A New Start & Other Mindless Wanderings

Seeing as how August's almost over, I thought I should start stitching on my August ornie. Don't want to fall further behind on my ornie endeavor! LOL I decided to stitch the complimentary ornie "Emmanuel" by Plum Street Samplers. It's stitched on 28 ct. Myrtle fabric using DMC fibers. I worked on this last night while watching the Dallas Cowboys whoop up on the Tennessee Titans. (Go Cowboys!!)

The design is available on Paulette's blog, http://plumstreetsamplers.typepad.com/plum_street_samplers/freebie/page/2/ . Just scroll down a little bit and you'll find it. Click on the download Emmanuel link and it'll take you to the .pdf file to either print out or save or save and then print it out. Whatever floats your boat!

In other news, it's still hot in Texas, but a "cool" front blew through yesterday and dropped 3/4" of rain on us and dropped the temps to 95º (big whoop!). The dear husband has started expanding our garden for the fall and future spring gardening. Our pumpkins are being overrun by cucumber beetles, but we'll be spraying them tonight in hopes of eradicating them from our garden. I told the husband yesterday that at this point in the game, I was ready to use chemicals. Considering I'm a die-hard organic grower, this is major! LOL


Looks like a freshly dug grave, doesn't it? First we had veggie coffins, now we have graves! LOL A bit morbid, don't you think?



The pumpkins have started blooming, male flowers only, just about 6 weeks after planting. As with all my other veggies that have produced male & female flowers, the males are over anxious and have arrived to the party early to strut their stuff.

The cucumber beetles were all over this flower this morning. :(

Some of my late-blooming flowers are starting to pop out. This is exciting as most of these were just planted this spring! I've been waiting ever so patiently for them all summer.

Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)


Cowpen Daisy (Figure out how this plant got its name!)

Some of the Blanket Flowers that I winter sowed (were winter sown?) have gone to seed and already produced babies! We found these when out inspecting the flower bed this morning.


The Turk's Cap that I rooted from a cutting taken from my dad's neighbors in San Antonio is very happy in its new home in the back flower bed. It's starting to fill out and produce flowers almost daily.


Here are our backyard neighbors' dogs, Winston and Sophie. They're actually littermates and are about 18 months old now. Winston, the bigger one, is on the left and Sophie, the smaller one is on the right. Winston has to be the center of attention and Sophie usually hangs out in the background, carefully watching everything. They greet us when we're out in the yard and will bark like crazy until they're acknowledged.