I can't believe it is June 11th already!

Hi Everyone!  June is just whizzing by us!  Where did May go!  We have had an abundance of rain.  I am over that for sure.  I hope our drought is over here in NC.  The gardens sure have loved all this rain though except the roses.  I lost a rose bush and I'm not sure about another one.  I'm watching it.

Here are some photos of all my flowers:

 

Red Dahlia

Nasturtiums

Mr. Lincoln Rose

Lake Norman Sunset Daylily

Hosta

Gentle Gardener David Austin Rose

Eglantyne David Austin Rose

Desert Echinecea

Daring Deception Daylily

Voyager Daylily

Harmony Ruffles Daylily

Remembering Grace Daylily

Inwood Daylily

Picking Berries Day Lily

Whole Peach Pie Daylily

Two types of Coleus

Canna Lily

Riley and I have been sitting on the patio after dinner when it isn't raining and he loves it!

Banana tree on the patio

Little birds fountain I have on the patio.  I love to hear the water bubbling.

Patio

Riley enjoying the patio after dinner the other night.

I completed the knitting project bag I was making.  It is lined with linen and has pockets for scissors, stitch markers, knitting needles, etc. The brown leather handle is there in case you want to hang it up! I love how it turned out

Bumblebee happy on the Butterfly Bush!

I have 2 gardenia plants in the house.  They are both loaded with buds!  My Nana always had a gardenia in the house and it smelled wonderful.  Everytime I smell Gardenia in the air, I think of her.

These glads are from my garden.  I now have some light purple ones blooming.  I'll have to cut them and bring them in too!

This little mourning dove was following me around the garden the other morning.  She went to this little bird bath for a drink of water and then she went to eat some seeds that were scattered from the feeder (below)

I put together this little black table for in between my rocking chairs on the front porch.  The rocking chairs were my parents on their farm.  I like to sit out there and knit or have a cup of iced tea and I always said I needed a little table.  I bought this one on Amazon and put it together when it came.  It is weatherproof and bug proof.

This double begonia is doing so well on the porch.  I love this color against the black rockers and table.

This is a view of my garden the other day from my patio.  I love all the colors and it will just fill in year after year.

The first pumpkin of the season!  I planted from seed milk pumpkin in my raised bed on legs on my patio.

First tomato of the year!!  I have 2 tomatoes in pots.  This is an heirloom one and the other is a Big Boy Tomato plant.  I hope I get alot of them!

Alot of garden things going on but I am taking it easy.  My cancer is back but not enough for chemo right now.  We are watching it.  Pray that it doesn't get any worse and that it just stays like this the rest of my life!  I have cut my hours at work down to 3 days and to 8 hours.  I am doing so much better with being tired now that I have done that.  I appreciate all your prayers you sent me and thoughts, you are all the best!  

That is about all I have for today!  I hope everyone has a great start to their summer and vacations if they are going on one. Take care!

Sherri

May Has Been Challenging for me!

 Hi Everyone!  I hope you all are doing well.  I might as well start off with the news I received from my Oncologist.  I had a CT Scan and it came back that one of my Lymph Nodes near my spine on the right side was enlarged.  I have had B Cell Non-Hodgins Lymphoma for about 12 years.  I had chemo about 3 years ago and I thought I was done with that.  Today I had a PET Scan to find out whether I will have to have chemo again or if we are just going to watch it.  I am hoping for the "just watch it" verdict!!  Please keep me in your prayers and thoughts for great results!!  I will keep you posted.

Now on to nicer things-Gardening!!  Well this year is the year of the Fire Ant as far as my gardening has gone.  I have been bit two times.  The last one bit me 4 times.  So I have been on an antibiotic twice and thank goodness the swelling went away.  I have 2 small holes where they bit me.  I won't be gardening as much because truthfully I can't take any more bites.  I have the garden treated for them but I think they are getting immune to the granules, the powder and the spray!

I have had some really nice flowers this year though-check them out:

These are canna lilies that just came up by themselves.  There was an old house here that was demolished and then my house was built.  I think these are from the old house.

Canna Lily flower

This is my first dahlia of the season.  I have never had dahlias bloom this early!!

This is my gorgeous double begonia on my front porch.

Foxglove blooming so beautiful!

Gentle Gardner David Austin rose.  I just planted this rose this Spring.  Love the multi-petaled rose!!

2 new hosta plants I planted.  Those are pansies in the container on the front porch.

The peony I planted last Fall bloomed (4 blossoms) and the fragrance was so intoxicating!!  Love the hydrangea bloom also.

This is the most gorgeous iris in my garden.  It is called "I Pink I Can" and it must have had 15 blooms.  Very happy with this beauty!!

I had put together a raised bed on legs for my patio this year.  I planted pumpkins, nasturtiums and basil.  They are all doing wonderful!  So excited about the pumpkins because they are what we call "milk" pumpkins.  These are a squatter, light pumpkin which my family has made pumpkin pies out of for years.  

Riley has been enjoying our visits out on the patio.  He looks around, watches the birds, smells the air, and just plain enjoys sitting out there.  I have enjoyed it also.  Riley is very intrigued by the banana tree a friend gave me.  It has added 2 new leaves recently and he keeps looking at it like, "wait a minute, what is going on here"! LOL  

This year I worked in the floral department at work for Mother's Day.  What fun!!  Here are just a few of the arrangements I made:

All the flowers, plants, roses all sold out by 4:30 on Mother's Day!  That was with the floral manager going to another store and getting more roses and flowers (alot of them).  It was a huge success!!

When we were all done for the day the floral manager, Josh (who is my work son) gave me this lovely bouquet for Mother's Day!  He is so thoughtful and I really enjoy working along side him on these major flower days!!

So that is what I have been up to for the month of May so far.  I just hope the results of my PET scan is positive and no chemo is required.  I pray for that every day!!  In the mean time I will be enjoying my patio, garden, flowers and my friends.  Living alone really makes my friends all the more to me.  I have some really wonderful friends who constantly cheer for me, pray for me and just plain are there for me!  I make sure I tell them that, even though they know.

Everyone take care and I'll see you all soon on here!

Sherri

Easter Trip and Flowers in the Garden

 I hope everyone had a lovely Easter.  I actually spent mine at my sister's house in NJ.  We had a really nice time.  I went up on the day before and came back on Wednesday afternoon.  I leave at 2 a.m. and get there around noon.  Spring is just starting to happen up there so it was almost like going back in time LOL!!  Unfortunately the pollen was just starting up there and it is almost done here.  It was nice to see daffodils, hyacinths, cherry trees, etc. blooming again.  Ours bloomed here almost 1.5-2 months ago!  Our leaves are all out and they have just started up there.  My sister's yard is like an animal habitat.  The first day I saw 5 deer in the woods, a fox, a groundhog and many, many birds.  On the way up I saw an American Bald Eagle out in a field pretty close to the road consuming a deer carcas.  It was huge!  I hadn't been up to my sister's since December.  My Mom was good.  Unfortunately, the 2 friends I was going to see had a stomach bug and we couldn't have lunch together.  Next time!  Here are some photos of my trip:

My nephew, Troy and his wife, Ashe on Easter.

My Mom, sister and I went to a local farm and had homemade ice cream.  This was one of the farm's cows.  She was so sweet and friendly.

My sister's 3 cherry trees blooming in her front yard.

On my last night there, the sunset was gorgeous!!

Riley did really well at the vets while I was gone.  They have a wonderful boarding facility there.  He was able to go out with a group of his friends and run around and play.  I have to say it was like leaving a kid at daycare though.  He cried and I could have cried LOL!!  He had a great time they said and sent me photos daily.

This was Riley at the house before we went to the vets boarding facility.

My garden did so wonderful while I was gone!  So much is coming up and blooming.

Clematis blooming.  I have to put some twine up the porch post so it can climb.

Coral Bells blooming away!!

Lady Banks rose blossoms upclose.  I love this rose!

Lady Banks Rose

Mr. Lincoln Rose

My azalea in the front garden.

Peonies are all in bud, ready to open!

This iris opened this morning.  So gorgeous.  I think a peach one is getting ready to bloom also.

My yellow yarrow is getting ready to bloom also.  So many buds on it this year!

We have a small park with a gazebo in the center in Rockwell.  The azaleas this year are just gorgeous!!

Just gorgeous-Rockwell town park by the post office.

I was driving home from Salisbury the other day and this person's yard looked all lit up with these gorgeous azaleas.  Every year they bloom like this but this year the azaleas everywhere are so bright and plentiful!!

The last thing I'll show you is the raised bed with legs I put together on my patio.  I am going to plant 1 tomato plant, my basil that is sitting in the pot, some nasturtiums that are in another part on the patio and maybe some summer squash.  I might try to grow it vertical this year!

I really hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the Spring weather.  We do need rain here, it is very dry and in the drought zone.  Take care everyone!

Sherri

Spring Has Definitely Sprung!

 Hi Everyone!  I hope you all are having a wonderful Friday.  I'm off from work today.  The temps here are already at 74 degrees and it is only 10:45 a.m.  They say the temps are going to hit around 87 or higher!  That will really bring out all the plants around here.  I love it!

The other night I went out to dinner with 2 of my friends and I picked the one up at her house.  The woods behind her house was loaded with blooming wisteria.  The fragrance was intoxicating, just wonderful!!  

Wisteria

My friend also had 2 really bright red azaleas blooming in her yard.  Just gorgeous

 My Lady Banks rose started blooming on the trellis by my front porch.  Everyday more and more blooms come out.  They are like little yellow explosions of yellow petals!  

I did a little craft thing the other day.  Real eggs are so expensive here, so I bought 6 wooden eggs.  I painted them bright colors and then painted flowers on them.  I have an antique wooden bowl that was my grandmothers and it needed something in it.  I usually decorate it for every holiday with something pertaining to the holiday.  I put some purple tissue paper in the bottom of the bowl and put the eggs in there.

Riley has really been enjoying the outside life also.  He comes out with my on his leash when I'm all done gardening.  He loves to sit in the sunshine and sniff the wind.  His nose is always twitching back and forth.  Love that dog!!

Riley-1 year 7 months

I know not everyone has as much Spring weather as we have here, but I hope that you all can enjoy some sun, flowers, etc. soon!  Everyone have a lovely weekend!

Sherri