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.
Enjoy your flowers before the rain gets them, Claudia. I hate that…the rains got my one peony a few weeks ago. I saw Fatal Attraction the day of my grandfather’s funeral. I know that is weird, but my Canadian cousins felt a need to entertain the California cousins so off we trooped to see the movie that evening. Of the five who went, only my husband and I managed to sit through the entire movie. Cousin after cousin left the theater and waited for us in the lobby. Yes, if you can get past the gruesomeness of some of the scenes, Glenn Close was extraordinarily and masterfully evil.
She was, indeed!
Okay. I just ordered and received The Salt Path. I just have to understand how a person willingly relives a devastating, but ultimately triumphant period in her life—in brave detail!
Many people clamored (and still do) for my account of our trauma/triumph, and for many years I tried. But whenever I got to the deep, painful truth, I’d give up and claw my way to a happier, if more superficial, reality.
I was so in awe of Susan Branch’s ability to go back to her tragedy in Fairy Tale Girl. I did manage to read that one without dying and even found a writer/artist/blogger I love to follow. It did not give me courage, though.
Thanks for another reading suggestion, Claudia. I’ve been living in a world of Louise Penny and James Lee Burke for 2019, after you so kindly recommended them. Enjoy your weekend and your lovely gardens.
I think reliving something, putting it into words, is cathartic, as I’m sure it must have been for the author.
I know you sailed for a long trip, but I had no idea it was a trauma/triumph. I’m sorry!
Well, I normally put the happy spin on it because it makes me and everyone else feel better. Then I can go back to not remembering. Thanks for a safe space to open up a little. It’s all good now. (That milkweed is really too gorgeous!)
xoxo
The Salt Path is on my list of books to be read. I remember glancing through it when I was receipting it for work but there was already a waiting list. This afternoon temperatures have reached 84 which is almost unheard of but it’s only for one day, tomorrow it’s back to low 60s and rain.
Spent this afternoon at an 80th birthday garden party for my son’s step grandmother and was chatting to another lady I’d just met who was a similar age to me. She pointed to my son and said “You must have your hands full with a teenager!” I called him over and asked her how old she thought he was, she said “About 16?” All three of us couldn’t stop laughing when he revealed he’s actually 31!! I felt very flattered as I’m in my early 60s!
Enjoy Gardener’s World, I think it’s the same episode I previously mentioned with Will Young in Cornwall that also shows all the rain we’ve been having when Monty is in his greenhouse!
Happy Saturday
How lovely to hear that, Dee Dee!
Unfortunately, 84 is all too common here, but England is much more temperate than our neck of the woods!
Your Hydrangea is beautiful. Mine is the biggest it has ever been, but I still see no buds!!! It is crazy. Maybe this steamy weather will give a bump to all those things growing, but seemingly not blooming. Grass mowing is now 2x each week or we would have to bale.
Hope you don’t get the crazy storms that we had on Thurs & Fri and that Don can get some picture taking in for the day. It is sunny and very hot and muggy here for the weekend so I am sure that will come your way after the rain!Have a peaceful Saturday!!
Well, now the forecast has changed and we might dodge a bullet. But if that’s the case, I have to get out there and water!
First – I have the Annabelle hydrangea and ❤️ it. Have made many cuttings/plants from it!
Second – will be reading The Salt Path soon, it sounds thrilling!
Third – PBS Facebook page has a short clip of last year’s Fourth of July show, guess what it is? Margaritaville! And guess who’s in it!!!! Enjoy!
Oh, I’ll have to look! Thanks, Nancy!
Your Annabelle is gorgeous! My limelights have buds but they haven’t opened yet. I had to spray them because the deer devastated the one in my front yard. Might as well just but out a buffet sign for them.
It’s very sticky here…we have one outdoor project to do. Hopefully it don’t take longer than 20 minutes. Then I plan to chill inside…and watch a movie or two. Stay cool! ;)
My limelights don’t bud until later in the summer!
Very sticky here and I’m tired of it!
Well…I’ve got two in the sun that are/were budded. (One was snacked on.). And two others in shade…no buds yet. I’ve had enough humidity, too. So has my hair…frizz bomb comes to mind! ;)
XO
Claudia, your gardens are heaven! So, so lovely.
I too love to garden; it’s like a breathe of fresh air.
I have the Salt Path on hold at my e-library and I have long been anticipating its arrival.
I am also mindful of a story / an anecdote I once read where a father and daughter were having their last visit and the father said to the daughter , “I wish you enough.” That’s what I want. Enough. Not to have huge amounts of stuff or trips etc, but enough to buy what I need / food / pay my bills without having to worry if there is enough money in the bank. Enough.
Cindi
Enough is plenty, isn’t it? Thanks, Cindi.
Beautiful flowers/plants. Zippo’s memorial garden is taking hold now and looks so lovely, especially with the colorful cosmos I planted. My hydrangeas haven’t bloomed yet, but they don’t get a lot of sun where we have them.
I hear you about struggling to pay your bills. Our situations are much different, but our extremely rough time was when the boys were little. I was driving a “beater” car that broke down all the time. (There were times I’d be without a car.) Phil was a very sick little boy with severe allergies and asthma. He had sinus surgery when he was only six years old and ear tubes soon after that. At one time , we were paying off 10 different doctors and hospitals. Since I was at home with the boys, I did whatever I could to increase our income. I babysat, I did phone surveys, I worked for a temp agency and did office work when my best friend could babysit. I remember being so broke that buying the newspaper on Sundays (our only day we bought it) was a luxury. We’d be looking for loose change around the house just to buy the paper. Sometimes we went without. But no biggie – it wasn’t a necessity. We had decent clothes to wear, always had food in our house (we never went hungry), and always paid our bills on time. It was just HARD.
I remember watching Fatal Attraction when it first came out. So suspenseful and scary! I love Glenn Close.
Well, it’s our one day that we don’t have any rain in the forecast. Nevertheless, from all the rain and storms we’ve had (yesterday’s thunderstorm was a doozy), it is HUMID (and hot, of course). More rain tomorrow, ad nauseum. I ran some errands this morning; now I’m staying inside. I just did a little rearranging in the living room and am listening to some new-to-me music .
xoxo
Yes, I’ve had many experiences of barely getting by, especially when I was in grad school and then when I was temping after I graduated. Just enough to pay my rent and buy food. Nothing for anything else. But if we have a roof over our head and food to eat, we’ve got plenty!
Stay cool!
Meadowsweet! Never heard of it before, but it’s beautiful. A very bridal-looking flower. Perfect for June. HAD to save that photo in my “Claudia” folder. There’s 91 of your photos in there now, Claudia. I have over 300 folders full of photos now and I find it’s the nicest way to spend some time. Looking at a little bit of the beauty in the world. And these days, we really need some of that, don’t we? We’ve had our rain up here, but if there was thunder etc I didn’t hear it at all. Hope you don’t get the high winds & hail. Just getting more water is bad enough right now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Peace. 🌱🌿🍃
#Resist
#ImpeachTrumpNow
We really do need all the beauty we can find, Janet. We were spared all of the bad weather yesterday!
I hope the rain didn’t beat those gorgeous hydrangeas into a pulp of snow-petals on the ground. They’re beautiful.
Fatal Attraction — yes, freaked me out then, freaks me out now!
So far, so good. We did get a thunderstorm on Sunday but I was able to right some of the fallen hydrangeas.