FLOWERS

Here are a few older pictures from earlier in the summer before the worst of the drought set in. This drought and heat wave is the worst I ever remember in all my 51 years. People are saying it's the worst since some time in the 1950's. Even though I took this picture quite some time ago, you can see that my yard beyond the garden is brown already.

Even during the drought, my hollyhocks, favorites of mine--and Eileen's from my book, "A Sturdy Fence," grew and blossomed profusely. Eileen tells Luke that hollyhocks are not flowers you'd see alone in bouquets like roses or carnations, but they do best blooming where they're planted, against sturdy fences, or in my case, where they volunteer--against farm buildings. Our temperatures were in the upper 90's and low 100's for days on end. This hot trend continued for weeks and hasn't actually let up yet. We've had only the occasional cooler day. I am ready for fall after all this!

This is a picture of white sweet peas against an old bed frame at the back of the English garden. The drought had not taken its toll yet in this picture. I do have a soft spot for "garden junk!"

Daylilies in profusion surround my front porch, back deck, and some places in the English garden. Normally they bloom repeatedly all summer, but this year in the drought, they bloomed once and I am concerned that I may have lost many of them after that. I cut them back this evening and am hoping for a 'rebirth' of flowers now that we've had a little rain, but we are still way, way behind normal rainfall and the leaves on these pretty flowers are all yellow and brown. We'll see. I originally started all the many plants from one start given to me by a friend in Iowa. I hate to lose them after all that effort of splitting and waiting for another season!

One more random picture from the English Garden.

Hoping your area is experiencing good weather. Blessings, LORI

FAMILY TIMES

My grandchildren were home for a visit recently! Here's Huxley eating pizza on the run. It reminds me of "snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of," because I'm pretty sure the pizza crust had hit the dirt before he grabbed it and stuck it in his mouth! Babies make moms busy!

Here is a picture of me and Huxley near the lake in Colon. There is a nice park there and we decided to pose for a picture after the pizza picnic.

This is Sophie helping me plant pole beans in my garden on one of the last days before they left. Emma helped too, but I failed to add that picture here.

Here are two sweet little girls standing at the end of the pier enjoying the lake in our town. Emma is on the left and Sohpie on the right.

Here is Miss Emma in her summer hat waiting to be served a picnic of pizza.

Next is Emma helping me mark the peaches with "2012" so they can be put down in the basement. We canned 20 quarts while they were home. Our peaches came from Alabama this year. So few in Michigan because of the spring weather conditions.

A photo of me and Emma baking cookies in the kitchen. We were having a lot of fun!

Here is a picture of Sophie waiting for her pizza. She is staring at the empty plate and seems to be saying, "don't forget me!" Such a sweetie and we miss all of the kids so much! Already looking forward to the next time we can see them!
Blessings, LORI

Memorial Day

I've been really having a hard time getting time to load pictures and write blogs! We are so busy and our time is quite limited. I thought I'd post this picture of me on Memorial Day next to my Grandpa's grave. He was a soldier in WW1. I picked flowers from my garden and wrapped them in wet paper towels and then foil to place a few on several family members' graves that day. As a Brownie years ago, we and the Girl Scouts used to make up these little bouquets and race to the soldiers' graves as soon as the ceremony was over to place flowers and make sure none were missed. I always wanted to be first to get to my grandpa's grave, but his is on the far side of the cemetery and I'm not a fast runner! I never was the one to place his flowers, but this year I finally was the one to place some flowers! It was a very hot day and I hope you had a nice time honoring loved ones as well. Blessings, LORI