Saturday, April 14, 2012

Flag City, USA

I ran across this cute little complimentary design by La-D-Da a few weeks ago. It's been haunting me!! I figured it might help me get my stitching mojo back. Soooooo....While on vacation this past week, I've been stitching on this in the evenings. I spent most of my days nursing a hurting back/hip and trying to work out in the gardens. Oh yes, and one day I did about 15 loads of laundry! Okay, I didn't really do 15 loads of laundry, but it sure felt like it! Here's my progress so far.



Things are still going great in the garden. Of course, we've not gotten to the dead of summer yet. We've had oodles and oodles of butterflies this year. I don't garden specifically for the butterflies, but they do seem to like my flowers.

The first occupants on my passiflora foetida (passionflower) are 2 Gulf Fritilary cats (larval stage). I hope the plant is big enough to support their hunger! I've seen the Gulf Frit butterfly flitting about, but didn't think the plant was big enough for her to lay her eggs. I'm hoping these make it to adulthood.

Three Red Admiral butterflies and one Buckeye butterfly are enjoying the dill flower heads. The Giant Swallowtail uses dill as a host plant for her eggs and caterpillars. A few years ago, I rescued several swallowtail cats, brought them inside and provided food and a place for them to hang out until they burst from their chrysalis. It was a fun experiment!

The flowers are looking ever so lovely and I'm so encouraged when I walk outside and see all the flowers blooming. These Four Nerve Daisies are really putting on a show this year. I've never seen them bloom so profusely! I love yellow flowers in the garden as they are so bright and cheerful!

Daisy & Tumbles have been enjoying hanging out in the curtains of the big front window. Silly kitties!