Mid March Garden Party

Hello Gentle Readers. I'm so glad you are here. Monday and Tuesday were lovely warm Spring days. My husband and I cleaned several windows streaked with dust from last Friday's hail and thunderstorm. As I write snow falls, the wind whistles around the front door, and the lamp has flickered a few times. Out the window, I can see eight small birds, four of them red house finches, clinging to a tree branch. They are strong to withstand wind blowing like a banshee in a blizzard.

  Today is the day to link with Kat and the Unravelers to post about making and reading. Last summer I appliquéd seven Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks to muslin blocks. I embroidered a watering can on a square and appliquéd a butterfly on another in order to have nine blocks. I made sashing from scraps but decided against a border from more scraps. Now days I make do with what I have and have no qualms about bending quilting rules. I basted the quilt layers together and have begun to hand quilt the piece. 

I made good progress on the Garden Sprinkle socks, completing the cuff/leg, heel turn, and gusset. I am enjoying the stitch pattern and the yarn. I took this photo yesterday in the sunshine.

I'm listening to The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Liang read by the author.  As Liang sets about restoring a large country garden in England during the Pandemic, she explores gardens in literature and within the political framework of her country and even the world. I am not to the halfway point, but I learned more about the Garden of Eden in Paradise Lost and the author John Milton. I'm pretty sure I got through Paradise Lost in college by using Cliff's Notes. Parallels in history between Milton's time and ours are uncanny. Although Liang enjoys gardening, she is very aware of "the web of exploitation" that created large gardens in England. I had this book on my reading list and then happened upon it while browsing Hoopla. It's an interesting companion to this next book.  

Purely by coincidence, I'm reading The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly, historical fiction in three timelines. I picked up my used copy one evening when I couldn't sleep. Women in all three time periods are connected to the garden for various reasons. The present day woman gardener has a business of creating and restoring gardens. This is an average readable novel with some beautiful descriptions of a garden over time.  

Picking the blooming daffodils was a good decision. Even though we have a white-out conditions today, the Spring Equinox is a few days away and with it more sunshine.  Stay strong my friends.