Look what was in my front yard when I came home from an errand yesterday. One of the Great White Egrets that are very common here. Note the short yellow bill, black legs, the long flexible neck, and the height.
S/he didn’t spook when I opened the window to get a better picture.
A quilty friend who came to visit told me that this bird, which was slowly walking around all the house gardens near me, was hunting for the little green anole lizards that also live here. A bit of research shows these birds (who are predominantly waders but who will come onto land for food) eat an array of critters, including “amphibians, reptiles, birds, and small mammals, as well as invertebrates including crayfish, shrimp, dragonflies, and grasshoppers.”
Amphibians…that means the green tree/rain frogs that have grown over the year from being the size of a fingernail to being about four inches. They “perch” on our houses and poop everywhere, and the poop is sticky and hard to clean. BUT, they eat insects, so are a valuable part of a balanced garden environment.
It is a quiet weekend here. I’ve resisted going out to get more sand and compost, in anticipation of FIVE Drift “Popcorn” roses arriving here this next week. Instead, I played. I cooked a bit, ate dinner on the porch, caught up on the book I’m reading, walked, sewed upstairs, and hand-sewed after supper downstairs with the tv and a harmless, simple tv series that requires no concentration, Wildfire.
As I’m sure I already wrote, I dug out the “Encore” azaleas in front that were so NOT happy there and took them to Bryan, who has more shade than I do. I couldn’t find the Drift “Popcorn” roses locally, and both Andres Hernandez and I tried. But I found them on Amazon for a very good price. I’ve ordered plants I couldn’t find here from Amazon before this time, and they come beautifully packed and healthy as can be.
The clay here was also not helping those Encore azaleas–when I dug them out, some had water at the bottom of the hole, after all the rain we had recently. And that is exactly what clay does. When dry, clay is like cement; when wet, it’s like mud soup. So, now, deeper holes and more sand for drainage to help with the “bathtub” effect. But the real problem was that the Encores had too much sun.
I made deviled eggs again this past week–I was, again, so hungry for them. And I put the broken ones on a recent salad made with some grilled steak leftovers. I’ve been able to eat my noonish dinner on the porch all week, as it has been cooler.
And, I saw this X post last night from Tony Heller documenting that it is actually cooler this summer in South Carolina. (The data is from the US Historical Climatology Network, which is a designated subset of the NOAA Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) network.). Heller has been putting up this climate data recently, state by state.
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The design wall is filling up again:
“Prickly Pear” is coming along: two more rows are needed. It will finish at about 67 inches square. I have the centers and the pink backing and blue triangles all cut, but I have to make 16 more of the dark navy blue and pale, pale peach triangles for the third row and 16 more for the fourth row. I cut the binding and borders before I cut into the pink backing for the background units to make sure I’d have enough of that fabric. This project is…slow going. But it is a handsome quilt.
Longarm quilter Wendy Currie (Wendy’s Quilting blog) helped me decide on how to quilt this very modern quilt. I love her work. And I just ordered one of the pantographs she suggested. I also ordered a pink thread for the longarm that perfectly matches that pink field fabric. And I found a backing IN MY FABRIC STASH that is perfect.
The leader/ender scrappy quilt on the left is…scrappy. It is made from the two bins of the 3 1/2-inch squares of Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society I cut up back in Maine: one neutrals and one colors. It’s just fun–and will make a cuddly lap quilt meant to be used and used. I will probably donate this quilt to the Patchwork Gals extraordinary efforts to give quilts to those who need them, like foster children.
I spent time yesterday reading my current book: Jan Karon’s THESE HIGH GREEN HILLS. It’s the 3rd in Karon’s Mitford series. Yesterday I hit a part of the book I couldn’t put down as Tim and Cynthia were trapped in a cave with a tiny, hidden opening in the total dark. I find these books soothing to read. Peaceful. Until yesterday, LOL. I had to get Tim and Cynthia out of the cave before stopping reading and going upstairs to sew.
How many times do we get trapped in a metaphorical dark place that we slid into through a tiny opening? How many times does our “light” go out, leaving us in the dark? How many times do we need to be rescued?
I’ve been thinking a lot about air conditioning, which makes summer living in coastal South Carolina pleasant. And that thinking about air conditioning has led to a whole train of thought that has been on my mind for months now as I’ve been researching the whole summer heat issue.
It has been a beautiful summer here actually, and I have been walking in the morning rather than at night as it has been cool enough until nearly noon AND because we’ve been getting late afternoon/early evening thunder storms that cool off the heat of the midday.
Living without AC is also possible. There wasn’t any air conditioning in Georgia and elsewhere when I was a child. There wasn’t any air conditioning back in the day when our forefathers pioneered this land. Today, there are generations that have never been without it. My children and their children grew up with air conditioning. How does that impact them in terms of how they think about summer heat?
Last summer, having lived in Maine’s cool summer for almost 20 years, I worried about summer heat in coastal South Carolina and stayed inside a lot. This summer I’ve been out and about much more, so it seemed to me as if this summer was cooler than last summer. But when I checked local temperature records, this summer is as “normal” for here as last summer was. So, I’ve lost some of my FEAR of the heat and have gotten used to the heat and let myself experience it.
Local weather sites say that July is the hottest month in this area, which was a surprise. I would have thought August was the hottest month. Note too that many of these local weather sites use the weather station at the Charleston airport for their data, a place which is surrounded by tarmac runways, roads, and running engines of all sorts. And temp averages used include daily high and low temps, which gives a higher reading than if one averaged the hourly temps.
I’ve also learned to close shutters and porch shades against the direct sun, which is around mid-afternoon on the back of my house, which helps the air-conditioner a lot I think. The porch shades make the porch really comfortable, except maybe in the very late afternoon when the sun hits it directly. That’s a time when I sew anyway.
Back in the day in the Georgia summer at my grandparents, there was no air conditioning. Like me, they had an elaborate system of lowering shades against the sun on the sides of the house where the sun was strong–a task that we children were sent to do if we were present. After “supper,” everyone often sat together on the “north porch,” and I have so many memories of being told family stories, of sharing in laughter, of cigarette tips glowing in the dark night, and of the happiness of being included with the adults–if we children were not out in the dark yard playing kick the can. At some point, one of the adults might offer to take all these gathered family cousins to the local pool at the edge of a swamp for a dip before bed, a pool where cold artesian well water ran all the time. Then we would go to bed with cool bodies and wet hair and lie under a running fan. (The pool didn’t need chlorine either, as that clear, cold artesian water ran in and out all the time.)
My point is that we didn’t think that summer was too hot. It was summer. The heat was normal. It was probably hotter than it is here on the coast, where we have a sea breeze most days. We just found indoor things to do in the worst midday heat of the day. There were endless card games with cousins and lots of books to read. Or even a nap as we cousins ran flat out all day long. Sometimes, in the quiet dark of the living room, our favorite uncle would read us a story, like Edgar Allen Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death,” which even as young teenagers we loved. Or maybe that uncle would play a game of “Fan Tail Hearts” with us or the family seven hand rummy game we all loved.
Today, “heat” has become an enemy, and there are dire predictions about the earth becoming too hot–due to human behavior. Know that this information is a powerful move made by some who would benefit by what they want to do to “cure” this problem.
The only thing is: this story is not true. Any of it. I can see the markets involved, the people involved, and I am now refusing to go “there” with them. Science, history, and the so-called data being used does NOT support any of this story which involves rising rates of the dry TRACE gas CO2–which is NOT given in total percentage of the earth’s atmosphere, but in the scary ppm (parts per million) figures which seem very large to those who have not researched this problem. No. I am going to enjoy having the summer heat warm my bones after my noon dinner on my back porch. I’m going to let the sun tan my skin. I’m going to continue walking. I am going to enjoy…summer.
La Niña is coming in now, bringing cooler and dryer WEATHER (as distinguished from CLIMATE). That weather vs. climate story is a complicated subject involving lots of factors. CO2 is the “gas of life”: it does NOT create temperatures; it follows temperatures. In the geological history, CO2 has been much higher in very cold eras. Temps are a complex series of Earth’s and the sun’s mechanisms that do not involve human behavior. The more CO2, the greener the earth. Greenhouse owners pump CO2 into their greenhouses to help plants grow better. Water vapor, often created by the eruptions of underwater volcanos, like the 2022 massive eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano, is much more of a factor in the “greenhouse THEORY.” And the water vapor evaporates in time.
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There are countless very well credentialed disciplinary scientists that refute this fear mongering about the earth overheating. They include physicists, astrophysicists, geologists, and climatologists–most of whom have been demonized, despite decades of published papers/studies, just like the physicians et al who questioned the covid origins and treatments were demonized. These scientists do not include the “Earth Scientists” who are interdisciplinary “field” academics who for some decades now have been funded to facilitate the markets involved in this fear mongering. They have never been able to prove their claims about CO2. So…beware what you are buying into these days. These people manipulate temperature data in countless ways because they cannot prove what they are saying with long-recognized scientific methodologies.
Here’s a quote from a well recognized, credentialed geologist, Australian geologist, Professor Ian Plimer: “As soon as someone tells you it’s warming, the reply you give is: Since when?….We have been cooling down for the last 4000 years. It’s all about when you start the measurements….If you take measurements from the Medieval Warming… we’ve cooled about five degrees since then. If you take measurements from the Roman Warming, we’ve cooled about five degrees.”
When you see anyone claiming “hottest day on record,” look at the time frame they are using. Most of the time, it will not include the 1930s or will be a product of a weather station that does not have a long record of existence so temps can’t be compared over time. Or said weather station will be located in a recognized heat island in an urban area, which would make generalization about “the hottest” day not accurate for that region.
Here’s a recent map made by an amazing college student, Chris Martz, who will soon graduate with a degree in meterology and who does amazing and solid research to refute the climate fear mongering online. He uses reputable data and often explains in depth what is wrong with the current claims that serve to scare people–to include all those maps we see now online that are colored in RED and that are meant to scare us. (The deep red color in the map below is just used to show the temp ranges of the 1930s.) Note that the data Chris used is from NOAA records.
If you want to understand what is happening with this climate fear mongering, here is a long series from an engineer, James Kirkpatrick, published in the Weston A. Price Foundation’s journals. Kirkpatrick has traced the history and the science of this subject.
So, how does the constant bombardment on our phones, in our “news,” on our social media platforms with “the earth is overheating and it is our fault” impact our minds?
I think it makes too many of us afraid, especially if some have never lived without air conditioning. I hear all the time now from many, here in South Carolina and up in Maine, how HOT it is. One day I checked the Portland, Maine, temps, which were in the low 80s. For Maine, yes that is hot. But it isn’t killing/boiling hot.
I think this media bombardment makes some of us agree to the “solutions” being proposed without really wondering (or investigating) if the story is true, or without thinking about the outcomes of the “solutions” being sold. And, yes, “sold” is the right term.
Many of us might not realize that one of the first things to go will be the air conditioning, as the solutions being proposed will radically impact the availability of energy for consumption.
Think about it all, ok? Think about what our world will be like with farmers no longer on the land, as is happening in part of Europe right now and is happening quietly here now. Think about what we will eat if the cows and chickens are killed under the guise of a bird flu story that already includes purchased vaccines. Think about how we can get back real news and real science and a government that works for us instead of being subjected to endless propaganda that serves some, but not us.
The second (and last for now) “Piece of My Heart” quilt is done, bound, and washed.
I’ve been looking for a long time for a quilt where this backing in my stash would work. It’s perfect for this quilt–with its letters and numbers printed on the dark blue.
And I love how the striped binding came out on this quilt–which is meant to be like the red-white stripe binding on the neutral version. I also like how some of these Cotton+Steel/Ruby Society squares jump out at a viewer with such cute prints.
To remind, here is the neutral version–also washed and ready to mail.
Both quilts are going to a niece who has two little ones–a boy and a girl.
To also remind: Cynthia Bruns designed this quilt and it can be found now on the AllPeopleQuilt.com web site. Or in the February 2024 American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, pages 57-62.
It is also quilted with the “Folk Heart” pantograph designed by Beany Girls.
I have two types of sewing needles that I use the most often: John James embroidery size 7 or 6 (7 is smaller and more pliant) and Richard Hemming & Sons Milliners Large Eye Milliners size 11. (I also have Tulip embroidery needles, but they are stiffer and less flexible than the John James embroidery needles.)
The embroidery needles have a larger eye, but the size 7 whichI like best is sometimes hard to thread with size 12 cotton thread, much less a Pearl size 8 Thread. The Milliners size 11 are long and so flexible, but the eye, even for the “large eye” version is…TINY. I really struggle to thread it with 50-weight thread when I sew down bindings. Aurifil thread is thinner, so that helps.
Anyway, I went on a hunt recently for needle threaders. For the Milliners, I need help all the time unless I’ve been lucky. For the embroidery needles, just some of the time. (I use the Milliners to sew down binding or with English Paper Piecing.)
So, I have gotten two kinds of these threaders below–AND after reading comments on Amazon (you can learn a lot from comments), I got some Krazy glue and put a drop on the top of all the threaders where the “wire” extensions are embedded and let them dry overnight. I’ll let you know… But, these threaders have actual wire threaders, not plastic, which commenters were saying were sturdier. Again, I’ll let you know.
On the left are Beadnova threaders that will fit the Milliner eye. Or the right are Phinus, which will fit the size 7 embroidery needles I have–and likely the size 6 embroidery needle with thicker threads. The Phinus are bigger and sturdier.
Below, see more threaders I found. On the left is a threader that would work well for thicker threads and needles with bigger eyes. Perhaps for embroidery work? It does not fit into my needles. The little humming bird threader in the middle works for my embroidery needles, but has a tendency to shred the thread. And it is clumsy to use. The Clover 8611 works for the embroidery needle, but I don’t know how it will stand up to wear and it is pricier.
So, I’m hoping the plastic/wire threaders will prove to be a good choice–with the extra help of the Krazy glue.
*One other tip is when you unspool a length of thread you are going to use, insert the top piece of your thread (as it came off the spool) into your needle as that works best with how the thread is twisted on the spool. And cut on an angle to reduce the thickness of the end. AND, when your thread gets “twisty” as you sew, let it unwind by dropping the threaded needle down so it can spin the twists away.
And if you don’t use a threader, hold the piece of thread in your right had and bring your needle eye down over the top–as sometimes magic happens. Sometimes it also helps to moisten (read with spit) the end of the thread.
Remember when this sweet tree got planted last year?
Look at it now. It’s bigger and loaded with blooms.
Yep, it’s thriving. And look at the lush grass. It’s deep and thick and is like walking on a shag rug that is 3 inches thick, which I do often with bare feet. I hand weeded for emerging weeds the first year, but this year there are no weeds.
The “Encore” plants in the front, however, are NOT thriving. It’s too sunny and hot for them in that place. “Encores” are a cross between azaleas and rhododendrons–neither of which is happy with too much sun–though claims are made that the Encores are “sun tolerant.” Remember that I planted them last year and moved the struggling azaleas in that bed to the shady side of the house–where they are thriving. Encores will bloom off and on all summer and fall.
My neighbor’s Encores get a lot of afternoon sun and are thriving. But the front of my house gets the full impact of the summer sun well into mid-afternoon. And clearly, Encores do NOT work there. I have no space to move them to shadier sites in the garden, so they are going to go to Bryan and Corinne as soon as I dig them out. One has already died.
Eventually the Crepe Myrtle will provide more shade, but not for a few years. I’m going to replant with the “Drift” landscape roses like the little “Popcorn” rose I planted earlier in the summer. It is thriving in the hot sun in the back of the house. I’d like to get more of the “Popcorn” version, and Hidden Pond Nursery is going to try to order 5 of them for me. Otherwise, maybe the “Apricot” Drift rose that is known for its fragrance. Hidden Pond does carry the drift roses, so eventually I’ll get some that will work for me.
Drift roses are low to the ground and spread. They will be perfect for the front. Here’s a picture of my “Popcorn” rose in the back, surrounded by white perennial Lantana, which is also thriving. Drifts rebloom on a regular basis, and one does not have to deadhead them, but I do. And deheading is needed right now. But you can see all the new growth. The blooms open white and then start to turn a pale yellow at the centers. I love the name “Popcorn” for them.
And while I was outside with my phone, I took a picture of the “Limelight” hydrangea I planted last year. It, too, is thriving.
How fun is that?
(The herb garden is to the right of the “Limelight,” and that’s Rosemary growing tall. I almost lost it to a sucker fly insect in the early spring and used Neem oil and soap and water sprayed several times a day to stop them.)
Gardening is a practice of wins and losses. The wins are more fun.
What a fun little quilt this one is. And I am enjoying the attempt to empty the two bins of 3.5 inch squares from the Cotton+Steel Ruby Star fabrics I cut up about 4 or 5 years ago. I think those squares breed in the dark of the night though. LOL. They love to come out and play.
I love how the binding and the backing came out on this quilt too. Those sheep! Those red and dark grey yarn balls! I have Vermont friend Betsy Maislen to thank for finding this fabric. It is from Timeless Treasures, “Fabrics of SoHo,” FUN-C 3587. Of course it reminds me of my years in Maine, where I did knit rather a lot.
The “Folk Heart” pantograph is working well too–and seems a good choice. It’s from Beany Girls. The hearts kind of tumble across the quilt.
To recap information on this quilt, the pattern is “Piece of My Heart,” designed by Cynthia Bruns. It can be found at AllPeopleQuilt.com and I saw it in their magazine American Patchwork and Quilting, February 2024, pages 57-62.
This quilt’s “brother” is on the longarm as I write this morning. Yesterday I got all the parts together (backing made, batting cut) and loaded it AND got all the basting done. I’m really happy with that backing fabric from my stash–it has numbers and letters printed on it.
I’ve been spending time cutting and sewing units for Annabelle Wrigley’s pattern “Prickly Pears,” from the 4th season of Tara Faughnan’s The Color Collective. (There were 5 years, and I did 4.) I have one row of 4 finished, and the units for the second row almost done. It has taken…days to get this far. This pattern is difficult in that it is a complicated block and joining the blocks to get seams butted is a challenge. But it is a stunning pattern.
I’ve already ordered more fabric once (Ruby + Bee solids) and will need more of the background pink, which I’ll order today. And, no, the triangles that circle the center are easy using Tara Faughnan’s method for most foundation piecing projects. She uses plain paper and a bit of glue. AND, her templates can be used over and over with this method and do not have to be torn from the fabric. That’s a big YEAH for me.
The bins of C+S squares are still out, and this scrappy something is happening as a leader/ender project. It is the kind of quilt that just “is what it is.” The best kind for snuggling up in, actually.
Last Tuesday late afternoon we were about to get another thunderstorm, and I went out to move a plant on the screened back porch and saw a HUGE insect on the outside of a screen. What on earth?
All of you who follow this blog know that I had to immediately figure out that insect.
I’ve never seen a grasshopper like this HUGE creature. S/he is almost 3 inches long! With lightening from the storm already starting, I had to go outside to get pictures.
What on earth kind of grasshopper is this one?
Look at the gorgeous markings too. Huge back legs…
It’s an Eastern Lubber Grasshopper. What does “lubber” mean? Here’s a quote from the information link below:
“Lubber” is derived from an old English word “lobre” which means lazy or clumsy. This term has come to mean a big, clumsy, and stupid person, also known as a lout or lummox. In modern times, it is normally used only by seafarers, who term novices “landlubbers”.
Here’s a stock photo I found that shows the size of this huge creature in a human hand.
But don’t try to pick them up as one will spray a noxious toxic mixture at you–which is why it has few predators.
It can’t fly, so it lumbers along walking.
What kind of damage? Here’s a quote for the informational link below:
“Lubber grasshoppers are defoliators, consuming the leaf tissue of numerous plants. They climb readily, and because they are gregarious they can completely strip foliage from plants. More commonly, however, they will eat irregular holes in vegetation and then move on to another leaf or plant. Lubber grasshoppers are not as damaging as their size might suggest; they consume less food than smaller grasshoppers (Griffiths and Thompson 1952). Damage is commonly associated with areas that support weeds or semi-aquatic plants such as irrigation and drainage ditches, end edges of ponds. Grasshoppers developing initially in such areas will disperse to crops and residential areas, where they cause damage. Thus, as is the case with many grasshoppers, monitoring and treatment of areas where nymphal development occurs is recommended to prevent damage to economically important plants. Also helpful is to keep vegetation mowed, as short vegetation is less supportive of grasshoppers.”
We got 6 inches of rain Monday night and 3.5 inches in the late afternoon storm Tuesday. The grass and plants outside are now happy. But the ants aren’t, and that is another story to tell as they are coming inside my house.
PS: It’s Saturday morning now, and the grasshopper comes and goes on my back porch screen. Likely s/he came from the bio swale/stream that runs through our neighborhood or the wetlands above it. I don’t see any apparent damage to the roses though.
When I washed the finished quilt “Happy,” which had been dragged around for six years while being made, I put in 6 color catcher cloths–even though all the fabrics were washed when they came into the house.
Hmmm….
Enough said, right?
But, maybe I’ll add that I also washed another quilt, I also added color catchers to the wash.
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