It's been almost a year since I've posted, for various reasons.  Alex has been nagging at me (for quite a while) to start back up, and today I'm finally going to put some words down on 'paper'.  

Yardwork has been a large part of my daily routine this past year, and the good news is that I'm seeing progress.  (The bad news is that there's still a whole lot more to be done!)  

Now that the heat has kicked in I really take advantage of my early mornings - though it's definitely a 'waste' waking up at 3:00 since it's not light yet.  And of course I really hit it hard each time we have of biweekly irrigation, before the ground dries up.  I've made tremendous progress ridding the front yards of the lantana that have been choking out the dichondra, but since some of the larger intruders were too tough for me Alex came over to dig them out... and one of the most stubborn cracked the shovel handle!

Wednesday Ruth dropped off the arched plant stand that I had admired at her house, and I had it in place and 'planted' before she backed out of the driveway.  NO shortage of aloe (it multiplies almost as fast as rabbits) so the photo shows only a small percentage of the plants scattered around the house/yard.

The other day Mary and I took a trip to the nursery where she picked out a variety of pretties to add to her wonderful garden.

Though I hadn't planned  to buy anything I just couldn't resist the blue salvia.  All the red ones out front are volunteers and have done well.  The hummers certainly enjoy them, and now I'll wait and see if they are just as happy with these blue ones.

I've also been quilting.  Sure had a wonderful time at the Ritter Ranch retreat in Herford back in May, with Barb and Karen and Lynn and Jean and Jo.  After I finished binding Tami's quilt, (most of) the ladies made it into the 'official' photo.  

I also made good progress on my first Stack & Whack.  (Thanks for all your help, Colleen!)

I used fun fabric, animals in sunglasses, that I found at a death sale a while back.  Here's the first quilt I made with it, which is awaiting some additional borders.

Jo B. taught me an amazing 'trick' to figure out the square root of even the hugest of numbers.  Of course computers will do that for us, but I'm still amazed at having a way to work it out on my own.  

Karen and I got together for lunch a couple of weeks after the retreat, and since she lives near my chiropractor we coordinated with one of my appointments.  We went to a sushi place she knew about just across the street, and pigged out.  Everything was good - but our favorite turned out to be Monkey Brains!  (Since her husband doesn't do sushi, she was glad to find a sushi 'partner in crime'.)

Mother's Day was spent in Cottonwood, with Alex and Vic and her parents Daeson and Dave (who we'd never met.)  We enjoyed a delicious lunch, and then wandered through the local rock shop.  Turns out that Daeson and I had both hoped that there would be an 'announcement' forthcoming - but there wasn't.

Vic's dog Oakley looks like Echo!  He's a sweetie, and we enjoy dog-sitting.

Alex is also cat-sitting for a friend who's temporarily back home with his parents and can't have the cat there.  Pacha is a sweetie, and when Alex is out of town guess who ends up cat-sitting?

To say that Brownie is 'interested' in Pacha an understatement!

This week at Foothills I finished the sleeve for Tami's quilt, so it's all ready to deliver to her when we rendezvous at Pickin' in the Pines in Flagstaff in September.  Everyone who's seen it (at the retreat, Busy Bees, Foothills, TOQS, etc.) has loved it, especially the irridescent pinwheels.

I came home from the Foothills meeting that day with tonnage of scraps that Jo W. had for me, and see quite a bit of sorting in my future.  Hopefully I'll have some help!

I've been helping a couple of Estera's kids with their reading, and some of them are going to come over next week for a sorting party.  Once I've high-graded it and kept what I 'need', Wanda and I can make another trip to Jessica's.  Lynne P. has asked to go with me (she's never seen that amazing studio) which will be fun.

Speaking of fun, last Saturday I drove Wanda, Jan, and JoAn to the quilt show in Strawberry, and of course we had a great time together.  It's a small show, but there were some beautiful quilts.  This is the one I chose if I could have brought one home with me; I liked the bright colors and the subject matter.

Tomorrow is another show in Prescott, when I'll be driving Wanda, Jan, and Sharon.  It's a larger show, plus it'll be a shorter drive.  Win/win!

This year the peach tree put out a bumper crop!  (This shows just one small branch.) I've certainly been enjoying them, and so has Pokey, who looked away (camera shy?) just as I snapped the pic.  

Of course we've also shared with various friends.  Yesterday Teri came by and 'swapped' some of her tomatoes for some of our peaches, which she's going to dry.

That's it for this post.  Time to shower and then get ready for the cleaners' arrival this afternoon.