First Spicebush Swallowtail this year

I was beginning to wonder if the butterflies were going to come this year.
These photographs of a Spicebush Swallowtail were taken Tuesday morning, this was the first Swallowtail I have seen in my yard this summer. He did not hang around long.

I did go ahead and make one of the photgraphs into one of my greeting cards.

Your can view more of my greeting cards at www.leedrasgreetingcards.blogspot.com
Any photograph on my blogs or on my website can be selected for any card I have.

More daylilies in bloom

Crimson Shadows

This one is a late season daylily, and is just getting started good.

Delicate Design

This one is getting it's second breath, and has a lot of new buds set.

Pink Playmate

?????

Aisha

Zarahemia

Will Return

These photographs were not taken this week,

but I do still have daylilies blooming, and wanted to share these with you.

Daylily-Old Fashioned Yellow with maroon center

I have already shown this daylily this summer,

but it just looks so good in the yard I wanted to show it again.

This is one of my un-named dayliles,

as I had it long before I started purchasing daylilies.

I think one of the reasons I like it is because each stem has so many blooms at one time.

Old Fashioned Surprise Lilies

Old Fashioned Surprise Lilies look like large leaf daffodils in early spring, but then they don't bloom. The greenery dies down and you kind of forget about them.

Then late summer they just shoot up these stems with such pretty blooms. No greenery at all. It is easy to forget about them, so if you are lucky enough to get any of these be sure and plant them in a flowerbed, or you might mow down the stem when it starts out of the ground.
They are just a little early this year. August is when I remember them blooming before.

I haven't been home much at all this past week. I did spend the night here on Thursday after getting off work at midnight. But then I was up early Friday to go keep Noah.

Then I went onto Rockwood from there (didn't have to work Friday evening),
to spend the night in Rockwood.

When Jimmy and pulled in the driveway today it seemed like
the surprise lilies were in every flowerbed.

This last one is the fullest, because it has been in the same place longer. These lilies don't like to be moved around much, and usually don't bloom the first year even though they do send up the greenery that year. Notice the 3 stems on this last one. The spotted leaves you see are Calla Lilies in the background. (Just in case there are inquiring minds.)

I got mine from John and Lindsey's first yard. I did share them at that time and have several friends that also get to enjoy these each year.

Grace the Cat

Grace the Cat

Grace is not crazy about the way "HER" house has changed.

She looks at me as if to say "Who are you? And why are you here?"

But more importantly, she wants to know when that baby is going to go away. Grace does not like it when Noah cries. Grace runs in the other direction.

I am going to keep Noah this morning while Wendy has an appointment. Guess Grace will just have to put up with me this morning. I will be spending all my time with Noah, so I won't be paying Grace anymore attention than she will be giving me. If you have not seen Noah lately, click here to see Wendy's blog with updated photos.

I am having trouble with blogs that are set to embedded for comments. I can not longer comment on these blogs, no matter which computer I am visiting from. I have seen others comment on this same issue. For some reason when setting up a blog in blogspot it automatically sets the comments to embedded, which is the worst one, so I am not sure why it does this. The other 2 options (half page or full page) don't seem to cause any problems. I have such problems with this that I have finally decided all I can do is to stop visiting blogs that are set this way. If you are set for embedded please consider changing to one of the others.

UT Gardens

I visited the gardens at University of Tennessee the last day of June. The gardens are part of the agriculture department, but open to the public.
Their coneflowers are prettier than mine.
The above photograph I have already put in one of my greeting cards.
My coneflowers have not done very well this year.

Beautiful dark hollyhock, I just could not get at the right angle with the sun.

But I think my favorite part was the sedum garden.

The sedum garden was built on a table top.

They also had one on the park bench, but the light angle at it was terrible,
so I am not even showing it.

I am sure the gardens are pretty anytime of year.

I need to remember to go in the spring next year.

Silver Spotted Skipper

Well, the White Cabbage Butterflies were first, then the skippers started.

Have seen a few other butterflies, but not many.

There are lots of different skippers in my yard,

but all of these photographs are the Silver Spotted Skipper.

Hope it wasn't too wet for them this spring, we sure had the rain.

I will still be out there trying to capture the butterflies that do come to my yard.

They all seem to like my zinnia patch, and it is larger this year than last year.

Mary at Faith, Fabric and Photos has a post of the Silver Spotted Skipper, she talks about the White Elephant. Can't really see it in my photos here, but you need to check out her post. I will keep a look out for this marking in the future.

Asiatic Lilies from spring 2009

Just some Asiatic Lily photos from earlier this spring.

These are Lollipop Asiatic Lilies. These have multipled so much that I have lots of these. They are at the edge of my largest daylily flowerbed and they bloom totally out about the time the daylilies are setting their buds real good. So the color is so welcome at that time.
The bottom one is Agrippa Asiatic Lily,
and it starts blooming a few days after the Lollipops begin.

Hand knit baby bags

Mason's sweater is the first sweater I have ever made. I have made shawls in the past, but never those sleeves and attaching. Whew! That is why I am going to class to make this sweater. I have learned so much already, but I am not ready to show Mason's Wallaby Sweater, so I thought I would show you some of my past knitting.

This one is my own design and with all designs there is a story behind it. When we learned we were expecting Mason, as all expectant grandmothers are, I was excited. I bought a little blue lamb with "The Lord is My Shepherd"stitched on the front. I also bought a little bag that said "Peep A Blue". Didn't have a clue what I was going to do with it. The baby showers came and went and I still had the little lamb with the "Peep A Blue" bag. So when the call came that Lindsey was headed to the hospital I took off with my little blue bag in hand. Very early they put the blue lamb in the bed with Mason, and it became part of his bedtime 'have to'. So I decided maybe I should buy a 2nd one. Just in case something happened to the first one, but I couldn't find another one, but I did find him a little blue bear with "Bless This Child" stitched on the front, by the same company, so they look like a match. Oh, and the little blue bag. It also stays in Mason's crib, they use it to keep extra pacifiers in. When he drops one out of his bed he doesn't cry, he just reaches in there and gets himself another pacifier.

About this same time we found out we were expecting Noah, so I had to find Noah's lamb and bear. No blue ones to be found but I did find a beige one of each. Well, if Mason had one of each then Noah was going to have one of each. And to hold down on confusion, beige wasn't a bad idea. I had already made one of Noah's baby blankets in a green variegated, regular yarn. So I just changed a little about the pattern and created a bag for his lamb. So far Noah hasn't taken to a pacifier, but I am sure he will find something to do with his bag. Noah's bag is shown at the top. And I was even able to stuff both the lamb and the bear in his bag when I took it to the hospital.

The lambs and bears were hard to find, so I went on line. Ended out with all 3 colors of the lamb and bear. Now what to do with a case of lambs and bears? Make bags for them. When I showed Noah's bag to friends it was suggested I make bags with the lambs or bears to sell. So what you see is the first bag I made to sell. It is so very soft. I started to say awesomely soft, but as Pastor Scott has pointed out to us the only thing in this life that is awesome is our Lord and Savior. I am breaking my habit of using awesome about things around us, but it is ultra soft. I had never used this yarn before, but I will in the future. I bought it to make preemie caps, so it had to be soft.

I joined Etsy about the time I finished this bag, and I found these great labels on Etsy from another crafter. If any of you knitters need labels for your knitting projects please check her out at http://www.rememberwynn.etsy.com/ . I contacted her and she made a sample of 3 different label designs for me and displayed them for me to choose. Can even choose the color of the labels you want. I had them within a week. If you do check her out, please be sure to tell her Leedra sent you. And of course, this bag is available on Etsy at http://www.leedrasheirloomgoods.etsy.com/

The preemie caps are a challenge between our yarn store and a yarn store in Alabama. The challenge ends in October when the University of Tennessee plays the Crimson Tide. Naturally the winner is the yarn store with the most preemie caps. The pattern is extra easy, and I will show them before I turn them in. So far I have only made 5, so I am not in the running for the most made. The caps will then be given to the local hospitals, here and in Alabama.