Thursday At Home

Nearly every day when I browse in blogland, I see such beautiful homes and gardens.  Everything nearly always looks like it came straight out of a magazine.  Perfectly staged homes and beautifully manicured lawns and patios.  As I took my camera out with me early this morning, I looked around and sighed.  No perfection to be found anywhere and the yard needs mowing badly.  Here are my random shots in no particular order.  I probably should have called this post "Keeping It Real".  My home and gardens aren't, and will never be, magazine worthy, but it is comfortable and it is real.  It is home. 

 
 My first zinnia shot this year.  We had so much rain earlier this spring that my first planting of flowers and most vegetables had to be replanted.  So these guys are a little late in blooming and are not very big.  It has been so hot lately and we now need some of that rain we had so much of earlier in the season.

I watered all my potted flowers this morning, but so far we haven't started watering the veggie garden.  I usually water flowers in the evenings, but I missed yesterday.   Those are sunflowers you see in the front and in the back is my pitiful looking corn crop.  Squash and cucumbers are just this side of the corn.  I picked a few zucchinis and cukes that were ready.

Veggies have been gathered and the sun is already getting hot, so I head back to the remaining shade on the patio.  It won't be long and this shade will be gone, too, until evening.   I have nearly 50 pots of flowers scattered all around this large patio and on the front porch.  I've only had to replace just a few flowers, in spite of the heat and the kittens.  This is the wall of the walkout basement.  It drives me nuts trying to decide how to make it look better.  Painting might help, but we have red brick above, so what color would I choose?   Any ideas?  I try to pretty it up with all the flowers, but it needs more help!

The kittens are growing by leaps and bounds.  They were snoozing as I sat in my chair after all the watering and veggie gathering.  I'm surprised that I have any flowers left at all on the patio.  They've sure had fun playing in some of the pots.  We're having a hard time finding a home for them.  One person backed out in taking them.  And, no, much as I love these sweet furbabies, we can't keep all of them.  I'm afraid they'll eventually get run over.

The birds have been singing their little hearts out this morning.  I recognized the wren and a cardinal.  This pretty boy landed in the new peach tree we planted last year.  I think it is a Phoebe.  The birds aren't coming around quite so close with all the kittens we have.  Who can blame them?  We have rabbits and squirrels in the back yard and I just want to tell them to Run!  The kittens and their mama will be catching them if they get a chance.  Mama Kitty was chasing a frog on the patio earlier.  She caught a lizard for the young ones the other day.

                    

Back in the house, I walked down the hall and looked into a spare bedroom and saw something was a bit different.  I had just made up the bed with a quilt I had dried on the clothesline.   It doesn't take long for anything to dry in this heat.  Anyway, see that lump under the quilt?  That's my kitty, Stormy.  She loves clean bedding or a pile of clean, folded clothes and just crawls right in and goes to sleep!  See, I told you that this is a Keeping It Real post! 

I'm not sure what I'll get into the rest of the day.  I'm thinking I'll vacuum and scrub floors and dust.  Those are never ending jobs, particularly when you have furbabies in the house.  I also need to do something with all that squash.  I usually peel and dice up any extra zucchinis and put in freezer bags.  They make a great addition to a pot of vegetable soup. 

So there you have it.  Just a normal day at my little cottage.  Hope your day is a good one.  For those of you who are getting too much rain, send some our way.  And, while I'm asking, I'll take some cooler temps, too, please!

Until next time...