So I finally am here again. I’ve been away on a pain filled journey that I wish never to return to. This past week I had the most excruciatingly painful earache of my life. Well, really the only earache I have ever had. It started a week ago when my ear had been bothering me. Itching and tingling. So I asked David to put some peroxide in it to maybe stop it. I have used peroxide in my children’s ears to help with the pain. Not long after he did that, I got a huge, painful swelling behind my ear. David said it looked red and painful. I tried for a couple of days to medicate myself, but it was not getting better, but worse and I was in tears with the pain so I went to my GP who gave me some antibiotics and drops for the ears. They were actually drops for the eyes, but he told me to use them in my ears. So, I did. And two days later, my ear was even more swollen and painful so David called an ear doctor, but they could not get me in until the next week, so he said, “I’m taking you to the ER.” I have a real fear of hospitals and dread going. I have not had good experiences in most cases when I have been in one so I really did not want to go, but I had no choice. I was pleasantly surprised that day. Our hospital has upped its game with the ER. It is large and bright and the people working there were very nice. Soon I was having my vitals taken and before too long I was in a room waiting for a doctor. The doctor who saw me was very kind and told me I should have never been put on antibiotics because I had a fungus in my ear, due partially from wearing hearing aids. He said the drops I had been using had citric acid in them and were burning my ear instead of helping it. Boy, does my doctor have some explaining to do! Anyway, with a prescription for the pain and different drops I went home and here I am a few days later feeling much better. There is still some swelling, but the doctor told me it would take about eleven days for it to go down with the drops. The only thing about the drops is I have to lay down and stay still for an hour every time I get them so it’s been a real disruption in my activities.

So onward to more pleasant things. The garden is bursting with bloom this year. It’s been a very good year for zinnias, geraniums, hibiscus and hydrangeas. Here is a show of some of the blooms in my garden.

Because we are not mowing our back yard, these hollyhocks came up in a place I know I didn’t plant them. They have been so beautiful.

These hollyhocks I did plant in my little kitchen garden. They have been lovely. I hope they reseed themselves.

These lilies are all over our garden.

We got these at New Creation lily farm a few years back. They never disappoint.

Rudbeckia or Black Eyed Susans. I can never have too many of these.

The hydrangea beside our front door has exploded into bloom. So full of flowers. I hope to dry a few for Fall decorations.

I did not plant one sunflower seed this year and yet, there are sunflowers coming up everywhere. The birds did the seeding this year I suppose.

This is the same garden as is in my header, but it has also exploded. My flamingo has almost disappeared. I water this every day or it would not look like this, I’m sure.

This is the geranium I got at an antique store’s garage sale! The best geraniums I have ever had.

The story behind these flowers is a mystery. A few years back, I planted some of these seeds in my little kitchen garden, no where near where these are growing. This year flowers began coming up all over our driveway that is gravel. We have had coreopsis, these flowers I call Queen Anne’s Lace, but are called Daria in the seed catalog, and Chinese forget me nots. And not just a few flowers have come up, but like someone threw hands full of seeds in our driveway and they all have come up. I truly love these flowers so much and hope they return next year. Years ago our son and his then wife gave us several figures of children for our garden. I have painted them all verdigris this year and placed them around. Each has a name. This is Jason, after our oldest son.

Those big, tall, ferny plants are coreopsis. No, I did not plant those that are growing in the gravel and they are huge. And more sunflowers. It’s been so wonderful to watch all these flowers come up that I had nothing to do with. Not to say I didn’t plant a lot of seeds, but the ones growing outside pots and planters are not of my planting. I also have tomato plants that I have already made fried green tomatoes from and had one red tomato so far.

David repainted this six foot tall flaming I bought years ago. He has been hidden in the garden for too long so he has been brought out where everyone can see him who comes into our drive. He has a place where I could put a pot of flowers if I so choose.

It’s not only flowers that have taken my time, but this year we are trying to freeze some sweet corn for the Winter. We had not had any sweet corn since before Covid. If fact, a lot of the little vegetable stands where we use to get corn closed up shop and never reopened sad to say. We could not find any sweet corn last year, but this year we found a family owned market south of town that has the best sweet corn I have ever tasted. Before I got sick, we got several dozen ears of corn and I froze eleven quarts. Tomorrow, I think I feel like trying to freeze some more.

I love having frozen sweet corn to serve at Thanksgiving and Christmas and I will have plenty this year.

This is what a good Summer supper looks like here in Indiana on a hot Summer’s day. Yum.

We aren’t the only ones with beautiful flowers. Our daughter and son-in-law brought me these gladiolas from their garden. They stayed beautiful for days.

I bought two of these cement head ladies at the antique sale I told you about a few blogs back. They can hold flowers in their heads. I just think they are beautiful. David hung that birdhouse beside her today on another project we did together. I will show you that my next post, hopefully.

David made a new cupboard on our back porch to hold things, but also to insulate that wall where the plumbing for my washer goes. The past couple of Winters, my washer pipes froze up and I had to thaw them out with my hair dryer. David is hoping this extra insulation and this cupboard will do better protecting the pipes so they won’t freeze again. The doors to the cupboard were my idea using old fence boards we have laying around. David did such a good job on this and I really love it. We can keep our back porch less cluttered now.

I’ve come to the conclusion David can do just about anything he sets his mind to. I just have to suggest a project and he’s off to the races and gets it done for me. Glad he can see my vision of things.

We are trying to make a meadow in our back yard for bees, birds and butterflies. I planted some milkweed last year and it came up again and spread and now I have lots and lots of seed that I will spread around in hopes of having more. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs in these plants. When I was growing up, milkweed grew wild along the fence rows and we had lots of butterflies, but they spray the fence rows now and kill a lot of the insects that flourished in them including the butterflies so many people are trying to plant milkweed again to help the butterflies out. These will definitely not get sprayed. On our drives through the country we sometimes see this plant growing wild. We tried getting some to bring home, but their roots were far too deep to pull any.

This is just the start of our meadow. David is having a hard time not mowing the back yard, but I keep telling him there will be more and more flowers and beautiful wild grasses growing as time passes and we will see more and more butterflies. We have already noticed an increase of the lightning bugs. They seem to like the tall grasses very well, indeed.

Not to everyone’s liking, but I have a vision and one day people will want to have my back yard. With all the flowers growing around it now, it’s really quite pretty and makes me feel so calm to sit and look at it.

We have already had some wild flowers bloom in it and I plan to sow many more seeds next Spring. That light green patch is a zinnia garden that hasn’t bloomed yet, but now it is and is so pretty.

The purple candytuft has already reseeded itself. I look forward to an abundance of it next year.

I have rattled along long enough for now, but this is what is happening at our house. We try to stay out of trouble and try to stay healthy, but sometimes things happen we don’t expect. I hope you all are doing well and enjoying your Summer or Winter wherever you are in this big, wonderful world we all live in. I still find it amazing that people read this blog all over the world and I wish I could meet every one of you in person. Just know I am happy you come to my little corner and see my not so exciting life that David and i have managed to create on our little patch of soil. Until next time. Bye.

I almost forgot! August is going to have two Super Moons. One this Tuesday and the other the last of the month. Having two full moons in one month is what the phrase, once in a blue moon comes from. So get outside and look up. The moon is especially beautiful this year.