This is the bottom half of the pond area where I planted the Speedwell (under left), Bitter Root (like a hens and chicks plant) and the Red Rock. The Gaura can’t be seen here. I use the children’s chairs to make it look quaint here.

My 25¢ miniature rose next to the variegated hosta.

Look how big my butterfly bush is!
There’s a mysterious pink bubble on the back of my bench there. Click on the photo to see it in larger prospective. I took 18 photos yesterday and this is the only one that had that circle on it!

My calla lily next to my new peachy hibiscus. The flowers are pale peach. Excuse my dirty flowerpots. That’s from all the rain we had on Friday.

Another view of the entry way. We had the tile put down about 7 yrs ago when I couldn’t do anything else with the ugly cement. I really like how it goes with the brick on the house and the brick sideway Brian put in. 

The right side of my front door. You are greeted with the wonderful scent of the Stargazer lilies.  

My dinner is simmering. I made beef stew. I know it’s a winter meal, but it’s a cheap meal and we love the parsnips and goodies that I put in it. Outside I hear Brian having trouble with the riding mower as its chugging, but won’t turn over.. It is getting old. It usually starts right up, but if he turns it off, he has trouble getting it going again.

Here’s a question I picked randomly from If…questions for the soul, a little book I enjoy reading.

If you have to name the best thing about getting older, what would you say it is?
I would say it is the wisdom I have gathered over the years from reading, learning and growing.
When I had elevated liver enzymes from probably having Lyme Disease, I read everything I could about what to do to lower them. I read up on Milk Thistle and now I take it religiously everyday. My enzymes are in the normal range now.
Read everything! Get informed! Learn something new everyday.

I name this post in honor of my new friend Zoey from Michigan whose blog is thusly named. Check out her gorgeous yard and deck from the link in my sidebar.
As mentioned earlier, I bought about 7 new perennials this past Thursday and we got them in the ground yesterday. I tried to do the watering in treatment as Zoey suggested (she knows a lot about everything garden related) and the water just sat in the hole. We had had all that rain, so I guess the ground was saturated enough to not allow more water and it has a fair amount of clay too. I decided just to throw some potting soil in the hole. If I had remembered to buy peat moss, that would have been a better choice. So we planted the following around my little pond: Gaura, Speedwell, Red Rock and Bitter Root. The bees were loving the Speedwell before it was in the ground. Near the Butterfly bush I added a Shasta Daisy. Around in the front I added that unidentified yellow daisy-like plant. A few hours later the plants looked like they were actually stretching their roots as they were so glad to get out of those pots.
Today it is a bit warm. I was just sitting and enjoying the pond, my miniature duo of frogs (all I have seen around the yard and pond are frogs about 1″ long-babies maybe?), the butterflies on the butterfly bush and the birds chasing moths around so they can have a snack. I came around the corner of the house and startled a squirrel who must have found his way on top of the bird feeder and tumbled to the ground. I hope I didn’t give him a little concussion. An hour later, Brian must have scared the same little guy. I wish they would leave the bird feeder alone and eat all the apples scattered on the ground!
Say some prayers for my friend and the people who are getting hit by Hurricane Dennis today. My one friend is terrified and said she hasn’t gotten over Ivan yet.

We haven’t had a deluge like this in a long time (I bet we’ve gotten about 3″). I, of course, welcome the rain as it’s been so hot and dry here. We have a well, so that getting lower is always on my mind. It’s getting lighter out. I was just out checking a few flowerpots to see if they weren’t too soggy, and they were fine. The flowers are all droopy. I love to walk in the summer rain. I use to do so when I was little. This one time, when I was on my way home from school the heaven’s opened up. I was a ‘walker’ and I believe I was about 400 feet or so from home, but I couldn’t see anything it was raining so hard. I started to bawl and just stood in one spot. When I finally got home, I got scolded for letting myself get soaked. Geez.
I went down to my mom’s yesterday and she wasn’t there. She had bent the frames on her new glasses that are about a week old and went to get them straightened. She also had gone grocery shopping. Guess who brought in the 15 bags of groceries? I wanted to take her to the dept. store that is selling off their flowers, so we went there too. She purchased a ton of gorgeous begonias for around $2 a pot. They are perfectly round too. Someone who grew them knows what they are doing. This time I went for the perennials. I can’t remember all of what I purchased, but one was on the 75% off table and the flowers look like all yellow daisies. Another plant is a foam flower. I only bought a 4 pack of pink cosmos to fill in spaces in the yucca garden(only one yucca bloomed this year, so I guess I need to thin them out). I think I am finished with the plants now and am looking into iris rhizomes. I use to have gorgeous ones as I think I previously stated. I have won a few on eBay, but I am hopping over to Burpee to see what they have. They also have free shipping for fall plants. Another eBay win is a package of hibiscus seeds for the flowers that bloom in the fall. My mom’s neighbor has these and the heads of the flowers are as big as dinner plates!
After Boscov’s and Wendy’s we went to the Goodwill and a Dollar Store. The Goodwills are bombs this year. I did drop off a few bags of items, but I go in and look for things to resell on eBay. The prices were a bit high and many things were chipped or broken. You could tell the kids were in the back as it was a mess around the collectibles. I found about 4 things for eBay.
I plan to do a little cleaning and then settle in with my 846 page novel (I’m on page 716) and do a little stitching. My gum is sore where the temp cap is. I guess I may have brushed too hard there. I’ll put some Sensodyne on it.
Tomorrow looks good. Maybe by the late afternoon I can plant some of the new perennials.

~~Light a candle for England this weekend~~

My brother had done a little sleepwalking as a child. On the first day of school one year we found him sitting in the car still in his pjs and he didn’t remember anything. I’m glad it wasn’t anything like this…
Sleepwalker found dozing high atop crane
Authorities are investigating how a sleepwalking teenage
London girl ended up asleep atop a 130-foot crane in the
middle of the night. A passer-by spotted the girl around
1:30 a.m. June 25, and called the police, thinking she was
going to jump. A firefighter climbed up and inched along
the beam to where the girl was sleeping. He was very
cautious about startling her as he secured the unidentified
teen in a safety harness, The Times of London said. A
special rescue truck was called, which deployed a hydraulic
ladder to get the girl down after 2 1/2 hours. The girl’s
parents were called to the scene, and told police their
daughter is a frequent sleepwalker, the report said.