Fleurs and New Books

 

My neighbor called to remind me that I was welcome to cut and take some of her hydrangeas. I had planned to do so on July 4th, but the grass was too wet. Yesterday afternoon I selected 3 blossoms. I tried to take them from different spots so there wouldn't be a "blank" spot on her bushes. As I entered my sliding door I saw that my backdoor neighbor was cutting some, also. I am sure he had been given the same invitation. Unfortunately he cut blooms right next to each other. Sure enough there is now part of the bush without any blooms.

 The pink flower below is also a hydrangea. This grows next to the west side of my house; it never puts out many blossoms. There must be a variety of hydrangeas. The pink one looks nothing like the big fluff-ball Annabelle ones.

The 4 books pictured with the blue hydrangea vase I bought Saturday morning at a Warsaw Friends of the Library book sale. Their little storage/sales room is overflowing. The hardbound books were fifty cents each. The one about Shackleton crossing Antarctica I bought for my husband though I will probably read it also.  I had read Hickam's October Sky and hope The Coalwood Way is interesting. I have a video of painting in the manner of Dewberry. I cannot get the audio of our video player to work. It may be because we have a sound bar for the TV. Some day when I feel bored and ready for a challenge I will go over the manual and play around with where to plug things in or what to turn on/off. In the meantime, I can use this book instead of the video. The brushes and paint I bought with the how-to video are ancient. This is what would be called aspirational clutter. I am not quite ready to let go of those things. 

I have had a smattering of moss roses this past week; today there are 10 blooms. Yesterday I also staked up the fallen Veronica (Speedwell). They are easy perennials to grow, but they get top-heavy and fall over in the rain and wind. 

A surprise is that one of the Asiatic lilies has two late buds about ready to open. My lilies did not do this in the previous 2 years.

I was also surprised to see two Knockout rose blooms out front. They kind of sneaked up on me; I saw the new growth but wasn't expecting flowers soon.

My neighbor has daisies? blooming next to the spent peonies. I don't know what the bright green stalks are.

It is a little humid today. Low 80's with a breeze. There may be storms around 9 p.m. to midnight. I hope the rain does hold off as I plan to grill brats. We stopped at Sweet Corn Charley's for some sweet corn. Our first batch of corn last week had flavor but also some worms on the ends. 

Summertime and the livin' is easy. No catfish but brats, sweet corn, and potato salad ahead for us.