kitty companiona

kitty companiona

Sunday, September 5, 2010

September Already

While we were in the midst of the heat wave, summer seemed to be lasting forever.  Now here we are in the first week of September and I'm wondering where the summer went.  Time sure flies when you're sweating and grumbling!

On Wednesday we had a lot of local chores.  One of them was to purchase some larger flower pots to replant a few of my houseplants before bringing them in for the winter.  I don't have that many plants, just two citrus trees, a fig and my nightblooming cereus.  This wasn't the best year for the nightbloomer.  Usually they bloom twice in a summer.  This year they only bloomed once with very few buds coming on.  But anyhow....we were off to Lurgan Greenhouse, one of my favorite places.  The season is about over, but there were still ponds and some fall flowers that made a nice display.




I want so badly to someday have a small pond!

Afterward we went to the library in Shippensburg.  In a future post I would like to show you our library which is housed in a historic home.  For a small town, the library is an extremely busy one.  Some days it's hard to find a parking place!

We ate at Knute's, which is a sports bar on the main street.  Sports bars are not usually my thing, especially on weekends and when the university students are in town.  Through the summer on a weekday mostly local business people are lunching there.  I love their homemade corn tortilla chips seasoned with finely ground salt and pepper.  I just had the spinach and crab dip appetizer.


Zip had a brown sugar ham and swiss melt on ciabatta.  Both were tasty!


We visited with Brad and Kami for a while.
They have two small ponds of which I am so envious!  They even have frogs!!!  These little guys came of their own accord from who knows where.


This one is a large leopard frog and they have a bullfrog and two smaller frogs.  Brad said the
 first one just showed up one day and the others followed.  There is no stream nearby.  Who knows how far they travelled to find a pond to live in!!!


The dirt pile at the top of the picture is being built up so that they can put in another shallow pool where the water will then flow down over the two stones.


They have planted hostas and coleus around the back of the pond.



Earlier in the summer they found an antique Gem cistern pump and made another water garden across the path from the pond.  They find some of the coolest stuff at yard sales!  In the background is a huge hops vine that covers one side of their screen porch.


On Friday I traveled down into Maryland to Doris's house to take a sculpting class.  Sculpting as in rughooking, not clay or wood!  It was a delightful drive down through the countryside.  The class was quite educational.  I learned a great new technique and got to meet a few new hookers.  Plus Doris fed us a scrumptious chocolate cake! 

The lovely dyed wool, and #3 size strips that Doris cut for us.  I've never done such skinny strips before.  Yikes, they are like spaghetti! 


The finished strawberry.


The turned leaf.


The overall picture.  The jagged top edges of the leaf don't show up well yet, but will shape up better when I fill in the background.

We were able to finish this much in our four hour class with time for instruction and lunch.  It isn't as time consuming as I thought it would be.

My mom has a fairly formal decorating style in her living room so I bought an extra kit and am planning to make her a pair of pillows.

To end my post, the computer literate Isabell sends her regards.
She loves checking out her best photo sessions!
Do you think this one makes my ears look too big?


Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

12 comments:

  1. That carved strawberry looks absolutely stunning. Funny that only last evening I was drawing strawberries for my childhood memories rug that is still only an object of my mind but that 's where I thought I would start. I love hooking in #3 strips. A pond would be absolutely wonderful at my place too but I would be afraid that i would not have time to maintain it properly, maybe when I retire in the future. JB

    ReplyDelete
  2. That photo of Isabel is precious! She's adorble! Sounds like you had a nice week in the COOLER temps!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have only used a #3 cut once for detail in a butterfly. It was like hooking with spaghetti. You did a wonderful job on the strawberry.
    I am still laughing from one comment in your post...."time sure does fly when you are sweating and grumbling". LOL. I can relate!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh man! I could SWIM in that crab dip! YUMMMM! Good going on the strawberry... Hopefully the 3 cuts did not twist too much for you. Isabelle is quite the character! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Pat your strawberry and leaf look great! Glad you enjoyed the cake. I took the balance to my grandchildren (to save me from myself) and when I left they all had chocolate on their faces!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love ponds to. My large herb garden, pond and stream is what I miss most about the house we sold. Nothing better than sitting in the herb garden listen to the water flow down the stream.

    Your strwberry and leaf look great!!!! Lunch looks good to.

    Finally cooling off a little.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pat ~
    I just love your header photo. It suits you perfectly!
    Your sculpting looks terrific ~ but a #3 ~ YIKES! That's not just spagetti, that's THIN spagetti.
    Oh, that water garden with the Gem cistern. I want one, too. Thank you so much for sharing all the garden pix.
    Pug hugs :)
    Lauren

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Pat,
    It seems like we just skipped over August around here. Anyway I enjoyed your post and seeing those lovely ponds! I've been wanting one too. Brad and Kami are blessed to have those little frogs as visitors!
    Your strawberry sculpting looks like you're a pro at it! Will be so lovely as a pillow!
    Hope you are enjoying the cooler weather. We are enjoying the 70's here during the day. Night before last it got down to 37 degrees here! Was hoping it would kill a few dang mosquitos but they are still here in droves! Love the pic of Issy!
    Hugs!
    Cathy G

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Pat, thanks for commenting on my blog! Your work is simply amazing. I would love to learn how to weave one of these days.

    I noticed that you leaved in south central PA. I grew up in Philadelphia and went to school at Bucknell University. Boy do I miss the Pennsylvania countryside and stone farmhouses!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I really enjoy your blog.. you mix it up and are always interesting. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  11. Pat, if I were to ever come see you, I would like to experience everything in this post - how great it seems. That pond looks a little like mine, goldfish and oodles of tadpoles/frogs. That's why I bought that pattern from you - it looks like my pond. Ciabatta bread, crab/spinach dip - yummy!!!!! It sounds like you live in a beautiful area. I enjoy your cat photos always. /Deb

    ReplyDelete
  12. I wondered who was doing your blog tech stuff for you- Izzie is doing a great job. And Boodles says the ears are never too big.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting!