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