Single White Bloom

 When I first had moss roses in my patio plot there was a variety of colors including white. After the standing water one wet spring, none of the sprouts appeared. A few years ago I purchased a plant and tried again.

In the past several years I have had no white moss roses. Last week a single white bloom appeared. Maybe it will have time to go to seed, and I will see a few more. Lots of the blooms seem more ruffly this year rather than cup-like.

The Knockout rose bush is getting flowers again after a dormant period. Fortunately, several of these seem to have longer stems and not in clumps of 3 or 4. I should be able to fill my budvase again.

We went to our friends' yard/garage sale Friday morning. This was supposedly a first sale in decades. There was junk, but not many attractive items. I bought a DVD movie, a jigsaw puzzle, and a travel version of Qwirkle. In the past I have packed the Qwirkle bag of tiles, but it took up a lot of space in my suitcase. This should pack easily, but of course the trade-off is the tiles are quite small.

I am ready for autumn. A few trees have some slight color, but mostly the trees and plants just seem faded and tired. The grass is still lush and green though.

 I ordered a set of 4 plates with forest creatures in fall settings for my plate rack. These are canape plates rather than dessert plates so smaller. The sales price on Macy's website was enticing. Now my news feed has photos of bowls and plates and cups from the bigger set. The canape plates are projected to arrive Wednesday. I will probably wait until the 17th to put them out along with my autumn pillow covers. Close enough to the autumnal equinox.

Starting to see football games on the TV. Notre Dame didn't win against Ohio, but they did better than I expected. 

We have had pleasant days; cool enough in the mornings to go walking, but of course I can't walk more than a few blocks. I did sit on my front porch reading a Hoopla ebook yesterday. It is book 2 in a 3-book series: Orphan Train series by Jody Hedlund. I had book 1 in softcover (purchased months ago at a book sale) and was pleased to see I can finish the series without a trip to the library.

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.

Dizzy Dame

 So far after a week of physical therapy exercises, I see no improvement in my pain. The other therapy I have been given is deep muscle massage. This actually increases my pain for several days. Although it gives me more flexibility in neck movement, that increase doesn't last. I think next week I will tell them to discontinue the massage.

I started taking the gabapentin again last night. It is for nerve root pain. The first time I took it I also took tramadol as instructed. Drowsiness, dizziness, sweating, nausea meant I didn't take a second pill. The prescription for gabapentin is titered. I slowly increase the number of times a day I take it. I did get a little drowsy last night, but it is the dizziness that is bothersome. When I got up to use the bathroom last night I had to sit on the side of the bed until I felt I could safely navigate. I do believe my other problems during the first dose actually came from the tramadol. The dizziness wasn't as severe this morning, but it lasted until about 10 a.m. I will continue with bedtime doses for the next two nights. I will have to decide whether to continue next week because I have several engagements and responsibilities where I cannot risk dizziness.

I plead guilty to feeling some schadenfreude this morning when I heard President Trump had contracted Covid-19. I just heard that he will be going to Walter Reed Medical Center. I hope that is just precaution and not because he is getting worse. The White House has not been very forthcoming re his real condition.

Last Sunday my husband and I decided to dine in at Ruby Tuesday. We had been using the generous BOGO coupons for pick-up. We wore masks as requested by the sign on the front door. We took them off while dining but replaced them to leave the restaurant. As we exited, an older couple not wearing masks was in the vestibule. The man sneered and in a derisive tone said to us "Wearing masks." As we drove away, I did not see them exit so I am assuming the restaurant employees seated them. I blame a lot of this attitude on President Trump. 

Last week I took a photo of my moss roses in their glory. The cold nights the last few days have brought them to the point of needing to be pulled up. The bright flowers do not open up and the stems are turning brown. I will try to pull them out next week when it is warmer.

We are enjoying the flavors of fall. I finished off our apple cider this morning. Last night we started in on a pumpkin pie.

We will warm up next week to mid-60s. That will allow me to do some walking outside. The autumn colors are just lovely right now and will probably peak next weekend. Happy autumn to you!