The good-hitting Value City’s 75% off and buy one get one 50% off sales. I didn’t think I’d find anything, but I did after poking around. I got the cutest plant holder/weather vane. They originally wanted $24.99 for it-I got it for $6.25. It has owls on the top for decoration that tip back and forth. I think it will be the perfect fall decoration.

I got cute shoes, a mosiac covered pot, hats and a long teal scarf (for like $2 each) and other goodies. Sean got some long sleeved shirts and American Eagle ‘casual style’ sneaks for $8.45! I want to go back and get a tiffany lamp for the front window and an Ott style lamp (for stitching). I bought a medium size hat box to put my mom’s birthday goodies in…that is if she is talking to me by the end of September…
The ugly-a phone conversation with mom. She is getting so paranoid about things. She can’t manage money for anything. She has canned goods to last several months and she still spends a lot of money at the food store. I kinda raised my voice at her this morning on the phone and she hung up on me. I called her back later and she isn’t answering. She complained about my throat clearing and I told her it was from her making me freakin’ nervous. Nothing positive or pleasant ever leaves mom’s lips anymore. She rags on me every single day and basically ruins a large part of my day. My brothers and I have mom issues-I know they probably feel like I do, that anything I do or say that pertains to mom is never good enough for her. That’s just not right and it leaves a festering wound. I do love my mom to pieces-I just get so frustrated by her behavior.
The bad-well the 25 days of no rain isn’t helping. The plants look okay because they get a sprinkle of the hose each night when I feel like watering them. My head is stuffed up every morning and my eyes are so dry. Darn pollen! I should do a rain dance-it would relieve frustation!

When I was planting some new iris rhizomes, I accidently broke this stem off of one of the year old plants. It had two blooms. It took about a week for this one (the other dried up) to open in my kitchen, but sure enough it did! It’s a pretty mauve and I was pleasantly surprised to see it today. I also had a sunflower and some pinwheel zinnias sitting next to this on the countertop.

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I forgot to tell you my aunt fell down and broke her hip yesterday! She was operated on and it was a 4 hour long procedure. My uncle was crying to my mom on the phone. He wanted to be with his wife of almost 47 years. So sad! Aunt Mildred seems fine from the ordeal.
Mom’s water heater sprang a leak and she needs a new one. That will be put in later this morning. It seems like things go from bad to worse around here.

The anticipated rain skirted right past us here in se PA during the night. Not fair! I peeked out the window this morning hoping that I would see a damp patio-dry as a bone. A few months ago I was bellyaching over all the rain. I had a right to, it ruined most of my container plants and our pepper plants. Funny how you figure things out when you get older-the more sheltered the container was, the better it did! I’m thinking of the pots slightly under the overhang or front bushes. I had a lovely fuchsia and pink petunia planted that looked good all year.

I just came in from watering-actually most of them got a sprinkle from the hose. I did lug 3-4 full watering cans to my zinnia and cosmos batch. They haven’t let me down this year so I gave them a little drink. I hope my new iris rhizomes will make it without a good drink. I’ve been watering them, but it’s not the same thing as a nice rain from above.

..but I’m running out of places to put them! : )
I went to about 4 book stores plus a book warehouse while away. I do this every year. There are always bookstores at seaside resorts. I bought this box set of two books from England called The Gardener’s Book Box with The Garden Decorating Book by Tessa Evelegh and Successful Gardening by Peter McHey-for under $6.00! I am going ga-ga over the decorating one. For instance-creating Cameo gardens within gardens-exist solely on the basis of a theme-it can be herbs or mini veggies or lavender. They suggest you use a different container for each item or a ‘sampler’. The photos show a group of watering cans with different plants. Or you could do a variety of different thymes grouped together-they show them grouped together in different terra cotta containers. The ideas and photos are so wonderful.
Another book I bought-but a few weeks ago at Big Lots was one called ‘Photographing your Garden’ by David Bjurstrom (I paid only $5 for my copy). I bought it mainly for the gorgeous photos. He talks about adding fake leaves to above a shot for some shadow on the flowers you are photographing. He snips off brown edges of roses in blooms or even adds some petals for fullness. Great books!!!
I do buy some to sell and did buy a duplicate of a book I bought a few weeks ago at Big Lots. They aren’t all gardening books, I stick to mainly craft books for resale.
Not much is new. Done a lot of unpacking and some laundry. I watered the gardens last night and most of them today. I hope we get some rain soon. My mom was going to come out and decided not to. She is seeing water around her water heater, so that may need repair. She hasn’t been out here since January!
Guess I’ll go back to the stack of books. I did buy some fiction too. : )

With a little peek of her Philly roots.

Local girl Bianca (almost 12) from Philly wins ‘America’s Got Talent’ tonight. I was voting for her down in the motel room last night.