What a day.

 

Such a beautiful day. The forecast that I saw yesterday made me think that it was going to be a day of thunderstorms but although we did have one pretty fierce storm, the rest of the day was dry and just pretty. I took this picture a few minutes ago because I absolutely love the colors. It rained enough today to make my garden happy. This year I planted 2 raised beds with strawberries and then 1 of beans and 1 of onions. All have done well. In the garden that I have by the creek, I planted 5 tomato plants, 2 Brussel sprouts, 2 green peppers, and 2 cucumbers. For a change, my cukes are doing well but my tomato plants aren't doing so hot. I think next year I will make 2 more raised beds for my tomatoes and the other things I like to grow.  I don't hold out much hope for the Brussel sprouts which is sad because I love Brussel sprouts. Especially with bacon. Hopefully I'm wrong and will have a bumper crop of the darn things!

I volunteer with the local fire company helping with their bingo games, food sales, and other fundraising events. This morning at 6, we were selling sticky rolls. These are very, very 
 popular in the community. Yesterday, the fire company sold nearly 1000 of the rolls. They are a big deal! This was the weekend of the community yard sale which is why the fire company was taking advantage of the sticky roll fundraiser.  I love helping out with these events - it is another way to meet people that I should have met a long, long time ago and it is a way to give back.  I can honestly say that I have more friends now than I ever had. I would even say that I have more friends now that I did if you would add up all the people I could have called friend for the past 59 years! 

I've melted.

Welp, we made it through the heatwave or as some people say, the beginning of summer.  I'm a cold weather girl so I'm not a huge fan of the heat and/or humidity. I think that I am in good company!  However, I am a huge fan of the flowers and other plants that flourish because of the heat and the rain. Today on my drive to work, I was behind a couple of Amish buggies so it was slow going. There really is no place to safely pass them on our windy road so I was just enjoying the view. The day lilies are out in full force! I also saw quite a few hollyhocks which I never noticed before. I guess I just wasn't going slow enough. I saw chicory, mullein, daisies, as well as some other flowering plants that were just gorgeous set against the greenery.

My garden is doing well. I've harvested exactly 7 strawberries from the plants I planted in April. Woohoo! I'm sure next year I'll have a much better turnout!

 

These are climbing roses that grow in a bush beside the road I've tried many times to start a new plant but no luck.

It has finally been warm enough that the chihuahuas don't need to climb under the quilts!

These are just some of the day lilies along my way.

 

My favorite things.

 Some of them anyway.

I did remember that yesterday was flag day but it wasn't until last evening that I remembered that I had this table runner that I made a year or so ago.  Oh well, better late than never I suppose.  And it will be there for Independence Day.  I need to pull out my other decorations for the 4th of July. It might be a good idea to do it now while I'm thinking of it. Except that I am at work.  

The 2 pictures at the bottom of the page are from a quilt show that our guild had on Memorial Day. 95 quilts draped over the pews of a historic church! It was simply gorgeous! The church wasn't really local - about 17 miles away but I loved the message. Everywhere, it had signs 'All are Welcome' and I truly believe it. The people of the church had hung pride flags which I love to see and which is something that I would never see at the churches for which I play the piano. I love the churches that I visit each Sunday but I don't understand the fear and the hate. 

Dang pig

A long time ago I wrote about a bunny and chicken engagement at our church. But recently there has been a new twist: a pig. On a recent morning, someone noticed that the stone that holds down the manhole cover as well as the cones we have to mark it, in the church parking lot had been moved. Our pastor looked at the surveillance camera footage from overnight and was very surprised to see a quite large pig strolling through the parking lot, pausing to nose around the cover to our septic. Fortunately s/he wasn't able to move the rock (and I'm sure the cover would have been much too heavy to move) but s/he did spend some time trying very hard to do so. Frustrated, s/he knocked over both cones and sauntered away. 

What is funny about this is that none of the neighbors have pigs. The closest farm with pigs is about 2 miles up the road. This was not a young pig. 

Which makes me question. . . do we have feral pigs? Is there a gang of wild pigs roaming through the valley? We have foxes and coyotes and bears and I'm wondering how long a lone pig would survive. I was tempted to go stake out the parking last night but I value sleep more than satisfying my curiosity. 

So for now, the origins of this particular pig shall remain a mystery!