In my garden

I went out this morning and took pictures of the backyard -- I was so proud of getting everything planted, I guess. And since we got a little rain last week, everything is looking green and pretty. I took these pictures at about 8:30 in the morning--this one of the birdbath, especially, shows how shady it is in the backyard. No wonder we can't grow grass. I've got a lot of ivy back there, and other kinds of groundcover; also a lot of herbs (mostly peppermint) and creeping charlie, which is a weed, but we won't speak of that.

Here's the little birdhouse that I made when I was a kid. I probably didn't really make it, just painted it, but each of us had one. It was blue at some point, but all the paint has worn off it by now. I probably should paint it again, but I kind of like the weathered look.

Flowers: a geranium and a gerbera daisy, a hosta in the front, and "live forever" in the ground next to the little stone girl that my mother-in-law gave me one year for Christmas. She gave me the birdbath, too. Behind the flowers is a big pot of anise hyssop.

This is the other side of the porch, with another gerbera daisy plant (though no flowers on this one at the moment), a pot of violets, a pot of chives in front, a small bush in the black pot (spirea? I can't remember), and the other plants that I brought from my mother's and have no idea what they are.

From another angle:

The shepherd's crook holds an old tin birdfeeder filled with niger seed for the finches. A close-up showing the sweet cast iron bird on top:

While I was downloading the pictures from the camera, I found some of the cats that I hadn't taken off. Here's one of Pye taking a bath in my chair, with the throw draped over it. Dinah likes to lie in my chair with the cover over her, and Pye will invariably lie on top of her. In this case, though, Dinah had already left when Pye appropriated the chair. I thought the green coverlet made a nice backdrop for her.

And a couple of the kitties in the front window:

I just loved the light in this one:

Sharon commented in the previous entry that she'd like to see pictures of the hatrack and the sock I'm knitting. Here's the hatrack:

As I mentioned, it was a $1.60 purchase from the Hobby Lobby summer clearance aisle. The "hooks" are pink ceramic flowers:

I'm still knitting the same Opal Petticoat sock I've been carrying around for months:

I wasn't happy with the heel that I first knit, so I ended up ripping it out and re-knitting it. Actually, I think I ripped it out twice. I usually make a perfect heel, but it had been awhile since I'd made one, and I wasn't happy with the attempt. This one isn't perfect, but it's not bad.

The sock is languishing on my Vera Bradley tote. I bought it with some birthday money last fall, and took a long time selecting the pattern, which is "Emily." Of course -- this goes without saying -- once I'd picked the pattern I loved, they almost immediately discontinued it.

Since then, I've bought a few matching pieces on eBay when they've been affordable--one was a wonderful laptop bag. I read somewhere that it isn't really a good idea to carry a laptop in a bag that looks like a laptop bag, and when I saw this quilted one, I got it. It's the perfect travel bag, with room for the laptop, and room for magazines or books--I couldn't really fit anything else in my regular laptop bag, so I always end up carrying it plus something else. Anyway, I'll enjoy it, and it matches my other stuff.

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