A DAY OF DAYS

It finally cooled off enough for Woof to take me for a walk last night. I spent the last few days keeping her cool and keeping my mother comfortable as well. (wrong order?)

Just venturing out to water seemed like a dangerous thing to do as we had a heat index over one hundred, and as Aunt Katie would say..."it really takes the starch out of you". The sweet peas like bright sun but cool air...so the pictures I sent out might represent their last hurrah.

I've taken to planting geraniums (boring as that sounds) anywhere that's hard to keep watered. I guess that's why people plant them in the cemeteries all the time. Seems like Vinca will also take heat and dryness pretty well. All my gardening friends have been bemoaning the fact that we've had so little rain. There's such a relatively small window to get things planted...that I've taken to canceling plans and rescheduling work when we have a good "planting day".

Some of my zinnias have been driven up to the cottage with a promise of growing and blooming by the lake shore only to be taken back home a few times because it was too hot to plant them. They seem to like the ride.

The big gardenia out by the back porch is happy as a lark..about five big blooms right now and the shiniest leaves I've ever seen. Woof thinks it must love the heat. I fertilize it with MIRACID about every two weeks and that seems to be the "trick". Some of the hydrangeas are bluer than blue this year...once again it's the MIRACID that makes them blue. We saw some last night that were a deep deep purple. Same trick...just more of it.

The garden paths are becoming jungle- like right about now. Crepe Myrtles are beginning to show their pinks and reds, and the lilies are still perfuming the whole yard. It's one of those glorious mornings when I'll soon get a call from my cousin who will proclaim this a " DAY OF DAYS ". Woof is ready to finally tackle some weeds...and my partner returned from the lake yesterday with about two billion blueberries that we need to start freezing. It won't be all that long until I take some out of the freezer in January and think back to days like today and wonder where the time went. Somehow shopping with my buddy Bill yesterday and seeing Christmas on display made me wonder if the months might fly by a little less quickly if people would slow it down a bit. Like the guy in the movie said " No wonder they call it the Human RACE ".