Recent Purchases

Everyone has been most patient...

Your reward, a photo of some of my recent purchases!

Two recent Country Cottage releases, three Lizzie Kate Flora McSample (I really like that girl!) charts, a Little House Needleworks, a Knotted Tree, and an Angel Stitchin' chart.

I think the Lizzie strawberry chart may move to the top of the heap, being seasonal and all!

Hey, it's Wednesday...must be time for a walk.

Today walk is close-in - just around the perimeter of the house.

As the house is on the site of a former clear-cut (logged area), many of the plants featured today are those which thrive in "disturbed soil"... 

Like Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense)...just beginning to bloom now.  I put up with these "Invasives" as they provide food for many of the birds I enjoy.  The Goldfinches rely heavily on Thistle seeds in the late summer to feed their young. 

And the Himalayan Blackberries (Rubus discolor) too.  Juncos, Finches, Sparrows, Western Tanagers, Chickadees, Flickers, and Jays all eat Blackberries - as do our deer. 

Blackberries are so very ubiquitous around here, that our Hult Center Stage Curtain used them as its main motif!

 

The Common Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) is coming on strong.  It likes moist to wet places, again in disturbed soils.  The Finches also work the Teasel. 

With the coming of July, the meadows have gone from green to taupe.

I thought these grasses very pretty. 

We have quite a crop of Woolly Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) growing in one of our flowerbeds.  This plant is a four-season bird attraction.  Right now the Hummingbirds are working the blossoms while the Goldfinches use the Mullein as landing platforms.  In the fall and winter the Flickers, Woodpeckers, Juncos and Chickadees will all perch on the dry stalks and eat the seeds.  

The meadows do have a few white accents...Daisies and now Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot (Daucus carota).  This non-native is yet another plant that grows in disturbed soils.

So that's it for our stroll outside today - I hope the weather allows you to get outside and enjoy the day.