This picture is a bit dark, but it is a fairly clear one, and shows my progress
on "A Spot of Tea 1" sampler. It moves along at a steady pace, and I can
now see, with certainty, pretty much the size that it will be when complete.

This picture is blurrier, but is closer to the true colour of the thread.

We're enjoying our holidays so far, of course. It's a long weekend here in
Ontario, known as Simcoe Day in honour of John Graves Simcoe, founder of
York, which later became the city of Toronto, and first Lieutenant Governor
of Upper Canada, which was pretty much Southern Ontario.

It's been gradually getting hotter and hotter each day this weekend. Today
is going to be 33 degrees Celsius, but with the humidity will be much
warmer. We've closed up the house and turned on the air conditioning,
which is something we'd managed to avoid doing so far this weekend.
Possibility of a few scattered Thunderstorms for the next few days. We
could really use the rain because every things pretty dried out. But we need
several days of steady, all day rain to really do any good.

DH and I have been doggy sitting this weekend for our neighbours, who
have gone away for a week. A friend of theirs will be taking the dog later
today, for the rest of the week, but until then we have been taking her out
twice a day for walks, and giving her her meals and fresh water. Brook is
a 11 1/2 year old Golden Retriever and I think we may have been taking
her for longer walks then she's use to because she is panting quite heavily
when we get back. But she also seems to enjoy them. So have we.

My mom was here yesterday for a visit and dinner. We sat outside for
awhile and chatted, and then we came in and settled down to watch a DVD.
We watched "The Queen", which was most excellent. A fascinating movie
both for a bit of insight into the lives and lifestyle of the British Royals, and
also to see again that time after the death of Princess Diana and the grief
and anger which swept England, and many other parts of the world.
Helen Mirren as The Queen is wonderful. And so is the actor who played
Tony Blair, Michael Sheen. I highly recommend this movie, and intend to
watch it again soon.

Thought I'd post some pictures of our pots and stuff, just to keep this
post from getting too boring. Above are some of the pots lining the steps
from the deck to the yard. Petunias, Marigolds and Alysumm.

Then we have my favourite shade plant, three varieties of Coleus. The
range of colours, and the various different leaf shapes, make these plants
a great addition to the garden. And as you can see, they grow like heck!

It seems to us that the Rose of Sharon has flowered a bit earlier then it
usually does. It's the last thing to leaf out in the Spring, always giving us
cause to wonder if it has survived the winter or not. But I love the flowers
on it. My uncle gave us a cutting from a bush in his garden 7 years ago,
and this is the result. It was moved a couple of times before we settled it
in it's present location, but it has never held that against us.

Stitcherw: Hi Sue. You're going to have to wait and see when my next
stash shipment arrives, and then you'll see what little beauties I've caved
in and ordered. I'll post pictures and gush all over the place, I promise.