Dust Bath and Citronella Lily

Well, I promised I would post a picture of "Citronella," my beautiful heritage lily and here it is. It is absolutely catalog perfect and I'm so grateful to Old House Gardens for growing it for me!

On farm news, it is a simply beautiful day. Fluffy white clouds, deep blue sky, soft green leaves, it's like a postcard out here. The chickens are running around, thrilled Ryan has weeded the rhubarb patch. They are happily digging through the freshly turned dirt for all the tasty little bugs in it. One of our turkey hens found a patch of dirt and took herself a little dirt bath in the sun (See video). I pointed it out to Ryan and he said, "I was trying to grow grass there...." as he watched her forlornly! I told him she looked happy as she made little cooing noises.

Baby shower quilt

I finished another quilt, this one for my sister-in-law's baby shower. I quilted like a fiend this week, trying to get the hand quilting in the center done. I got it done, but I didn't quite get the binding done by the time of the baby shower this afternoon. Ah well, I guess that means I'll get to take the quilt to my guild meeting in a couple weeks and then it will go to my first niece. It is about 50" by 60", so it should be useable as a crib quilt if she so chooses.

I also made some gifts for the shower prize winners, which are some table mats. They seemed to go over well, but the strong preference was for "the blue ones". Future note to self: just make blue ones!

Doing things "The old-fashioned way"

We went to a farm auction yesterday (7 hours in the sun, Ryan's a little crispy) and I was struck at how many things we were trying to buy for their original intended purchase while bidding against people trying to buy them for home decorating or other purposes. The example that sticks in my mind is that Ryan was bidding on an egg scale (that tells you what grade/size they are) and lost it at $25. He asked the guy who won it why he bought it and the guy said, "for the novelty of the thing." I think that's kind of sad. So I'm posting a picture of our clothesline and compost pile because it got me thinking about how many things we do "the old-fashioned way" around here. If you think about it, hypertension and diabetes weren't the kind of problems they are now when we used to eat the old-fashioned way and maybe we are starting to realize that.

On a lighter note, it's now lily season!! Anyone who knows me knows that lilies are my absolute favorite flower and this is the first year we've started getting them into the garden. So I am awaiting each one in eager anticipation as it buds and I get to discover its color (since I have, of course, completely forgotten which lily we planted where). We don't buy very many lilies and instead spend the money on a few quality lilies, which we get from Old House Gardens (www.oldhousegardens.com). I highly recommend them, we always get a personal note written on our order and they also sell heritage tulips, daffodils, cannas, hyacinth, iris, peonies, and other bulbs! We love them. Although last fall we did cheat and put a few cheap lilies in the garden just so we can have some time to establish the better ones. So I'm not actually sure where this one came from. My "citronella" lily from OHG is going to bloom soon, though, so I'll try to remember to post you a picture!