HOT HOT HOT !!!!!

I know it is summer and July but I am really tired of it being so hot and humid--I feel I can't even go outside without heat stroke. It has been a little better the last couple of days--enough so I could cut off dead flowers on the roses and pull a few of my million weeds. I have been doing a lot of indoor things--actually cooking and baking and working on some of my projects.
The flowers continue to delight and I did venture out for a few pictures this week





neighbor's hibiscus

check out the dragonfly

more lilies coming

perennial garden

I have been watching for monarch butterflies but saw this one one evening--he loved the purple Liatrus

I made little books for the kids we are going camping with this week-I used pictures from last year--they can write and color in them, use stickers or whatever

Truman enjoying the sun

Dixon deciding what he is going to do next!!!!

Fritz watching it all

Judi and I decided to go to Scrapfest at Mall of America in September so we booked our flights, reserved our hotel and now just need to sign up for classes. Wow I can't wait--should be tons of fun and learning plus I always wanted to visit Mall of America. We have plenty of time to explore the mall too.

My hope for the week is a little cooler and less humid....

what is blooming in my garden this week? PLUS....

It has been a very interesting and event filled week. Monday started off with 2 terrible storms with a lot of wind and damage. You can see how strong the wind was in my backyard by looking at my Red Hot Poker flower and how it was bent.


My neighbor one house over lost some huge branches from a large tree in back yard--made quite a mess..

My milkweeds all tipped over but after I set them up, they are doing fine. Both my heavy metal trellis and shepherd's hook bent over and they were against my deck. My hanging baskets looked bad but they seem to be recovering. At least we got some rain. It has been increasingly hot--now humid this weekend.

Thursday was Betty Ford's funeral and motorcade so we went out to corner of Lake Drive and Plymouth to watch. I got stopped by Tony from WOOD News8 for an interview--never believing it would be on the 6pm news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the hearse

police

rest of motorcade

Actually kind of a thrilling experience. I had a lot of people stop me and say "Didn't I see you on the news??"

Thursday was Carol's birthday at work so we took her to lunch at coffee shop and I took her a bouquet of flowers from my garden. we had a lot of fun--other good eats also.


Still got roses blooming

lots of great lilies

purple liatrus are blooming and fill the garden so nicely

they start blooming at the top and go down the stalk

cone flower

black eyed susans are starting

shasta daisies are flattened by storm with some zinnias

Russian sage will turn blue

white daylilies

Clematis is blooming again despite trellis falling over

More roses and I am seeing some Japanese beetles the last few days

My Lollipop Gerbers are now blooming--this one was in bouquest I gave Carol.

I have had increasing problems with my internet and phone so finally had them come out---I now have a new modem and new orange line around my house from box (hopefully they can bury that soon).

I started a new online class at Artful Gathering "Boîte et Petit Livret Vintage ~ Nancy Maxwell James is the instructor. We are making a canvas book and wooden box to put it in. I am loving it already--has a lot of collage and photos. I stated painting the canvas' today after watching the videos

On to another week of work............