Talk about gorgeous! I planted this day lily last year and it is chock full of buds this summer – all that rain helps. I walked outside this morning to see that two of the lilies had opened. It’s funny, I sometimes forget what I planted and how it looked from year to year. This was a lovely surprise this morning.

We mowed like crazy yesterday. We were tuckered out. There’s still more to go but the front of the property, along with the corral, looks lovely.

I’ve never seen the gardens this lush. Even Don was commenting about it this morning. The hydrangeas are plump and gorgeous. There is more bee balm than ever, maybe a little too much. The day lilies have more blooms than normal and their bloom time is longer than usual. The peonies were better than ever, as were the lilacs. The endless rain that we had from April on was depressing at the time, but the payoff – and don’t we need one? – is the look of the gardens. Don was crediting me and, yes, I planted everything, but I quickly gave credit to the rain for the current abundance of blossoms.

I’m dithering between two books right now – not sure which one I want to read. Maybe I’m coming out of my long stretch with non-fiction and am heading back to my longtime love, fiction. I feel a change in the air!

An early morning shot of the living room and part of the kitchen. The sunlight is softening the edges of everything, so it looks a bit impressionistic.

I watched The Moon-spinners on TCM On Demand the other day. I remember loving that movie as a kid – I was a huge Hayley Mills fan. I also quickly developed a crush on Peter McEnery, her co-star. He was also in a Disney movie called The Fighting Prince of Donegal, another favorite. It was fun to watch it again. I snuck it in during the day as I knew Don would have absolutely no interest in it. Anyway, I read every Mary Stewart mystery when I was a a teenager. I still have many of those paperbacks, read over and over again. I was struck by the Disney take on the novel; the casting of younger actors, the decision to eliminate the sophistication of the characters (who smoked!) and the editing of the story down to a basic Disney plot that didn’t involve too much complexity. The book is far, far better. I’m now in the mood to re-read all my favorite Stewarts: The Ivy Tree, Nine Coaches Waiting, The Moon-spinners, Madam, Will You Talk?  and This Rough Magic. She was such a wonderful writer and I must admit I miss those cocktail-drinking, cigarette-smoking, sophisticated British heroines.

Don’t get me started on the Disneyfication of Broadway. That’s a subject for another day.

After the movie, I walked around the house talking like Hayley Mills. I think I’ve got her line delivery down. Lots of enthusiasm and a certain way of punching the final word of a line. It worked well for her when she was a child actor, not so well as a young adult. But oh, how I loved her at the time! I wanted to be  her!

Happy Tuesday.

I thought I’d share the Annabelle hydrangeas with you before they get pummeled by today’s storms:

A view from the side garden. Lots of fluffy hydrangeas, day lilies, and the first of what will be many, many purple coneflowers. That fabric tie on the left was something I used to train my New Dawn rose, which no longer blooms. I don’t have very good luck with roses here. Even my little rose plants in the Memorial Garden aren’t doing well. One never developed leaves (and it’s only a couple of years old) and another had tiny roses that looked unhealthy. I know that roses do well in California’s dry heat, and it’s been so, so wet here this year – I wonder if that has something to do with it?

From the front of the house, along with milkweed and spirea.

Speaking of milkweed:

So beautiful. I love those little florets! Perfection

And the meadowsweet that grows on the side of the house is starting to bloom.

It’s muggy – just turned on the A/C – and we’re supposed to get thunderstorms today, some with high winds and maybe some hail. No, thank you! If you want to give us some thunder and lightning, go ahead. But no high winds and no hail. Okay?

I’ve started to read The Salt Path. It’s extremely powerful. It brings up issues that are uncomfortable – how quickly we can lose everything, and how a devastating diagnosis can change your world in a moment. That’s what happens to this couple.

For so many years of our life in this cottage, we struggled to pay our bills. We’re still struggling, our brief honeymoon with Margaritaville  is long past, but not at the level we endured for what seems like a very long time. How would we pay the mortgage? What if we couldn’t? Would our house be taken away? How would I juggle the bills? When would Don get paid for a TV episode that he had done? When I would get paid for my freelance work? Constantly thinking about money, balancing the checkbook, if I pay this first, then I can hold off on that – and on and on. I have addressed that on the blog in the past, never lingering too long on the subject because it was our choice to be freelance and that came with the life. Any actor would tell you the same thing. For the record, we always managed to pay every bill. But oh my god, was it stressful.

That situation wasn’t the same as the one the man and woman in the memoir faced, but they did lose everything in a short space of time, and isn’t that a fear we all have?

I’m only a couple of chapters in and I find myself filled with admiration for these people. And a whole lot of awe. Raynor Winn writes with such honesty, facing everything head on, sharing moments of fear and weakness. It’s gripping. I know some of you have already read it, but for those of you who haven’t, I highly recommend it.

We watched Fatal Attraction  last night. Haven’t seen it in years. Oh my heavens! It’s just as frightening as it was the first time I saw it. Everyone gives a powerful performance, but Glenn Close? Extraordinary. She is fearless in this role, mapping the arc of the character brilliantly.

Don is off to try to take some pictures, though I feel he’ll be thwarted by the storms.

I have some dusting to do upstairs. I always dust downstairs, but forget to dust upstairs for long periods of time. I guess it’s because I’m not hanging out there during the day.

And I’m going to catch up on some episodes of Gardeners World.

Happy Saturday.