Summers Past Farms visit + New Embroidery

Mom, my oldest niece, and I drove to Flinn Springs yesterday to visit Summers Past Farms, a welcoming, peaceful plant nursery and rambling herb garden off Olde Highway 80. There is also a delightful shop on the property that’s housed in a 3,500 square foot barn, built by the owners, Sheryl and Marshall Lozier.

Summers Past has been a local best-kept secret for years. After being shuttered during the Covid era, the family, who live on the property, put a few changes in place, including moving the hand-made soaps from the small, detached shop into the barn. Overall, though, the layout of the farm hasn’t changed much. One can still visit the chicken coop and a bunny hutch behind the barn, and enjoy a beautiful little waterfall and stream just beyond the nursery. The plants and decor change with the seasons, and the shop has a corner that is devoted year-round to Christmas.

Another feature I love is a shaded seating area where one can order a cold drink, relax, and breathe in the sweet herbal scents of the garden. A few resident cats are available for petting, too, if you are so inclined (which I always am). Check out my video above for a peek at the garden, and explore the website here. If you’d like to visit, check the hours, as they are only open to visitors a few days per week.

Meanwhile, I continue to speed-craft before I return to work in about three weeks. I just finished a lovely triangular granny-cluster scarf using Yarn Bee DK in colorway 10-pumpkin paradise. The yarn has a heathered look and it’s quite soft. I’m not sure why, but I’ve picked up a lot of orange-hued crafts recently – one I’m proud of is a small embroidered tiger lily from a kit by Jessica Long Embroidery. I’ve had this kit for about a year, and decided to bring it on this trip, since I knew I’d have a fair amount of down-time to practice this craft.

I’ve tried embroidery before, but not this style of thread painting. The most challenging aspect of this craft is the size – the needle, thread, and positions on the canvas are quite small, so it takes some focus to get my stitches right. I enjoyed the process so much that I will definitely look for a slightly more challenging project to work on next! I made some mistakes, but learned a lot by doing.

Lastly, I shared a pic of a few mitred squares using Lion Brand Scarfie yarn in colorway 210-black and royal. This is a discontinued colorway, unfortunately, so it tells you that I’ve been hanging on to this yarn for some time! PSA: At this writing, the Lion Brand website has Scarfie on sale for 30% off.

I plan to make a pile of the mitred squares and sew them together into a sweater-poncho hybrid. Hope it works the way I want it to! I will be sure to share when it’s done.