Sewing & Gardening...& Getting Scolded by a Robin

I got brave and asked Durwood to take a picture of me in my new dress and leggings so I could put it on Instagram and now I'm being even braver and putting it on here.  I think I look good it in but I think I also look older than I feel.  But I'm a grownup and I want to show you the modeled version of the clothes.  Also to prove that I did indeed sew the leggings, here they are getting hemmed.  All those years of making 2 swimsuits for every family member (back in the days when we had a pool in the backyard) have cured me of any trepidation sewing with knits on the sewing machine or serger.  (If you're ever putting elastic on my best advice is to stretch the garment and elastic pretty strongly in front of and behind the needle so that your stitches don't snap when the garment is stretched.)

The garden's looking very mid-summery, don't you think?  The weeds are flourishing around the edges and poking up through the landscape fabric (I don't know, those sprouts must be like daggers...) and there's tomatoes to be picked.  I like when the tomatoes are on the right side of the plants because that means I have to walk through the mint to get them and it smells great.  (I confess, I ate 2 cherry tomatoes on the walk into the house and I predict one tomato will be appearing in my lunch as soon as this is posted.)








I noticed that a woody vine had attached itself to the vanes of the air conditioner on the side of the house so I went around to pull it off.  As I bent down I heard a robin start chirping and scolding from close above my head.  I turned around and there she was on the wire with the feathers on her head puffed up.  I thought, ah, she's got a nest nearby and when I turned around and glanced into the branches of the forsythia look what I found.  I didn't hear any peeping but I'll be there're eggs in there.




I couldn't resist showing you this Stargazer Lily plant.  Doesn't it look like a coronet of flowers?  I'm really tempted to pick them but I hate picking flowers and making them die.  I'll just loiter around that part of the backyard to enjoy their beauty and fragrance.

I tried to write last night and was singularly uninspired so this is all you get.  It's Monday, what can I say?
--Barbara