I Like Thursday: Look What Popped Up

I found a few likes this week.  The heat has drained my motivation to kayak, walk, quilt... pretty much everything.  I'm hoping this will blow over soon.

First up, I finished assembling my hexie quilt.  Both sides are so much fun.  It's quite heavy, though, and I'm wondering how well the hand stitching will keep it together.  I'm pondering quilting over the whole thing to help distribute the stress.  On the other hand, I like how it looks now.  I may leave it as is, get a label on it, and if it can't take the abuse, quilt it later.

When I laid out the quilt, all I could see was how the front would look.  I have enjoyed watching it emerge as I stitched it together.  Hard to say which side I like better!

Last fall I had picked a couple of lemons from my parent's potted tree.  I had no luck sprouting the seeds.  I dumped the seeds and dirt into my potting soil container and thought no more of it.  After I planted my pansy and zinnia seedlings in the garden, I noticed that there were two tiny plants with very shiny leaves.  I snapped a photo and searched on PlantNet, but when it told me it was a citrus plant I laughed at how absurd that was.  I figured I'd try again when the plants were a little bigger.

Last week it finally dawned on me - PlantNet was right - it was my failed lemon seeds!  I pinched a leaf, and sure enough, it smelled of lemon.  Excellent!  One of them was tucked between iris bulbs.  I moved that to a pot since it would be harder to extract when it was bigger.  The second plant I'll leave out for the summer.  I'm thrilled they actually came up!

As part of this week's I Like Thursday group, we were invited to share our favorite kitchen tool, something we always reach for.  (Thanks, LeeAnna!)  There's two that are in constant use in my kitchen - my 6" kitchen knife and my ingenuiTEA teapot/infuser.  I vaguely remember buying the knife, it was so long ago.  The handle is starting to crack - I've inquired how to fix it because I hate the idea of replacing it.  The knife is just the right size for nearly everything and feels great. 

The ingenuiTEA was a Christmas gift from my sister.  It's easy to dump loose tea into, pour in hot water, wait for it to steep, then put it on the top of your mug, and it pours out.  Lift it up, and it stops.  A real tea connoisseur would not be happy with it since any water left will still steep.  I'm good with over-steeped tea.  The plastic was originally clear but at this point, even when I scrub it, it still retains a patina. 

Rob's brother and SIL were in town this week.  They popped by to witness the disaster we call a home right now.  LOL.  They took us to dinner at Alina's, which was a welcome change and an enjoyable evening.  Thanks for introducing us to the place!

That's pretty much it.  Laying low and trying to keep cool.