A Break In The Humidity

Our old garden gate needed lots of repair, so husband made a new one. I christened it today with a wreath of garden flowers. 

Just a wee little wreath to say welcome to our garden!

Where mushrooms look like wood

The cone flowers are in full bloom.

And the garlic is drying. 

Welcome to the porch! The weather is wonderful!

Yesterday we were 87 and humid so very humid. This morning we were dry, breezy and 54. Perfect but more like fall than the last of July. I wrapped up in a blanket and had my coffee this morning. It made me so happy. This weather is supposed to last all week. 

Have you ever started a craft thinking "this is going to be so great!" and end up with well a circus tent? I wanted a large bee skep and it turned into a circus tent look. I put it in the garden and told the bees the circus has come to town enjoy. 

I am still cleaning out I found a container of things we used when we camped. Since there will be no more camping in my future, I am seeing what needs to go. These plastic plates are so cute I have to keep them, and the silverware is darling. 

Daisys on the handles it would make a cute table on the porch, so they are a keep also. 

Friday, I went to the thrift store to drop off yet more boxes and I had some time to kill so I shopped a bit, and I found this darling blouse. 

All stitched in a paisley design. 

Fits perfectly and quite a buy at 3.00. 

I will close with this I was walking by and saw the sun shining in and the breeze moving the curtains so pretty and peaceful. 

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Have a wonderful week!

Quick Post

I saw a post about making cream cheese from milk that is a bit past its date. Well I had a quart of that so I gave it a try and added garlic scapes. It turned out so good! And it was fairly easy. 

 

I had about a cup of blueberries to use up. Blueberry coffee cake

I also used up the last of the cheerio cereal (cinnamon nut) for the topping. Turned out great.

And last but not least my geranium in all its glory!

We are in for pretty bad weather today so I gathered some flowers I wanted to press and I thought I better take a picture if my geraniums before they get ruined. 

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HAVE A GREAT DAY!

I Stepped On A Frog!!!!

Ok at least I think I did. But that poor frog was flat and I had been gardening around there. Husband says no way I would have stepped on it and not known it. Just made me very sad the poor guy they are such good bug eaters. 

Sweet B and her best friend all dolled up for the Barbie Movie.

They went with a lot of the girls and moms from dance school they all got in the spirit with Barbie pink. My daughter went and said it was pretty funny. 

I spent the day cutting back and weeding Saturday in spite of the rain and lack of sun they are doing ok.

This is why the poor bear is hungry the acorns are tiny, the berries are not coming like they should, I do feel bad for him but not enough to keep him around.

And today was husband's 50th high school reunion.

I did not go to that school but do know several people in his class.

It was funny my football captain husband was nervous going in. Not sure why and really does all the old high school crap come back after all these years???

Oh and he had a great time!!!

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My brother is here for a couple of days and the weather is wonderful.

Have a great week.

Garlic

I dug up a half a row of my garlic I think I am a bit too excited, and I need to leave it for a week or two more, but I have these drying on a rack on my screened in porch. Everyone is getting garlic for Christmas! lol. 

My daughter gave me this plant for Mother's Day I repotted it and put it in my wagon, and it is going crazy! Now I am going to figure out if I can winter it over just for fun. 

The hollyhock is coming to an end. The leaves got rust from all the rain and humid weather not a surprise, but it is still going and going.

My zinnia seeds from the dollar store are starting to bloom.

I was gone for 3 days staying with Sweet B my grand while her parents were away.  First up we did a stitched bookmark that I did not get a picture of. Next, we made a bee skept!  

she decorated it all on her own. Such fun and so proud of her. And she now has contacts! She is learning to put them in and out and getting use to wearing them! I ran her to dance and camp. Pep took her to hit some golf balls and of course ice cream. It was a busy fun 3 days, and we loved it!

Bear update so he has decided to try and get into my car. Luckily, I see no damage. We called fish and game and really, they will do nothing until human life is in danger. He is crazy bold we have a group text with all the neighbors, and he is everywhere. at noon the past 3 days he is on the deck looking in the screen door of the neighbors. We were out in the yard doing yard work today the dirt road below us was being fixed with heavy equipment from all the rain and another neighbor was mowing annnnnd he shows up in our yard!!! with all that noise! We bought an air horn and tried that he ran a few yards and sat and looked at us. Cable guys on the other end of our dead-end road see him coming up to the truck they start the truck he Saunders off. Sadly, no fear which will get him and us in big trouble. Oh, and I can outrun my husband lol!

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Thank you for all the kind comments on my home. I am so proud of it, growing up we didn't have much so thanks to my husband and lots of hard work over the years we have this house in a great area with 1 naughty bear lol. 

Have a great Day! 

What the???

A tornado watch!!!??? We just never get them here.

People are closing their stores and restaurants freaked out, I get it.

This is our house and we do have a nice big basement that I hope we will never use for that!

We have been so hot and humid and so much rain! I am trying very hard to not wish the summer away but dang I am over this. This is completely crazy. 

Ok garden walk some gardens were lovely in spite of the weather we have gotten this summer. And I did not take as many pictures as I should have. This border garden was nice. 

Not sure what this plant is but it has red berries on it in the summer. The homeowner was not there so the docent has no idea what it was, but I liked it for interest. 

Lovely use of ferns and their astilbes were beautiful. compared to mine which are puny.

Some houses were not so much the gardens but the settings. Yes, this was on the lake, and some were views of the mountains. 

And some had such wonderful garden decorations. I loved this whimsical fence. It was hot!!! and humid!!!! but we saw all 11 gardens I bumped into a lovely lady I knew from rug hooking at her house on the tour. It was nice to chat and catch up. And husband ran into a man he knew at his house from years ago. Small world. We went to lunch and enjoyed the air conditioning and the yummy drinks. We dropped our friends off at home and headed home. 

Early evening about 7:30 I walk out onto the porch after locking up around the house and putting out my ammonia to ward off the bear.

And there is the bear walking across in front of the porch. He didn't like the smell of the ammonia down back or around our porch doors, so he was walking round looking for another route. We both started to yell at him to he looked at us like we had lost our minds and slowly sauntered off to the neighbor's house. He has a large patch of raspberries, so I am sure the bear made himself at home. This is a young smaller bear. And he looks harmless enough, but I am sure if you went after him, he would fight back in a big way. 

We were feeling brave with the screen between us (so stupid)

Have a wonderful safe week!

After The Rain

We have had some crazy rain and wind, but the sun did come out for a few days. Our poor neighbor Vermont really got hit I feel so bad for them the devastation is awful. 

My walk pictures a very blurry picture of a butterfly.

And so many mushrooms! they are everywhere. 

I washed the windows in our bedroom and washed and starched the curtains. Always makes me feel just a bit more organized and neater when that is done. 

I have been cleaning out and found these suncatchers. So, I washed the big window in the kitchen took off the sticky snowflakes (that were full of little bugs ick!)that keep the birds from hitting that window and put these up. Such a better look than dead bugs. 

Concerts on the common have started for the summer. This band was a lot of country and a little old rock. Not a huge fan of country but it was nice to get out in the park to listen to the music.

Last night I took a tarot card reading class at the library. 

It was interesting and fun. I need to buy a deck these are oracle cards not the same thing. 

I also got to the local church rummage sale yesterday.

The mirror will go in my half bath we are redoing, and the pumpkin will probably go outside for 5.00 for both a steal. 

I wanted to buy a 1/2 watermelon at the grocery store the other day, and they were 8.00. I am always shocked at the prices you would think I would be used to them. So, I thought that pumpkins will be crazy expensive this year too. So that is my alternative to a real one. And I did not buy the watermelon.

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I am off for a walk and to get some supplies for a craft project. I have 3 whole days with Sweet B while her parents are away!! I want to be ready. 

Husband and I are going on a garden walk tomorrow with friends the poor gardeners on the tour must be beside themselves because of all the rain. But again, it is a day out with great friends. 

have a wonderful weekend!

A Day At The Beach

Saturday mid-morning we headed out for Maine.

A cookout at my brother-in-law's. The weather was sunny HOT! HUMID!

He has a pool but there were so many kids in it I was not going attempt it. Then by dinner time we headed to my sweet friend's house at the beach. It was fogged in, and a fine mist was constant with bouts of rain. UGG very different from my brother in laws house and they are about 25 minutes apart.

Then we get a text from Donna on the other end of the beach stop in on the way home I have something for you. So, I told husband a quick stop and we are headed home. Ok drinks and lots of laughter later and who knows how long we headed home phew we were gone 38 hours and 4 of those were travel so we fit a lot in! 

We got home and it has poured here and now we are under a thunderstorm watch. We have had so much rain and humid weather I feel clammy all the time! I am very very sick of it!

I am looking for cool crisp air with lots of sun.

9pm Friday night I decided to make a strawberry rhubarb crumble with the last of my rhubarb to take to the cookout.

Not enough oatmeal for the topping. Husband's cereal was cheerios cinnamon nut crunch. hmmm that may work! So, in the food processor it goes with all the other ingredients and voila! It was a hit!

Not much change in the weather this week. We have a garden walk on Sat with friends touring 11 different gardens. I am praying for sunshine.

And I have a class on Thursday but more on that later. 

Wishing you all blue skies. 

Halcyon Days

Fireworks were delayed because of rain so last night they went off without a hitch. 

Today my daughter, sweet B and I went to the Science center. 

for the animals' birthday party. It was warm but the trails were cooler among the trees. This is the owl chair. there is another one a few yards away and when you talk low it goes straight to the other person. It is amazing and it shows how owls have super hearing. 

(She had golf lessons in the morning a busy girl.) 

But our favorites the otters. They were pretty active and enjoying their extra snacks for their birthday party. 

We got the passes from our local library for free entry. You should always check with your local library to see what passes they have our little library has a lot of passes that we will use this summer. 

A great money saver. 

We are in day 2 of humid heat and the lavender is blooming like crazy. I made a couple of lavender bottles to put in my wool to help keep the moths away. I make a few every year so I have quite a collection. They last forever. 

Before the heat settled in, I made almond poppy seed bread. I froze the three and kept one. We have a picnic to go to this weekend so I will take a couple out of the freezer to take with us. 

My garlic grew scapes this is my first time having them, so I am always looking up what to do with them. I put them in a salad, made pesto, and tonight I grilled a few on the grill to have in a salad yummm. 

Holly Hocks are large and wonderful and enjoying the heat.  

I know this is a "weed: but I still love it. Mullein

the flowers and leaves contain powerful anti-bacterial properties.

It has so many uses. If you want to know more, you should follow The Heirloom Gardener- Jon Forti He is the director of Bedrock gardens in Lee NH he is a wealth of knowledge and has written a book also. I was lucky enough to meet him last summer. 

Bear update, I am not sure if he decided to move on on his own or I convinced him to. Each night I put out fresh Ammonia around where he was coming in. Since I have started that no sign of him. I will keep doing it for a while just to be sure. 

This is husband hard at work. when we drove to Florida last March 

we had lots of time to talk. We discussed aging in place or moving on. The house is much too large, but we decided to stay as long as we could. We only have a half bath on the main floor and to make it more comfortable if at some point we can't make the stairs we are putting in a walk-in shower. It worked out great as we had a closet on the back side of this bathroom so he broke through and that is where the shower will go. He has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. He built our house and has done most everything in it. We are starting to hire some things done it is time for him to rest but he wanted to do this so there he is. Waiting on the plumber and we had to special order a shower to finish up.

Tonight, was the first night to get the grille going. 

the night is so warm, but it felt so good to have a wine and just enjoy the evening. 

It is days like these I have thought about when working over the years. Time with Sweet B and family and time to just be if I wanted. 

These are the days I hold in my heart. I am sure there are many more to come. 

Have a wonderful rest of your week.