Hi everyone,
I think I have forgotten what my sewing room looks like! Not really, but I do miss going in there. I want to get Ten Ping’s school girl set finished, but I have no time right now. My recent days have been packed from early morning till I flop in bed, as soon as I take Reuben out for the last time.
My hubby is slowly regaining his strength, although he’s not supposed to lift anything yet. He is still very sore in the stomach area and we are learning how to do all that needs to be done a little better each day. He shuffles around the house a little at a time but spends most of the time in his recliner. We have 2 upcoming appointments because each doctor wants to see him again. Some of the ladies at church are bringing meals to us for a week or so, and they are very much appreciated.
I received some beautiful pictures of Kathie’s flower gardens and just had to share them with you. If you liked Charlotte’s Peach Pie, you’ll enjoy these too. They are just as yummy as peach pie BUT they have NO calories! :o)
Kathie will share a few things about them…
Once it started to rain again everything GREW…
I Love Petunias!
The Hummingbirds do love this Salvia!
Wandering Jew is taking over the whole pot!
One great smelling Rose
Pink … my fav
My daughter Rosie planted this crazy thing…
It is a 7 ft tall Castor bean .. can be poisonous 😳
Double delight.. best rose ever
See the teeny purple flower? In a couple weeks it will be solid purple!
The wall is becoming a curve!
Pink Penta
August + Zinnias = ❤️
Red Penta… if you have never planted them they are awesome!
Marigolds and Tomatoes like each other
Big Black Eyed Susans
Finally…
Basil
Phlox…smells like lilacs
Different Colors …saving these seeds
Not sure of the name… anyone know?
Pink edged Cosmos
Fever Few..double and single. And some nice weeds😲
New this year…
Coleus
Painters Palate and some volunteer Black eyed Susans
One pathetic Naked Lady by the Gazing ball
Hibiscus
Now wasn’t that wonderful… makes me want color in my yard! Maybe next year…
Thank you Kathie!
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh, Kathie, your yard and flowers are just lovely!! I am so not a gardener–if it weren’t for my lilac and my azalea, I wouldn’t have any flowers at all!!
I am wondering if your lavender rose is a LaVon. They smell wonderful, and I have had corsages of them (for anniversaries, usually) several times in past years.
I do love zinnias!! When I was growing up and my mom had a large vegetable garden, she would let my brother and me each have a row, and we could plant anything we wanted. I always picked zinnias, because the colors were so vibrant. I have always loved them.
Your tomatoes look wonderful, and I do love fresh basil. I have a recipe for a feta cheese dip that calls for fresh basil; it’s delicious! I got it from one of my 4-H kids.
I wanted to thank everyone for their comments yesterday–I went back and answered each one. I meant to do that earlier today, but things got a little busy, and I got a little tired!
I had a call this morning, and on Saturday, I’ll meet the lady from the agency; she has three family care homes to show me, and one is only THREE BLOCKS from our house!! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that’s the one that works out best? I will try to keep an open mind….
Sure hope the care place near you works. That would be great. Another thing that you probably already know about, is that some of the smaller places are not allowed to dispense medication. A place that has a nurse available or an LVN would be advised. 🙂
I’m sure that you have priced it out, but the cost is so high for care homes, wondered if you had considered having someone come into your home to help? We had a person come in daily for my dad, not cheap, but worked well until he needed full time care his last month as his dementia progressed.
And another thing about medications, most of the places require that medication come prepackaged in sort of bubble packs. Has to be special ordered. They won’t dispense from different bottles so that adds to the cost as well. Can’t wait to see what you think about the care homes you visit. We learned a lot visiting. 🙂
Thank you Charlotte. Yes, it would be great if the facility by your house did work out!
Dear Charlotte, I am continuing to pray for the best outcome and for continued strength for you.
Hi Charlotte, I read the blog and then somehow never got back to comment. Your peach pie recipe looks easy and good. My grandmother’s is a slightly different one with a cooked custard base (half and half, no eggs) you pour over the fresh peach halves. It wouldn’t have been summer without it when I was young and I make it as often as I can.
I’ll be praying the care place closest to you will be the best. That would make things so very easy for you.
Charlotte, I know this is such a hard time for you both. I am so glad you are having some help. Praying that you find the right answer.
What a feast for the eyes, Kathie, and best of all, like Jeanne mentioned, no calories!! You have quite a variety of flowers, and certainly have your own “botanical garden”! Are you the sole gardener or do you have “help”? I know how much time and effort it takes to have a yard like that, although mine is not quite as big as yours, from seeing the pictures. How big is it?
Charlotte’s mention of the Zinnia’s brought back memories of my days in 4-H. We always enterd our flower arrangements in the local county fair, and Zinnia’s were our flower of choice for that! I even got a blue ribbon for mine!
Your pink rose is just beautiful, and the Pentas are such joyful looking flowers! Those darling Black-eyed Susans look so happy, plus the Fever-few plus some “nice weeds”! Ha,ha! I believe I even have those “nice weeds” too! The Painter’s Palate is a new one to me!
Thank you so much, Kathie, for these beautiful pictures! You made my start this Thursday morning a step in the right direction compared to the news we get nowadays!
Jeanne, I hope you are taking care of yourself, and so good to hear that George is coming along, maybe not as quickly as the two of you would like, but at least no setbacks. Hang in there! By the time you get back to Ten Ping’s outfit, we will be in the thick of back-to-school! Perfect timing!
DearBlue Ribbon Linda☺️ Thank you
The Fair was always such a big deal for my kids and me too. Entering the flowers was so much fun. Love Zinnias too. My daughter actually planted them this year. She lives in a Forrest and everything gets eaten by the deer so she likes to plant things here too. She does help and lots and lots of mulch helps too. Painters Palate re seeds itself so they do get pulled out to tame them.
Ha, ha, “Blue Ribbon Linda! That’s a new one for me! Do you notice the days are getting shorter and the sun is not so high in the sky now? Pretty soon you can put your flowers to rest,….and you will be able to rest too!
Kathie, beautiful yard and even more beautiful flowers! Your yard is like a sanctuary, you must enjoy it immensely.
Thank you for sharing pictures of it.
Jeanne, sounds like you’re adjusting to the pace of a nurse. Glad to hear too, that George is able to sit in his recliner and walk a bit.
Thank you Paula,
It does look it’s best right now..soon some plants will get trimmed or pulled to keep them under control!☺️
So glad to hear that meals will be arriving for George and Jeanne. That will be so helpful I think. And glad George, is showing improvement too. Those med appointments should be a challenge to get to, but might be a nice diversion to get out and see the scenery.
Kathie’s botanical garden should not be missed on anyone’s tour. Wow, the beautiful lawn is gorgeous and sets off the amazing flower collection so well. Thanks so much for naming the plants in each picture. I would have been guessing on quite a few.
On a sad note, I guess everyone has heard about the horrors on Maui. We have visited many times, and to see it and especially Lahaina, in ruins is devastating. I believe the number of lives lost is at 36 but not the final count. Just awful. 🙁
Joy, I hadn’t heard about the fires on Maui since I just “tuned in” for the day and the blog was my first stop. I’ve been to Hawaii but not Maui but ever since a boss I had years ago bought a timeshare there I’ve been wanting to go. I’ve been watching the classic “Hawaii 5-0” recently and just love seeing all the beauty of the Hawaiian Islands and this makes me so sad. Part of the show I watched yesterday was filmed on Maui. Evidently the Big Island is having the same problem. It reminds me of the fire that wiped out Paradise. I had ordered something on Etsy and got a message that the lady couldn’t fill my order because she lived in Paradise and had to evacuate. She told me her home had burned. Fires are so devastating. My daughter just moved from Colorado (Loveland and before that Arvada near Denver) to Maine. She said she doesn’t miss the threat of fire they were constantly under.
Love the fact Jeanne and George are getting food brought in too. That is what is sad about blog friends… you can’t make a pot of coup for them😲🥲 Glad you liked the flowers.
Maui is going to have to really start over in those fire areas. So so sad. My granddaughter had her honeymoon planned there for Sept. 😳🫣
Oops….pot of “ soup” 🤭
Thank you, Kathie, for sharing the great pictures of your garden. So nice to be able to have such a variety of plants. Must be amazing to see them all return every year. I take for granted the plants remaining green all year long here except for the deciduous trees which do lose their leaves.
Heartsick for Maui and Hawaii. My son and his wife vacationed there in June and of course loved it. Good tip again from Joy about the medication restrictions. Glad the church members will be coming through with some dinners. That will certainly be welcome. You and George have done so many wonderful projects for the church over the years that we’ve followed on the blog.
Thank you Suzette! Having the yard green all year would wear us out.. we get to relax during the cold…that’s why we like 4 seasons🤔🫣🤗
Poor Maui… it will take forever to rebuild…and so many people lost!🥲
Dear Jeanne, prayers continue. I am so happy that friends are taking food to you. That is exactly what you have done for others in the past. You are truly blessed and you are truly a blessing!
Dear Kathie, I loved your flowers. Your garden is amazing.
Thanks Dorothy!🌸
So glad that George is up and moving about some. It always helps with the healing process both physical and mental. George is a very active man and I’m sure sitting in a recliner all day is not fun for him. I know how it was for David. He was up and going to his shop as soon as he could after both his heart and knee surgeries. He tried using a walker but decided the jostling about was so annoying he just made sure one of the boys was available to go with him. How wonderful that the church ladies are helping with meals.
I know that one is not supposed to covet but I must confess I’m envious of Kathie’s gardens and her yard. She has my dream yard but having it here seems an impossibility. My parents had a beautiful yard with loads of flower gardens but it was in PA and they enjoyed the effort. But they would do the prep work in the spring using peat moss and covering the ground with wonderful smelling cocoa bean shells and then just enjoy their efforts with little effort the whole summer long. Here we even tried using ground cloth but the weeds came up through the holes we punched for the plants. Ever try weeding at the base of a native rosebush. Their thorns are lethal. We gave up on that. Right now my front garden has some of those weeds that people seem to grow along with their flowers. Our gardens are weeds and no flowers. We decided to plant all the beds with 4 o’clocks because we have had a lot of success with them where we have them. They are pretty and hardy, but we were still in the midst of construction in the spring and then the heat of summer arrived and other things needed doing so that project was put on the back burner until next spring. I plan on doing some prep work when cooler weather arrives here but right now five minutes outside and I give up. We’re actually anticipating some cooler weather soon. We’ll be in the mid 90s.
Still working on the 13″ doll swimsuits but gave up on doing them with a zig zag. It was too hard to control on such a small item with the slick fabric. After throwing away a few tries I decided to use a long straight stitch and it is working great and I’m getting more accomplished. I now understand why I could not find ready-made swimsuits for them. I did find some for the Siblies and they are smaller but the woman that makes them is a miracle worker. I have some swimsuit patterns for suits made out of cotton like they were when I was growing up. I might go that route for some others. Hope to have the splash party take place sometime next week. Getting close to back-to-school and I need to do some sewing for that.
I’ll have to tell my son who mows that the sofa sisters like the yard. To be honest the pictures look better than the real thing. Tight now there are all these brown spots in the grass…but not from being too dry?..so?? The gazing ball is a memory… it was hit by the grass trimmer…oops! My friend used those cocoa shells for mulch…smelled SO good!
You garden is just beautiful, Kathie. Thanks you for sharing all the colors. I love salvia and have the blue growing here. Wandering Jew is another favorite I always have, but the plain green, not variegated. Love your Rudbeckia (black-eyes Susans), those are basically one flower doing well here it our heat this year. Having the same sentiments about the tomatoes, ours are finally coming in as well. Lovely weeds! LOL We have some charming ones as well since the weather has not been conducive to being outside. The sky was filled with smoke clouds this morning again.
So sad about Maui and Hawaii, I’ve never been, but a friend has and says it’s just beautiful.
Glad to hear George is able to start moving around a little, Jeanne. Prayers for continued healing.
Yes to all your favorites too Laura😉 Didn’t know Wandering Jew came in plain green. My daughter started some San Marzano tomatoes from seed and they are a kind of Roma. They look great and there are lots of them but they are so hard and don’t soften up…ick. Guess I’ll have to make Spagetti sauce. Give me the good old better boy…
Charlotte, I did reply to your post yesterday but when you said you had replied to everyone I went back and it wasn’t there. Not sure what happened. Of course, I can’t remember what I said now.
Kathy, you garden is lovely. I haven’t been able to do anything in the garden for the past year and it is a bit cold yet but I plan to get on to it shortly, once the weather warms up. I had never heard of Penta but it is very pretty. Check out this joke which I heard years ago but still find it funny.
https://www.the-compost-gardener.com/god-and-lawns.html
Jeanne I am so glad the church ladies are bringing you meals. “No good turn goes unrewarded”. This is your reward for all the work you and George have shared with us over the years. Make sure you take care of yourself
My dad never raked grass clippings or leaves. He always said it wasn’t the natural thing to do. We had the prettiest and thickest lawn in the neighborhood.
Jeanne, love getting the updates from you and George, glad to know each day is a little better. Rah, rah for the church ladies!
Kathie, your yard is amazing. I loved the photos and feel as if I have visited the kind of garden you pay to visit! Thank you!