A Mid-June Stitch and Walk

Design - "Busy Bees & Beeskep"

Chart - "Letters Part 1"

Designer - The Cricket Collection

Fabric - 30 count R & R Old Mill Java linen

Fibers - DMC - 2 strands over 2 threads

Started - 11 June 2014

Completed - 12 June 2014

I changed the color of the "B" and used DMC 3012 rather than the charted color of DMC 3011.

As you can see I am enamored of all things "Bee".

I have a small collection of honey jars that I display in the summer.

For the past week the outside world has reverberated with the sound of helicopters from 7:30am until 6:30pm.

The city of Eugene removed a large stand of Douglas Fir as the first step to restoring the area to native prairie and oak savanna. Helicopter logging was deemed to leave the lightest footprint. 

And lucky me - the landing was just one hill over!  Noise, noise and more noise.  Sometime I wonder where the phase, "Oh the quiet countryside" every came from!

So let's ignore the roar of the rotor blades because after several grey days, the sun is shining.  Let's go for a walk.       

See!  Blue sky!

And doesn't Nature create pretty bouquets?

Grasses and Vetch.

I discovered a second Elderberry on the property.  We should have lots of berries for the birds.

The Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor) is in bloom.  This native grows from British Columbia down into California and east to Montana. 

While we have it scattered about the property, most of the plants are along the banks of the Big Creek.

June means the meadows are dotted with daisies.

June is also the time many plants and trees set fruit.

The native Dogswoods have done so.

By mid-summer most everything has bloomed and fruited or is the the process of blooming.

I found a nice big Nootka Rose shrub.

The flowers are small, but bright in color. 

If the flowers mean anything, we should have a good crop of Blackberries.

We have a new crop of Oak Galls.  It is amazing to me that small parasitic wasps create these.

I think the Douglas' Spiraea (Spiraea douglasii) is prettier in bud...

than in bloom. 

Look, a wonderfully strong stand of Columbia Tiger Lily in bloom!

And after I complained a couple of weeks ago, I'm pleased to see more Mimulus in bloom too.

The Bitter Cherries (Prunus emarginata) are heavy with fruit and the birds are chomping down. I find the pits along the edges of the birdbaths when I clean and refill them.

  

We'll end out walk today back at a meadow with the Blue Dicks providing punctuation to the green of the grass.

One year ago today Mom and I took a Thames River cruise to Hampton Court.