Cross Stitching

 There's still a little cross stitching happening but what little I do has to get squeezed in between the garden and canning. And . . The finger! Ugh! It's frustrating. The finger is so much better, and I think it's still improving, but it's still a problem. If I bump it, or tap it against something or try to peel anything - potatoes, eggplant, apple .. it gets red and swollen again. It recovers within a day or so but it's been six weeks so I'm more than ready for it to be "normal".

I still cannot use the index finger to stitch unless it's just for a few stitches so I'm getting pretty good at using the thumb and middle finger.

On the stitching front, I've framed a few pieces that had been sitting around for quite a while. One was from 2021. About time, huh? I'll get pictures when I get a couple more framed. I ordered two more frames last week

Now that the patriotic stitching is not my priority, but I do still have a couple of pieces to get finished, I want to start working on WIPs again and Christmas projects.

The Blooming Stitcher and Rushing Rabbit Studio are hosting a stitch along for Christmas Roads, which started July 1. I had bought the chart when The Blooming Stitcher first mentioned it so I started that.

I didn't have the green floss for the border and the trees but it should be here this week. I went ahead and started with the floss I have. I'm working to get to the house so I can stitch that but without the green for those trees, I'm afraid to trust my counting so I'll keep working on other areas til the green floss arrives, hopefully Tuesday. Markup tells me I'll finish it July 27 but Markup thinks I'm going to keep stitching without stopping and working on something else. Crazy app!  :)

My linen is more gold than the photos are indicating. I started at the top and almost all of the white oval has been stitched. There's a bit more fill in at the bottom to be done.

I thought maybe if I got the words stitched, I could count up from there and start the house but I'm not that brave. I didn't have the called for color of floss for the text either but I had one that's close enough. It's supposed to be a gray and this one is kinda grayish green. I like it! I actually have a green that might work for the outer border and trees so if my package doesn't arrive by Tuesday, I may go ahead and use that one if I'm ready to start stitching those things.

Garden & Canning

It's that time of year when the garden is keeping me busy. I've canned more potatoes, cowboy candy and LOTS of chicken broth, which obviously did not come out of the garden.

There's still a lot more chicken broth to make but the bones/chicken are all in the freezer so I'll work on that as I can. Actually, it's all in Debbie's freezer because I didn't have room in the freezer for them but I'll bring them home, make the broth, then get more til they're all gone.

I'm so happy with the "fix" Vince came up with for protecting the squash. I think I had mentioned that apparently squash seeds accidentally got added to the compost and the pepper bed has pretty much been taken over by squash. At first I thought it was all butternut but there's delicata squash in there too. Who can complain about all that coming up and producing when I didn't even plant it? I'm most excited that I'm going to get at least a few candy roasters this year.

I had to pick this candy roaster and it wasn't quite ready so I hope it will be good. It was about an inch from growing right under the greenhouse. Those vines are taking over the entire back yard. If I had left it to grow under the greenhouse, it would have died over there and hundreds of seeds would have produced and grown through the spaces in the wood floor in the greenhouse and it would have been a mess . . probably for years. The fines were attached to the rocks around the base of the greenhouse so I couldn't move the vine so . . I picked it and will probably cook it tomorrow.

We're getting lots of eggplants, peppers, still a bit of zucchini, and a few tomatoes. The tomatoes aren't doing great and neither is the okra. I may have to give up growing garlic so I can get the okra planted sooner since I harvest the garlic, amend the soil and plant the okra in the same bed. This year it was at least three weeks later than usual when the garlic was ready. We'll see but the okra is really behind. Garlic is fairly inexpensive to buy. Okra is rather expensive to buy so if I have to choose, I think we'll keep growing the okra. I may end up buying tomatoes for canning and if I can get good ones that aren't too expensive, I may not even grow tomatoes next year. 

Vince is NOT a gardener. He'll help me when I need help but he has zero interest in gardening. He's funny though . . we've been together for over 30 years and I've had a garden almost every year and he still seems shocked when I come in with a big basket full of goodies from the garden. Today I came in with a bunch of peppers and four big and beautiful eggplants. His eyes got big and he said "You grew those??"  He seems surprised that things grow in our garden!  :)