So much to chat about today! Get yourself a cuppa, and settle in for a long and picture heavy post. July brings more flowers to the garden, with the apricot gladiolas bursting into bloom this week. I must have two dozen spires with these soft orange flowers dotting the hill behind our home going up the mountain.
They are just beautiful. Each spire has 8 buds, some fully open, some yet to come.
They always bloom at the same time as the hostas. Sometimes I cut some of both for a vase inside. The purple and orange blossoms go well together. I’ve seen the hummingbirds around them several times but I have not been fast enough this year with the camera to get a photo them.
I haven’t cut any yet, as I was surprised earlier in the week by My Sweet Babboo with roses. These are gorgeous, and they have such a sweet fragrance!
Yes, he is definitely a keeper. He knows I love the white ones, and these white with just a bit of blush at the petal edges are exquisite. The flowers are just barely opening, and should last for a couple of weeks.
Another week of summer passes by, and the wildlife continues to visit. This group of three deer came by early in the morning one day this past week. I love seeing them in the meadow grazing. Some noise down the road caught their attention so I could sneak out onto the veranda to take a photo.
This young buck’s antlers are staring to show nicely, still covered in velvet. The zoom lens on my camera gets a close look.
After a few minutes, they casually strolled across the driveway, and into the woods.
Yesterday, we went on a drive with one of our car clubs. I know you all love seeing the pastoral scenes and old barns as much as I do. This route took us along more narrow roads around the hills.
It was a challenge to get some good photos, as the best scenes came up suddenly, and sometimes the camera couldn’t focus in time.
Everything is so green! All over the mountains and valleys, green as green can be. Fields of crops are getting taller.
Around the next bend, the kind of sign the guys love to see.
Then coming down again, around another curve, another old barn is right next to the road.
Reaching our destination, a member’s residence called Hemlock Farm, we had a chance to admire his car collection and the horses he has. Some are retired thoroughbred racing horses.
Zooming in a bit closer, they are just beautiful. We enjoyed seeing his property, then we were treated to a fabulous lunch of barbecue sliders, sides and scrumptious desserts. I didn’t get any pictures of the food, and didn’t realize it until I got home.
Up near the house, we could admire the garden. Her little fox statue is cute, isn’t it! It almost made me do a double take, was he real?
I had no idea that echinaceas (or coneflowers) came in so many colors! There were at least six different colors.
Even a vibrant yellow and red!
Back home again, Jasper came for his daily sandwich.
This time a buddy was with him, so they both were fed.
The birds are well fed around here too. A cardinal shares the bounty with goldfinches, all so bright in color. I saw the cardinal later feeding tasty morsels to a female. We may have a second brood on the way. The bluebirds made their second nest somewhere else, the house remains empty for now. The wrens found a spot for their nest somewhere else. I’ve seen them on the ground below the feeder getting food, but they are staying off the veranda for now. Hallelujah.
Today will be a hand sewing day, as I work on putting sleeves on two quilts that I plan to enter in the fair competition. Quadrille was washed and all the marks are gone. I’ll show you more on that this week. See my post on how to sew a Temporary Hanging Sleeve if you are planning to enter a quilt in competition. Oh, My Strippy Stars is getting one, too.
One tip, I always sew down the end next to the quilt so the hanging pipe is sure to go inside the sleeve, and not against the quilt back. Push up on the bottom seam about a quarter inch so the sleeve has some room to go around the hanging pipe. This will allow the quilt to hang straight and flat.
I made progress on the Christmas wall hanging to show you later in the month during a Christmas in July blog hop on Sarah’s blog Confessions of A Fabric Addict. I also made some progress on the Japanese prints project that I’ll show you this coming week. I’m doing a shop hop on Friday, and hoping to find a couple of specific things, so I need to get busy on projects finished to cover any fabric purchases, LOL!! We’ll see! I’ll leave you with one more shot of the gorgeous gladiolas.
Last weekend, I did a Zoom sew day for a few hours, and it got me thinking about Autumn Jubilee. I need to get busy on that, too! Plus I am making progress on learning how to use a new embroidery program and downloaded designs I just got. Lots to learn this week! So many irons in the fire!
What are your plans for the week?
From My Carolina Home 
I will have almost no flowers this summer as the deer came through and ate all the day lily buds, then came back for the hosta flowers which had just opened, all the buds on the Autumn Joy sedum, and for dessert they ate the flowers on the Yucca (which they have never touched before). I’m tired of fighting them (even the repllent didn’t work this year), so I will begin removing gardens in the fall and stick to pots on my porch and deck. I’m sad, but I’m getting too old for all the physical work involved and if there are no flowers to see, what is the point?
I love the apricot gladiolus. My mom buys them at farmers markets because they are one of her favorites but she has never been able to get them to grow in her yard. They always remind me of summer.
This week I am trying to plan out my projects for the next few months. I found out over 4th of July weekend that we are getting 3 new babies entering our family (my husbands cousins are each having their first). So adding 3 new quilts to the mix along with finishing some UFOs is in my future.
Your glads are beautiful, they remind me of my mom! I enjoyed your beautiful scenery too. 😊 I have been sewing this week, a top for me which hit a snag to be solved today, and some blocks for my long defunct Alaska quilt. I had to take the first one apart because I did the colors wrong, but I hope to have two completed this afternoon and two rows sewn together. We did a lot of weeding yesterday, and will need to do some more this evening. With June being so messy and so much rain, the weeds have really gotten away from us, but I think we can regain the upper hand if we keep after it this week.
What a wonderful time you have had. I loved following you on your ride — such beautiful territory! And those deer are so lovely. Beautiful shot of the young buck with his furry antlers. The color of those gladiolas (right?) is beautiful. They’re a lovely bloom — they remind me of those on my grandma’s farm when I was a kid!
Always enjoy your Sunday morning chat. We’re in your neck of the woods this week… visiting the last day of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, then heading to the Waynesville area to visit family. My Mom passed away on June 10th, and my sister and I are spreading her ashes in the GSM National Park early in the week. We’ve visited them every year since they moved from Texas on 9-11-2001. (Obvious significant date….) NC is a beautiful state and we thoroughly enjoy our yearly trips from PA. Blessings!!
Love the pretty color of your glads. I have several fixing to pop out but as they are new it will be a surprise what color shows up.
your flowers are so pretty as are the ones at the end of the post! Love all the wildlife you have
Your photos are wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for posting such beautiful pictures of flowers and wildlife!
Always fun to see what’s blooming at your place and all the wildlife, too! We thought we had a house sparrow pair nesting in one of our birdhouses, but they abandoned it, we think after the really heavy rainstorms we had on the 4th of July. It would have been fun to watch them raise a brood! Beautiful drive you went on, too – sounded like a fun day.
The last barn looks like it was built like patchwork.
Your photos are exceptional. Love the one of the young buck. Told a few friends about your amazing tomato pie. So hopefully they visited you blog.
Would love to see another needle case on the fall Jubilee. I use the wool one daily. Thanks for your wonder filled blog..
Beautiful photos & yes, that squiggly road sign is always fun to see. Great photos of the deer, that teenage guy sure was proud of his antlers! I’ll be getting my blue & white Quadrille put together, ready for the final instructions. How can it almost a third of the way through July already? I feel like Rip VanWinkle, convinced I feel asleep somewhere in there and missed a few months.
The glads are such a beautiful color! And the roses are too, swoon! Your road trip was lovely with all the lush greens and rustic barns. Great deer and squirrel captures~ have a great week Carole!
I love your photos, both the wildlife and the flowers. I’m working on binding Scrap Dance Two Step which I machine quilted last week. I’ve got the binding stitched down one side, just need to join the tails and roll it to the front for machine stitching. The label is designed on the computer and waiting for me to stitch out as well.
Always inspired after your Sunday chats to get out in my garden! Have a beautiful week in your country paradise 🙂 Sharon
Beautiful photos! There was a pair of goldfinch on our feeder this morning and just now a quail family scurried across the backyard, papa leading a line of fluff balls followed by mama quail. Love them!
This week I’ll be trying, once again, to get the hang of free motion quilting on my sewing machine, and hope to learn how to make a zipper pouch too. I think the last time I put in a zipper was 30 years ago. LOL!
You had a wonderful drive with your car club buddies, ending up at that lovely property. Old barns are certainly very attractive buildings, aren’t they. I always enjoy seeing your garden and the wildlife.
Love the Deer “fuzz” antlers!!!!! Of course the flowers ae amazing, I wish you could give my flowers a “pep talk”. And I always feel like I’ve had a vacation after “driving” with you – that barn wood design is awesome! Our deer seem to have moved – haven’t seen them in weeks. And thanks for the tute about the quilt sleeve – yes I went back to 2015 to read it.
Carole, this is a great post. I love seeing your travels, especially old barns! The gladiolas are beautiful! Wishing you a wonderful week!
The photos of the flowers, wildlife and your ride are so pretty. I really enjoy our jaunts into the countryside, seeing all the old farmhouses and barns. I look forward to your Christmas in July post.
Oh thankyou for sharing…….. Those corn flowers are beautiful…… The countryside so lush and pretty…….
This week I’m learning how to assess training……. Hmmmm sewing would be more fun……….
Hi Carole, your flowers are quite pretty & I didn’t know there was apricot gladiolus! I so enjoy all your pics, so don’t ever stop! I still have my shiner on my knee but no pain now so that’s good! Our last storm packed a wallop w/75 mph winds! We are due to get severe storms this Wednesday. I have been repairing damage from last storm & am preparing ahead for this next storm by adding more stakes to vulnerable plants ( such as my beautiful sky blue Delphinium) & tieing them up w/fabric strips. Also added a small birdbath on the patio I found under a pile of nothingness in the shed. Have been harvesting a lot of tomatoes & basil & chives. Waiting on the peppers to change color & for some to get bigger, but have lots! Cucumbers doing well too. Waiting on green bean plants to get bigger next. Finally found some papers I was looking for to start on making a junk journal for a friends birthday @ the end of this month. That will keep me busy for the rest of July, so got my work cut out for me!
I just coordinating our annual art show with my husband by the Finger Lakes in NY. We are ready for a break. Maybe I can get back to sewing!
Always love the pics from your drives……
Lots of pretty flowers and cute creature