Hello, first zinnia! I look forward to many more of these happy little flowers.
Yesterday was unbearable. I watered twice. And today? Still awful. Unlike some of you, our too-hot weather looks like it will continue for the next few days. Meanwhile, I need to mow. However, it’s supposed to storm today so I’ll be holding off. The thing about this summer: it’s been like August for most of June and July. Is this our future? I hope not.
We have to run a few errands today. Don has to have his blood taken for a Lyme test. We’re about as sure as you can be that he had Lyme, but it needs to be confirmed. I have to mail some bills. And we have to pick up some stuff at the grocery store. Luckily, we have new masks that I ordered from a seller on Etsy. I made the mistake of putting one of my masks in the dryer and, though it still works, I wanted something that fit better. I guess masks are the new fashion accessory. I need new clothes in general, but since we’re hanging out at home, who cares, right? Instead, we buy new masks. What strange times we live in!
The garden is in full bloom. I wish I could find some magical way to keep it just as it is right now. Phlox, coneflowers, brown-eyed susans, hydrangeas, day lilies, and now, zinnias, everywhere. I love it so much. I’ve seen all sorts of butterflies everywhere; swallowtails, monarchs, great spangled frittilaries. One eastern swallowtail was missing fully half a wing, but it didn’t seem to stop her. So beautiful!
I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s video. I’m off to make our second cup of coffee and get myself together.
Stay safe.
Happy Tuesday.
This time of lockdown has seem me wear all of my old clothes – hope to chuck them out at the end of the lockdown. PJs and dressing gown has got a bashing too as we are in the middle of winter. It has been such a cold one for us.
Luckily I have done my research and have made three layer masks for us both. I have been so happy with the design I chose as it really covers my nose and mouth so well without allowing air into the sides. I think the secret is good covering with wire over the nose, a length which covers almost up to the ears and also well under the chin. I have used nice appropriate cotton materials for both my husband and myself. Hope to make more soon.
We wash in very hot soapy water and then line dry so the sun gets on them – if there is sun! If they don’t dry on the outside line I can hang them up on the covered back verandah. They are becoming fashionable!!!
The masks we ordered have 3 layers. They fit well.
Thanks, Robyn. Stay safe!
best wishes for safe, quick errands and especially for don’s medical stop. after such tasks, it sure feels good to get home, take off the mask, shower and put on clean, comfy clothes, doesn’t it?
the flower (and photo) are beautiful! is that the same flower you showed us on sunday that was just starting to open up? wish you could have your garden, flowers and butterflies all year round. and carry on, eastern swallowtail butterfly with half a wing!
enjoyed the tour of your dollhouse on instagram yesterday. what a great piece of folk art; so glad you have it! timing is everything at antique shops, isn’t it? and your voice is beautiful … warm and very friendly. i have a quake (tremors) in my voice and have avoided getting botox shots in my throat, but they are in my not-too-distant future.
i use an antibacterial soap to hand-wash my masks every day until i can go somewhere to get laundry done once a week (to have my own washer and dryer would be a dream, especially at a time like this); then they go in the washer with hot water and lysol liquid sanitizer. thankfully, i have very hot water where i live … it gets to steaming within 30 seconds … and my shower rod becomes a clothesline.
it is not “essential” but today after work i am going to get a painting framed. it is at a very small shop (there’s room for safer social distancing) owned by a friend; right now he has a “one person at a time” rule, will wear a mask and gloves, only needs to cut a mat for me and i will do the rest (so a very quick stop). looking forward to crossing that off my list, getting the art on the wall and to seeing a friend.
hope you, don and everyone else stays comfortable in whatever weather you get, are safe and having a good day (all things considered).
kathy in iowa
meant to add …
from your instagram … sorry that your purse was stolen (years ago), but so glad it was found (minus money; drats, but of course) and you have that precious photo of you and your brother!
members of my family have put such photos on discs and j-pegs (?) for safe-keeping, to view on a computer and for making more copies. i display what i can and keep the discs in my fire- and water-proof safe; makes me feel better. just an idea …
happy tuesday!
kathy in iowa
I’m sort of averse to putting pictures on disks. For some reason, it turns me off. I’ll get a frame for it.
Thanks, Kathy.
i love them framed or put in a bowl to look at, but we’ve put photos on discs to make sure there’s access to make more copies if needed .
kathy in iowa
xo
hi, kathy; I so hear you about the dream of one’s own washing machine and clothes dryer; cannot tell you how many years I had that dream, lugging laundry back and forth to a laundromat or the laundry room of whatever apartment building I was living in; so, whenever I feel pouty about certain things in life, it’s on my gratitude list that I finally got my own washer and dryer and I hope the day will come when you can have them, too! (in the first apartment I ever lived in, barely out of my teens, a co-worker of mine lived in the apartment across the drive [grouping of buildings over a block, all the same company; nice and brand-new, and it’s also where I met my first serious boyfriend, so the living was good there] and one time, when she left her clothes drying in her building’s laundry room to go do something else, she came back and her entire load of laundry was gone, which included all of her underwear/panties; we never got to the bottom of that to know what the heck had happened; kept checking and thinking somebody would bring them back, never saw her clothes again; had to go to the mall and get her some new undies in a hurry);
the one good thing about a laundromat was when I could tie up four or five machines at one time and, oh boy, did my laundry chore go a lot quicker!
Of course it’s also not cheap and, in those days, I always had to make sure I had enough quarters for the washing machines, and enough dimes for the dryers! I had so darn many clothes to wash because I ‘worked out’ back then, was very active and also took dance lessons (ballet; good for strength and balance), so I had too many ‘exercise’ clothes and even shoes I was constantly washing, but of course as well my work clothes, towels and linens and whereas now, I do laundry more than once a week, I’d sometimes stack up the dirty laundry and not take enough time to get it done as a younger, busy single person, so I’d have this mountain of laundry to chew down and it could kill an entire Saturday or Sunday (which would leave me grumbling a-plenty because it seemed like such a waste of valuable time).
Adventures In Laundry…
hej, vicki!
thanks for the kind wish for me to someday have my own washer and dryer. :)
too bad about your co-worker’s laundry getting stolen. who does such things?!? am sure she appreciated your help.
i’ve had two “adventures” at public laundromats. one was finding countless (thousands and thousands) little black hairs, maybe 1/4 of an inch long, all over my load of white clothes … disgusting! the laundromat thankfully paid for the three times i had to wash my clothes to get rid of all that hair. the attendant said someone from a nearby hair salon must have been over to wash their towels after razor-clipping a guy with a great head of hair. the other “adventure” happened shortly after i moved up to minneapolis. i went to a public laundromat to wash a load of white clothes. when the cycle was done and i pulled them out, everything was a dark pink (socks, underwear, tops and towels) … because some mean person had apparently tried to dye clothes in the washer and didn’t bother to rinse it out … and i was a novice to laundromats who didn’t think to look inside the machines before putting anything in them. lesson learned.
oh, life …!
hope you’re keeping cool and safe.
kathy in iowa
ha, I got a rueful laugh over your MISadventures in laundry!
Yes, that’s the same flower. It opened up within a day!
How long have you had the quake in your voice, Kathy? Is the only solution botox?
Stay safe!
thanks, claudia.
about five years. it’s getting to the point where my family has difficulty hearing me over the phone (breaking my heart) and people at work have mentioned it so i will follow the process that my insurance policy requires … being seen by my doctor, then going to a specialist (ent doctor) and getting speech therapy before they might approve botox shots. there’s no other solution that i am aware of and there’s no guarantee that botox would help (and if they do, the shots last only a couple of months).
the flower is beautiful. i understand why you’d like to have a whole garden full of such wonderful creations blooming all year! maybe take a little video of it to see in winter?
have a good, easy day and stay safe, too!
kathy in iowa
My sister has problems with her voice because she had radiation on her neck and chest when she had cancer. She gets botox, but I think it’s also for residual neck pain. Hang in there, Kathy!
thanks, claudia.
best wishes and prayers for your sister, too.
kathy in iowa
xo
That flower is gorgeous. We’ve finally gathered enough masks to see us through, I think. Some are very utilitarian.,,.and some are more “stylish”. Whoever would’ve thought!
My wardrobe has become very mundane. I secretly would like to burn all my clothes after this is all done…but the frugal person in me might not let me do that.
We are off to the food store…today’s excitement. At least our county requires face masks…so we can feel safer going out.
I’ve been taking scads of pictures to remind me later, how great everything is looking in the gardens this year. Hope you have a good day. Stay safe! ;)
Same here. I think I’ll take more pictures today as the humidity has dropped – finally!
Stay safe, Donna!
Hello… my grandma used to say “Ah, the lazy hazy days of summer” then until this year I would say “Ah, these crazy hazy days of summer” but now I will be using her words. I am no longer a bundle of energy and am looking at ways to streamline my gardening chores. It’s so dry here this summer that I am watering shrubs and trees to keep them alive and next chance of rain is Friday and it is not a great chance agt that. Makes me sad seeing my beautiful plants suffering. The zinnias don’t seem to mind at all so I’m gonna save lots of their seed for next year!
So, I am happy to look at your blooms every day!
Take care…
There was a song by that name. I can still remember it.
We’re very dry here, as well. We were supposed to have storms yesterday – but nothing. Again.
Stay safe, Kelly!
The flowers and the veggies are my salvation right now. I can get lost in the blooms, or just watching the bees and the butterflies as many minutes go by. I am so dreading the onset of winter months, as I am most certain that we will be inside sheltering, not able to enjoy the outdoors as much and as long as we now can. And my anger rises as I firmly believe that most all of this could have been avoided. We are being cheated out of nearly a year of our lives, and who knows if it will be just a year. For some of us, that isn’t something we easily want to give up at this point! The days are precious.
Hope your errands went well today. I had a knee injection this morning and I felt safe in the Ortho office w/ everyone masked, temps taken, hand sanitizer given & used, and everything wiped down 2x while I was there for just about 25 minutes. It is so scary to do things we have done for so long, and have to be concerned and worried. We certainly took a lot for granted in the past, didn’t we??
Me too. Thank goodness for all of it! I get very angry about these idiots that have made us all pay for their ignorance. I’m right there with you.
Don said he felt very safe at his doctor’s office. He was the only patient in there when he got his blood drawn.
Stay safe, Chris.
I’m sure my husband gets tired of me wearing rags, but he’s got days where he’s still in his bathrobe at 3pm. We’ve just gotta get it together.
Your photo of the zinnia is frame-able. Could nature be more perfect?
I notice I’m less aware of hot summer because I’m always indoors with Covid. Not doing all the errands I used to do and being out in it. I have this odd habit now of going out at night, which isn’t the smartest thing to do, looking at my roses with a flashlight, but the neighborhood out front quiet, and not potentially-Covid-affected people in the vicinity, rather, in their beds sleeping. I’ve become a creature of the night! And our nights are cool. Days, too, have been running low 80s (where I am in SoCalif,), so very unusual for the end of July, at least from recent years. (You’re hotter in the East; we’re cooler in the West; wow.) So, yes, it is indeed strange times overall.
We have to mail a parcel tomorrow and it’s the first time we will have been in the public arena of the postal center, with customers and clerks, since February. My husband will do it, and we’re going to a bigger town with a bigger post office where I know they have better mitigation with the larger lobby. Still, our Covid numbers are bad where I am, so I have some apprehension. We’ll just have to be super careful.
Good luck with the parcel, Vicki!
Stay safe!
Found the mosquito repellent so was able to sit out for a couple hours and read late this afternoon. I appreciate how lucky we are to have the humidity lift a bit. Haven’t had much rain so don’t need to mow as often as you seem to be doing.
That zinnia is so beautiful. I had planned to add zinnias to our garden this year but then didn’t feel comfortable going to the nursery during our stay-at-home period. Something to look forward to next year.
Take care.
Kay
Today – finally – the humidity has lifted. It’s going to be 90 degrees but it’s so much more pleasant out there!
Stay safe, Kay!
I hope all goes well today as Don gets his blood work done and you get other errands done.
Thank you, Linda. Stay safe!
Your flower portraits are so sharply focused and beautifully framed. I feel as if I’m meeting each individual bloom in person. Thank you!! BTW, I took a visit to your miniatures page and it seemed like the content had been removed. Am I doing something wrong? I love each house and popping in to the sellers that you recommend. Perhaps I need a different link? I don’t think I told you that thanks to you I ordered a chair from Arlette. I’m so excited. It and a matching couch are on her current site–it’s the Deco white armchair with piping, my one “good thing” in my budget room. I appreciate you sharing her talent. And a question: have you ever used a room box? I’m looking on line but have no real idea about how deep it should be or how to add lighting. I’m at the point in my life where I feel overwhelmed by all the books I’ve kept, none of them valuable volumes, but mostly paperback or self-help things I think I will get rid of so that I can use the bookcase space for miniatures. Blah blah blah…I do go on. Anyway, thank you for continuing to give us this wonderful space. Good luck with Don’s test. Enjoy your at-peak garden, the rewards of your work with Mother Nature.
Are you clicking on the individual subheadings? There’s one for each dollhouse and also a source list, etc. All the links are working. If you just click on Dollhouse/Minis, you’ll get a page that tells you to click on the subheadings. Click and hold on Dollhouse/Minis and you’ll see the individual categories below. If you’re still having problems, you may have clear your browser. All is working on this end.
So glad you ordered from Arlette! She’s so talented. I’ve never used a room box, but if you are going to buy one, the dimensions are usually provided.
Stay safe!