We’ve been rather slug-like around here. I’ve been exhausted. Don is tired, as well. So, we’ve been hanging around the house, sitting in the Secret Garden, watching movies, sitting on the porch – that sort of thing.
We did rouse ourselves enough to take a trail walk yesterday. We stopped and said hello to our favorite horses and met a couple of new residents on the farm – two mini horses. So sweet!
I got a bit more sleep last night, so I’m feeling less ragged. In fact, I’m feeling groggy. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve been sleep deprived and I finally start to catch up, I feel groggy and out of it for a day. It’s slow going this morning!
The balloon flowers have been budding and blooming. This is what a balloon flower looks like before it opens.
And this is what it looks like after it opens. Amazing, right?
We need rain, which seems to be our mantra this summer. After an incredibly wet spring, we’re now rain-deprived. A day or so ago, we were supposed to get thundershowers and the radar showed storms headed our way. Unfortunately…nothing. Sigh.
More day lilies in The Far Side garden.
We won’t talk about the buds that ended up being dinner for a deer. Probably the same young deer who was standing in the corral the other day staring right at me and chomping on yarrow. He’s beautiful, but…
Happy Thursday.
We seem to be have the same rain dilemma -we need some badly! We went from flooding to nothing! It gets cloudy, sometimes thunders for a bit, but no rain!
Those balloon flowers are some I have not seen before. Did you start those as seeds or did you have growing plants?
Hope you both have a relaxing day!
No, I bought it from a nursery. It’s called Sentimental Balloon Flower so it seemed appropriate for the memorial garden.
glad you are getting more sleep and rest!
i am the same way – groggy – if i get too much sleep or, more likely, more sleep than what i usually get. add in heat, humidity and the lull of a fan or air conditioning and i conk out pretty quick, don’t get much done around here!
i’ve never heard of a balloon flower before … interesting! and such beautiful colors. glad you and don are enjoying being home and have several places to sit out in nature and be together.
hope you get enough rain. it’s in our forecast and that’s good; we need it, too … but i hope it comes at times that don’t interfere with our plans … my sister and i are headed to chicago to see jimmy at wrigley field tomorrow night!
happy thursday!
kathy in iowa
Say hi to Jimmy!
i’m not into celebrity stuff, but, oh, i’d love to meet jimmy!!! i’d tell him “hi” from you and don, thank him for all his happy and beautiful music and hopefully get a hug and photo! that won’t happen tomorrow night; our seats are in the boonies again (not by choice, but because of how fast his shows sell out, especially since he’s playing at wrigley again). someday … that’s not asking for too much, is it?!? :)
kathy in iowa
I guess he has a big, big concern in Jones Beach every August – it’s a big deal. (That’s on Long Island.) He wants the whole cast to come and sing onstage with him. That ought to be fun!
super fun … glad you both have that to look forward to!
and maybe then you’ll tell jimmy “hi” from me (his unofficial reeferette)?! haha!
Love that balloon flower! Are they perennials or do they reseed themselves? I know I told you about the first time I saw one. It just appeared here, out of nowhere. It was so fascinating that I took several photos of it while it was here, but sadly it never appeared again. Until I saw yours I thought it must have been a figment of my imagination—except that I had the photos of it!
It’s a perennial, Shanna. I planted it about 3 years ago in the memorial garden. So far, it has come back bigger and better every year!
Oops! And that pink day lily must be very rare—I never see that elegant color. Love it!
It’s beautiful!
Your garden, as always, looks beautiful- in my part of South West England we have been having the hottest weather since 1976
This morning it rained and at lunch time the Orange one arrived on our shores for a visit……please can we send him back ?
Siobhan
We’d appreciate it if you could ship him to Siberia. Permanently!
What’s Siberia done to deserve him 🤔? X
Russia. Putin. He loves them so much, he should move there.
I am sorry Claudia- I was trying and failing to be humorous
The BBC are showing images of the anti-Trump protesters in the UK- clearly and coherently explaining their views- I hope you would find it reassuring to know how many people here can respect the Office of the President of the US, whilst deploring the actions of the current incumbent
Please accept my apologies if I have offended you –
Siobhan
Siobhan
Not at all! Don’t worry!
I do find it incredibly reassuring that our friends in the UK are demonstrating and that they understand how abhorrent we find him and that we’re doing everything we can to impeach him. I can’t tell you how stressful this is on a daily basis. I know you understand.
And I say the same thing. I respect the office of the Presidency but the person occupying that office has to earn my respect. Thanks, Siobhan. xo
I am relieved that I have not offended you- it’s been the saddest of weeks and I am not at my best x
Don’t waste a second of time worrying about that. Take care of yourself, be kind to yourself. We’re all here for you. xo
Such a lovely flower the balloon plant! You do have a sweet variety on your property. It was so hot yesterday but I managed my errands and a short nap! I am missing my daughter, son in law and Grands. The kids and their Dad went on a vacation while Sara had to miss it to be with her Dad who had cancer surgery in Denver. He is doing well and finally got out of the hospital. It’s been rough on all but lots of prayers have been answered. Oh and I pulled my back trying to get in all those weird positions for my mammogram. It is always something I think! Hugs!
When I saw the title of your post today, I thought: just two?? I believe we are all a bit sluggish in this awful heat and humidity. I have lived in the midwest all my life, and certainly can remember days and days of heat, but this unrelenting humidity is not familiar. And I truly hope it understands that we cannot be friends. I have absolutely no energy. Hauling hose every evening because there has been no rain for so long, is quite a chore. They are saying we might get some showers tomorrow night through Saturday morning. Like you said, it just seems to be on the radar, and then it disappears.
I am with you as you told Siobahn to send orange man somewhere else ~~ anywhere. I am so embarrassed by the way he acts. It is bad enough when he is here, but he insults each of us when he is “supposedly” representing us amongs our allies. Well, he gets some alone time w/ Putin, so we all know he has been looking forward to those moments since their last embrace. Ewwwwwwww!!!!
Glad that things are circling back to your new normal. Seeing the horses must have been fun. Hope you & Don have a great Thursday.
I know. Lugging big watering cans full of water in and out the door several times a day is wearing me down.
I will for sure be looking to add Balloon Flowers to the garden, if I can find them here. Just beautiful! By the way, I always notice in your living room pictures you have the Souza book on your table, like I do. Are you are he has a new one coming out in October, I believe? Called “Shade,” and I think it will be similar to what he’s been doing to the Orange One on Instagram.
Yes, I follow him on Instagram and I know about the book. Can’t wait!
I always wondered why they were called balloon flowers, and now the pictures of the unopened ones explains it.
Same here with rain desires but no fulfillment. Let’s hope we all get some soon.
Fingers crossed, Cara!
Deer certainly have voracious appetites, don’t they. While we were gone a bit ago, one such critter decimated the flowers in our front yard and side yard. When I saw your post title, it reminded me of the real slugs we had in San Diego, and the banana slugs we have here. As for you two, I hope you are getting some well-deserved rest! Hugs!
I well remember the slugs we had in San Diego! They were a real problem.
Had to save that shot of the open balloon flower. Mostly for the clarity you got of that dazzling color – one of my favorites btw. We were supposed to have thundershowers as well. But didn’t, as well. The lawns up here are starting to get that yucky yellow crispy look. Please Universe, a little water. You gave us too much in the Spring and now you’re cutting us off? With all due respect – unfair, Madam. Please reconsider. Hope you get out to Jones Beach for Jimmy’s show. It sounds like it would provide a nice boost of good feelings. Not to mention a boatload of fun. If you get a chance, ask him to do “It’s My Job.” I LOVE that song & many have never even heard of it. Stay cool as much as you can. Peace.
Oops – I forgot!!
#Resist
#ProtectMueller
xo
It’s My Job was in the show, sung by the lead female character. So everyone who saw it got to hear it!
Yay! Glad to hear it. I mention it to so many people who’ve never heard it – and I think it’s quirky and fun. I just love it.
It wasn’t written by Jimmy. It was written by his band member, Mac McNally.
Those flowers are gorgeous. We have problems with the squirrels. They dig up the bulbs and have a feast with them.
Marilyn
Yes – fortunately, I don’t really have many bulbs around here!
Oh how I miss my balloon flowers!…I had them in purple and pink and I loved watching for them to burst open and turn their petals inside out…they are just so much fun!…I hope that all of the ladies who want them can find some….That pale pink day lilly is beautiful!…Sometime you are on a trail hike would you or Don take pictures of those horses and the new mini horses for us to see?…I do love horses and miss my days of riding!
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any balloon flowers at the nursery lately! I bought this plant about 2 or 3 years ago.
Yes, I’ll try to get photos of the horses for you, Nancy.
The balloon flowers are sort of a wonder; kinda reminds me of a fuchsia (when we were kids, they’d sort of blow up just before ‘blooming’ and we’d pop them [prematurely]; silly ones were we…). I’m struck by how much beautiful blues/purples you have in your sumptuous gardens there at the cottage. (I bet Don loved seeing how lovely you’ve made it for his homecoming; after all, he’d seen it a couple of times in between when it was bleak with winter. I remember that, and how he’d missed the green and color.)
We’re just ‘dying’ here in the SoCalif heat, Claudia. On Friday, one of my doctors’ nurses clocked her very-excellent thermometer at 117 degrees in the shade; she’s 9 miles more inland than I am (I’m about 12 miles inland from the ocean). Here, we were 111 degrees. It ruined all the rest of my veggies and fruits in the garden; the garden is over, done. Good thing we planted early, almost too early this year. (Now I’ll have no tomatoes in August; darn.)
These are unreal, record-breaking temps; dangerous temps. I’ve never remembered anything like this and I’m a born & bred SoCalif girl. I think it’s the new norm. I do seem to recall last year or the year before that we had a day where at one point it was 108 or maybe for like an hour closer to 110(?), but never these kinds of high temps for as many days. Gosh, when I was a kid here, a hot day was considered to be like 100. It’s really perplexing because this isn’t Palm Springs (desert); it’s the coastal plain. Every day since last Friday has been triple-digit and then to 90s and tomorrow is Day 9 of the oppressive, humid, awful heatwave.
There are ant invasions everywhere; we had kept them out of the house for a long time but they’re now even coming out of the phone jack so we’ve got them in the walls. But it’s everybody; my cousin who lives in another town about 10 minutes from here is inundated; the people in another town the other direction have them, too. My newer neighbors next door are saying they’ll have the yard and house professionally ‘sprayed’ (yuck) but if it doesn’t do the trick, the wife wants to move. She’s young and getting completely hysterical over ants, bless her heart; I mean, I really do feel for her; she’s not from this area. She’s never encountered ants all over everything. We’ve tried everything and my husband is vigilantly spraying organic stuff outside but we did resort to ant traps in the house because it was getting very creepy; I hate ants. They attacked my junk drawer in the kitchen which doesn’t even have food stuff in it. Everybody says it’s because we’re in drought, we haven’t had a hard freeze in years in ‘winter’ and the ants are looking for water.
So, between the ants, the heat and my overall health (I’m fighting another infection but I got good news a couple of days ago; 5 years cancer-free), I’m a slug just like you are; my husband just went to bed and he’s exhausted; works further inland in L.A. County and their temps have been even worse. I want summer OVER. And you know, we had very little rain and not a speck of it since like January or something. I don’t want to do anything tomorrow but sleep. My errands and appointments are done for the week; I can stay out of the hot car for one day. We went to the beach tonight to celebrate our wedding anniversary (not the exact date but who cares) and it was so lovely and cool on the water at (pink and orange) sunset; makes SUCH a difference to live in an oceanside town. How ’bout you guys and us BOTH moving to La Jolla, Claudia; sounds wonderful, doesn’t it…
Don absolutely loves the Secret Garden. We’ve been having our second cup of coffee out there every morning. And he loves all the plants and flowers. I think they’re healing.
I’m so sorry about the heat – it’s topsy turvy everywhere, it seems. England is having a big heat wave with very little rain – their crops are suffering. Things are changing and not for the better.
Interesting about the ants – I always thought they were looking for water. But during our Spring – when we had a LOT of rainfall – they invaded the cottage and a guy I talked to who works for a pest control company said they were coming inside because it was so wet that their outside houses (anthills, I guess) were being flooded. I guess they come inside for a variety of reasons.
The best news is that you are cancer-free for five years! Congratulations, Vicki!
Thanks; I couldn’t let go of my oncologist’s hand, saying “Thank you for giving me these five years.”
xo
…btw, don’t know if you got my msgg or not, doesn’t matter now, but I was fighting a auto-fill and auto-correct problem on the computer (my end) I didn’t understand, so my husband ‘fixed’ it and now I am entering comments to your posts without any issues; sorry to have bothered you on any of that, especially when you two were so busy trying to get moved out of Manhattan; so glad you’re getting back into a good groove upstate, together at last…
…you know, what worries me about that deer eating stuff in your yard is that he’s there and could have ticks which means possible Lyme disease which I know you’re educated about and have even suffered from the illness but, yikes, I’m still trying to understand what Lyme disease is and how it affects people as I said in another comment some few posts back…I do have this cousin who has been so sick from it the past 25 years; she got it in your neck ‘o the woods…she’s back in Michigan now, had to give up her NYC career, and I just haven’t gotten the whole story yet on it as we just sort of discovered each other’s existence through some informal ‘genealogy’ searching (she’s daughter of my grandfather’s very-elderly niece)…I suppose for you & Don, it’s just part of the territory and as you’ve said before, you just check each other once indoors, right..?…and it’s kinda like what my husband is saying about the ants, of doing what we can but he’s not going to let ant lunacy take over his life and stop him from living!
Actually, ticks can get lyme from feeding on squirrels and mice and birds, as well. Because they’re called deer ticks, people think that the disease is spread exclusively through deer ticks feeding on deer. That’s not true.
I’m watchful, but I don’t obsess about it.
Oh, I didn’t realize; I thought it was solely a deer thing.
I got your message and I edited your comment so that your last name wasn’t showing.
Ah, so it WAS you; thank you. It was thoughtful of you to take the time when you were so busy. I appreciate your help when it was all about my own ignorance/mistake.
xo