Mishaps, Madness, and Mystery...

Only four more days until Spring's official arrival! Yesterday it was just lovely outside so I began the yearly chore of cleaning out the garden beds. This task usually takes days but I do enjoy all of it: discovering the pink tips of the peonies surfacing above the damp earth, the smell of the dried catmint and lavender and the wee cabbage-looking sprouts that surface for the sedum. My french weeping pussywillow has little furballs for Helena and I to pet. It is all wonderful!

Last year while doing this, some debris I was clearing hit me in the face and scratched my cornea. This year, while lugging a pail of leaves and dead branches to the composter, I stumbled on the root of a tree, fell and sprained my ankle. This is all part of the sacrifices of gardening and I am just grateful my ankle isn't broken.

I haven't posted for a few days because of my other project. I was hoping that when DH goes back on the road, the sewing room would be cleaned and reorganized. Before my husband's accident, I used to take about three days each spring to refold my fabric. I have lots of fabric that people have given to me that has faded in the creases. Refolding helps prevent this and it was a relaxing way to initiate spring cleaning.

I haven't done the annual refolding in the past few years since DH's accident and this spring seemed like a perfect time to donate what I didn't need/want and rediscover what had been forgotten.

I am one of those quilters who is guilty of saving "good fabric" that I like. It is madness--I love 1930s reproduction fabrics and have a nice stash--but only used it to make one small table topper. Ridiculous!!!

Still think this isn't madness? How about these fabrics that I have had since the 1980s when Linda and I used to sew together. I just never used the fabrics because I loved them at the time. I think 20 + years is enough. Time to pass some of these babies along (okay maybe the pink rose one, the smaller print one I might keep for another 20 years).

I found a visitor while cleaning the garden yesterday. I'm not sure how he ended up in the lavender but he was worth a chuckle when I found him. Most likely he ended up there after taking a trip off my neighbor's porch (4 kids, 3 of which are boys). He's not exactly what I would consider a garden fairy but we have to take what we get. I'll call him O'Brien since it is so close to St. Patrick's Day.