May Flowers

"April showers bring May flowers" is what's humming around in my head. Temps are getting high enough that some hose watering help is needed almost daily. After the fence project was done, my landscape plans finally began to take shape. Kenny Muse Landscaping and his crew created a new bed across the front and planted and established a rock garden. The new plants are happy and thriving.

Getting a fresh start

Rain water will go through a buried pipe

Rain runoff will hit near the largest rocks

I asked for a small new bed in the backyard as well as azalea bushes against the fence. There is still mostly shade here, so he planted hostas and ferns, with plenty of areas for me to add some bedding plants. I'm watching for the zinnia seeds to come up and will get some other plants in soon.

New backyard bed with fence in background

Tallest hosta bloom I've ever seen

Hosta and hydrangea blooming

View out my kitchen window

June Events

I enjoy June in Hattiesburg for many reasons, and probably the main one is because of Festival South. These music events are of a quality that most folks would have to travel to the Big Apple to hear. So I'm already looking forward to Festival South 2023.

My Southern Fiber Artists group hung our Intense Color Exhibit at the Phyllis Downey Gallery at University Baptist Church for the month of July. Eleven of us selected color cards from Joen Wolfrom's 3-in-1 Color Tool and created quilts using the limited color palette found on each of the 24 cards. I had participated in a similar call for entry in the Northern California/Nevada SAQA region and enjoyed the challenge of working in a monochromatic fashion so much that I invited my Southern Fiber Artists to create pieces in the hope that we could mount an exhibit at some future date. These 35 pieces really wrap the room in color--intense color!

Color Tool

Invitation

My hydrangeas rewarded me with a beautiful show of blue this spring/summer. They are struggling in the high 90-degree heat, but afternoon watering revives the floppy stems. 

From underneath

From underneath

Flying Fish and Morning Walks

Flying Fish: Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is a fiber art organization I belong to. Their next conference will be in Florida and they put out a call for 250 donated fish or sea creatures of any kind, flat or stuffed, no larger than 12". So this was a fun way to spend my day. These guys are in the mail to Karol Kusmaul for the conference. They are photographed on green fabric but are free-flying. They won't be returned to the artist but will be re-purposed in some way. It will be interesting to see what will become of these.

I have waited and watered all summer, hoping for beautiful hydrangea blooms. Finally, in October, here is what I found. 

But you can count on coleus to multiply and even go to seed if you let it. 

There is very little else blooming right now. There is one lone blossom on the azaleas along my front sidewalk. I hope it is a sign of what is to come in the spring of 2021.

This tiny vine was growing along the edge of my street in several places. It is shaped like a Morning Glory but much smaller.

When there aren't many flowers blooming, Monkey Grass puts on a show with purple spikey blossoms. I love Pampas Grass if it is in someone else's yard. The fronds are very sharp and will scratch or cut your arms and legs. I will enjoy walking past this healthy plant.

Tomatoes, parsley, and a paint called muslin

I probably shouldn’t get so excited over some little cherry tomatoes in my flowerbed, but I do. I guess it’s because I have never been successful in growing them.
  My parsley plant is the largest I have ever seen. After making a huge circle of fluffy leaves, it has bolted and is making seeds. It was supposed to attract black swallowtail butterflies who would lay eggs to form caterpillars to eat all this parsley, but did not; so I'm leaving it as long as I can.

The afternoon sun really punishes the hydrangeas. I made an overnight trip and missed an afternoon of watering. I came home the next afternoon to this sad sight.

But after a good drink, they looked like this. It's amazing how they can perk up.

We hung two more of my quilts in a recently painted stairwell at my church. It brings me joy to share my quilts and brighten up this space. 

Speaking of brightening up . . . seeing what the light paint did to this formerly dark space points out my need to do the same in my living room and dining room. The tongue-in-groove wood paneling was greatly admired by my husband and he would not hear any talk of painting it. I love real wood, too, but I am ready to make these rooms brighter. Overhead lights only seem to glare. I have this same wood paneling in my studio but have enough overhead fluorescent lights there to overcome any darkness.

Looking toward east wall

Looking toward west wall

The overhead beams and the paneling inside the bookcases will be left as they are now. It won't be a simple job, since the seams will have to be caulked or filled before painting. The color I chose happened to be called "muslin." That seems quite fitting!