Autumn and Lotto Leftovers

This is the gazebo we built when we put in the dry creek bed about 3 years ago. The Sunset Maples have the most spectacular display this year! The dry creek is about 15" deep, and it is filled a couple of time a year when the Spring storms roll in with heavy rains, and sometimes hail. In the meantime, I let some natural grasses grow, and a little further up the bed there is an abandoned wheelbarrow that is filled with petunias in the spring. The grandkids love to play here, and often will have "garden teas" where they dress up in hats and gloves, and have little sandwiches and soda pop in teacups.



A fresh look down the drive from the backyards is pretty inspiring too. The red maples at the garage entrance side of the house are blazing away, but will soon lose all their leaves.



I decided that I wanted a more refined and cultured part of the garden that would be "just for me". I started the collection with this stupid old "crazy dog" one summer who was rescued from a garage sale on the other side of town. The dog is reputed to be a work of art, made in New Mexico by a famous sculptor, and it's supposedly a caricature of the previous owner's dog. After I heard the story of the dog and it's fame, I wondered out loud why it was in the garage sale, then? Well, it seems the real dog had died, and the replica dog also had died when the vacuum cleaner bit off one it's hind legs. The previous owner was just too sad to see it sitting there any longer. The original art price tag of $20.00 rapidly was reduced to $3.00 and Crazy Dog now sits happily in his garden amidst the plow gear and sawblade sunflowers. A little duct tape fixes him up each year, and he stays in the garden shed when winter arrives. There's also a crazy tin rooster, a blue flamingo and an ugly deformed orange pelican inhabiting the dry creek bed, as well as a one-winged tin owl sitting up in the tree.



A bit further east of Crazy Dog is the home of Crazy Lady. This is a painted tin sculpture one of my friends brought for my birthday. It is in the only shady part of the gardens on the property! She stands in the middle of Nepeta cataria, commonly known as catmint. Her windchimes made a steady little song in the spring and summer as the breezes blow through her hair.



And just a little further east is the Wren House and her bed of sunflowers. I put this little decorative welcome "butterfly" into the shade garden to liven it up a bit when the flowers all stopped blooming. Before I could get it driven securely into the ground, a lively little House Wren was buzzing all over me, chattering and swooping here and there. I thought I had inadvertently entered into her nesting area, but I was wrong! As soon as I walked away (backward), she busily set about picking up sticks and making this her home. She has had two broods that I know of, and she now allows me to come within picture taking distance of her home.




Now back into the house to finish up the pieced backing for the Lotto quilt. I'm sure the quilter will wondering what in the heck I was thinking when she opens the backing! BUT!!!! As displayed, this is all that remains of all the fabrics pulled to put this quilt top together. I even used the fabric that I pulled (and didn't put away) that didn't quite work. Then these leftovers were cut into usable strips and put away (GASP!) in the appropriate scrap bin by size!

Now on to getting projects ready to take with me out of town next week!