"But in the Leape You Must Add One"

I get the chance to post on February 29 only once every four years, so why not take advantage of it this year?!

"There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming, summer" -- Gertrude Jekyll

The tidy-tips (Layia platyglossa) have now made their appearance in our wildflower garden, mostly clustered with the arroyo lupines and California poppies that have already made an appearance in the northwest corner, and the first happy blooms from an autumn sage (Salvia greggii) which was part of a bribe from that same local wildflower enthusiast I gave the arroyo lupine seeds to last summer, who was eager one afternoon to see our gigantic backyard pine tree up close (he told me that it is in fact a Mondell pine, which is good to know as I was never quite convinced by our first arborist's guess that it is "either a stone pine or Aleppo").  I didn't quite know what to do with the two five-gallon salvias the Y.W.E. offered me -- one a Salvia leucantha like the one I've already got which is drought-tolerant and handsome but isn't really a California native, the other a Salvia greggii still with rather fetching red blooms on it, so they sat on the back deck for a few months until I decided that while the red one is not a California native either, it is appealing enough not to let go to waste, and so I planted it in an anchor spot at the northeast corner of the front yard, where it will get pretty much all of the available sun there is, and I hope add a pleasing note of red to the wildflowers' blues and pinks and oranges.  I'm afraid that it got a bit decrepit while it sat forlornly on the deck, but only a week or so after planting, it began to show new leaves of a shiny reddish-green, and last week the first flowers opened.

I went to the California-natives plant sale at the local arboretum in December, and came home with a select group of sages and penstemons and a California wild rose as the first of what I hope will be in a few years a garden of shrubs and perennials interspersed with annuals.  At the moment, most of them are just sort of "chillin'," as Julia would say, and so I will introduce them here later when they do something interesting.  Otherwise most of the yard is still a field of lacy green wildflower promise --

I put some more things in my two new front-yard kitchen garden beds -- seeds for two different kinds of chives (pink-flowered and white-flowered), one towards the front of each bed, Italian basil, tarragon, and French green beans (the long, thin kind) in a row at the back, joining the savoury, oregano, sage, and flat-leafed parsley striplings planted a few weeks ago.  It all looks rather dreary at the moment, since I mulched it with the last of the leaves I swept up from under the mulberry tree, which hadn't relinquished them until after New Year's (!).  I started some heritage dwarf cherry tomatoes in seed pots indoors, so will plant two -- possibly three, let's see how fearless I am when the time comes, for the beds are only 4' x 4' and I still want to put in lots of cilantro.

Well, I seem to have been crocheting a little too much lately, as I've developed a rather alarming ache along the outside of my left forearm.  David practically shrieked, "Stop crocheting now or it will swell up and you'll be in pain forever!"  I've knitted for most of my life and never had a problem, but clearly there is something different about crochet, either the specific muscles used or where I'm holding the work in relation to my near-sighted eyes.  So, alas, I've rolled up the old sheet with my granny squares pinned to it, to keep it out of temptation's reach for a week or two.  It is just over halfway-assembled, so that the siren call is fierce indeed.  But the New Boro quilt is still wedged into my sewing machine with about half of the first pass of quilting done -- huzzah! -- so I could work on that instead, and Julia has requested a custom-made skirt and top for her birthday in April, which must get started soon.  I decided that I will add to this ensemble a new purse, as the one I made for her three years ago is far too small even for Julia's minimal needs, and she agreed that the Squiffy Sling Bag (sic!) by Mrs. H will fit the bill nicely.  And I want to retrieve my 1:12 shops from the garage, where they were stored when we had the family Thanksgiving here and have not been touched since!

I've also started another sampler, which jumped the queue a bit in order to be a gift for an old and very dear friend who is going through some difficult times -- this is the "Peace to My Friend" Quaker-style sampler by Jacob de Graaf of Modern Folk Embroidery.  It is more than a little curious, seeing the photos on that blog post, as I am more used to seeing the white-on-grey image from MFE's online shop than the periwinkle-on-natural! which is as it happens more like what I have used, some "natural" linen with a slightly-tealy blue floss.  It is wrinkly in the photo because I started it using a hoop, but realized that it's a little too big for that, and moved it to my table frame.  After the riotous colors of the "Froth and Bubble" sampler, this is very quiet and contemplative --

Comments

[Toffeeapple]

I like the green in your garden, it looks very light and airy. It sounds as if you have some lovely plans for the coming seasons.

The sampler is very quiet and peaceful, I like it very much and I am sure it will soothe your friend.

The squiffy bags are gorgeous Julia will surely enjoy using one of those.

We have had another storm here, so much more rain and wind. I am bored with it now.