A Spring Stitch As Summer Begins

Design - "Spring"
Chart - "Seasonal Stand Ups"
Designer - Brown House Studios
Fabric - 28 count Twilight Blue linen
Fibers - DMC - 2 strands over 2 threads
Started - 15 June 2014
Completed - 18 June 2014

Love the colors and the big fat bees on this. I've been trying to be good and sign and date most of my stitches this year.

Oh but it smells like Summer now!  Cut grass and ripening berries.  
Let's take the first walk of Summer and explore.  

The Ash trees are still a startling bright green.

While most of the blackberry blossoms are white, there are a few plants that sport pretty pale pink blooms.

Lush, dense clumps of Horse-tails line the side of the driveway as it passes over the Big Creek.

Ocean Spray...

...and still more Ocean Spray.

I love all the colors from pure white, to cream, to taupe.

Pretty Spirea 

I found more oxalis in bloom in the damp shade of a roadside ditch.

I also saw lots of this mystery plant.  I think it is some kind of wild pea.  It has bloomed and the seed pod are splitting open - very funky looking.  

One or two Columbia lilies brightened the edge of the forest.  

Any day now the Thimbleberries will begin to turn red.

The earliest of the blackberries already have.

Our bitter cherry has a bumper crop of fruit this year!

I do not remember ever seeing so many ripe berries.

Take a look!

The Robins are more than looking, they are gorging on the cherries!

We never have very many hazelnuts, and those we do the Jays munch right down as soon as they ripen.

I found one very small clump of Oregon Sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum). We used to have a nice sized area with it, but it tromping around I did not see any sign of the plants there.  So I am thrilled that we still have a couple of plants anyway. It is growing on the steep side of hill in sunny sight in rocky soil as it prefers.  

On the other had, it appears that we do have lots of Elegant Brodiaea (Brodiaea elegans) in bloom.  It likes grasslands and meadows.  We even have a nice clump growing in our small Triangle Meadow near our Big Birdfeeder.  We have a small triangular area that we leave unmowed all spring / summer / and early autumn to provide extra cover for the quail and bunnies from predators like hawks and Bob-cats. 

I hope you enjoyed today's walk.  I was pleased to find a couple of new wildflowers in bloom to share with you. 

One year ago today Mom and I visited Christopher Lloyd's garden at Great Dixter.

Stitching Flowers Watching Birds

Here's my current stitch.  There will be a beeskep in this design, and a couple of bees as well, I promise! 

Sue asked if I'd used the called for linen and threads when I stitched "August's Poppy."  I did indeed.  The designer has a blog and kindly lists the fabrics and fibers for each of her designs.  Here's the link for "August's Poppy". 

I've kinda' focused on plants the past couple of days, so let's take a look at what's been happening in Birdland.

My male Flicker has become a regular at the peanut feeder. 

I like this photo.  

He looks as though he is wearing polka dotted bloomers and black and white zebra-striped 'tails'.

  

Here's a rather soggy Scrub Jay post-bath.

Most of the Evening Grosbeaks have left for the higher elevations of the Cascade foothills.  Every year my sister begs some of the birds to stick around with the promise of "Free Food!"  This year I think we still have three couples in residence.  This is good because we are then likely to have a couple of really cute Grosbeak fledglings later in the summer.

I'd just comment that I had not seen my male Downy Woodpecker in a couple of weeks, and boom, there he was back at the suet feeder! 

Last night I dreamed that I had four Acorn Woodpeckers on the rim of one of my birdbaths!  It was only a dream.  Here's a male at the suet feeder.  

And a female at the peanut feeder. No sign of fledglings the past couple of days. 

The finches have such pretty summer songs.

And they are arrayed in their finest feathers too.

The Chestnut-backed Chickadees have totally disappeared from the feeders, as have most of the Black-capped Chickadees.  I hear the Chickadees calling out to each other as they flit among the forest canopy. Once in a while a Black-capped deigns to come to the feeder for a seed or two before leaving once again for the forest.

One year ago today Mom and I visited the Chelsea Physic Garden. One of London's Hidden Gems!