Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Autumn has arrived ... I think


When we first moved back to the Nerima home, I brought with me some spider lily bulbs moved from former gardens.
At that time there was little space in our over-grown flower bed and some of those bulbs I planted in a neighbouring weed bed.  Each year they increase and get more showy.

This is how they looked yesterday at 6:30 am on my way to school.

After a summer of very hot sauna weather, it suddenly became cooler.
Monday night I pulled out a quilt to sleep under after a summer of either nothing or a thin gauzy wrap.

Tuesday evening I added a light down comforter.

I can't believe the sudden change. It is in keeping with the spider lilies that sneak up before the leaves and then pop open shouting "Surprise"!

Though the pink ones have had their day and faded, the red ones among the azalea bushes on the east side of the house are showing their best features.

This is a very narrow space for a garden between the street and our pink house shown behind.

Though I bemoan the lack of garden space, I find it amazing how much can be crammed into what I do have.

This month has been rain, rain, and more rain.

The garden is happier than it has ever been but I am getting a bit tired of toting umbrellas with me whenever I go out and wet feet. (My boots caused blisters in my ankles the first time out and when I tried zori, I ended up with blisters where the thongs rubbed when wet. Now my shoes are waiting for a sunny day to be hung on the gate to dry.

This week I finished the inner border on the nine-patch.

I have a little in-the-ditch quilting to go before I experiment with marking the blue flowered border.

The border is about five inches wide and I am thinking of a lattice-style cable which should be easy to draft and place, lined up with the outer nine-patches.

As a plan "B" I might be able to mark it on the back and quilt from the reverse side.

I have a few other projects nagging me from the sidelines but, though there is no rush to get this quilt done, I really don't like to have too many things going at once. The rest of my life is rather like running in all directions at once so I prefer to keep my home projects a bit more under control.

I just had to add this last picture.

Every year, one of the homes along my walk through the neighbourhood to the train station, plants mini-tomatoes in their flower bed by their front gate.

As I pass by, I watch those little tomatoes form and change from little green balls to bright red fruit just asking to be tasted.

Then, they get older and split and fall apart and not one seems to have been tasted.
It puzzles me why they bother to plant the tomatoes year after year if they don't intend to pick them.

Last year there was a huge clump of crab-grass coming up through the pavement right in the center of their gate. After walking past it for months and seeing it stepped on, then going to seed, I finally pulled it up as I passed... confessions of a weed-a-holic? I wonder how big a garden I would need to keep me focused on my own space and leave other people's gardens out of mind.

9 comments:

  1. The body language of my cat tells me what season it is. The more she curls up into a ball the colder the weather. So then I pack away that gauzy wrap and take out the light down quilt, too.
    The floral border is so full of flowers a simple trellis might be the best quilt design.
    I know what you mean when you don't want to add another project. I am a bit relieved now to have only two things going at the moment.

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  2. Hi Julie. I have a flower something like that one but it is a lighter pink colour. An elderly lady who I worked with a long time ago gave me the bulbs from her garden and I planted them and I've never done anything else with them but they flower every year in October.

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  3. I do love the way plants can survive in the tiniest of spaces and still look beautiful.
    It looks like you are making very good progress with your quilting.
    I wonder if the tomatoes could be coming up on their own each year from the seeds, rather than being planted.

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  4. If you were here, I'd gladly let you garden in my yard. Lots of space, and lots of weeds ;) I admire others gardens, but, it just doesn't interest me to do it myself. We are supposed to get cooler next week, but, I was hoping it would be cooler this weekend, for the Fall Festival that I'll be at with my machines. I'm ready for some cooler weather.

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  5. Your last sentence made me laugh. You are quite welcome to come along and pull my few weeds any time - and we'll have tea and cookies afterwards. We are having bright blue skies and much cooler temperatures - and downright chilly evenings - I love the blue of the sky - wish it was warmer and I could still be out on the deck. You are really making progress on your quilt.

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  6. And I love the lilies - I always miss something on your blog - so much to commment one.

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  7. Love those nerines, and your quilt, and the little tomatoes, why not pick one and save the seed for yourself? I grew tiny oval yellowy tomatoes in buckets one year, they did so well.

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  8. I just love spider lilies. But have to be red!

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