Fall Has Been Wonderful!!

 Hi Everyone!  I know, I know it has been a while!  There has been alot going on.  

Well things here have been so busy, not with just work.  I went for my CT Scan and my lymph node that is near my spine got larger over the 3 months since my PET Scan.  So it looks like Chemo is in my future at the first of the year.  Not happy about that but there is nothing I can do but do what my oncologist says.  

I started dating someone in October.  We are taking it slow, so I'm not going to say too much about him here.  I will say we get along very well!

Work has been so busy and alot is going on with the holidays coming.  I will be working in Floral more than usual, which I love.  I work in Floral every Thursday now from 9-3.  I love my Thursdays over there!  Alot of creating and other things happen on that day.  Here are some of my creations:

I have basically put my gardens to bed for the year.  I planted some tulips and a peony for next year.  There are some things still blooming which is late for this time of year.

My camellia in the front garden bed is loaded with buds!  Can't wait for them to bloom!

My Jackmanni clematis is still blooming.  So pretty!

The last Mr. Lincoln rose for the season.  The scent of the rose filled up my whole house!

Niobe Clematis blooming in the front garden.  Love this color!!

Here are the tulips I planted from @petalpickers.com.

Winter pansies throwing some much needed color out front!

Fall has been really beautiful here!  I just love all the leaves in their full color.  

The last of my dahlias really were quite beautiful!  I had so many this year!  Just beautiful!!

I went to NJ for a quick 4 day trip for my Mom's 88th birthday.  It was good to see here and my sister, Sue and her husband, Chuck.  We went to St. Moritz Restaurant in Lake Mohawk, Sparta, NJ to celebrate Mom on her day!  It was so wonderful there.  I also met my childhood friend, Debbie for lunch on the 17th at a Mexican Restaurant in Lake Mohawk.  So nice, great visit!!

Lake Mohawk, Sparta, NJ

Part of the little town of Lake Mohawk.

Celebrating Mom for her 88th birthday!  Me, Mom, my sister, Sue and her husband, Chuck.  We had a wonderful dinner there!

Me 11.18.25

Me and Mom

Sue and I

It really was a great visit!  My sister and I laughed so much, it felt so good to laugh like that!  She is a really good person and I enjoyed my time with her immensely!

I brought some flowers home from work and made all of these bouquets for around the house.

We had a cold snap.  One night it was only 37 degrees, so on came the little electric stove!  It was nice and toasty!

There is a pecan tree on the property line in the back yard of my house.  I have taken advantage of collecting them.  I now have 2 full to the top bowls of pecans.  All I have to do is crack them now!

This is another arrangement I made at home from work flowers.  I love this color roses.  So gorgeous!!

We have had some really stormy looking skies but some really beautiful sunsets and sunrises.  I did see the Northern Lights though.  Sorry I missed that!  Nature is just amazing!!

Well that is about all I have friends for now!  I know that was alot to cram into one post.  I wanted to update you all on my life adventures and going ons!  If I don't get back on here (sometimes it is hard with work and my normal life things) I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!  Everyone take care!

Sherri

Hot, Hot, Hot!!

 Well the weather here is certainly hot, hot, hot!!  The sun is intense and if the day has any humidity in it, it is even worse.  Today it is 98 with a heat index of 105!!  It has been pretty much like this for over a week.  We need rain so bad!  I wish we had a day atleast of a very steady rain.  It would help the lawn and all my wonderful flowers so much.

The clouds have been amazing here at sunset!

My daylilies are done for the season.  The intense heat just made them all bloom at one time and poof they are all done now.  I will miss them.  My miniature roses that I bought from work have taken off, however!  They must really love the heat and then the shade the porch offers them.  I have been watering them really well also.

This was the last daylily to bloom.  Such a beauty!!

I celebrated my 66th birthday on the 23rd!  I had a really great day even though I had to work.  Everyone was so good to me!  Josh, the floral mgr. at work made this arrangement:

My boss, Megan gave me these wonderful Bath and Body Works items.  The candle smells amazing while it is burning!!  She even came in on her day off (she was also on vacation) to come see me for my birthday!  She's the best!  Rick and Laurie sang happy birthday to me too at work!  Then I went out to dinner at Longhorn Steak House with my friend, Bitsy.  What a wonderful day!!

I have decided that my favorite rose of the season is Lady of Shallot!!

She is such a beauty and I'm so glad I ordered her this Spring!

At work the flowers all expire datewise, so Josh asked me if I wanted to take some home with me.  I paid a very nominal price and brought a whole tub home.  Well I made all of these arrangements with them.  It made my day!!

This year in the Spring I had my crape myrtle trimmed down.  It is starting to bloom now, so it is behind all the others in the neighborhood.  It is such a beautiful color of pink.  

I would like to end saying I am very blessed with the people I know and surround myself with.  I am one lucky lady!

Everyone have a wonderful rest of your summer.  Fall will be here before we know it.  This year I am looking forward to cooler temps!

Sherri

The Summer is Just Moving Along!

Welcome to July everyone!  Today is the 7th already!  Where did May and June go!!  It has been hot here with very little rain but the middle of last week until today we have been humidity free.  Thank you God!!  We did get some rain yesterday which was very much needed.  I had to work 4th of July so no picnics.  I made hot dogs, macaroni salad and cucumber salad for myself after I got home.  That was ok, I was beat.  The store was so busy!  I am always amazed by how many people shop on holidays.  My garden is taking a break from all the many blooms it has been producing.  The glads are all done, the daylilies are slowing down, the bee balm has also been affected by the heat.  The roses are starting to ramp back up again though.  I'm very glad for that because I love the ones I have planted here so far.  The 2 roses I brought here in all the heat from my previous house in Mint Hill (the new owner called me asked if I wanted them because she did not) are doing great!  They have gotten re-established after I pruned some of the "shocked" growth back and watered the heck out of them.  The one, which I think is a beautiful pink rose called Queen Elizabeth has some buds on it!  I'm sure Mr. Lincoln isn't too far behind because it has sent alot of new shoots out.  

Riley has been enjoying the summer.  On night the mosquitoes aren't too bad, we sit on the loveseat on the patio.  He loves to watch cars go by, birds flying around and the smells the wind brings in his direction.

Riley on 7.6.25, the banana tree behind him is getting huge!!

 My roses like I said are starting to ramp back up and blooming, see below:

Eglantyne Rose

Lady of Shallot

Lady of Shallot upclose

My all time favorite daylily of this season is below:

Crape Myrtles are starting to bloom here also and they are gorgeous.  I took this photo on the way home from work in Concord, NC.  Love this color.  Both sides of the street is lined with these.

My dahlias are also blooming.  This one is gorgeous!

I have been knitting on a shawl I am making for Bitsy, my 82 year old friend at Church.  She has a really bad lower back and she gets cold, especially her shoulders sometimes.  I chose Heidi and Lana Sea Glass yarn and it is working out perfect!  She loves bright colors, so this should be perfect for her.

This is just the very beginning of the shawl.  Every so many inches the pattern changes.  Very easy to knit.

This is an upclose of the one section called little waves.

After I found out my cancer was back (we are just watching it at this stage), my Dr. and I decided I needed to rest more.  I cut back my hours at work to 3, 8-hour days, no more big project and that I would take a nap when I was home if I was tired.  Well that last for about 3-4 weeks and I decided I would paint my room.  I was very good about it though.  I took many, many days to complete this project.  Normally I would have gone in and started and finished it in one day.  I didn't do that this time.  I took my time and some days I didn't even paint.  I love the way it turned out.  The color originally was the usual builder's off white.  I picked out Benjamin Moore's Water's Edge.  I did a test swatch and found it too dark for that room.  So I added alot of white flat paint to it and came up with this color and I love it!  So basically it is my version of Water's Edge!

The other day at work they were going to throw out these gorgeous roses because the date of keeping them expired.  I took them home with me on Friday and they still look like this today, which is Monday, the 7th.  They are gorgeous!!

Before I left for the day at work on the 4th, I made this red, white and blue roses arrangement.  There were even a little glitter on the pinkish-red ones.  

Yesterday we had some wonderful rain.  I went to church, then brunch with 3 of my friends.  When I came home I decided it would be a good day to set up a few houseplant pots and repot some miniature roses that needed bigger pots.  This is one of the arrangements I made with pink polka dot plant and white flowering kalanchoe.  I love these 2 plants together!

Last night the sunset was so gorgeous after the rain!  The tree in the first picture reminded me of the one in Gone with the Wind when there was a beautiful sunset scene!  The colors in both photos were just gorgeous and it was even more gorgeous in person.  Nature is truly wonderful!!

I think I will end here.  I hope all of you are having a great summer and enjoying the outdoors when you can!

Have a wonderful day!

Sherri