Thank you Merrie

Look what I got in the mail today. Two pair of these sweet curtains that I won in a give away that Merrie had on her blog Not a Martha.

Thank you Merrie. I just love them and have a couple of places I am thinking about using these.



Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty

never grows old.

Franz Kafka

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Catching up

Well, I've not posted in over a week. Since the weather cooled down somewhat last week, we started working on outside projects. I've been helping DH with his, and done some of my own. Now is the time of year for us to do outside work, summers are for staying indoors as much as possible.

I have been using my bread machine more, and last night DH told me "You sure have been making some good bread. This is real bread." Now that made me feel great I can tell you that. No preservatives, and made with love and bread ingredients.

We watched Julie and Julia the other night and we both enjoyed it. I had wanted to see it for quite sometime. A friend of ours sent us a box of movies that they had duplicates of and this movie was one of them. DH and I both were very disappointed in the ending. It made us think that Julia was somewhat of a 'snob' to say the least, jealous of Julie and what she had accomplished. I felt really bad for Julie, but bless her heart she did her thing and had fun doing it, regardless of Julia. Like she said, Julia taught her to cook. It was still a great, funny movie.

I've got meat to cut up and pkg for the freezer today, plus we're going back to SAM's to get me another pair of terrasoles, ballerina style shoes. Bought one pair yesterday and I fell in love with them. I HATE clothes shopping, shoes included. These are adorable, to me, and DH likes them, he's the one that spotted them first, and they are so comfortable. I HATE wearing shoes, I'd much rather be barefoot, but unfortunately I can't go barefoot to work, or out anywhere.

Here are some of what's blooming in my gardens right now. Click on pictures for larger views.

The first several pictures are of Dwarf Poincianna. I love this little tree, grown from seed. Have 4-5 of them now.

Next, we have my latest gardening project. After cutting back some growth around the palm tree and placing the border/edging around it, DH thought it would be nice to make the area around the ficus - strangler fig - tree, look nicer, as I'd let it get rather overgrown. So, I started by pulling up the rock border, then started digging up and raking out things I don't want there. I've not done anymore than what these pictures show, because of helping DH with something else, and I worked at my job on Sat., and yesterday was our errand day which always wears us out.

You can see our cracked up patio stones. These pieces were all in a heap on the next street east of us as someone had broken the stones all up to get them out to be picked up by the trash people. Well, we picked up every piece that we could find, brought them home, and started putting the puzzle back together. I'll have to do a pictorial posting about that another time. :-)

Here is my light pink 4 o'clock.

These next pictures are of one of the passion flowers that grow here on our property.

New buds.

A fruit forming.

This was after the flower was gone.

And, last but not least, a Mexican Petunia bloom.
(Thanks for the heads up Florida Girl. I really do know that,
but for some reason I wrote Philippine Violet.)

I may not be posting as much, as I've been spending way too much time on the computer and things need doing around here. There's a dusting of dust, floors need cleaning, laundry needs to be folded and put away, more needs to be washed and hung out, I need to get my little embroidery pieces framed and backed, and work on more creations.

Which reminds me, one of these pieces, the last one I did, will be a give away, so stay tuned.

Speaking of embroidery, I could not figure out by reading how to make a bouillon stitch, and was getting very frustrated. DH said bring me a threaded needle and let me see if I can figure it out. As we were reading the directions and looking at the pictures, I realized what I had done wrong. I was holding the thread to the left instead of the right. We have said before among each other that I might have a mild form of dyslexia, or some such thing, as I do sometimes say exactly the opposite of what I mean, and it goes for reading certain things too, I see the opposite. I always had a problem with figuring out 'thought problems' in school. If I can see a thing done, I can usually get it. So, thanks to DH for showing me how to make a bouillon stitch. A guy who has never embroidered, but who does like figuring things out.

Hope you all have a great week whatever you are doing, wherever you are.

***

You can't force simplicity;

but you can invite it in

by finding as much richness as possible in the few things at hand.

Simplicity doesn't mean meagerness

but rather a certain kind of richness,

the fullness that appears when we stop stuffing the world with things.

Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, p. 293

***

We should all do what, in the long run,

gives us joy,

even if it is only picking grapes

or sorting the laundry.

E.B. White

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Change in the weather :-)

What a pleasant surprise when I went out earlier this morning. I came in and told DH that it is cooler outside than inside where we have the a.c. on. I checked online for the current temp, and it's 71 and feels like it is 70. Our night time temps have been in the high 70's and low 80's so this is really welcome.

We are so glad that 'Nicole' fizzled right on out. What she gave us was a wonderful day and a half of more or less gentle rains. Now there are two other systems down south that we are watching. Hopefully they don't turn into anything. It was the end of October 5 years ago that Hurricane Wilma came across us, and left us without power for 13 days, a huge mess to clean up and a shed to restore.

Not much gardening this week as I've been at work, but here are a few pics from the other morning after all the rain.

Frangipani with Norfolk pine backdrop.



The rose 'Love', covered in raindrop jewels.




Below is a picture of a bloom from the Hibiscus tiliaceus tree. These trees get about 30' high in no time and are a real pain to keep trimmed. This bloom is from the neighbors property, the trees hang over into our property, driveway side. I love the blooms. They are more of a deep salmon color when it first blooms.







******

"I love fall!

Fall is exciting.

It's apples and cider.

It's an airborne spider.

It's pumpkins in bins.

It's burrs on dog's chins.

It's wind blowing leaves.

It's chilly red knees.

It's nuts on the ground.

It's a crisp dry sound.

It's green leaves turning

And the smell of them burning.

It's clouds in the sky.

It's fall. That's why...

I love fall."

Author Unknown

******

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

2 Bags Full blog Harvest give away

Here is a wonderful give away by Vicki who creates beautiful, colorful nests.
Her work is awe inspiring.
Her link is 2 Bags Full.

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL