The dog days of summer have definitely arrived here in North Texas! August is the hottest month of the year for us and the second driest month historically. Hot and dry, a wonderful combination! We've been at or over 100ยบ for the past 3 days. I feel like I'm in the fiery furnace when I look outside!
Stitching-wise there's not much going on that I can show you. I should finish up my little complimentary exchange piece tonight and then get it ready to ship out to its
recipient next Wednesday. It's such a cute piece! If Jan doesn't like it, I hope she sends it back to me! I don't see that happening, though as I have stitched several exchange pieces for her and she's never sent any of them back.
The garden continues to decline and roast under the hot sun. Unfortunately, most veggies, except for okra, don't tolerate our heat very well. We've pretty much eradicated the ugly leaf-footed bugs by using the shop vac on them in the morning and evenings. The cantaloupes have pretty much given up the ghost and the watermelons are on the way. The cukes have slowed down and I'm not sure they'll make it to reproduce in the fall, but we're trying to nurse them along. The bell peppers are filling out and producing, but the peppers get sun scald, which makes them pretty much inedible. The okra & jalapenos, however, are going like gangbusters! Here are pics of today's harvest:
Today's harvest basket was full of cucumbers! We have 4 White Wonder, 5 Lemon cucumbers, and 1 Marketmore 76 cucumber as well as a handful of jalapeno peppers.
Mark harvested the smallest of these watermelons late last week and then the other 2 were harvested yesterday and today. I think I'm going to be eating watermelon for awhile! That's okay though since ice cold watermelon is a great way to cool off on these hot summer days.
On the kitty front, Mr. Tumbleweed is settling in nicely. He's such a good kitty! We did have to take him to the vet for a tapeworm issue, but other than that, no problems with him whatsoever. I did think I'd lost him yesterday when I couldn't find him before it was time for me to go to work. We needed to feed him and put him in his room before we left. I spent 20 minutes calling and looking for the little twerp to no avail. Finally, I put some food down for Hannah and he came out of hiding when he heard the crunchies hit the bowl! This morning, I figured out where he'd been sleeping...under the couch!
He and Hannah are learning to play together. She still hisses and swats at him occasionally, but each day they do better together. He and Hannah tend to spend the most time together. I think he's trying to convince her to be his friend. They've played chase and wrestled a little bit, so I think he's close to winning her over. Callie pretty much ignores him unless he tries to get in her space and then she'll hiss at him. They have been seen running around and chasing each other, though. :o) Tumbles has full run of the house when we're home and awake. He goes back into his room at night and anytime we're not home. This is mainly because we're not here to supervise him with the girls in case something were to happen and because he's so tiny, we don't want him to slip out the door when we open it. He's afraid of the noise the door makes, which is a good thing, but since he's not chipped yet, we don't want to take any chances.
In this pic, he was going to jump Hannah, who is behind the curtain, but he was distracted by a jogger outside the window.
Here Callie, on the ottoman, and Tumble are looking out the window at something.
This is one of the best pics I have of the unique coloring and pattern to his coat. He's looking less like a brown tabby and more like a gray tabby boy.
