IN Carmel

 End of the week almost.  Then there is Saturday.  The morning started slowly with breakfast, the paper gathered from the driveway and a garden walk and then a visit from Rita with some delicious beef pot roast.  And I gifted with a huge tomato, sweet peppers and a beef roll for dinner for the Schillings.  We had a great visit with a lot of talk and another garden walk.                           By 8:30 she was on her way home and I had time to read the paper with my coffee.                                      It's time for the cup plant blossoms to have a place in the garden.   The morning was pretty simple.  I thought it resembled the personal business day escape.  And that kind of day hung around till evening. Tomorrow is a Soup Kitchen Day. ...

 First, I'm going to write about the hungry birds.  It's summer when there are a whole lot of seeds being produced elsewhere for all the sparrows.  The woodpeckers have learned to eat at the finch feeder.  The finch are seen often. The hummingbird feeders are still filled, and we see them daily.  So, we're not all bad.  Maybe just half bad. That's good enough for me.  This brings me to those TV adds about providing food for hungry dogs.  I always think about the hungry children. I've seen no adds for hungry children. The lack of government funding, my tax dollars for food here and across the pond will cause many children to suffer. Food helps to develop the mind.  What are we doing? All the morning stuff happened, and the garden told me that the iris needed to have some attention.  That happened although I missed a lot of them in one of the beds.  I'll get that done tomorrow.  Most of the iris have been trimmed back with what I...

 The day started after a good night of sleep.  I am grateful.  There was the usual yogurt, blue berries and almonds for breakfast.                                    A bran new sweet pea as my dad would say.  Things were never just new. I moved to the garden to have another get acquainted meeting. A mental list of what to do was made. On the list was clearing room for the keeper flowers.  I picked cucumbers.  The more one picks the more one gets, they say.  Now I am hoping for pollinators.          S urprise, surprise.  The packet of seeds was marked as being orange.  I find bright red to be reality. Then it was back to the patio for a cup of coffee and the morning paper.  And who should drop in but a neighbor taking a walk around the block.  We talked and took a walk around all the gardens....

                                                                           A picture of the veg. flower garden.                                                                                                             Veg. being cucumbers and tomatoes.  Flowers...Lots of them.                                          ...

 I don't know why but last night was a short night.  Four hours of sleep is not enough to fill the energy tank so today is peppered with a few tired breaks.  Patience is the word.  Tomorrow should be better.   I did a garden walk finding a whole lot of evidence the bunny was up to no good.  There were a lot of Zinnia stems on the ground in every bed.  Some even lying on top of the Menard "rabbit off" granules.  It's been a crazy rabbit summer in the Carmel area.  Later in the morning Doug told me about more broken stems just where I had cleaned up the mess earlier in the day. I found the third mess in the same place in the afternoon.  The zinnia is almost gone. The bunny just gave me an evil look watching me find the evidence of another meal. The tall zinnias have taken a big hit. I planted more marigold seed and have an urge to pull up plants that have been through the bunny chew but still alive.  I went marigold shopping...

  Straw flowers.  How pretty and they will last all year till next spring when I look for seeds in the flower.                The first of the season.  When it was just a bud, I was certain there was a cardinal in the bush.   It's been just that. LAZY.  I'm paying attention to the sermon preached this morning by Jill.  She talked about Mary and Martha.  Saying we could learn from Mary.  Martha usually overtakes us more often.  It reminded me so much of my "personal Mary day" that happened not so long ago.                                               I found dear Swallowtail munching away this afternoon.   Two little across the color wheel friends living side by side helping to make each other look beautiful. So it was church Sunday again.  ...

 Today was a day when the morning flew by with a whole lot of work and the afternoon flew by with a whole lot of almost nothing.  Well, there was something but not much.  I slept till 6:30 and then there was breakfast.  I grabbed the clippers and off to the garden to do some snipping for the altar flowers.  There were mostly grasses, a few Lenten Rose stalks and a few B.E. Susans.  The car was loaded once again with all of the Oehler flowers and our garden fillers.  We made it to church by 8:20 and I headed to the Gathering Room for flower arranging.   All was finished by 8:50 and I was off to the Community Rm for Soup Kitchen workday.  Most of the gang was there working already and the work continued on till 10:30 when all was in place ready for the 11 o'clock hour.  Heidi and I headed back into the sanctuary with the flowers. I took a lot of pictures.                   ...