Time for more garden visitor pictures 😃🌱 The count so far is 36 different species of insects photographed and identified this year, and I've also seen quite a lot that were too fast or too tiny to photograph well enough.

I finally 'caught' a peacock butterfly! 🌱😀 (A reasonable picture of one, no butterflies were harmed). I've seen these flying around in my yard all week, sometimes three at a time, and all earlier attempts failed: flew away, wings closed, the light hitting wrong so looking almost entirely black...

I found even more insects in my garden. Hunting them down for pictures is fun! 🌱 And these are only the ones I could get pictures of. There's at least 2 kinds of butterfly, another kind of moth, another kind of ladybug and a cricket I haven't managed to capture on camera yet. 😊

The garden is good these days! 🌱 Ants have started farming aphids again, so there are a lot of marmalade hoverflies too: Their larvae feed on aphids. There was a red admiral, I finally managed to take an image of and identify the mint moth, and I found an insect having a drink. 🌞

My sincere apologies to these two, who got caught up in my attempts to water my plants. The butterfly got hit with the spray from the hose more than once and the spider had its web destroyed. I didn't see it before aiming a watering can right through it to water the potted plant it was inhabiting. 🌱

Gardening post! 🌱 Backyard: Coreopsis blooming, Coleus is pretty orange/red, the first blueberries are almost pink+ripe! Front yard: Armeria, another creeping thyme, and Buddlejas started blooming. The California poppies are still going, insects are chilling out, and the sunflowers are making buds.

I went with a flamingo as my next cross stitch project. I want something bright after all the muted blue and grey tones from the penguins, though I will probably regret it once I reach the sea of pink in this one 🫣. First 21 bright orange stitches done, only 37615 stitches to go! 🧵 🪡 🧶

While the penguins cross stitch is soaking in water, I'm trying to choose a next project. Finish the dinosaur forest (from owlforest)? One of three other owlforest patterns I have patterns+supplies for? One of the four stamped kits? I'm leaning towards flamingo, just because it's so summer-y.🧵 🪡 🧶

Duomo Santa Maria Achiropita, Rossano, Italia

Heat wave incoming. 🔥🌞 Those always destroy my appetite for regular meals, so I made a big bowl of pasta salad to snack on instead. This is officially four servings but it will probably last me a whole week. 🍽️ 🍜

There's so much color in the front yard again😀 🌱 Especially happy to see the california poppies pop up again after sowing some seeds last year, and seeing the white puncushion flower bloom, as that one didn't bloom at all when I planted it last year!

Spent time restocking the freezer today. Four different meals, 19 portions. Three of them are stock favorites, the fourth is a new dish, with radishes, chicken and potatoes from the oven. To be served chilled with an orange juice and mustard dressing. 🍽️ 🍜

Did a whole bunch of 'baking' over the past three days. It was good to spend some time in the kitchen again ☺️. The result: two sorts of no-bake cream cheese cakes for Mother's Day last Sunday, and a small pound cake + no-bake lemon curd cakes as a treat for coworkers tomorrow. 🍽️🍜

I really almost chickened out when I saw how much this was, afraid of wouldn't fit in the freezer🫣... But it seems 20kg of chicken fits just fiiine, with room to spare. Ready for a few rounds of meal prepping to come now. 🍽️ 🍜

Well, this was a disappointment! Tried baking bread using one of my cast iron pots as a "shape". Changed nothing else, followed the instructions on the box mix just like usual... But the bread just isn't "done". Tried to cut it and the crust is rock hard but raw dough just stuck to the knife 😞🍜🍽️

Time to start restocking the freezer meals. Made six servings of the chicken-apple slowcooker curry (forgot to take a picture while it was still in the slowcooker) and six servings of spicy green beans, chicken and baby potatoes (one eaten as tonight's dinner already). 🍽️ 🍜 😋

There's been a few days of good weather, so a lot of the bulbs I've planted over the years are flowering again! 🌱 🌼 The flowers are popular with bumblebees too, I counted at least three hiding in the crocuses and one in the irises. I think they might be sleeping?🐝

There's green in the garden again! Sadly, quite a lot of it was weeds... 😞 But also, a lot of sprouts from bulbs, and a few of the snowdrops are already blooming 🥰🌱

I'm ready to start the next cross stitch. This one is bigger than the hedgehog and needs to be finished by June as I want to make it a birthday gift for the awesome brother that made me a 3D printed attachment for my embroidery stand, so it can hold plastic snap frames too. ☺️🧶🧵🪡

Today's lunch: self baked bread. Not as airy as my previous (first) attempt, and the crust got a bit dark. Still tastes awesome though! 🍜 🍽️

The last bit of cross stitch from 2025. The project I started yesterday to bring to my parent's place. Didn't actually get a whole lot done because we also spent a lot of time playing boardgames together, but still pleased with the progress! 🧵 🧶 🪡

Spent all day yesterday "cross stitching" without making a single cross stitch. 😆 I detangled and wound all the old flosses I had stored in a ziplock bag on bobbins and cut (and split most of) the thread for a new project I brought along to my parent's place where I am spending most of today. 🪡 🧶 🧵

It's the most wonderful time of the year: Time for mom's oliebollen!! Yum 🥰 🍽️ 🍜

One Christmas dinner, done! 🍜 🍽️ Carpaccio as a starter, then a full table of meat, potatoes and vegetables, and ice for dessert. Thanks to mom, I didn't have to cook this year (only helped with groceries, setting the table and doing dishes).

Today's crafting wasn't cross stitch but only half stitches. On plastic canvas. It's supposed to become a little 3D Christmas train and wagon. It looks simple but it is actually a bit more challenging than cross stitch, as the back will be visible so needs to look presentable as well. 😅 🪡 🧶 🧵

Took it easy with the cooking today. ☺️Mealprep number 5 was also dinner: Hutspot. ☺️ And number six is just a bunch of half-boiled (they will become more boiled when heating again) vegetables, as a base for gado gado. 🍽️ 🍜

Mealprep number three is started. A chicken-apple curry. With as many vegetables as the slowcooker can hold.🍽️ 🍜

Second bit of mealprep: honey garlic glazed salmon. Great when hot, also great cold in a salad, so I often keep a few of these ready in the freezer. Got the recipe from @thisgrilllife.bsky.social a year ago and it has definitely become staple now! 🍜 🍽️

The first pan of food prep, one of many to come these next weeks: apple sauce. 🍽️🍜 Now the whole kitchen is sticky with apple juice and splatter 😅 But also, the whole room smells like apples, vanilla, cinnamon and star anise. 🥰