BLOOMING PAVERS, ARBORS, AND WINDOW BOXES

The long awaited blooming season of the creeping thyme has finally arrived. It seems our brave experiment of ripping out lawn and replacing it with pavers and creeping thyme last summer is paying off in a big way: big on beauty and low on maintenance. I'm continually in awe of God's creation's ever changing beauty!

Yes, some of the iris are still blooming! This is Laced Cotton in the foreground with 2 climbing Blaze roses over the arbor.The pansies have especially loved this cool weather. I filled all my pots with them back in February. Usually I would have had to replace them with petunias by now, but they're still going strong. The honeysuckle vine is doing especially well this year as well, even if the strawberries aren't.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: OUR 33RD ANNIVERSARY

We decided that since our anniversary fell on a Friday the 13th as it did the year we were married, that we really needed to spend the night at the beach. So we got a great hotel in Lincoln City with an ocean view, gas fireplace, and a jacuzzi tub that must have held at least 300 gallons of water! We felt positively sinful wasting all that water, when at home I get 425 gallons a day to budget between household use and watering the garden! The decadence was so nice for a change, but felt so wasteful! Someday...

Boiler Bay pictured below.
We had beautifully clear weather, but boy was it windy and chilly!!! We were able to photograph the sunset Friday night from our hotel balcony, where we could sit protected from the wind while watching the sun go down. By the way we ate dinner at Captain Ron's in Lincoln City. Some of you remember Dori's Cove? One of the same owners and the same cook! Awesome food and service! Had THE best clam chowder ever there for lunch on Saturday. We would drive to the beach just to eat there again, it was that good!!

THE VILLAGE VIEWING AND VISITING

These sweet folks from Dallas Retirement Village came to view the iris and ended up staying to visit Friday afternoon. I hope they enjoyed their visit half as much as I did! The hour and a half spent sharing with them made all the hard work the rest of the year worth every minute!

Do I see roses?!!! It's about time! By the way Jessi is having 90+ weather with thunder storms making it extremely muggy in Virginia, with even hotter forecast for next week! She said it was even too hot to stand out in the rain and had to come back inside to her air conditioning. Maybe we should count our blessings with our high of 59* today. However if we could just average our two temperatures, we'd both be happy!! However, I have to say that the iris brighten even the most dreary days and on the bright side...they're lasting longer!

COLD WEATHER EXTENDING IRIS SEASON!

Since I'm so tired and short of time as usual, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. They do say "a picture is worth a thousand words"! It's a good thing, because there just aren't enough words to adequately describe God's awesome and downright gorgeous creation!

EMMA COMES TO VISIT

While her mommy was in Virginia visiting Jessi, Emma came with her Grandma Sherri to visit. Of course she went straight for the kittens. She reminds me so much of myself at that age, and let's face it to this day! Some of us are just born animal lovers, and nothing can top cats, especially a kitten! What's not to love?!!Speaking of kittens, which may be my love, but also my business. I have a great story for you. When the family who purchased all of our kittens (yes I said all of them) came to pick them up, we had a big problem. We couldn't find the 4th one! We couldn't find her anywhere. We ladies must have looked for more than half an hour in all the usual and unusual kitten hiding places. I was beginning to panic when I decided I'd better pray about this, and then called in the men from their bull session out on the deck. Within a few minutes of looking in places only a man, and someone who doesn't know the places a kitten cannot get to, Dennis found her. He had us all come see where he found her. We had a great laugh and of course had to take some pictures. There she was in the rag bag of all places, which hangs about 5' off the floor. We never would have found her with our kitten logic! We don't know how she got in there. She must have climbed up the scratching post and from there somehow got into the rag bag! Can you imagine what was going through her kitty brain as we're frantically calling and searching for her? "Just leave me alone! I've found a great napping place where no one will bother me!"
All's well that ends well! Christine and I with the wiggly brood, me saying goodbye and she excited to finally get to take them home along with a great story! Hope you're having fun Christine! Here's the 3 little kittens who didn't lose their mittens in the rag bag! I'm really going to miss them!