Hostas

My hostas are coming along nicely, with no damage from a few freezing days of winter. One of them has the extra-large leaves.

Another is bright green with white stripes.

I like this one with begonias coming up beside it.

My favorite tree is in my front yard with lush trailing branches. I hope the guy who mows doesn't mind having to go under it, because I love the way it droops all the way to the ground.

Brazilian Barbeque and Flowerbeds

Some of the international orchestra students here at USM invited some church friends to a Brazilian Barbeque at the farm of a mutual friend. The students cooked a delicious meal and then entertained us with singing and lots of laughter. Some will be back for more classes, but we will miss those who are moving on to other studies.

Gwen helped me plant my flowerbed with begonia, geranium, vinca, evolvulus, basil, oregano, and lemon thyme. This is a "before" picture, waiting for an "after" when everything begins to grow.

My maidenhair fern puts on lush new growth as soon as the weather begins to warm up. My mom always grew this and it is a sweet reminder of her love of her yard.

One of my favorite plants is Evolvulus, often called Blue Daze. It is not always available, but I love to have it.

For several years I have taken care of my hydrangeas, and I think this will be my reward. Here are the first blooms, and there are flowers in lots of the stems. The plant looked dead in our few freezing days, but apparently it was not harmed.

The cats love to sleep behind my computer screen. The first one back there gets comfortable, while the second has to squeeze into the remaining space.

May Already Here

I'm still smiling at the joy of creating the lab coat for White Linen Nights (described in the previous two posts). Lici Beveridge with the Hattiesburg American made a short video showing the runway presentation, which can be seen in this link:  https://www.facebook.com/licibeveridge/videos/10216482155631074/

A group of artists called Southern Fiber Artists meets quarterly in Ridgeland, MS (about 90 miles north of me). Even on a day I think I'm too tired to travel, meeting with these talented friends is an inspiration! That was my day yesterday. We have an optional challenge each meeting--making an 8" x 11" art quilt depicting the object and color drawn at the previous meeting. Yesterday's theme was House & Blue. Interesting outcome! An added feature was "getting to know you" by two of our members. Then sack lunch, show and tell, and a fun activity (using permanent markers with alcohol). It will be interesting to see how these will show up in art quilts.

Today daughter Linda helped me put the hanging sleeve on our Pine Belt Quilters guild raffle quilt. Mississippi Kaleidoscope is 108" square and is a real beauty. We will be selling tickets for the drawing at our show October 5-6. 

Here is one more picture of my Amaryllis. Two scapes have eight blossoms, and they have been blooming for almost two weeks before the earliest one will begin to wilt.I can see this from my kitchen window--what a treat!