My World Tuesday & Poppy Love

Hello dear friends,

I hope you are all doing well.

I've been fairly busy as usual as I'm helping build a house and picking out paints, looking at bathroom and kitchen cabinet design, water connections, electric connections and building flower boxes to set outside the kitchen window and gaze at flowers. It is a lot of work looking for design ideas and figuring out everything from scratch on a budget.

I am also busy trying to keep my little garden growing. It has been very hot for several days.

I found this guy in the bird bath on the hottest day so far. I don't know if he was trying to get cool or if he had fallen into the water from the tree above.

My garden soil is of mixed health.  There are parts where I need to water a lot because the soil doesn't hold the water for long.  This is the area where the vegetables are planted.

There are other areas where I've over watered and see I've drowned a few anenome plants that were not that hardy.  I also have a few seedlings I started a few weeks ago that need to go into the ground but I haven't had the time or energy to plant them. Maybe tomorrow.

My vegetables are doing fairly well.  But I've discovered there are lots of tiny holes my cabbage leaves.  Last night I looked up the problem on line and see the holes are made by cabbage loopers eating the leaves. But I haven't caught any of them in the act yet and I'm not quite sure what to do about it as I don't want to use any chemicals. I will have to do a bit more research.

The petunias I planted just the other day are starting to flower already and the geraniums are doing well too.  The pansies easily wilt under the hot sun and need some good watering and deadheading on a regular basis.

I've also been busy trying to get the blood glucose under control. I have been doing my very best for years and it doesn't seem to make much difference to my average blood sugar levels which are slowly rising. The doctor now has me on another drug and I'm cautiously optimistic that it is going to work.  I should have a better idea in a few weeks time.

I made a nice Greek dinner recently just for something different. I had a rack of lamb in the freezer that I had been saving and wanted to use it before it got too old. I didn't get a good photo of the lamb but didn't much like it anyway. I prefer lamb in a stew.

Greek Salad

Roasted Greek Potatoes (garlic and lemon)

Homemade Tzadziki (cucumber) sauce & toasted pita bread

It has been a long time since I did any crafting or extensive reading. I've been trying to do both but haven't gotten very far. Hopefully I can do more of both over the coming weeks. One book I'm reading is called London by Edward Rutherford. I am at about page 700 and have about 500 more pages to read.

I went to the eye doctor for my annual check up the other day. I was relieved to discover that my eye sight had not deteriorated even more. There is a new optometrist I was booked in with. She is a young and bright doctor and gave me some new contact lens to try. They are for presbyopia and can eliminate the  need for reading glasses on top of contact lens. I'm trying them for a month and have to see her again at the end of the week to see how things are going. I think the prescription still needs a bit of tweaking.

Well that is what is going on in my world this week. I'll be by to read about your week.

Joining in with Our World Tuesday this week and I Heart Macro.

Beautiful Pansies

Linking with i heart macro & 

Macro Monday 2 today.

For an update on BABY FIDELIS, please click here.

Thank you for stopping by!

Night Macro

Joining Macro Monday 2 and i heart macro

I snapped this on a late night run to the pharmacy. I have no idea what this is called. Does anyone know the name of this flower?

Humility in Yellow

I haven't taken any macro shots for a long time. I thought I better practice once more but it was a bit windy and I had no tripod. I got a few decent shots anyway.
(click on the photo for a slightly larger image).

I'm interested in the humble, happy dandelion right now because I'm drinking Dandelion Root Tea for it's medicinal properties. I'm not sure it will agree with me for the longer term as I seem to be having a few reactions but it is always good to try something new.

I thought the tea might help with my blood sugar levels but it is giving me stomachache and heartburn.

If you drink this tea please let me know what you've experienced.

If you missed my post about Baby Fidelis yesterday, please read and share the post widely. You can find it here 

 http://www.snapthatpenny.blogspot.ca/2015/04/saving-angel-fidelis.html

The more people who know of the baby's situation, the more people who can help. Thank you so much for your help!

Joining in with Macro Monday 2,  Nature Notes,   i heart macro and Mosaic Monday this week.

 

 

Anticipation

 

Anticipating the warmer temperatures ahead and beautiful gardens.

Linking up with Mosaic Monday
Today's Flowers
I Heart Macro 
Roses of Inspiration
and Our World Tuesday.

Pretty in Pink

pink and beautiful grace notes

 brighten my days but

 rains usher in the new month

I was very pleased to find these luscious flowers about 2 weeks ago. I took a few more floral photos which I will share another day during our gloomy winter months when I need a "pick me up".

I apologize to my blogging friends if you see me less these days.  Even if I don't leave as  many comments as I usually do I am still reading most of what you write or post.

I've been busily trying to catch up on my crochet-a-long but didn't have time to post an update last Thursday. I'll try to post a progress report and photos on Thursday.

I've also finished two of the books I borrowed from the library.  Reading borrowed books is the most frugal hobby one can have.

Of the two books I borrowed and read, I enjoyed Almost French best.  It is an engaging memoir of a young Aussie woman who ends up meeting a Frenchman on her travels around the world. He invites her to his country and they end up making a life together. The book highlights some of the cultural differences between France and Australia and the difficulties of making a new life in a new country.  I've read many such books and this one is one of the better ones.

The Tiger's Wife is set in an unnamed Balkan country. Although it starts off well I lost the story line along the way.  Perhaps I took it too literally while the author likely meant it to tell a few folk tales as told to her by her grandfather.  In my humble opinion I just don't think the two main folk stories in the book hold together well as one book. 

My little poem says that rains started the month of November. We had a bonus day today (Sunday) and I took advantage of it for a brief walk after church. I hope you are having some nice spots of weather too.

Well my friends that is what is happening in my corner of the world.  Come by and visit again soon :-)

Our World

Haiku My Heart

 

Work-in-Progress

 “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
~ Abraham Lincoln

My nephew's quilt is nearing completion

and that makes me happy.

This is a snuggle size quilt for one person.

I would like to make more time to work with my hands.

I find it relaxing.  But as I do it so seldom, I tend to do it to excess 

as I don't know when I might do it again.

I still have to quilt it and I haven't decided whether to do it by hand or by machine. 

I will only do a "light" quilting job so that the finished effect is more or less, reversible.  

This throw has has a nice loft making it extra cosy.

I'm joining up with  I Heart Macro for this post.

BREAKING NEWS:  In sad news, there was a terrorist attack on innocent citizens at an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya yesterday. See more here.  Please pray for the government and security to get the perpetrators and bring security for their citizenry and tourists.