days will begin to shorten, but it’s too soon to think about that. Let’s hope next week will begin to show us the summer we’ve been waiting for.
I did get my tomato seeds sown in the greenhouse. It will be a while before it will be warm enough for them to thrive outside, if we do that at all. They may just have to stay in the greenhouse when everything else gets planted out. I will be potting them on this coming week, along with Cosmos, and Dahlias (Bishop’s Children) and anything else that’s in need of something more sustaining than seed compost. I sowed the sweet corn into regular compost in deep root trainers because it will be at least 6 weeks before I’ll be able to plant them out. I have Patty Pan and Butternut squash to companion plant with the corn and I’ll probably put in some climbing beans, but only one climber per stalk! Volunteer potato plants have sprung up in the beds I planned to use for the corn, squash and beans (see Three Sisters) so we’ll just harvest them for those little baby potatoes that we love. I’ll top up with compost and manure and put everything in when the weather is warmer and a little drier. Those are my grand plans. We’ll see how they come out.
Knitting Projects—All from Stolen Stitches:
- Grianchloch Shawl #4 — for my Physio therapist. I told her if she bought the yarn, I’d knit it up for her.
- Torc Cardigan — something for me 🙂 and a KAL (Knit Along) that’s still open to join!
- Galway Blanket — using the wool from Galway Sheep
- Blanket Club KAL — a collaboration between Carol Feller and Thea Coman
- Celtic Knits Club — So far it’s been a hat and mitts… waiting to see what the next project will be.
- Ravi Nua Cardigan — I’m planning this one for my dear friend Kate (since our dear friend June is getting a shawl.) The yarn color is “Hatters Teal Party”!
More about the Quilt project later this month when I have photos. It’s made entirely from HST (half square triangles) with a couple of borders. It’s something I can do down in my studio on these rainy days when I can’t be in the garden.
Until then, here is the garden update:
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- Mouse tunnel into the Greenhouse
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- New flower boxes for kitchen patio
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- Seeds propagating
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- Tomatoes and Jalapeños
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- I call this “Floating Leaves” dogwood
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- Shy wood violet
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- Fancy Columbine
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- My favorite tulip
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- Bleeding Heart (dicentra)
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- Pond “mirror”with lilypads
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- Love this daffodil!
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- Apple blossom
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- Purple Columbine
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- Can’t miss this tulip!
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- Primroses still hanging in there!
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- Kale gone to flower
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- Crow’s nest the wind blew down
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- More tulips!
