The August Yard

The August yard lacks many blooms except for the few annuals that I've planted. This August though has given us beautiful foliage because of our nice, frequent rains and the mild temperatures we've had. This elephant ear in the remodeled bog has just done beautifully. The lack of wind here in Kansas has been a blessing this summer. The leaves on this plant have stayed pretty much intact.

The marigolds that I planted have filled in just like I wanted around the rock (in this part of Kansas we have to "BUY" rocks for our landscaping - however, this one I got much cheaper than usual at an auction).

I have two obelisks covered with morning glory vines but not one flower. I do think I see some little tiny buds on them. Hopefully I'll have morning glories before frost! Next year, I'll plant them MUCH earlier.

Moonflower seeds given to me from my husband's co-worker. They've done well. There's a bench hidden behind them. I'm betting I won't have to plant any next year and will be pulling them out as well!

The weather has a hint of fall in it. We've had our first wiener roast (with s'mores). More wiener roasts to come. I love fall but I hate seeing an end to the beauty of summer.

Another Award

Eleanor at Thatchwick Cottage has given me an award. Thank you so much. I'm supposed to give out this award to others. I see so many great blogs and I could award them to alot of those that I see. I will try to do that at another time. But, for right now, I simply say "thank you", Eleanor, for taking time to read my blog.

Have you noticed the different blog decor - experimenting with those gadgets that I see other bloggers using! Variety is the spice of life! I also have to give credit to my techy son who sits beside me and semi-patiently helps me through this technological "stuff" in order to get what I want done.

Ladies' Birthdays

The Ladies gathered at Panera to celebrate two August birthdays this weekend. We've never done birthdays at Panera and it worked just great with all ten of us there.

Ruby in the turquoise/black top is celebrating her birthday and Janice, in the green is celebrating her birthday. Both are 60-something! Janice has been getting more publicity from my blog than I think she deserves. I'll try to give other friends their share in the future. We always have a great time visiting and laughing with each other. My musical selection today is for Janice and Ruby (I hope they remember it being popular in their "youth")!

Ladies With Books

Ladies With Books met for our August get-together at Janice's and discussed Adriana Trigiani's book Big Stone Gap. We all liked the book and decided we all wanted to read the sequel, Return to Big Stone Gap so we'll read that for one of our next Book Club selections. Trigiani does a great job in character development - the same kind of work I see in Jan Karon's books. Her descriptions are wonderful too - you can place yourself in the "holler" and see the community life develop all around you. I liked her characters and her story. If you want an easy, warm read - get this book. Dayle has our next choice and it's Loving Frank.

Beach Day and Family Pic

Here we are - the whole family minus one - our son, Brett, is in Germany right now so he wasn't available to make our picture. There's disagreement among us as to the "coolness" of our family shirts. I happen to think they look pretty cool - in fact, one guy stopped when he saw us and yelled out, "Hey, Dude, you're stylin'. That's awesome!" (He looked like he was right out of the 60's too.)

We all ate breakfast at the same spot we ate 30 some years ago in honor of our "Heidi". The food was just as good this time.

It was a wonderful day to sit on the beach and enjoy the sound of the water and the cool breeze and even take a snooze if you felt like it!