MY WORLD IN SEPIA

Waking up to this is a blessing.  Enough said.

MUST EVERY DAY BE SUNNY?

It's not like it's been raining relentlessly...  It's not like it's been depressing and horrible and wet and dark every hour of every day...  Yes, we had a heck of a blistering summer, but autumn had more bright days than not.  All the same, there's a note of melancholy all over...  Is it me alone?  Is it the economy?  Is it the world situation?  Or maybe it's the Zombie Apocalypse.  Or the Fiscal Cliff.  Or the Mayan Calendar.  Could it be the thought that another year just fizzed away?  The happy me has been replaced by a moody moi.  A moi like the protagonist of a black and white French film.  This too shall pass, I'm sure, but in the meantime, dark thoughts will crop up and dark pictures will find their way into my camera, my garden, my world. Little Red Riding Hood will encounter the big bad wolf in the forest...   Oh, snap out of it, you old and tough little gardener, you're not a temptingly delicious morsel anymore!  

SURVIVORS

The thermometer has relentlessly topped the hundred degree mark day after day.  Rain has been scarce.  Garden hoses have been used for deep, overnight irrigation once a week.  Shudder to think of the water bill.  No matter.  When a drought and hellish temperatures are combined, there's little hope for many plants.  Unless, of course, they're natives like the ones on this picture.  The monardas have been laughing at the scorching sun.  The amsonias are fresh green and breezy under the hammer of Vulcan and the phlox, albeit a hybrid, is still a native,  cooling the garden with her snow-white pom-poms.  All this accompanied by a multitude of bees, butterflies, goldfinches, hummingbirds.  Natives rule!

LAZY MORNING

NOW is the time to enjoy what's out there... Sit down, take a deep breath and look around you...  Don't worry about the weeds that need to be pulled, the edges that need to be dug, the spent blooms that need deadheading.  Just breathe...  Inhale... Exhale...  It's summer... It won't last forever except in your memory.

SUMMER BOUQUET

A friend called it "Shabby Chic"

I'm all for that!

JUST A LITTLE QUESTION...

Who said that pink and orange don't go together?

FROM THE BEDROOM WINDOW

No, it's not snowing, sleepy head.  Wake up and enjoy the view.  The cherry tree is treating you to its ephemeral show.  By tomorrow it will be gone, so enjoy it today for all it's worth.  A good way to live your life, you know.