What's Bloomin: Clematis

While my old friend Jackamani is just about finished blooming for the season... the new clematis i bought at the Farmer's Market and planted last year are blooming for the first time!

This is Purpurea Plena Elegans

close up

Just opening....

and this is "Little Nell"

closeup (after a rain storm)

Both vines are so different

and so pretty!

I'm glad they are happy enough to bloom in my garden!

Gold Found in Cohoes, NY!!!

Goldfinches that is....But just as valuable to me! It's just another busy morning at the feeders under the pine trees...Here we have a young male goldfinch, a sparrow and a mourning dove enjoying the peace and quiet....

These pictures were shot from a distance, thru a glass window and screen, so please forgive the grainy look.... This is a female goldfinch. She is a yellow, olive green color

female goldfinch

Here is her partner, a gorgeous bright lemon yellow male. I love their little black caps too...

the male's back

a closer look at the male's profile....

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

Wanna feel good and totally enjoy something beautiful? Pull up a chair and put your feet up and listen to this...It's just lovely...



LOVE STORY (Taylor Swift) Meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay) - Piano/Cello - by Jon Schmidt - video powered by Metacafe

A Blurr and a Smile

These days the only way i can get a good clear picture of Lola is if somebody holds her still! Here she is with part of her entourage...(They are hoping she will share that cookie...)

Her new favorite character is Elmo, who she calls "Meeno"

But she is much more like Cookie Monster, climbing up to get her own cookie at Gumma's house.

Hmmm...this sitting still is boring!

Let's see what else we can do up here....

Let's sit side saddle....

Nah.....

(That black blurr in the bottom of these photos is Lola's ever present sidekick, Zinnia)

Ok, that's enough of that sitting stuff, let go see what else we can do...

A funny face before she runs...

and she's on her way!

(Where did our baby go?)

Eggs by Shirley's Girls

Shirley is a friend and ex-co worker of my daughter's who has this wonderful flock of free range chickens. And whenever she has eggs available, i tell my daughter i'll take everything she's got! I
LOVE brown eggs, but Shirley's girls also lay soft green and light blue colored egg(shells) too. Pure sensory overload....If you've never tasted a fresh egg from a happy, healthy free range chicken, you don't know what you are missing! ummmmm.....

Peonies

Click on these pictures and that should bring the photo up large on your screen.

then take a deep breath

and fall right into the soft petals.....

These peonies smell like Heaven...

I couldn't decide which ones to post, so i posted them all....

Teddies, Piggies and Booties! (Oh My!)

This little teddy bear, made using the basic pattern from The Mother Bear Knitting Project, is a first for me. She is the first bear knit out of 100% all natural cotton, and the first to have a skirt added to the design! I hope she will catch some little girl's eye at The Paper Sparrow and go home to live with her...Partial proceeds from the sale of these bears goes right back to

The Mother Bear Project.

Here she is standing with a few of her new friends. They are part of the guinea pig herd that has moved in at The Paper Sparrow...

Here they are in their little cage, just waiting for their new owners to come and bring them home. The sign on the cage says: Note to Parents: These piggies do not poop or shed. A real low maintenance pet!

They are quite the happy herd, all dressed up with their bows and name tags....

And for the little ones there are a few more pair of my Peek a Booties available too!

(I call them Peek a Booties because of the little hole in the toe ;) If you are out and about today, stop by The Paper Sparrow in downtown Troy and say hi! Hug the teddies and pet the piggies and enjoy the festivities at Riverfest 2009!

Newcomer to the garden...

I looked out my window and there he was! A Rose Breasted Grosbeak! This is the first time ever i have had a visit from one of these beautiful birds. I have been feeding the local birds

for years here and have had chickadees, sparrows, nuthatches, titmice, woodpeckers, grackles, pigeons, mourning doves, cat birds, mockingbirds, juncos, hummingbirds, all kinds of finches, blue jays, cardinals, crows, hawks (actually nesting in my big pines, which definitely cuts down on the birds and wildlife here with their hunting) But never these birds. So when i saw TWO of these foraging on the ground under my feeder i ran for the camera. I was able to get this one shot off before they flew. It was taken from a distance and thru the screen. After reading about them I found out that they were two males visiting so i am assuming one was the parent and the other a fledgling... Female rose breasted grosbeaks are the color of a sparrow... In reading about them i found that normally they live in woodlands...Now i have my share of trees and bushes around here, but i live in suburbia...So i can only guess that because of the deforestation locally during the Winter with that huge ice storm, these beautiful birds are being forced to find nesting grounds closer to people around here. Whatever the reason i am so happy they found me and feel comfortable here.

What's Bloomin! ~ Rosa Rugusa

When my girls were small, my husband and i used to take them to Cape Cod every Summer and stay at a little cottage owned by my boss and friend, June. The cottage was in Eastham, near the bay, and we loved it there very much.

It was surrounded by these little wild rose bushes and honeysuckle, and it always looked so pretty and smelled so nice there. On one of our last stays there, my boss told me if i wanted to take some of the roses and honeysuckle, to go ahead because she was having the cottage re done, and the thorny bushes and honeysuckle draped all over the little house would be removed.

So, just before we left for the year, i dug up a little piece of the rose bush and the honeysuckle, and transplanted it here. It has thrived here ever since

(the honeysuckle should be bloomin soon too!)

That was over 20 years ago....

Time flies.....

I Love Lace

I finally finished my first knitted lace project, and i am so happy with how it turned out. Just a short time ago i couldn't understand how to read a pattern, and now i am ready for a more complicated project.
This pattern was pretty simple

and yet i pretty much held my breath the whole time i knitted it!

I love lace...I love to knit....