My middle sister, Sue is coming for a visit!!

My middle sister, Sue is coming for a visit this Sunday.  She, her husband Chuck and son, Troy are coming for a visit to see the new baby in the family and our new house!  I haven't seen them for quite some time, since last year!  We have a few days planned and then we will plan some other things while she is here.  Monday we are going to Sea Grove, NC and check out the potters while the guys play golf.  That will be really fun!  One night we will be having dinner with Megan, Ken, Jenny, Kevin and the boys.  We might go to the Whitewater Center.  I won't be able to raft but everyone else can.  I love just sitting outside watching everyone.  There is a really lovely patio area for me to knit or read while they all frolick in the water!  We will probably have lunch there too.

It will be a really nice visit for sure!

Gardens are Thriving Here!

John and I made 2 raised bed gardens for our veggies this year.  I didn't know if we would have much success but we certainly have!  I planted 3 tomato plants, 3 Buttercrunch lettuce plants, 3 hills of burpless cukes and 3 hills of regular cukes, 3 hills of yellow crooked neck squash and 3 hills of zucchini.  Well here is the results:

 Cuke blossom peeking out from under the leaves!

Yellow Crooked Neck Squash blossoms.  There are alot so I hope they all produce squash!!

Cukes in the front of the box and the squash in the back of the box!

Tomatoes in the back of the box and lettuce in the front of the box!

Some of my daylilies started blooming here today!  I am really happy with the 2 that started.  Here they are:

Our flower boxes on the front porch rail are doing great too!  I love this coleus that I put in each one:

That is about it for today.  Too hot to do anything more outside.  Good day to stay inside in the AC!

Everyone have a great weekend!

Eighty Dollar Champion by Elizabeth Letts

Photo  via goodreads.com

I am currently listening to this book on audible.com.  I just love this book!  What a great story about an underdog or in this case the underhorse!  I was pleasantly surprised when they mentioned the horse show in Branchville, NJ and another rider, former United States Equestrian Member, Frank Chapot.  I used to live in Branchville, NJ and Frank Chapot had a country house there.  I hope you don't pass this book up, because it is thoroughly enjoyable.

Via goodreads.com:

Harry de Leyer first saw the horse he would name Snowman on a bleak winter afternoon between the slats of a rickety truck bound for the slaughterhouse. He recognized the spark in the eye of the beaten-up horse and bought him for eighty dollars. On Harry’s modest farm on Long Island, the horse thrived. But the recent Dutch immigrant and his growing family needed money, and Harry was always on the lookout for the perfect thoroughbred to train for the show-jumping circuit—so he reluctantly sold Snowman to a farm a few miles down the road.
 
But Snowman had other ideas about what Harry needed. When he turned up back at Harry’s barn, dragging an old tire and a broken fence board, Harry knew that he had misjudged the horse. And so he set about teaching this shaggy, easygoing horse how to fly. One show at a time, against extraordinary odds and some of the most expensive thoroughbreds alive, the pair climbed to the very top of the sport of show jumping.
 
Here is the dramatic and inspiring rise to stardom of an unlikely duo, based on the insight and recollections of “the Flying Dutchman” himself. Their story captured the heart of Cold War–era America—a story of unstoppable hope, inconceivable dreams, and the chance to have it all. Elizabeth Letts’s message is simple: Never give up, even when the obstacles seem sky-high. There is something extraordinary in all of us.