Lisa Kay Knits... and Quilts!

When tomatoes tell lies. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Hummingbird Festival at Lewis and Clark Memorial. It was on my mom's 70th birthday. The Lincoln Land Association of Bird Banders catches and bands (or records previously-banded) hummingbirds. Visitors can adopt a bird and then get to release it. Vernon Kleen (below) is one of three people in IL licensed to catch hummingbirds. Once a person adopts a bird, they receive a note whenever the bird is later caught again. I learned some things in the presentation before the banding began. Did you know: 1) There is mainly one type of hummingbird in Illinois, the Ruby Throated Hummingbird . There is another that is seen occasionally, the Rufous Hummingbird , and a few others that are seen only very rarely. 2) Hummingbirds arrive around April 15 and depart again around August 15. 3) It is OK to leave feeders out well past August 15, even past Thanksgiving, giving the best opportunity to see other species. Birds will come to feeders even w...

Four ounces of Southern Cross Fibre "Tempest" on SW BFL/Silk: Notice the not-so-innocent by-stander in the lower right of the frame. Chris has been bemoaning the voracious bunnies all spring. They just decapitated his last stalk of corn, yesterday. We saw an adult and three of these little guys taking dust baths out here a couple days ago. As Chris said, "We're completely infested." I said, "What's not to love? We have a smorgasbord and a private bath." Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Chris has been diligently planting vegetables... My goodness, he's been busy. I'm sure I'll be able to tease him with a recurring line in Avatar: The Last Airbender ... "My cabbages!" Meanwhile, I have done little or no gardening this spring, but I've been enjoying the faithful return of my perennials! Yellow: Hollyhocks; purple: Clematis. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

We have a garden visitor, taking up residence on the outside of the garage window. While it resembles what we called, "banana spiders" when I lived on Guam, it seems to be a rather common yellow garden spider , in a group called argiope . Anyway, we were all in a flutter, here, over her presence. Whole window pane and bricks give sense of scale... She is outside the window, inside the web One the move Sitting outside the web and window, facing the sun As far as garden visitors go, I think I prefer Mitsy. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I happened to glance out the front window on my way down the hall, just before bedtime last night, and I noticed that there was a suspiciously amphibian-shaped silouette on the top of the arch. On closer inspection, it was a froggy visitor, hanging out, eating bugs. Go for it, buddy! I wanted to get a picture, though I wasn't sure it would turn out usable. Mitchell was highly amused, and he wanted to be held up to see the frog. Never mind that we were in various states of dress, in the front window of the house. :) Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Hi, My sunflowers are blooming. I planted seeds along the edge of the porch in early spring. In the last two pictures (better in the next-to-last), note the you can see the moon. These two were taken in the early morning, looking south. The sunflower is facing east-northeast. They don't seem to track the sun all through the day like they're supposed to do (I've heard). Maybe they're moonflowers. Happy Knitting, Lisa kay

Hi, I really like seeing things grow, especially flowering things... even more so if I planted them. There's just something rewarding about perenials, paying off their bounty year after year. These daylilies went into the beds around my front porch in 2001. I blogged about them a couple of years ago, here and here . The yellow ones came in large flats of little pots from Wal-Mart in the spring. The orange ones were mark-downs at Lowes in the fall, when they were clearing things out, and they were one of the last plantings I did that first summer. Perhaps it is time to "divide" them, after this tenth summer, but they don't seem to be suffering... By the way, in reference to the previous links, above, the swallows have come back each year. They are nesting there, now, and I can see the adult swallows taking food to the babies. They are still small enough that they hide in the nest when I come around. I tried to get a picture, yesterday, but they hunkered down. I...

Hi, We had a great Mother's Day. We had Sunday dinner, as usual. It was gorgeous but cool weather all weekend, and I have been getting some gardening done. Here are some foxgloves I planted last week. I may have to cut back the flower stalks, as they are starting to lay over, and I think it will help the plant get established if it isn't using all it's energy to make seeds... I seem to have read that somewhere. I can't remember. Anyway, I haven't cut them yet, because they are just so pretty! Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Hi, We had storms in the area, today, and we sat with the news on for a little over an hour, watching the tornado warnings and damage reports. They never got very close to us, but we had a lot of rain. When most of the systems were past, we went out to dinner. It was still raining, with the storms on one side and sun on the other... and I got some rainbow pictures. I "stitched" these together. It was actually a double-rainbow. You can see a little of the outer ring on the left of the picture. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Hi, Mitchell likes to run next door whenever we get home, and peek into the fish pond. Lately, the dogs have been yipping it up whenever he goes over there, causing Mitchell to look suspiciously into the house as if the dogs would burst out into the yard at any second. Mitchell likes dogs, but he's understandably cautious of big ones. Sometimes, their barking has him heading back home without even looking at the fish. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Hi, I posted " Favorite Things - Flowering Trees ," while my crabapple trees were just budding out. Here they are, in full bloom. These are the "Prairie Fire" variety, a gorgeous deep pink bloom. I saw some of them at the Missouri Botanical Gardens , and I looked for that variety, in particular. My mom and I planted five of these around the perimeter of the yard, in 2001. They were little saplings at that time. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Hi, Mitchell and I planted some seedlings a couple of weeks ago. I thought he would appreciate the magic of the little sprouts appearing. Now, we're starting to put them in the yard. Here are the hollyhocks. We also have sunflowers, tomatoes, aubretia, and lupins. We're having some attrition issues during planting, so we may have to supplement from the nursery. Like knitting, it seems to have been more about process than product. Happy Knitting! Lisa Kay

Hi, Last week, we saw the Easter Bunny at the mall. Mitchell sat impatiently on his lap for a picture and told him he wanted candy for Easter. He thought it was sort of like telling Santa Claus what you want for Christmas. Well, we try to minimize the candy. The basket that came from the "Easter Bunny" did have some candy, but also a few toys. There were also some "Noah's Ark" eggs (shaped like animals), which Mitchell enjoyed hunting, first thing this morning. We are very blessed. Happy Easter, Lisa Kay

Hi, With the Spring weather we've been having, the flowering trees are really putting on a show. Here is one on the street behind Troy Foods, where I happened to be picking up some chicken for dinner. I drove around the block to take a picture of this magnolia. There is another variety of magnolia on my way home, over by the fire station in town. You can see the ambulance that is usually parked beside it. The Dierberg's in Shiloh has a row of pink trees. I'm not sure what they are, but perhaps crab apples. The purple leafed plum in my own yard is about at its peak, too, and had a lot of bees pollinating it. The crab apples in my yard aren't flowering yet. They are full of buds, though. Did you know that trees that flower before they grow leaves in the Spring are called, "precocious?" Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Hi, It got up to 54° F, today, and Mitchell and I were singing a song from the " Little Bill " TV show: Spring is here! Spring is here! It's the best time of the year! While Mitchell napped, I took my camera outside to try to find some signs of Spring. The purple-leafed plum tree is budded out. The lamb's ears are growing new leaves (some of which are a bit frost bitten, already. Go figure.) And we're supposed to get more freezing rain and snow over the next few days. It was a gorgeous day, today, though! And I got an email from the local custard shop, Bobby's , saying they are opening for the season next Friday. That seems early. But then, they only closed in November... Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Hi, Chris went out to mow today and found a turtle hunkered down in the middle of the yard, dug in. It seemed very strange. He came in and got me and Mitchell to go see it (her). It seemed like maybe she was laying eggs. Hmmm. She just sat there until we backed up, and then she rambled off across the yard. I took a look at the hole, and I was amazed how deep it seemed to be. I couldn't see any eggs in there. Either I interrupted the process, or they are really deep down... or maybe I just don't understand what was going on. As she powered off across the neighbor's yard, she kept looking back at us. I felt bad for bothering her. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay