Blue Ribbon Winner

When we go to the state fair, Mark is always a good sport about going to the floraculture building first.  If I had enough energy, I'd go to the fair every day just to see the floral design competitions.    I didn't get the designer's name, but this one won a blue ribbon and of all the designs and categories that were displayed on the day we were there, this was my favorite. 

Monday Vase

The house is full of beautiful flowers, "leftovers" from a beautiful wedding that Leah & Amy did this weekend. 

Carol & Her Sweet Baby Aubrey

Conversation

It sure looks like they're talking, doesn't it?  I would think a zinnia and a cleome would have some things in common. 

Alabama Sunset

My all-time favorite coleus, Alabama Sunset, has fallen out of favor with most garden centers.  The last time I found one was a couple of years ago when Lori and I shopped at one of her really nice garden centers in Lexington.  So this year, I went to the internet and found Color Farm, a great place to order your fav coleus.  And so now the debate is, do I try to overwinter? or just send a little e-mail to Color Farm next spring . . . Either way, I love having AS again.  

The iresine in the top left corner has obviously had too much sun.  It goes back to deep shade next year.  

Foliage Combos

More BK Pics

Saturday Visit

 

It's always a blast when we have our Betsy & Kyle over to visit.  They liven life up. 

Good Dogs

With all this heat and humidity and chasing bunnies and digging in dusty dirt, G dog and Lilla got a much needed bath this week.  Our Betsy & Kyle will be here today!

August Combo

One of my favorite combos of the moment--double wave purple petunia  with love-in-a-puff. 

Sunday Glads

Flower Harvest

 

It's a glorious August Saturday morning.  We're heading off to breakfast and to the Farmer's Market.

Green & White

The last lily stand of big beautiful pure white blooms is going full force now.  Love them with the green zinnias and hosta blooms.  This one went to my friend Cathy.  We went to see Cyrus the other night.  Really nice little movie.  At first  I thought the guy should run run runaway, but now I'm thinking maybe they did live happily ever after.  With a lot of drama, of course :)

Driveway Pots

Here is this year's evolution of the driveway pots.  I  wanted some serious height this year and I'm always trying to find something to put in them at Christmas, thus the arborvitae.  So far, they are holding up great and the tidal waves are climbing up into them.    A few years ago, Kathy got me started on serious feeding when she sent me some plant fertilizer especially for boosting blooms on my birthday.  Now I use ferti-lome  9-59-8 recommended by the container experts Gayle and her crew over at the Apple Barn. So it's water every day, feed every week, and look for the Christmas lights. .  .

 

Cleome & Pitcher

Mammy's Chair

The one in the middle came from mammy's.  I had two of them, but one day I sat in one and it just kept going back and back and back in slow motion til I was lying on the ground upside down.  I laughed so hard I cried.  Wish I had  a video of it.  This one seems to be holding up pretty good, but I don't sit in it any more.  The other two came from a junk store.   They probably aren't as old as mammy's, but they might have belonged to someone's grandma.

Thursday Lilies

The orange lilies are gone.  All gone.  One more lily wave to go for this season--great big beautiful white ones  just beginning to bloom out now.

Wednesday Susans

Book Reviews

It's been a good summer for reading!

The Scent of Rain & Lightning, Nancy Pickard, about a girl whose parents were killed when she was little and what happens when the man who was sent to prison for their murders 23 years ago is set free.

Fly Away Home--Jennifer Weiner's latest fun read about a family of women whose lives are all being turned upside down. 

Missing, by Chevy Stevens--oh my gosh, a creepy creepy story about a woman who is abducted.  The entire story was told over the course of her therapy sessions.

Every Last One--best Anna Quindlen novel since Black & Blue!

Daylily Resolution

This is one of the last daylilies that I added to the garden.  For the past few years, I've been saying "no more daylilies. . . .  I have plenty thank you. . . . oh I couldn't possibly, where would I put it?". . . and then I see something like this over on Gotta Garden and I think,  well, maybe I could move some things around. . .