I’ve been catching up on reading some of my favorite blogs and it seems the theme has been how fast this Summer has gone. They have catchy blog titles having to do with the speed of Summer, but all I could come up with is this one you see above. Yes, Summer has passed so quickly. Here in the states we are heading into our Labor Day weekend which has nothing to do with labor, but picnics and family outings and last swims in the pools across the country. David will be at work. He’s worked every Labor Day that I can remember. He always tells me it’s time and a half, money wise. So we aren’t doing anything special again, but next week we have some fun things planned.

We worked all morning on the little flower garden right in front of our back porch. I love Hibiscus. Years and years ago a neighbor gave me a start of one and I was so glad to get it. Over the years it has sent out its seeds all over the yard and other gardens and now I have too many Hibiscuses and they were taking over this particular little garden bed so I decided we needed to remove them all. Now this is not a very large flower bed, but we filled a wheel barrow to overflowing with Hibiscuses of every size. I could have sold them. I just saw a bunch for sale at a local store recently They had taken over and you could not see the other flowers like primroses, salvia, Rudbeckia and hostas. Now you can see them again and I am sure they were glad to get some sunlight. I never knew Hibiscus was such an invasive plant. Another plant that was gifted to us by one of our contractor’s workers was a Passion flower. I was sooo happy to get it and planted it by our front porch and for a couple of years I didn’t think it would grow and then one year it grew and grew and had beautiful flowers on it and we loved it, but then,,,,all of a sudden we noticed Passion flowers all over our front yard and in all the flowers, up trees and strangling bushes so we have had to eradicate it, or so we thought. Just a day or so ago we noticed another huge one climbing up our porch post. Where did that come from?? So it will be pulled. If there was a place I could plant one that I would not care if it took over, I would, but I have too many other flowers fighting for space and sunlight so the Passion plant has to go.

I do enjoy working outdoors in the flower beds. Our meadow is growing and I look forward to planting a lot of new meadow flowers. I’ve been saving seeds from Milkweeds, zinnias, cosmos, poppies and other flowers. David finally had to cut some of the grass we were letting grow. I was playing ball with Lucy the other day and the grass was so tall she had trouble finding it. It’s seeded itself well and we have nice thick grass now where once it was just a muddy mess where the dogs played. Try letting your lawn grow sometime and let it reseed itself instead of buying seed and let your lawn rest from constant mowing. I do think it made our lawn much nicer although we will let it grow again. It’s been easier on David not having to mow the back yard all the time. Nobody sees it but us and even if anyone sees it, I don’t think it looks that bad not mowed with all the flowers blooming. I actually think the flowers stand out more with the taller grass. We now have grass where once there were bare patches, so I’m happy with it.

I’ve been knitting for Christmas, but I have another project that I am so excited about, but I can’t show it here because it will be a gift, but I have become obsessed with it and have already ordered another to do for Christmas. I really wish I could show you because it is really coming together nicely, but alas, Christmas will be here before we know it, and then I can show it here on my blog with the, I hope, happy recipients.

I will leave you with another silly story about David’s and my escapades. Remember the soap piece I thought was a loose tile from our bathroom and David carefully kept it until he got the adhesive to replace it only finding out it was soap when he tried to fit it on the floor? Well, I got a better one for you.

I was watering and feeding the chickens the other day. We only have four chickens left and when they are gone we are going out of the chicken business which I will miss so much. Anyway,I hadn’t checked inside the house for a while and noticed they needed some fresh bedding so I took a shovel to stir up the old bedding and I noticed this big, black thing in the corner. My first thought was that an animal had crawled into the henhouse and died or, I thought, it was a big bird the chickens had murdered. They have murdered other birds that got into their house. I tried picking it up with the shovel, but it was too heavy for me. It was big and wobbly and I didn’t want to get too close to it. So I went into the house and made a note for David for when he got home from work that there was a dead bird or animal in the henhouse. So he gets home and after Supper he goes out to the henhouse to remove the dead thing and he comes back later and his exact words were, “Do you remember the piece of soap you had me believing was a tile in the bathroom?” I said, “Yes, so?” “Well, that animal was a big pile of chicken poop,” he told me. I just knew that was an animal out there. After all, the dogs killed a skunk just a few weeks ago. That’s another story that left a bad smell with us for a time. So I was once again wrong about what I saw. I know I don’t need glasses. I practically live at the eye doctor right now as I am getting shots in my right eye for Histoplasmosis and they check every time how well I can see, so I am beginning to think I have an overactive imagination. Seeing things that aren’t there. It was good for a laugh, anyway.

Hope you all have had a great Summer. I am looking forward to cooler weather and all the glorious Fall foliage that is coming. Happy Labor Day to all who celebrate it. Bye.