Chilly morning

Had breakfast on the patio this morning and had to wear a sweater. Just 51 degrees at the moment. I actually had to come inside before quite finishing my corn flakes. With all the windows in the house open, I'm still wearing the sweater. It's nice actually. We require neither heat nor air conditioning in this weather.

My plan is to do a little yard work this morning and then play with the grandkids this afternoon. I have some more lasagna mulching to do. The weeds are getting out of hand due to all the rain, but I want to finish a project or two. My summer routine is a weekly walk through the gardens picking the odd weeds after once getting them under control in the spring. But this year, the little devils are staying ahead of me.

I managed to get more transplanting done. Moved some gladiolas that were stagnating near the apple tree to a place of importance at the back of the house. Moved some scrub oak volunteers to the west of the house where I already have one large and one medium oak growing. I actually have quite a bit growing there where I offer no supplemental water. Let's see how these oaks do.

Finally planted all the zinnias and Mexican sunflowers I had started from seed. Probably too late and I don't expect much from them.

Moved a lavendar bush that was overshadowed by a truly glorious red blanket flower - a very different variety from what I have elsewhere. I have some low-growing varieties that I also love. But I have some tall yellow ones in the front that weren't at all what I was expecting. Those will definitely get moved in the fall as they overpower everything else in that bed. Hardy things, so I won't toss them, just find a place a little more behind things.

So all in all, I finally have everything about where I want it for the summer. I'm making note of a few things to move in the fall, but otherwise, we'll encourage everything to bloom and grow where it's planted.

I haven't managed to plow down the tall grass on the upper level in the back. Usually the weedeater does the trick, but last week, the tall grass wrapped itself around the drive shaft of the weedeater and brought the machine to a halt. I tried my little manual push mower, but it is dull and mostly flattened things and was very hard going. I may have to just wait until the grass there gets dryer so the weedeater can handle it.

As I sit on my patio looking up at that level of tall grass, I've decided to think of it as giving the yard a 'country' feel with a lovely field of grass gently wafting in the breeze. Years ago I had a Mary Engelbreit calendar with daily bits of wisdom. I saved a couple of those pages as I felt they were so right. One of those is today's thought for the day: If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you look at it.

Okay, I couldn't find that one, so I've included a picture showing a similar sentiment from the Engelbreit words of wisdom