Check out all that new growth on the Boston fern! I was so worried that I might have killed it by putting it outside too early in the spring, but, as one of you said at the time, ferns are quite resilient. Huzzah!
I’ve been watering a lot because we’re in a hot and humid 90 degree cycle here. That should change with some storms on Wednesday and it will go back down to the low to mid-eighties.
I took it easy yesterday as I had suffered from too little sleep on Saturday night. Don was off taking portraits (he had a very successful day!) and I had the A/C on. I just did routine things like washing the sheets, watering both the indoor and outdoor plants, listening to music, and reading. That’s all I could handle. And I was so tired that it was difficult to concentrate on reading. Much better today after a good night’s sleep.
It’s hard to believe it’s almost the end of July! Slow down, summer!
As we sat on the porch this morning drinking our second cup of coffee, I saw an Eastern swallowtail butterfly flitting around. But she was too fast for me to capture with the camera.
At one point yesterday, I saw four finches and a catbird on the edge of the birdbath. It seems they all got an invite for a 2 pm pool party! I only managed to get pictures of two of the finches because I was so enchanted by all of the activity and didn’t want to get up to get my camera. I’ll share those tomorrow.
What else? I’m into Knife by Jo Nesbø (he’s a top-notch writer) and the library informs me that the Kate Atkinson I’ve been waiting for is in. However, they’re closed today, so I’ll pick it up tomorrow.
Slow hot days around here. But, after waiting so long for spring and summer, I’m grateful for them and I don’t want to wish them away.
Happy Monday.
looks like a very healthy, happy fern to me! good work, claudia!
glad your books are in, good and that don had a successful day taking portraits.
and that you take it easy, especially in such heat.
agree that summer seems to go by so fast. all time does that to me.
happy monday to all! i am happy to leave work in two hours, go hear some live music tonight and, in the meantime, have about four hours in the car visiting with my sister to go hear that music and then drive back home. :)
kathy in iowa
Oh, my goodness, is it hot out today. And very humid!
Have a fabulous time with your sister, Kathy!
I’m having trouble leaving comments here. I’ll type the whole thing and hit ‘post comment’ and then it doesn’t take it, saying that MHC is taking too long to respond, so I really don’t know if that’s me or you or what’s going on, but if you see me going long spaces with no comments it’s because there’s a problem on my end (although, even as I read you every day, I don’t always comment; it’s good to let other readers ‘talk’, so I try to do that!).
If this one goes, just wanted to say that your property reminds me of a park; very park-like surroundings. And glad you can enjoy these waning days of summer, because school supplies and school uniforms have been in the stores a few weeks now, signaling ‘Fall’.
I haven’t been having any trouble getting on the blog or responding to comments. It could be the server on your end. It could be your wi-fi connection or some problem with connecting to the blog’s server from your neck of the woods. Frustrating, I know! It sounds like the comment is timing out, so for some reason it’s taking too long for it to go through. I have that happen on other blogs sometimes. Nothing that I can do on my end.
Since I don’t have to have anything to do with ‘school’ I’ll be happy to enjoy summer until, what? September 21st or something like that? Thanks, Vicki.
I talked this over with my husband and he agrees it may very well be our problem (with a modem), so he’s looking into it. Thanks for the ‘reasoning’ on the problem. I’m clueless.
Yes, the idea of Fall. In my zapped comment, I’d said that I was in a box store and a mom and her teen daughter were shopping for dorm supplies, picking out towels, arguing (in a friendly way) of which colors of bath towels were ‘gross’ (I was amused). I think that’s when it really hit home with me as to how fast this summer is flying. We all remember back-to-school days!
(I would love, back in the day, to be picking out fabrics in August, going through the drawers of dress and skirt patterns at the store, Mom and I deciding what was best for my limited school ‘wardrobe’ and what she thought she could sew and what she couldn’t due to her level of skill [I couldn’t sew for anything!]; fond memories. And I loved putting together my 3-ring binder notebook for school, with shiny new dividers, getting my pencil pouch ready with everything I needed; I always looked forward to the new school year!)
But, yes, in the meantime, you’ve still got August and most of September to continue to enjoy your gorgeous green and also multi-color surroundings which are a testament to your considerable yardwork! I love it, too, when your leaves begin to fall; pretty autumn landscape.
I used to love all that school prep too. Covering books, getting my 3 ring binder ready, shopping for school supplies! And we didn’t have much money but my mom used to make me some dresses – dress code then – and my grandmother would buy me one new outfit.
Did you cover your books by re-purposing a kraft-paper grocery bag? I did! They lasted all semester; very durable.
We had a dress code, too. In ‘junior high’ (middle school) we had to kneel and they’d measure our hemlines (public school!) We never wore jeans/Levi pants or any kind of ‘slacks’ like corduroys til senior year of high school; had never been allowed previously. (Wow, how times have changed!)
Benevolent relatives!
My parents were so broke when I was in the elementary school years of like K-3 that my aunt would send me three new dresses for school each September (and she bought the best – – so, even though I didn’t have a lot of clothes [Mother of course did sew what outfits she could for me], the store-bought ones that I actually DID have were good quality and ‘name’ brands). It was a HUGE event when that box would come, directly from The May Company (a SoCalif ‘institution’, even when my mother was a little girl in the 1920s) out of Downtown Los Angeles (which later became Robinson’s-May in my teen era, never quite the same, but still a nice department store until it all went ppfffttt later in my adulthood as we’ve seen with so many of the stores).
Little girls of the 50s & 60s (at least where I was in Calif) always wore dresses to school (‘play pants’/play clothes only after we got home and changed out of our school dresses, which the moms wanted to keep ‘nice’ for as long as possible; they had to last!). I was lucky also because I had two slightly-older cousins who passed their school dresses down to me once they’d outgrown them. Clearly, this helped out my parents (and kids grow so fast; I do remember Mother telling me how they tried to concentrate on rapidly-changing shoe sizes; they sacrificed to buy good shoes for me; protect my feet).
I was just thinking about this: I don’t recall ever wearing a skirt til I was in 8th grade; it was always dresses. How weird. I remember coveting a kilt/wool-plaid skirt, but we were just never cool-weather enough in SoCalif to wear tights, skirts, pullover sweaters although that definitely was a high school trend later (for awhile!).
My grandmother bought me a kilt like skirt, I can remember it. It had a matching sweater. I now realize that the burn orange tones of the sweater and skirt were not my best colors! But I didn’t figure out best colors until years and years later when that Seasonal color thing was in.
Yes, always a brown paper grocery bag!
Your fern is glorious Claudia!!! And yes,lack of sleep can be incredibly wearing. Always magical to see a butterfly♡
Thank you, Grace! So happy it revived! xo
SO right, Claudia. I know I’ll never like it – and I always groan about it – but I need to revel in the warmth of Summer while we have it. Because in no time, dull-dreary-gray-cold old Winter will be upon us. I know we need Winter – it’s sort of the palate cleanser of the seasons – but to me, it’s only pretty when there’s a soft slow “Christmas Eve” snowfall going on. And it is outstandingly pretty when that happens. So I will be grateful for the heat & humidity & green growth & Summer sunshine while it’s here. So much greenery, growth & Life! Peace & enjoy the rest of your Monday… 🐝🌿☀️🌱🍉🕷
#Resist
#ImpeachTrump
I like winter up to and including Christmas and New Year’s. And then, I’m over it! But I have no choice in the matter, do I?
Thanks, Janet!
We are definitely in the dog days of summer now. It seems all these years I got the definition wrong on the dog days, but I actually prefer mine to the correct definition. Mine is the winding down, moving more slowly, trying to make the summer slow down some, slow down as dogs do when it gets too hot. The correct one has some scientific definition that has not a bit of romance in it.
Your gardens are always so fresh and inviting. If I ever get out east don’t be surprised if I show up to have refreshments in each of your garden settings.
Ah, thank you, Trudy! I always thought ‘dog days’ meant the excessive heat and humidity of August. But I guess not!
If only Jan, Feb & March flew by as does June, July & Aug!! We are back in the “perfect weather” cycle of low 80’s for a few days. Windows open and the cat is beyond thrilled!! These days are, indeed, diamonds!
Glad you were able to get some sleep last night. I have been waking up at 3 or 4 AM and just lying there not able to fall back to sleep. The harder I try, the worse it is. So frustrating. Hopefully, this, too, shall pass!
Hope your Monday was lovely!
I often wake up at that time as well. It’s so frustrating, Chris!
these pictures are beautiful. and I loved your description of the pool party at the bird bath!
when I had my little cottage a whole family of sparrows would always gather and take turns.
I felt they were splashing and calling out to each other the way children do at the pool!
our summers here are what people all over are dealing with. it’s brutal for man and beast.
we’ve now been the whole month of July without rain in the town where I live!
after the unusual spring rains this year … another summer of drying up on the bone with heat and indexes in the triple digits every day. you’d think I’d be used to it by now? really? NOPE! LOL!!! and every single year I always think “this is the summer I WON’T COMPLAIN!”
I try to keep quiet about it. and just kind of hibernate til it’s over. sometime in late November.
and Vicki is right. you DO live in a beautiful PARK! that one picture is especially lovely.
I love just sitting here dreaming of it and listening to the river across the street.
and you’re a wonderful caretaker! and you value it and appreciate it so much.
thank you for your blog. it helps a lot of us!!! xo
I’m not used to this weather, either! But I’m trying to stay calm and find things to do inside. Thank you, Tammy!