More day lilies have opened.

Some pesky deer have been chomping on my David phlox (just like last year) and even some of my coneflowers – that has never happened before! So I sprayed everything the other day, but I’ll spray again today as we’ve had some rain. Oh, and I saw that my big hosta had been chomped on.

It’s all out war now.

I mowed yesterday – I was just going to mow the back forty, but I ended up mowing the corral, too. Boy, that tires me out! I didn’t get to the lilac side of the front lawn, so Don is going to get to that today or tomorrow. Needless to say, today I will be taking it somewhat easy, though I think I’ll be doing some pruning. Everything is out of control at the moment.

We watched The Lady Eve  last night on TCM. It’s one of my favorite movies – Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck, William Demarest and a great supporting cast in a screwball comedy directed and written by the great Preston Sturges. Oh my heavens, we had such a good time watching it!

The bee balm fully opened.

I’m going to do my best to avoid the news this weekend. I reached burnout yesterday. The weekend will consist of reading, working in the garden, hanging out with my husband and eating some of the apple pie he’s going to make later today.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

The temperatures have dropped as of yesterday and life seems a bit easier. Sort of. We mowed yesterday, though it was still surprisingly humid. There’s lots more mowing to do and I had planned on doing that today, but we’ve had unexpected rain, with more due tomorrow. One good thing; I got to use the weed trimmer in the secret garden – it was so overgrown back there! The Dude was barely visible!

If it stops raining this morning, I might try to mow the “Lilac Side” of the front lawn because I don’t think it will be too impacted by the rain. We’ll see.

On Wednesday, we came back home from grocery shopping and as we were unloading the car, I saw a Monarch Butterfly. She was laying eggs on the milkweed! It was so cool to see that. Timing is everything, isn’t it? We stayed far away as she was skittish and watched her go from plant to plant. I guess I won’t be removing any milkweed unless I’m sure it’s egg-free. At his point, I should just leave it alone until fall.

Change of clothes for these two, who were wearing sweaters during the plus 100° heat.

As I said on IG, with so many girls wearing shoes, available footwear is almost non-existent. So this time, I matched outfits to  the boots they were already wearing.

That’s Zoe on the left and Madeleine on the right.

I think I need to order at least two more pairs of shoes from my friend Cora. She makes the most wonderful footwear and she lives in Connecticut.

I’m about to finish a Jack Reacher book by Lee Child and his son, Andrew. I am wary about this trend of double authors, which seems to happen when a prolific author gets older and, presumably, more tired. But the 3 or 4 that I’ve read have been pretty good. Maybe not quite as good as the original run by Lee Child. Nevertheless, I’m enjoying them. I have the newest Robert Macfarlane on my pile, Is a River Alive?  He writes about nature and is one of my favorite authors. This just came out and I only have about a week in which to read it, so I have to get going.

I hardly buy any books anymore, but I did succumb the other day, as Jane Casey has just published a new book in her Maeve Kerrigan police procedural series. I am an unabashed fan and have read them all, but our library system doesn’t always order her books. So far, there is no indication that this one is in the system. So I ordered it from Amazon. The last one ended with a real cliff-hanger.

But I won’t let myself read it until I finish the Macfarlane.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

The end of the peony.

What can I say? The heat has been unbearable with heat indexes of up to 108 degrees. We are thankful for the A/C but it doesn’t stop the lethargy that has taken over both of us. Our brains feel like mush. I run outside to water everything in the morning and afternoon. I keep adding water to the birdbath, which has been very busy lately. And, of course, I water the pots on the porch.

One more day of this. The weather advisory has changed from “Extreme Heat Warning” to “Heat Advisory.” I don’t know that there’s much difference in the end. Tomorrow, the temperature will drop 20 degrees and relief will come. I know so many of you have been dealing with this. Hang in there, things will soon change.

Don didn’t want to do anything but hang out on his birthday, and frankly, that’s all we could do with the heat. We’ve decided no more presents from here on out. We don’t need anything. Whenever Don asks me what I want to do on my birthday, I respond “Just be with you.” And that’s the truth. He feels the same. So that’s what we did. The ice cream at the end of the day was extra special and we really enjoyed it. I sang Happy Birthday to him, adding a candle to his piece of apple pie. I am, of course, always happy to celebrate this man who unexpectedly came into my life 31 years ago. That guy completely turned my world around! I’m so happy I get to live this adventure with him by my side.

He is the best.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.