Summer Reading

The crazy heat has finally broken. I should say humidity. I really hate it so much.

I am with my grand for a couple of days. She thought a face mask was a good idea. I had never done one. 

And a nice cup of tea. While I watched  The Devil Wears Prada 2. It was good but not as good as the first one.

We went to a local play of Tarzan that a lot of her dance friends were in. Great job by everyone and a live band too!

I just finished this book. I love this author always quirky and a bit of magic. If you want to read her start with Garden Spells so good!.

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. I am still having computer issues so forgive me for not replying. 

Have a lovely week.

Many Blessings

The big birthday happened. I was treated to a lobster roll by my husband, plus dinner out that evening.

The next day my sweet daughter made reservations for us to have a full English tea.

 

My sweet B, who is the tea drinker in the family, was thrilled. She was over the moon that she discovered sugar cubes.

It was Harry Potter month at the tea room, again one of Sweet B's favorites.

I could not think of a better way of celebrating than tea with my two loves.

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Plus cards, letters, calls, and gifts from my sweet friends. 

I have many blessings. Thank you to everyone who wished me an early happy birthday.

Ahh To Sleep

I found enough flowers to make a vase for the porch. 

The cutest farm stand in our little town!

I had some sour milk to use up. I used it to make muffins. Of course I took a recipe from the internet and half way through I saw it called for no sugar. I added a quarter cup and and couple of spoons of blueberry jelly. They came out very good. 

I am due for a big birthday next week eeeeek!

While at the beach my sweet friend gave me a bag of gifts. The apron I am wearing and this mix, lovely napkins, and tea. 

I am completely obsessed with mahjon now.

Our regular spot has lots of summer people joining us. One amazing lady has got us started in when we win we get a duck and if we get a closed hand win we get a brass sparrow.(a much harder hand) I won all this Tue afternoon it was a good game day! 

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I am in a no sleeping or not much sleeping mode and I am exhausted. I passed up a lovely lunch today. I am having headaches which I never have. I would not have been good company. 

Have a wonderful rest of your week. 

Back From The Beach

The first two days were rainy and over cast but the sun came out! Little sand pipers. 

While walking it was foggy at the other end. 

We played Scrabble and had lovely cocktails. 

A new addition at the beach sunscreen! What a great idea.

On the way home I stopped at the thrift store. I donated a big bag of things and came out with these. The cruit is for my dish detergent and we have never seen the pirates of the Caribbean, total spent 2.50.

And last but not least my geraniums I wintered over! I started these as bare sticks in April. Voila here we are. 

Have a great week!

A surprise

Friday we took a ride around the lake to Wolfeboro NH. For lunch. Wolfeboro is the oldest summer resort community in the country. One of the stops was the yum yum shop bakery. They are know world wide for their gingerbread men. At Christmas they sell gingy boxes with cookies and frosting you put on. You have to order months in advance.

We ate dock side and saw the Mt Washington boat dock. In the pilot house was a young man whose dad was captain of that boat at one time. Sadly, he died when this young man was a little boy. His mom is so proud of him, and I know his dad would be too.

My thyme is blooming. The bees love it 

This is French tarragon. I have a large crop this year. Because we were chilly I made chicken gnocchi soup. It came out so good. 

I will use a lot of tarragon, great on chicken or veggies. 

 

A beautiful carton of farm fresh eggs. 

My sweet grand went to a theater camp to learn costuming. We went to the play to see what she worked on SURPRISE! She had a little solo part she didn't tell us about.

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It was a breezy beautiful day today so husband and I spent it doing yard work. I spent most of the day weeding and cutting plants back. The heat we had made thing go by so fast. I bet I sleep well tonight.

Have a great week.

Deadly lettuce?

Between the heat and a sore knee, I haven't walked much. I got out this morning for a short walk and found some meager blueberries.

Out of caution, I am not eating salads right now. I made up a batch of homemade Boursin cheese and bought a bag of Bugles to stay safe, lol.

We had pasta last night with chicken and this cheese. It was so good and very quick as I used chopped rotisserie chicken.

We have been getting smoke from Canada. The sun and everything has a yellow haze. The air quality is awful. I feel bad for anyone living near those fires if our air is this bad.

I hate the heat but will be very sad when summer is over. Our mornings on the porch and seeing my daughter and family more make for a perfect summer.

Have a great week!

Lavender

My lavender this year is so happy! There was a lavender festival in the town where the family gathering was held. The police shut it down because there were so many people it was a hazard. People just love lavender, including my sweet Grand.

I made a trip to the dump and found 2 books I might like to read in the swap shop. On the way back I stopped at a farm stand and got a couple of summer squash, tis the season yum.

I was asked several times how to keep hollyhocks looking this good. Well partly luck, but I also spray them with rose spray, and they are under a slight overhang so no pounding rain on them. 

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Back to the heat ugg. This weekend could not have been more perfect.

Have a great week.

Garden fairy

Free concert on the common. The police dept was offering free hot dogs and burgers. 

My gardens are doing well. But I am afraid by August they will have all gone by.

Hollyhock garden fairy. I had never made one before.

And husband is having an issue with his foot. Not sure he got any answers with his dr appointment. Another one next week 

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We got to meet our daughter and grand for dinner last night a very big treat for us. 

We are off to a family cookout tomorrow thankfully it will be cooler. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Fireflies

Summer living at its best. The heat has finally broken and it is just glorious! We are porch-sitting waiting for fireflies to come out and dance.

My gardens are bursting forth! With the heat everything is so lush. I did keep everything well watered. 

Hollyhocks....

And my shade garden with my witches' boot purchased at a church sale last winter.

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Not much got done during the heat. We did watch the movie Tombstone. Kurt Russell was Wyatt Earp. Val kilmer as Doc Holliday was exceptional. I'm not much for westerns, but since it was loosely biographical, I did enjoy it.

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Have a wonderful week.

Steamy Heat

Sunset last night. 

A steamy start this morning. We got rain overnight, so my rain barrel is nice and full again for deep watering tomorrow.

Deer GRRR!

We have a house guest until after the 4th. She likes the chair as she is right under the ceiling fan. I don't blame her; it is so hot, and hotter still tomorrow. I don't do well in the heat, I never have. So I am hiding out in our bedroom until it is over (the only air-conditioned room).

Stay cool, everyone.

Keeping Busy

One of the years we went to Star Island for a rug hooking retreat, our sweet leader gave us this apron. Well, after a five-year break, we are going back. And we are making our aprons fancy for the return trip.



Because I have a horrid addiction to my phone, I found a woman who is making lavender baskets. My lavender is in full bloom, so I had to make one.

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We are getting all kinds of alerts about the heat coming in and the very high dew point. We've had such lovely days with rain every few days. So I'm very, very sad about this and a bit worried that we only have one air conditioner in our bedroom.I really hate the heat!!

If I haven't gotten back to you, I am sorry. Computer issues and I am working on my phone, which is not easy.

 Stay cool and safe everyone!

Stange Things

Do we have wee folks living here?

I bought a bag of sewing odds and ends at the thrift store for $1.00. I only wanted some needles and this box of threaders. I break them on a pretty regular basis.

We have a game camera set up near a shed. It is on the edge of the woods. No electricity goes out to the shed and there are no outside lights on that side of the house. So what the heck is this? This was after 11 p.m. We were both in bed. It does make me feel unsettled. It has a heavy tree canopy, so I'm not sure a drone could get in there.

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My name is cathy. I have met a lot of new people lately through mahjong. If someone gets my name wrong they always call me Carol. And as I think back it has happened most of my life being called Carol. Was I a Carol in another life?

So that's the strange things from here.

Staying Home

My rose bush smells so heavenly. 

The colors are not right in this picture at all but I did some dying. On top, the cotton fabric on the left is the "before." The blue is very much like a denim blue. The wool pieces I threw in because I put way too much dye in my pot. (The green was a bright orange.)

A few weeks ago I bought this vest at a thrift store intending to stitch on it. It is jet black linen, J Jill, so expensive in its day, but for $3.00 I am giving it a try.

    

Tomorrow my daughter and family are coming for brunch. She wants to sell her old Barbies. My granddaughter never had any interest in them, so I'm happy to get them out of my attic.

There were some very long-time special friends who moved away who were in town. Six of us gathered for a nice long lunch. So wonderful!

But as you can see, it wore him out, lol.

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It is motorcycle week here and it is noisy and much to busy.

We have one VRBO in our neighborhood. It's a nice, quiet, dead-end, wooded neighborhood.

On Wednesday afternoon, here came 11 bikers and a camper! Well, the camper left, but the 11 bikers stayed. Much too loud and much too fast in this little neighborhood. Looking forward to Sunday when they all leave.

Have a great week!