….a frickin’ tropical heat wave! I went out to do a few things for a lousy half an hour and I was in a dripping perspiration. The humidity was way up there. I managed to get 3 loads of wash done and I’m not finished yet.
I found plants for the piggie grill, in fact I did take a photo with the three pots of pink geraniums in it! Will post soon. I was going for begonias, but the geraniums were perfecto!
Good frozen food alert-Perdue makes a pretty decent ‘Bourbon’ chicken. We had some tonight with wild rice. Not fatty and a lot like the coating they use on Chinese food chicken. We all liked it. Sliced up a nice fat beefsteak tomato too (from the produce stand).
Settled in for ‘I Want to a Hilton’ which is rather lame, but there isn’t much on in the summer. Did Mama Kathy clone herself in the form of her daughter Paris? The only difference besides age is that Paris has a squeaky voice. I did catch ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ where they cleaned up a nudist. That was hysterical. I think those guys are so cool. I could easily be ‘girl’friends with any of them. ; ) If you haven’t caught this show, now’s the time and you will have to watch it every week.
I also like ’30 Days’ the show by ‘Supersize Me’ guy Morgan Spurlock. That’s on the FX channel. It’s like a ‘Wife Swap’ of sorts, i.e. he has put a Christian in a Muslim environment and a straight guy with a gay roomie. Not to be missed.

About twice a year, I go on a shopping frenzy. The stores want to unload their summer clothing and outdoor things for my first round of shopping. Sean asked if I wanted to go down to Delaware to a few stores. He hasn’t taken me shopping for a while, so I went along. We went to AC Moore the craft store. Now that store use to make me go bonkers, now I just look and maybe pick up a few skeins of DMC floss and some freebie crochet directions. I have lots of craft items at home already.
The next stop was Kohls and we ran into their 70% off sale. Woo hoo! I am not picky about sizes when it comes to buying clothes I like (meaning I will go up a size or two in the skirts and maybe down a size in a top if it stretches). I got about 4 skirts, 5 tops, a purse and some jewelry for under $100. I thought that was great. I like new clothes. I tried them on tonight, and aside from having tremendous tummy bulge, they looked fine.
We then went to the Goodwill so I could scope it out for eBay. Their prices were great and I did find a few things for resale that were really nice. This is the same Goodwill that Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie went to for their show (last November).
We were hungry and thought a new Ruby Tuesday in the area was open, but it wasn’t, so we went to Pizza Hut. After the Hut we decided that since Value City was down the road, we would hit their sales. I got some new towels, a cute skirt, and lots of little things, one of which is a pink pig grill that I plan to use as a plant stand. They had a cow too-only $7!!
We had fun together out in the heat. Now I can concentrate on my mom who was diagnosed with shingles today! She went to the doctor for her back and this morning her tummy started to pop out with the blisters. I hope she started taking the medicine in time to help allevate the symptoms. I feel so bad for her. She’s really suffered a lot these past few years.

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.