Spending some time in my garden.

Here we are closing in on the last days of the month and finally I am feeling better, its been a good week and I almost feel like my old self again, though still quite tired.  Last Saturday I had the energy to finally take a road trip to explore a few small towns here in central Florida and visit the downtown areas.

I came home with some local honey, found some antique shops I will visit again and stopped at a needlework shop and quilt shop in Trenton that I will return to very soon.

On Sunday it was off to the beach for a walk along the shoreline, the beach always restores my balance. Drove up to St. Augustine to browse a few antique shops, I wasn't looking for anything in particular and again I found a few shops worth visiting again.

Today my wonderful son began to cut down the overgrown shrubs in the front of my house which I have been wanting to get rid of or at least cut them down enough so they aren't such a bother. The

photo is of the site in progress, what I plan to do is place pots of leafy and flowering plants in front of the stumps.  What I believe happened is each time someone owned the house they planted shrubs and instead of pulling up the old shrubs they just planted the new shrub beside it which caused a real mess once they grow, one of the shrubs had 5 other types of shrubs including 2 types of holly entwined with the original shrub, so I decided they had to go.

Here are some of the plants I want to place in the area,  As I unloaded them from the car I just lined them up in front of the garage until I am ready to put them where I want them.  Everything will remain in pots

Plant line up

I was lucky to find 2 dark elephant ear plants which I love, the Jasmine was intoxicating the backseat of my car still holds the lingering scent.

The plant with the white flowers is a confederate Jasmine, I forget the name of the purple leafy plant but the leaves remind me of dragon scales, they also look artificial. The one with the purple flowers is a Mexican Petunia.

Those pink flowers are Calla Lily, another purple leaf plant, the dark elephant ear at the end, there is a hibiscus in the line up some where, tomorrow I need to check the labels and record the info in my garden journal.

The orange flower is another type of lily and the pink plant next to it is Mandevilla, and another dark elephant ear.  I still want to pick up a variety of roses but for now these will do, the spot gets a fair amount of sun in the afternoon, lots of shade in the morning. I have to read over the tag info so I know what will work in the front and what needs to go in another area.

There is much to do in the garden, most clean up and clearing away the weeds and debris, I'm taking things slow because all too often I overdo it and right now I just don't have the stamina for another set back with my health.

Block six update

So far so good as far as feeling well, I haven't taken the massive dose of Vitamin D3 yet but I am hopeful,  because I miss my daily walks I'm going to attempt a short walk today. In the mean time here is an update for block six.

block six updates

I made a little bit of progress yesterday and I just love those witch hats in the window of the boutique. I am linking my post over at Supermom No Cape's blog
 http://www.supermomnocape.com/2016/04/18/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-54/

Stop on over to see what other bloggers are crafting today.

Stitching and Recovery, two good things.

It has truly been a couple of rough weeks here health wise and after last Monday's set back I thought this nuisance would be with me indefinitely; I'm happy to say that isn't the case by Wednesday evening I started feeling better and today I feel my body is getting stronger.

I don't know exactly what happened Monday but an hour after I swallowed my weekly 50,000 iu of Vitamin D3 my body just hurt everywhere, not a severe pain just enough to be very uncomfortable, and the deep nasty cough was back. I was so tired I slept on and off all day sadly not by choice.

I'm not sure if it was the weekly dose of Vitamin D3 along with the daily 10,000 iu but I stopped taking the daily until I'm though with the weekly dose of 50,000 iu. I dread taking this Mondays dose, if it happens again I'll have my answer. For 3 days I stopped the second dose of my atenolol because my blood pressure was quite low and I was so tired. By Wednesday evening the horrible cough was gone, the pain was just an annoying ache and I woke up Thursday morning feeling quite good!

I'm taking things slow right now to ease back into my normal everyday life I haven't needed a nap in two days which is good, I haven't done much exercise except a short circuit around my back yard each day and a few errands which does leave me breathless.

With the decreased energy I have been reading quite a bit my recent trip to the library had me checking out a variety of books to keep my brain stimulated not to mention will count toward my reading challenge numbers.

a mix of fiction and non-fiction

Then there is the hand stitching which I am making progress on whether slowly stitching on Sunday's and linking up over at Kathy's Quilts http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/04/slow-sunday-stitching_17.html 

or daily stitching when its all I have energy for.

The hand embroidery on Yoga Tree Pose is done unless I do french knots instead of beads on those dots over the arms. This is a work in progress I may add more yoga poses to this piece or a few Om symbols at the corners or may be I will just trim off the excess fabric.

Block six for Hocuspocusville is coming along rather swiftly I was surprised by how much progress I made since last Sunday I stopped mid stitch to snap this photo.

I did forget to mention last week on one of my good days I stopped at a local nursery I have a few new herb plants for my garden and hope I feel up to transplanting them into larger pots this week. I haven't had the time to snap a photo yet, if I keep going forward on this road to recovering I should have a picture later this week.

It's all slow today, stitching and recovery, and a ort report.

 I think there is finally a light at the end of this tunnel after seeing the doctor last Monday with a round of steroids to go along with the antibiotics the coughing has dropped off to a minor a-hem as if I were clearing the throat before a long winded speech.

The low blood pressure has me a little concerned so I am monitoring for a few weeks to see if it was just a result of the illness or the over the counter medication I was taking.

The vitamin D deficiency was a surprise which I am taking mega doses of Vitamin D3 and trying to get more sunshine, truth is I haven't spent as much time in my garden over the last year so I need to remedy that, my diet is healthy but as with everything else can be improved. Frankly, I am tired of being tired! this week I was out and about for a while, these short trips out of the house zapped all my energy and upon return I'd sleep for a few hours.

I did manage to get more stitching done on block six so I will be linking up over at Kathy's quilts today

http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/04/guilt-free-slow-sunday-stitching.html

and for Monday's linky party at

http://www.supermomnocape.com/  

block six progress

There is always some thing wonderful going on over at these sites lots of beautiful stitching by some very creative bloggers, take a moment or two to check them out.

Oh here is my TUSAL report for the month of April, I missed the new moon by a few days but here are my orts all the same.

http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2016/04/totally-useless-orts.html

April orts

These orts come mostly from the Hamsa hand and a few mending projects I had to do, and a few black threads from the on going Hocuspocusville quilt. 

Hamsa Hand

Finally before I post this I did manage to visit a nursery this week where I picked up several herb plants for my garden.  I'll plant those in a window box or large pot today and start to soak in some of that much needed sunshine.

On the road to recovery and a little slow Sunday stitching

It's the 3rd of April and finally after being sick for nearly the entire month of March I think I am finally on the road to recovering, at least I hope so, I thought that a little over a week ago and after 3 days of feeling fairly good I was hit with chills, fever and a deeper cough.  Tomorrow morning its back to the Doctor and hopefully some good news. Cause I'm sick of being sick.

I have started the hand embroidery on block 6 for the Hocuspocusville Quilt and once again I am so glad I traced all 12 blocks prior to stitching them.

Le Witche Boutique

the stitching was slow and steady and one thing I have noticed is my french knots are getting easier to make. Here is a look at block 6 Le Witche Boutique before I started the stitching:

block six

The hand embroidering on the Hamsa Hand went slower than I had hoped mainly due to the fabric being so finicky and I changed some of the stitches and colors of floss.

This is the second Hamsa Hand I have stitched however the first kit didn't use the same fabric it was a cotton blend and much easier to work unfortunately I sent it off to a friend and forgot to snap any photos. This fabric is polyester which easily snags and pulls and no matter how careful I was to not pull my stitches too tight the fabric still looks puckered in places.

I did get some reading done this week, I finished reading The Camino and I am midway through

Walking Home which I am enjoying so much more than The Camino. Well it's time for me to make a cup of tea and get some stitching done, I will be linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching where other bloggers show what they are hand stitching this week.
http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/04/slow-sunday-stitching.html

Hocuspocusville Block 6 update:
I've made a little more progress on the block today after my doctors appointment and I'll be linking up herehttp://www.supermomnocape.com/  stop on over for a wonderful vintage embroidery pattern and to check on what other bloggers are stitching today,