More things have been blooming around our home, and a few have come and gone. It is enchanting that we have lady slippers, as they are so difficult to grow. I was thrilled a few years ago when one turned into two. Each year I marvel at the unusual flower that grows where the fairies touch the ground.
In previous years, the flowers have faced the same way. This year, they faced away from each other.
Then, the real surprise, a third one! I am delighted! I got out this week and dug the hostas out, so they won’t disturb the delicate balance these lovelies need to thrive. I am hopeful for more to establish in the coming years. There are more weeds I need to pull, and I’ll get to those a little at a time.
In the kitchen, my next attempt at a coffee cake for the state fair competition was a failure. Although it tasted great, the topping sank into the batter, and the batter came up over the top. It was a mess. But I think I know how to fix it, and will try again soon. Of course, My Sweet Babboo got to eat this for breakfast.
In the sewing room, I worked on the red and white quilt, doing a Geisha pantograph in white thread.
I cut strips from the leftover backing, and applied the binding to the edge by machine.
Here is the quilt, it is 48-inches square. I’ll have it for sale at the Garden of Quilts show coming next Friday and Saturday, May 20-21. Proceeds from the sale will go to our next Safelight project.
These burgundy iris blooms were spectacular. There were a dozen in bloom all at once.
They have since died away, but they were gorgeous while they lasted.
The mountain laurel is blooming now. These pretty white flowers with streaks of red in the centers bloom in clusters.
We had a fun day Saturday at a car show in Brevard. Over 200 cars, driving in from all over the region converged on the downtown area. We made three rows of cars covering about eight blocks! The rain held off until lunchtime, so we had a lovely morning walking around, looking at all the shiny vehicles, talking with friends and catching up with folks we haven’t seen in a while.
Brevard is nestled into a mountain valley, with charming old buildings, lots of fun shops and mountains in the distance. Tree lined streets made for shady walking as the sun got a bit warm.
I am still trying to get a nice photo of a bird in its natural environment. While I was doing some counts for the Feeder Watch project, I saw this cardinal pause in a sunlit tree. I couldn’t get the focusing just right, plus he is a bit backlit. So, not a contest entry. But he is pretty nevertheless.
A blue jay stopped by, but he wouldn’t pose nicely for me. He looks a bit grim, doesn’t he?
Ah well. I needed to clean out the refrigerator of several things, not enough to make a meal. So, an Anything Quiche was on the menu. The recipe link is for one without a crust, but this time I used a premade one. This one was the last of the ham, cheddar cheese, portobello mushrooms, broccoli and vidalia onion. Delicious!
We’ve been enjoying two shows on Netflix this week. The Lincoln Lawyer is a bit different from the movie version, but follows the books nicely. The writing and acting is good, and it rated well on IMDB. Anatomy of a Scandal is pretty good, too! Michelle Dockery is a prosecutor in London in a well written drama with a twist.
What’s cooking or growing at your place? Watching anything new and interesting?
Psst – Fat Quarter Shop is having a Spring Cleaning Sale and don’t forget the daily Flash Sale.
From My Carolina Home 
Your coffee cake experiments are a great way to fatten him up!! Nice seeing you yesterday…..
We went hiking in Shenandoah National Park last week and we’re treated to a siting of two yellow lady slippers hiding among the trillium. What a treat. My husband ended up sharing his “find” with other hikers who were there for the Wildflower Festival.
Your coffee cake looks like some of the recipes I’ve made. Maybe you’ve created a new method? This past week I had a set of twin’s quilts to finish. Waiting for my daughter to send pics of her friend’s new babes.
Love the bird pictures and the lady slippers too! Too bad the Cardinal one didn’t come out as I love the red with the green backdrop. Our tulips and hyacinths are going strong here in Minnesota with everything else in our garden coming up nicely.
It’s trillium time here and we hope to go for a trillium hike later this week. Those lady’s slippers are gorgeous! We have been spending the last few days getting our gardens and yard shaped up for the summer. patio and porch pots are on the list for today. We have a robin’s nest in our backyard and the three hungry babies are keeping their parents busy!
Acorn tv is great with their murder mysteries. Currently watching Foyle’s War.
I love your bird pictures! Your quiche looks good. I’ll have to try it. I’ve watched Anatomy of a Scandal and loved it. I haven’t watched the other yet. Hugs,
I love finding lady’s slippers in the Adirondack woods. Rare in my region. And protected. Nice that you are giving them room to spread. The ones I see do not spread or even come back yearly.
I like the cardinal photo. And I make a similar ” empty the fridge” crustless quiche. I sometimes add some baking mix for lift.
Sunday is for planting flowers outdoors today. I planted tomatoes, eggplants and peppers yesterday. Glad for overnight rain.
My iris are just budding. Your posts are about a month ahead of my outdoors. Pink, light purple, and dark purple lilacs in full bloom. All 3 bleeding hearts plants survived the winter.
The coffee cake would make a delicious breakfast. Wow, the lady slippers are amazing as are the irises. Mountain laurel is always breathtaking. We have visited Brevard, lovely town!
Love all of your wonderful pictures!
Don’t know if I had mentioned this show before, but Outer Banks, on Netflix, is really good….two seasons, with a third predicted to start late this year.
Your Anything Quiche looks amazing!!
Looks like your blue jay is anticipating the upcoming molting season, they look so funny without their top feathers. Some plain or vanilla yogurt on top of the coffee cake would a mighty good breakfast. We had 10 sunny days without rain in a row & after a brief thunderstorm last evening it’s sunny again. So the flowering shrubs & trees and flowers in general have all come on strong. Our Festival of Quilts is next weekend, same as yours. I’ll be working set up this week.
I would love to be your neighbor to help taste test those apple coffee cakes! I made a chocolate chip, sour cream coffee cake from the Smitten Kitchen last week and it’s keeper for sure. And I’ve been watching the Julia Child series on HBO Max about how the first season of The French Chef came into being. It’s excellently done and I’m enjoying it a lot.
You have such beautiful flowers in your neck of the woods, and such a variety of birds and critters. Where I live in northern New Mexico, all our plants are either on drip or in pots, or…in our new Vego Garden waist high raised beds, due to our climate and intense sun at 7200 feet. We get fewer birds here because our habitat doesn’t support a large number of birds.
We bought three good sized Vego waist high raised beds and filled the bottom 2/3rds with wood pallets, large tree limbs, cardboard and pine needles. My 72 year old husband carried in on his shoulders, about 60 bags of topsoil and deodorized manure for the tops. One bed is now planted in strawberries, one is reserved for herbs, carrots and flowers…in the Fall I hope to plant lettuces and broccoli in that one, once the carrots and flowers have had their day. And the largest one has tomatoes, red and bell peppers, green and yellow squash from seed, will cull the squash to one plant of each, and I’ve sowed 2 lines of green beans and have space to start another batch in a couple of weeks. These are staple vegetables for us.
My David Austin roses are thriving in their pots and about to put forth their first blooms of the year. I have 4 pots of Alexandria of Kent roses, one Lava red rose, a pot with a Doris Day yellow rose and I had an extra large pot to fill this year so we bought a hot pink Iceberg floribunda as it will go well with the David Austin deep pink roses. I have one mystery rose as well. I’ve never figured out what it is. We also planted Wave petunias in two pots on the top tier of our back yard and in two pots in front of my studio window, two coleus and one polka dot plant in the pots on the shady side of the fence on our patio…we do this every year and they grow large and lush in that location. We also planted pink zonal geraniums in my old red clay pots…I have always done red but my husband loved the pinks so I relented this year, and finally, we have planted vincas in all the other pots. On top of that, my husband bought a boatload of perennial plants from our Master Gardener’s plant sale and is re-doing the area against the fence in front of our courtyard in the front of the house. Those will be on drip also. All the numerous perennials planted in our yards last year when they were re-done, are doing spectacularly well, except for the ones our dog chose as his special “marking” plants. We have since replaced those with plants in pots and have run drip to them.
Whew! As for birds, I had to stop feeding them after our yards were re-done because it attracted the crows who sat in the trees and made a mess on our patio. However, I do have a hummingbird feeder for the hummers. A birdbath, and a dish of water out for the lizards. We also have natural rock water features in the front and back for the critters, but only turn them on when we’re in the yard. We do get to listen to two raucous Raven fledglings in our next door neighbor’s tree, and hear the huge whoosh of their parents’ wings as they fly by to take turns feeding and protecting their young…one flies in with food and the other flies out to hunt for more food. They have also scared the crows away. Yay!
Such a long entry, yikes! it’s hard to grow plants well and water-wisely in our arid lands, but pots and drip irrigation work well and that gives us beauty in our yards. We are fortunate to have a large Ponderosa Pine tree and a large Spruce tree in the back yard and another Ponderosa Pine in the front, shading the house and parts of our yards against our strong sun in the summer. They do take water but they’ve been here for almost 50 years and are still going strong.
We are having the worst wildfires in years in our state this year. The big ones were set by prescribed burns which makes it doubly sad. Lot of brave firefighters from all over, trying to bring them under control. We can’t appreciate them enough.
What a lovely Sunday chat this morning. Those Lady Slippers are amazing. I don’t recall ever seeing anything like it (outside of photos) before. Your garden looks so lovely and your cooking looks yummy too! Looking like May is going to be a wonderful month to breath deeply and enjoy!
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a lady’s slipper, perhaps they don’t grow around here. Very interesting looking. No wonder your excited about having a 3rd one. My purple Iris have just started blooming in the last couple of days, so I’ll be able to enjoy them awhile. You’re blooming season must be a bit ahead of mine. Gorgeous red Iris…haven’t ever seen the color. The quilt is so pretty. Your Cardinal picture is fantastic!
I have irises same color combo as yours
I’m so jealous of your wild lady slippers. Although several neighbors have them, I never have ☹️ I do enjoy my jack-in-the-pulpit sildflowers
The wild lady slippers are a pleasing site. I am sure your husband is loving your experiments….I would! Not much sewing here, and I’m waiting for the lilacs to bloom. Since my ankle has me laid up, I don’t think our irises are up yet….but I will have husband take a picture of the side gardens to see what is blooming! Hope to get back to sewing in mid-June…miss it terribly.
I’ve never seen those flowers…… Pretty….. Love the bird pics…. Glad you got the quilt finished it does look good…..
The car display settings huge…… Always lovely to catch up with friends…..
Those iris are fabulous — a favorite flower of mine. And adore that red and white quilt. I’m thinking that your Sweet Babboo is the real winner in all this recipe testing. I know it has to look good for competition but the flavor is everything! Have a terrific week, Carole!
PS — three cheers on the Lady’s Slippers! Fabulous!
The quiche sounds delish!!!!!! And your iris are soooo pretty! I don’t get enough sun in my beds anymore for them. Hope to get to your quilt show this weekend!!!!