NOT ALL IS DOOM AND BLOOM.

The deers have been coming around to nibble on my beet tops the other night but haven't returned to pull my beets since I've been putting the Irish Spring soap around the gardens. I may get some beets after all.
The deers haven't touched any of my brassicas and I have a lot of Kale in my garden.  My husband is dehydrating some and I made some Kale soup today. It was delicious and he expects me to make some more in the near future.

Not everything is doom and gloom and now to share some of my blooms, here are some pictures for you to enjoy for now. I left many other daylilies out as my picture card is full in my camera.

A serendipity miniature sunflower that grew under the bird feeder. I thought of Rick Watson, a blogger friend who passed away just recently. This one is for you Rick. We miss you.


My daylilies are in full blooms now but I will take more photos later. This is enough for now.

These daylilies are called Toltec Dial. A prolific bloomer.

                                           Siloam Fancy Dress

                                         May May
         

                                        Rainbow Gold

 This  daylily, I don't have a name and I think it one that self-propagated,

                                  Absolute Zero Daylily

                                           New Note Daylily

                                         Fountain Tune Daylily

                                          An old fashion one. I don't know the name.

                                         Arthur More Daylily

                                          Gay Cravat Daylily

                                         Siloam Bo Peep

                                           Rudbeckias, ( last year's picture)

                                            Echinacea

                                              Chicago Apache

I'm taking a break from Blogger and social media entertainment until August 21 to take part in the David fasting with the Shalom Media group with special intentions to save humanity from the deadly plague of Covid-19, in reparation for the sins committed by us and our families, to strengthen all the evangelization efforts of bringing Jesus to the ends of the earth, to prepare the Catholic Church to embrace a new Pentecost.
This David fasting is led by Rev. Roy Varghese Palatty, CMI, spiritual director of Salom Media. I will be checking my blog for scam only.
Stay well and safe.
Hugs, Julia

2020 HAS BEEN A DIFFERENT YEAR, IN MANY WAYS FOR EVERYONE, INCLUDING ME

First, with Covid-19 that is still creating havoc with people's lives and the economy, education, nursing homes, vacations, policing, the closing of businesses and churches, etc, etc...  Some say it's divine chastisement for the sinfulness of mankind all over the world who have put God aside and are relying more and more on their own inner strength and on worldly things and have forgotten the Word of God and are serving another master, Satan.

 The family unit is disintegrating because of the absence of fathers in the home and generation after generations, it will get worst unless we get divine intervention. It's like in the time of Noah when the world had become so evil. Abortion is the greater evil as respect for life is at an all-time low, especially in China, And making more money is more important.

There has been a dramatic increase in protests,  toppling of historical statues, an increase in burning Catholic churches and crosses, decapitation, and defacing of religious statues, especially of the Blessed Virgin Mary, desecrations of the Holy Eucharist, and persecution of Christians all over the world, especially in China. There are many other things that have happened like the extensive deluge of flooding in China and many other countries, locus infestation in Africa that destroyed crops, etc.  It continues and the world is being shaken to its core.

While I'm observing all this, I'm trying to live my life as normal as possible and the stupid Bambi has been raiding our garden this year, night after night, even eating tomato plants, can you believe?  They have eaten my Hostas, Phlox, Hydrangeas, Asiatic lilies, beans, carrots, peas, and ate all my son in law's beets. They only left me a handful of peas.😭

These were my Hostas last year in full bloom by the gazebo.

And this is what they look like this summer after Bambi and his family came for a garden party.

At first, a fence kept them out but they ventured inside the fence and got bolder and bolder. I've been putting shredded Irish Spring soap at night and it seems to deter them but the damage has been done.  I still managed to pick almost 8 pounds of beans but they have really eaten all the blossoms on the beans.

They chewed all the tips of my phlox in several gardens.

They chewed the tips of two of my Hydrangeas and left only two tips on this one.

Luckily I have lots of daylilies and the deers don't seem to like those.

There is still a lot of beauty amongst the ugly and every day is a gift and we should always be thankful for what we got and count our blessings.

Remember these poinsettias that were given to me in April from the church before Lent? They were losing their red bracts but with good watering,  the bracts lasted for a long time.

They are as high as that card table in the corner.  I put a chair for a comparison of the size. They are huge and they are taken over the room.

August is poking around the corner. It's been hot and very humid and I stayed mostly inside just venturing outside briefly. I just don't do well in hot humid weather.

Thanks for visiting and listening to my rambling. I enjoy reading your lovely comments but lately, I'm getting a lot stupid of x-rated spam which is very annoying. I know they are not from my regular followers.

Stay safe and well.
Hugs, Julia

A BLOGGER ART GALLERY POST BY INVITATION FROM KEZZIE

What is art? There are many definitions of art. Kezzie from KezzieAG blog thought it would be fun to see what arts her followers had in their home and so she set up a day to share our art on our blogs.

After digging up some photos from my Photo Library, I came up with more art pieces than I thought I had.

I never thought of my creations as art but the definition of art is broad so I guess it can pass for art.

Taste varies, what is beautiful to some is not necessarily beautiful to others.


I'll start with my rugs. They are all my own designs and I have enjoyed the whole process of acquiring my stash of repurposed 100% wool fabric from thrift stores with only a very small percentage which is not 100% wool.

The wool is washed in hot water and dried. I use a Cushing dye especially for wool to get the colors I wanted and to overdye colors that I want to change. There are many techniques for special effects.  The wool is cut in narrow strips we call worms.

This was my first rug. The grass was a white and grey plaid skirt dyed with yellow and blue dye. All repurposed 100% wool.

This rug was made to remember my friends who supported me during my breast cancer episode. They gave me a huge rooster that noise activated. I was collecting small roosters then. They filled a huge basket with 30 small gifts to open every day for a month.

This was a challenge rug. I had to use a forest, a ring, a stone, and the color purple. Free to interpretation. I didn't have much choice of wool then. This is me when I was young. I was always hanging from a tree upsidedown and wished I was a natural blond. lol...

This is a memory rug of my childhood. Every vignette represents great memories. and the wavy border represents the journey.

Another challenge rug called Grandmother's trunk. The interpretation was my heritage from my grandmother. She didn't left me any tangible objects other than the love of flowers.

Another challenge rug to get rid of all the leftover wool worms after hooking the other rugs.

Again this chair pad was using all leftover wool worms. The green border was wool of many different greens and white all married together by simmering the wool together to get a more uniform color.

This chair pad also was using little bits of leftover wool. We call the different circles, Kittens paws.

This one is a geode landscape. I never finished the border on it yet.

This is from a black and white overexposed photo of my grandfather. I wasn't pleased how his face turned out as I couldn't see the nuances in the shading of his face.

This was a challenge entitled "All around the town", using left only leftovers wool worms. The edging needs to be finished.

This is George the  Rooster chair pad. Making a round chair pad can be challenging.

A mate for George the rooster. Meet Julia hen. I used one piece of plaid that a generous blogger friend gifted me for the body by cutting out the strips of wool and separating the colors

Another challenge using leftover wool worms with a nursery rhyme.

This is a purchased watercolor print of a local covered bridge by artist Daniel Price.

This art piece comes as a gift from an African student who my daughter Christine gave her some raw milk to make some kefir I think. She was so happy with the cow milk. It is made from large fibrous leaves.

This was a self-portrait painted by my late daughter Nicole when she was in High school. I found it in the garage and gave it back to her while she lived in Scotland. She took it with her and had it framed. and it came back to me when she died. I had to take the photo at an angle because of the glare on the glass.


 

These two small applique portraits are collector's items and were given to me by Nicole and came from Scotland. Signed by artist Linda Kerr. They are approximately 4''x4'' or 10.16 cm x 10.16 cm.

A cross stitch I made and changed the thread colors to coordinate with my wall color. I had it professionally mounted at a cost of $150.00. I got it mounted wit a low glare glass to protect it from grease in the dining room.

THis little one I mounted myself but I need to change the frame. I used what I had laying around.

My first applique quilt after my chemo. The applique and quilting is all done by hand.

I got an old pattern from my sister in law for a double bed but I turned it into a King size. All appliqued and quilted by hand.

This is a scribble I made on a tiny piece of line paper when one morning I was sitting at my prayer table in my bedroom while I was doing a two-week review of my spiritual meditation and I saw the face of Jesus in the tree across the road. I looked up and down as I scribbled and when I was done I couldn't see it anymore no matter how hard I tried. I could see it very plainly. I could see a bit of the sky and some leaves and a branch that came down on top of his forehead.

A scrap of paper on my desk on which a coffee spill gave me a doodling idea. lol.

I hope that you enjoyed some of my art and didn't get too bored.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Hugs, Julia